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Dueling rallies at the border
Minuteman supporters gather in Arizona as opponents of anti-immigration group protest to recall victims of fatal crossings.

By MICHAEL CORONADO
The Orange County Register

NACO, ARIZ. - One gathering was a raucous, horn-blowing celebration of Americana - state flags whipping in the desert wind, country music blasting from pickups.

The other was a mourning. Women, dressed in all black, holding small white crosses while standing silent in a single-file line.

This was how two very different sides, impassioned with purpose, protested U.S. immigration and border policies on a breezy, blue-skied Saturday.

The exuberant all-day protests at Border Patrol offices in Naco and Douglas showed support for federal agents while denouncing the lack of funding that supporters of the Minuteman Project say is necessary to seal the U.S.-Mexico border.

More than half of the nation's 1.2 million illegal immigrants who enter the United States annually do so by traversing desert corridors and jagged mountain faces along the Arizona-Mexico border.

Last month, the 2,200 agents assigned to the Tucson sector Border Patrol made 63,803 arrests, patrolling a 261-mile border stretching from New Mexico to the western edge of Arizona.

Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Robert C. Bonner announced last week that more than 530 Border Patrol agents would be reassigned to the Tucson sector. In addition, 45 CBP Air and Marine Operations will be deployed in the region as part of the government's Arizona Border Control Initiative.

Mission Viejo resident Deborah Sattler persuaded her 11-year-old son Zach to bundle his laptop and games into a rental car so they could drive the eight hours to support the Minuteman Project. Sattler stood alongside a couple hundred Minuteman supporters with a sign that said "Osama bin Laden loves open borders."

"The more I learned about immigration, the more I learned that it was a problem," she said as her dogs Brandy and Nikki lay by her feet.

Further away, on the same stretch of Naco Highway leading into Mexico, several dozen women, clad in black, held signs and small crosses with the names of those who died while trying to cross the Arizona desert.

"How many must die" read one sign. Another said, "Arizona deaths this year: 231."

On Monday, the several hundred Minuteman volunteers, whom President George W. Bush dubbed "vigilantes," will fan out across the desert with binoculars, night-vision goggles and lawn chairs.

The Minutemen and women will scan the empty valleys and sheer, chocolate-brown mountains for illegal immigrants trying to make their way across.

If they spot someone, they'll radio coordinates to the Minuteman communications center, a makeshift jumble of ham radios, telephones and CBs on the campus of a Bible college in Miracle Valley.

In Arizona, it's not uncommon to see people holstering pistols and revolvers, legal with a permit. Many among the Minuteman ranks will also be armed.

Border Patrol agents see the next 30 days as complicated and potentially dangerous. Armed visitors roaming the desert in the dark of night could prove a disaster, officials say.

"We want the jobs of the Border Patrol left in our hands," said Jose L. Garza, a supervisor public information officer for the Tucson sector of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. "They are not trained to do this."

UC Riverside professor Armando Navarro, leader of the National Alliance for Human Rights, characterized the Minuteman Project as a powder keg waiting to explode.

"It's a dangerous situation, they are armed and using paramilitary tactics," he said, standing alongside supporters at the silent vigil. As cars drove by, supporters waved peace signs with their fingers.

Navarro says the Minuteman leaders preach the politics of violence. Some others agree.

"There's a potential for violence out there," said Kat Rodriguez, a coordinating organizer with the Coalicion de Derechos Humanos, the Tucson-based human rights group that has organized several of the anti-Minuteman protests.

Waving a giant U.S. flag and wearing a red, white and blue shirt, Seal Beach resident Bob Thornburg said efforts like the Minuteman Project will save this country's identity.

A man next to Thornburg yells out "Viva la migra!" in a loud voice each time a car goes by. Others chant "No border, no order." Thornburg, 59, says he wants Bush to enforce the border laws.

"California has become a Third World country," he said.

Originally Posted by Jose L. Garza

...They are not trained to do this....

Well, neither were the original Minutemen. And some at the Alamo were untrained. No matter, illegal aliens are committing felonies at such a monumental pace as to be deemed an invasion. And an armed citizen militia is a right guaranteed by the Constitution. Bush and other obstructionists to this project would be well advised to bone up on the results of revolution. Generally, they're completely unpredictable. And I hope this doesn't come to such a radical end. The only way it won't is for the Government to do its duty.

"We want the jobs of the Border Patrol left in our hands," said Jose L. Garza, a supervisor public information officer for the Tucson sector of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. "They are not trained to do this."

Actually Mr. Garza, many of them ARE trained.