Thread: Local Minuteman has strong ideas about immigration,

http://www.alamogordonews.com/news/ci_5204977
Local Minuteman has strong ideas about immigration, legal or otherwise

By Richard Coltharp, Publisher
Alamogordo Daily News
Article Launched:02/11/2007 12:00:00 AM MST

When you first meet Cliff Milburn, you think of Santa Claus.
The 70-year-old Milburn has a long, white beard, and a little twinkle in his eye, like a tall, lanky St. Nick.

And like Santa Claus, Milburn thinks it's better to give than to receive.

Except Milburn is not talking about Christmas presents.

He believes America should give all the illegal immigrants back to their home countries, and not receive any more.

Oops. Did I say immigrants?

"Do not use immigrants," Milburn says. "They're illegal aliens. They are not immigrants."

Milburn is concerned about the impact the sheer number of illegals is having, and will have, on the United States in the coming years.

Atop his 1990 Toyota Land Cruiser sits a big sign reading: "No illegals left behind. Deport Rem."

Milburn's traveling companion while tooling around in the Toyota is a tiny fur ball of a Pomeranian named Foxy. He says the sign draws a lot of attention. Last week, the driver's side door was stained because someone hurled a milkshake at it.

The Toyota has more than 474,000 miles on it, many of them racked up as Milburn drives to the Mexico-New Mexico border to do observations with other Minutemen.

Milburn is the New Mexico Chapter Leader of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, and says the group does nothing but observe and report.

"We sit back about six to 10 miles from the border with our lawn chairs," Milburn says. "One time we saw five different groups crossing. Other times we'll sit there for 10 hours and not see anything. If we see anything, we call the Border Patrol."

Sometimes Milburn will cook up a carrot cake or a green chile stew to serve to his cohorts.

He says the Border Patrol credits the Minutemen with reducing illegal entries and drug trafficking by 20 percent.

Milburn sits watch two days a month, plus the whole month of April and the month of October. He says Minutemen range in age from 18 to 84.

"Old Joe, he's 82, and drives from North Carolina to New Mexico just to observe with us."

And while Milburn says he does not carry a weapon during his Minuteman observations, he is armed with plenty of statistics.

"Did you know that, in 2005 alone, this country spent, on services for illegals, $253 billion?" he says, citing government sources provided by Al Garza, the national director of the Minutemen. "That includes housing, welfare, education and medical."

He lists as one example the busloads of children who come across the border from Las Palomas, Mexico, to attend school in Luna County, New Mexico.

He cites a source that 800 illegals a day receive medical service at Thomason Hospital in El Paso.

Milburn believes these types of things are severely draining the resources of the U.S. government and other American entities designed to serve American citizens.

He cites more statistics.

He says, including drunk driving deaths, illegals are responsible for 45,000 murders in America since Sept. 11. He said 27 percent of prisoners in America are illegals.

"We got to educate people on how bad it's going to be for this country," Milburn says. "If it keeps going this way, we won't have a middle class."

He criticizes the Alamogordo Daily News and other mainstream media for not more aggressively covering the issue.

"They are exploiting those poor people so much," Milburn says of coyotes who receive $2,000 to $10,000 to smuggle people inside U.S. borders. "If we could keep from hiring illegals, the problem would not be so bad."

The common perception is of migrant farm workers toiling in the fields of crops.

But Milburn says only two to three percent of illegals are working in agriculture.

It's the chicken plants, meat packing plants and furniture factories in the interior U.S. where the vast majority are working, he says.

He believes Immigrant Custom Enforcement (ICE) is doing a good job, citing an ICE raid on a chicken plant in Georgia where 400 of the 1,000 workers were found to be illegal.

But he also believes ICE is severely undermanned.

"We probably need to double ICE," he says. "And according to ICE, a strong, Israeli-type fence is one of the main things we need. With the $253 billion we could save on services ever year, we could hire ICE agents. And we could take care of our own people."

However, Milburn is not necessarily opposed to a guest worker program. "if it's controlled," he says. "No amnesty. They'd have to go back and start over legally."

He's also concerned about diseases and potential terrorists making it through a porous border

Reared in central Texas, Milburn has lived in Otero County since moving from El Paso nearly 30 years ago.

He spent his working days as a general contractor and selling real estate. In his younger days, he worked as a Texas state policeman, and later worked for Humble Oil.

He and his wife, Donna, have two grown sons Carl, who lives in Haskell, Texas, and Joe, who lives in Dallas.

When he's not preaching the fire and brimstone about illegals, you might find him in his garden, tending to tomato plants or strawberries.

But before long, he's back at it. On Fridays, he writes his regular letters to politicians.

"I write at least once a week," Milburn says. "I got a good letter back from Steve Pearce. He's aware of the problems. As far as Senator Bingaman and Senator Domenici, they're not wanting to do anything.

Bingaman even voted to give illegals Social Security. This week I'll be writing Governor Richardson."

He writes the politicians to share his thoughts and observations, not to seek more legislation.

"We don't need a new law as far as I'm concerned," he says. "We just need our current laws enforced."
Reviewing the numbers: The following is a series of editor's notes on some of the assertions and statistics cited in this story, which have been fact-checked by the Alamogordo Daily News. * "...the Border Patrol credits the Minutemen with reducing illegal entries and drug trafficking by 20 percent..." The Border Patrol does not work with the Minutemen, and its official policy is to not comment on their activities. * "...this country spent, on services for illegals, $253 billion..." The General Accounting Office estimates there were 10 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. in 2005. Other estimates put it as high as 20 million. Using the latter figure, Al Garza is saying the U.S. spends $12,650, apiece, in services on every illegal alien. The average family of three on Temporary Assistance for Needy Families one adult and two children gets $7,240 a year. Using Garza's figures, a family of three illegal immigrants would receive $37,950 in services. * "...the busloads of children who come across the border from Las Palomas, Mexico, to attend school in Luna County..." Las Palomas and Columbus, N.M., have a number of intergovernmental agreements to share various services. For example, Columbus provides fire and ambulance services to Las Palomas; kindergarten through sixth grade students from Las Palomas are bused to school in Columbus. The students are not illegal immigrants. Columbus and the school district are reimbursed by Las Palomas for providing those services. * "...800 illegals a day receive medical service at Thomason Hospital in El Paso..." Thomason's emergency room treats, on average, 145 people a day, and the hospital has a total of 346 beds. * "...illegals are responsible for 45,000 murders in America since Sept. 11. He said 27 percent of prisoners in America are illegals..." There were between 65,000 and 70,000 murders total in the U.S. since Sept. 11, according to the FBI. According to the GAO, 27 percent of prisoners in federal prisons are "noncitizens convicted of crimes while in this country legally or illegally." Federal prisons comprise some 10 percent of the total prison population in the U.S. When state and local prisons are factored in, illegal immigrants make up 12 to 17 percent of the total prison population. In addition, some 50 percent of illegal immigrants are charged solely with being in the country illegally. The GAO estimates 15 percent of illegal immigrants in prison are serving time for burglary, theft and related property crimes; another 12 percent are serving time for murder, robbery, rape and other violent crimes.

im not sure where they got their facts at the end there.... they appear to be way off of the statistics i've seen reported on national media. can someone double check that? we may need to start sending letters to that papers editor about their false facts.