Oceanside man mulls border-watch group in California
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Oceanside man mulls border-watch group in California
By: EDWARD SIFUENTES - Staff Writer
OCEANSIDE ---- A retired Oceanside man said he is studying the possibility of gathering civilian volunteers to patrol the border in East San Diego County, hoping to deter illegal immigrants and terrorists from coming into the country.
"I'm exploring different parts of the border where there is no fence or where there is a problem with people coming through," said Jim Chase.
A Vietnam War veteran, Chase, 58, said he was inspired by a similar plan in the works for next month in Arizona, called the Minuteman Project. It will bring an estimated 1,000 volunteers from across the country to the border near Tombstone, Ariz., to observe and report illegal immigrants coming through.
Chase was among the first to sign up for the Arizona project, which was hatched by his friend and fellow Vietnam War veteran Jim Gilchrist of Orange County. Armed with cell phones and binoculars, the group plans a monthlong, round-the-clock stakeout of the Arizona-Mexico border.
The Minuteman Project has attracted national and international media attention because some of the volunteers will carry guns, which is legal in Arizona. Organizers say the guns are for self-defense only.
The Minuteman Project has also raised concerns among human rights and immigrant rights activists because links to its Web site have been posted on white supremacist Web sites.
The Minuteman group said it rejects any ties to such groups and its leaders have said that they are doing their best to keep racists out of its ranks.
Critics of the Minuteman Project, such as Christian Ramirez, San Diego director of the human rights American Friends Service Committee, said they are not happy about the California version of the group.
"This is definitely the fear that we had," Ramirez said. "The fact that these same folks are planning to do this in California is threatening and troubling."
During the last decade, illegal immigrant traffic has shifted from California to Arizona as border enforcement efforts have focused on San Diego and Imperial counties. Operation Gatekeeper, which increased border agents and reinforced fences, has been credited by officials with redirecting traffic.
Of the 1.1 million illegal immigrants caught by the U.S. Border Patrol last year, about half entered the United States through Arizona, according to immigration authorities.
Chase, however, said there are still many illegal immigrants coming through the California border. He fears, as some federal officials have suggested, that terrorists might use the same routes that illegal immigrants take to come into the country undetected.
"We're just like a Neighborhood Watch that we're taking to the border," Chase said.
Chase said that dozens of people have already expressed an interest in participating in a California version of the Minuteman Project. He said he plans to be in Arizona for the month of April to participate in the Minuteman effort there and then come back to see if a California project is possible.
Chase sad he envisions an auxiliary volunteer Border Patrol group that fans out in remote areas of East San Diego and Imperial counties to spot illegal immigrants and report them to the U.S. Border Patrol, who would then make the arrests.
However, Border Patrol officials have repeatedly said that they do not want civilian groups' help.
"That's not the kind of help the Border Patrol is asking for," said Michael Nicley, chief of the Border Patrol's Tucson sector.
