Thread: Mexican-Americans to Challenge Border Vigilantes

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From Hispanic Business.com so lean for the slant as you read ..

Mexican-Americans to Challenge Border Vigilantes
April 19, 2005
Adriana Lopez

Angered by the actions of "Minutemen" civilian border guards, some U.S. citizens of Mexican descent are crossing from Mexico into southern Arizona in the hopes of being "detained" by the vigilantes so they can then sue them for violating their civil rights.

"We know that it's risky, but it's the only way in which we can contribute to stopping those people who, like us, are civilians and have no right to detain immigrants," organizer Antonio Madrigal told EFE.

A native of the Mexican state of Michoacan who became a U.S. citizen more than two decades ago, Madrigal heads the group Training Occupational Development Educating Communities, or TODEC, which aids immigrant communities in California.

His initiative is in response to the April 1 launch of the Minuteman Project, which involves a few hundred self-appointed sentinels taking up positions along a stretch of the Arizona-Mexico border to watch for undocumented immigrants trying to enter the United States.

The Minuteman effort, which is condemned by the Mexican government and frowned upon by the Bush administration, coincides with the implementation of an Arizona law - approved by voters last November - that denies some services to people who cannot prove they are legal U.S. residents.

Madrigal told EFE that he is one of some 500 activists prepared to challenge the Minuteman under the banner: "No Human Being is Illegal."

He said he hit upon the idea of Mexicans with U.S. citizenship crossing the border "without papers" as the only peaceful way of confronting the vigilantes.

Madrigal said he contacted Mexico's consulates in Arizona and state authorities in his native Michoacan about securing an official repudiation of the Minutemen's activities.

But the Michoacan official responsible for migrants's issues, Claudio Mendez, denied offering any support to TODEC and voiced disapproval of Madrigal's plan for taking on the vigilantes.

"I don't know anything about this group, and if it exists, how fine that there are associations worried about safeguarding the rights of dual-nationals. But at the same time I'm concerned about their assuming this kind of attitude, because defending migrants is the job of the federal government through diplomacy," Mendez commented to EFE.

Asked what he was doing to help emigrants, he said he sent a letter to Mexican federal authorities urging them to do more to protect migrants, and that his office provided courses to Mexicans living in the United States to inform them about their rights and how to defend them.

Michoacan state lawmaker Jesus Martinez, a Chicago resident who became the legislature's first expatriate member, said he approved of the TODEC initiative "because they're not armed and they're not doing anything outside the law."

The United States has roughly 20 million residents of Mexican descent, half of whom were born south of the border. Some 5 million of the latter are undocumented.

Michoacan is traditionally one of the Mexican states sending the most emigrants northward, and some of those expat Michoacanos no doubt accounted for a substantial percentage of the record $16.6 billion in remittances Mexico received last year from the United States.

What is it that these people don't understand? NO ONE has a problem with people that come here LEGALLY!

They obviously cannot come up with anything new because they KNOW they are WRONG! It is the ILLEGALS that we have a problem with.

If the tables were turned, they would be SCREAMING at the TOP OF THEIR LUNGS!

If they are US citizens, then they should understand! This invasion affects them ALSO. Maybe these individuals are afraid that their "illegal activities" will and are being hurt!

I'm sorry, but I see it cut and dry! If you support illegal immigration, you obviously have something to gain by it, or you are to lazy to educate yourself about what it is doing to this country! DUH!

The only reason they keep saying we have a problem with LEGALs is so the Legals will be against us, too.

Apparently they think Legal Immigrants cannot read.

This is just silly.
1. MMP are NOT detaining anyone.
2. If they were, why would one tell them ahead of time their "plan" to ensnare them?
3. Telling their plan ahead of time shows their stupidity.

And that, folks, is what we're "educating" in our public schools.

Most Chicanos (American born Mexicans) here in California are as much against the illegal aliens as most other Americans (my mother in law being one that is not against them.UHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Originally Posted by 2ndamendsis

This is just silly.
1. MMP are NOT detaining anyone.
2. If they were, why would one tell them ahead of time their "plan" to ensnare them?
3. Telling their plan ahead of time shows their stupidity.

And that, folks, is what we're "educating" in our public schools.

I think it's hilarious to picture "400" (right...) of them creeping across the desert, hoping against hope they get "detained" by Minutemen - who will absolutely not touch them! Bwahahahaha

Foiled by their own idiocy!