Thread: Minuteman founder draws protest

http://www.borderlandnews.com/apps/pbcs ... /508190371

Friday, August 19, 2005

Minuteman founder draws protest

Daniel Borunda
El Paso Times

The heated debate over the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps hit El Paso on Thursday as the leader of the controversial group arrived to recruit volunteers to help pressure the federal government to secure the border using the military.

"It's obscene what's going on in our border," Chris Simcox, co-founder of the original Minutemen, told volunteers. "We need your boots on the ground."

The Minutemen plan to place 7,000 volunteers to watch the southern and northern U.S. borders, including in New Mexico and Texas in October, to stop illegal immigration. The original project drew international attention in April in the Arizona desert.

The Minutemen, which plan to start an El Paso chapter, were greeted by two dozen protesters outside the Holiday Inn-Sunland Park, where a training session for almost 20 recruits, mostly white males, took place in a conference room.

"Hey, hey, ho, ho, the Minutemen have got to go," chanted the crowd carrying signs denouncing the group as "vigilantes" motivated by a racist undercurrent preying on national security fears about terrorism.

"As a city, we don't want them here," Paul Barraza, 37, of El Paso said.

Al Garza, a former Marine and Vietnam veteran who heads the Minuteman branch in Texas, said volunteers, though some are armed, are neither vigilantes nor racists.

"The 'racist' card is being played as a distraction. My name is Garza, that's obvious. If this was racist, I wouldn't be involved," said Garza, who is of Mexican descent.

Garza and Simcox said the issue was that the rule of law was being disregarded, leading to problems along the border, including the deaths of hundreds of immigrants.

"When we secure our borders, no one dies in our desert," said Simcox, of Tombstone, Ariz. He described Cochise County, Ariz., as "ground zero" for illegal immigration.

Garza stressed to recruits that volunteers are not hiding in the desert but are a visible deterrent. Paramilitary dress is discouraged. Volunteers may carry a sidearm for protection but can draw a weapon only if they are in imminent danger.

"You will never have (physical) contact," Garza said. "You will never make arrests; that's not your job. You are the ears and eyes for the Border Patrol; that's all you are."

Critics of the Minutemen counter that the entire job should be left to the Border Patrol.

"What ... (the Minutemen) are doing is wrong. We need Border Patrol, trained professionals out here," said East-Valley city Rep. Eddie Holguin Jr., who added that the El Paso City Council could vote on a resolution against the Minutemen. Holguin said the controversy could hurt the economic and cultural ties between El Paso and Juárez.

Simcox said the Minuteman movement is spreading, possibly turning into a third political party, and he expects that the military will eventually be deployed to the border. It would take too long, 10 years, to train enough Border Patrol agents, he said.

El Pasoan William "Will" Rogers, a 67-year-old retired airplane mechanic, said he served with the Minutemen in Arizona in April because of concerns for national security and plans to serve again in New Mexico. "It's a lot of fun, and we are not doing anything wrong," he said. "I get along with Latinos very well."


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

Where would this country be without The Minutmen