Thread: Minuteman Day 2: All quiet along western border

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Minuteman Day 2: All quiet along western border

By: EDWARD SIFUENTES - Staff Writer

NACO, ARIZ. ---- On the second day of the controversial border watch, Minuteman Project participants began taking their positions along the Arizona-Mexico border Saturday to deter illegal immigrants from entering the United States.

Hundreds of Minuteman supporters, including several Californians from North San Diego County and Southwest Riverside County, also staged rallies in front of the Naco and Douglas offices of the U.S. Border Patrol. In neighboring Mexican towns, human- and immigrant-rights activists staged a vigil and rally.

Under the attentive eyes of the advocates of human rights, Minuteman Project volunteers began their watch along a desolate stretch of the border east of the dusty town of Naco.

"Everybody's watching each other, and there's very little happening," said Larry Morgan of Long Beach, a Minuteman participant.

Morgan was among the first of dozens of people stationed a few hundred yards from the border. But Morgan said that during his four-hour shift, he had only seen legal observers trained by the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona to make sure that illegal immigrants' rights were not violated.

Organizers have been guarded about disclosing the exact number of Minuteman Project volunteers who had arrived. Jim Gilchrist, a retired accountant from Orange County who helped recruit the participants through a Web site, said Friday that the group had registered more than 600 volunteers in Tombstone in the last two weeks.

Activists, many from San Diego County who traveled to the area to oppose the Minutemen, have said they are concerned because some participants are carrying guns, which is legal in Arizona. They have said they are also concerned that the effort may attract violent, racist people.

A short distance away, in the dry heat of the desert, two observers peered at neighboring Minuteman posts with binoculars.

"There is a history of vigilante violence," said Scott Kerr of Douglas, a civil rights observers. He added that he had not seen any violations of the law.

In fact, neither the participants nor the legal observers had seen any illegal immigrants by the afternoon in that area of the border, where the barbed-wire fence is a mere 4 feet tall.

"It's been pretty boring," said Luke Roske of Tucson, another ACLU observer.

Nevertheless, organizers of the Minuteman Project plan a monthlong stakeout. They have said that their main interest is to make a statement about the porous nature of the border and the need for more resources there.

Chris Simcox, one of the organizers, said that he expects people to cross the border to test the group's resolve. But he rejects rights activists' claim that his organization is racist and violent.

"There are groups that are going to cross on purpose to test us," Simcox told volunteers at an orientation meeting before sending a group to watch the border. "Fine, then the world will see who we really are, and they'll stop branding us with all of these negative labels."

U.S. Border Patrol officials, however, have said that they neither need nor want the help of civilians. They said the Minuteman Project could put civilians who aren't trained in law enforcement in harm's way.

"The Border Patrol does not encourage, does not support, this organization," said Jose Garza, a spokesman for the agency's Tucson sector, which covers the area where the Minutemen will operate.

"We'd rather that the job of patrolling our borders be left in the hands of our agents," he said.

Arizona, which has become the main gate for illegal immigrants, expects to receive 500 more agents this year. About 200 of those agents were deployed shortly before the start of the Minuteman Project.

Garza said the deployment was not related to the start of the project. But many of the organizers have taken credit for the increase in enforcement efforts.

Jim Chase of Oceanside, one of the organizers of the Minuteman Project, said Saturday that at least one illegal immigrant had been arrested with the group's help.

He said the illegal immigrant entered the Miracle Valley Bible College complex, where he and dozens of volunteers are staying. Chase said the man arrived tired and hungry, and his group helped him and then turned him over to Border Patrol agents.

Chase has said that he hopes to replicate the Minuteman Project in California later this year.

At the Minuteman support rally outside the Naco Border Patrol station, a handful of Riverside County residents waved flags and chanted slogans, such as, "Close the border now!"

"What we hope this will accomplish is that our message will get back to (President) Bush that the American public wants our immigration laws enforced and our borders secured," said Arne Chandler of Temecula, while participating in the rally.

"Our word to him is that we are being vigilant, which is watchful," Chandler added. "We're doing the job that he is not doing and that he is not letting our Border Patrol do."

A short distance away, in the dry heat of the desert, two observers peered at neighboring Minuteman posts with binoculars.

You should put this much effort into observing illegals.

"It's been pretty boring," said Luke Roske of Tucson, another ACLU observer.

My exact sentiments about the ACLU who seem to value illegals over US citizens.

"

We'd rather that the job of patrolling our borders be left in the hands of our agents," he said.

That must help to explain why there are so few illegals in the country.