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Friday, April 29, 2005

LULAC leader chides volunteer border effort

Daniel Borunda
El Paso Times

Law enforcement on the U.S-Mexico border should be left to professionals and not "novices" like the controversial Minutemen in Arizona, LULAC's national president said Thursday in El Paso.

"You have people who are ill- prepared, that are not trained as law enforcement taking on a quasi-law enforcement activity that belongs to Homeland Security," said Hector M. Flores, president of the League of United Latin American Citizens.

Hundreds of Minuteman volunteers began surveillance along Arizona-Mexico border on April 1 to try to curb illegal immigration in what they described as Neighborhood Watch-style help. There have been rumors the project could expand into New Mexico.

Last week, LULAC, the nation's largest Hispanic civil rights group, raised concerns about the Minutemen to the U.S. attorney general, said Flores, of Dallas.

"People that are armed can perhaps get to the point of using violence against other people," the former police officer said. "For sure they are harassing (immigrants), if anything. And that's not right, that's not the American way."

The border issue is one of several national concerns as the Hispanic population continues to grow as the nation's largest minority. The appointment of Latinos to top posts in the Bush administration are the fruits of decades of struggles, Flores said.

"It's a new day in America. It's like the American dream fulfilled," Flores said.

But Flores said challenges to the Hispanic community continue, like the large numbers of high-school dropouts and a growing prison population.

Flores and other LULAC leaders were in El Paso to honor winners of the local Lucy G. Acosta Humanitarian Award presented Thursday at the El Paso Country Club.

Judge Edward Marquez, lawyer Terry Hammond and Gary Hedrick, El Paso Electric Co. president and chief executive officer, were honored for their community work, said Xavier Bañales, executive director of the El Paso's LULAC Project Amistad.

Daniel Borunda may be reached at dborunda@elpasotimes.com; 546-6102.