http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/index.php? ... _minutemen

AGUA PRIETA, Son. - Elena Torres doesn't know who the Minutemen are, but she watched them as she crouched on the desert floor Saturday night.
She's a 41-year old mother of three who has crossed the desert six times in the past decade to get to a job cleaning houses in a wealthy suburb of Cleveland. She waited all night for word from her pollero, or guide, to get up and run across the border.

Meanwhile, less than a half a mile from where she hid, around 50 of the "Minutemen," volunteers with a civilian border patrol, planted flags in the ground from their home states - California, New York, Texas - and kicked off the first patrols of their monthlong effort to seal a corner of the Arizona border.

All weekend the Minutemen, many of whom are retired servicemen, slathered on sunscreen, stood on top of SUVs and peered through binoculars on the lookout for people just like Torres.

Mostly, they saw Mexican police watching for drug smugglers, ranch hands cleaning up plastic bottles and bags, and the bright orange trucks of Grupo Beta, a migrant aid group run by the Mexican government, kicking up dust and looking for migrants.

Grupo Beta found Torres huddled with 10 others yesterday morning, persuaded them to turn back and took them to Grupo Beta headquarters for some hot soup.

Most of the time, Grupo Beta focuses on helping migrants in distress. By the time migrants get to the U.S. border here, about 15 miles east of Douglas, they've walked three to four miles and can already be in danger of dehydration, hypothermia or overheating.

With the Minuteman Project in full swing, Grupo Beta is doing all it can to dissuade migrants from trying to cross at all.

"We don't know the intentions of these Minutemen," said Bertha de la Rosa, the local Grupo Beta coordinator. "But we know they are armed. And our job is to protect migrants."

Volunteers with the project insist they have no intention of harming migrants, but simply plan on reporting them to Border Patrol. Their larger goal is to send a message and get President Bush and Congress to seal the border and stop the flow of illegal immigrants.

I don't think Americans are truly aware of the problem," said 46-year-old John Lehmann, a Minuteman and corrections officer from Fleischmanns, N.Y.

"I mean, all you have to do is see this fence," he said, and points to a thin strip of barbed wire, all that separates Mexico, and potential terrorists, he adds, from the United States.

The Border Patrol has officially denounced the project, and says it merely complicates regular operations and endangers agents, migrants and volunteers.

But there appears to be at least some support from agents on the ground.

As Lehmann peers through his binoculars, a Border Patrol agent in a vehicle slows down.

"God bless you, man!" the agent shouts out at Lehmann, and gives him a thumbs-up.

The Minuteman Project eventually plans to patrol five areas along 40 miles of the border in Cochise County, organizers say. But for now, it is focusing on this three-mile strip of land that is a popular crossing point for migrants like Torres.

Torres sits on the front porch of Grupo Beta headquarters and brushes off the desert dust that coats her hair, dark jacket, and even eyelashes. She said she has decided to return to Mexico City. But only for a while.

"In a month I'll try again," she said, taking a sip of soup, "when it's not so hard. Really, what other choice do I have?"