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Controversial Minuteman Simcox speaks to 300-plus tri-county residents
Group hopes to stop flow of illegal immigrants


- By KENDA NELSON
Special to the Bee-Picayune
Texas Minuteman banners waved Monday night across a standing-room-only crowd of just over 300 South Texans at Memorial Auditorium in Goliad for the state’s first Minuteman meeting. A Sarco/Blanconia-based concerned citizens group in the tri-county area where Refugio, Bee and Goliad counties converge invited Chris Simcox, co-founder of the Arizona-based Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, to Texas to assist in their plight to curb the rising tide of illegal immigrants through their rural community.
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Ken Buelter, one of the founders of the Sarco group, paralleled the significance of kicking off the Texas chapter in Goliad, one of the battlegrounds in the fight for Texas independence. Residents of 30 states once assisted Texans in 1836.
“Once again at this time, we are asking brothers to help us in the battle of securing the Texas border,� Buelter said. “I ask now that you come and assist us in our time of need. We need every American to help.�
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Emblazoned on the group’s banner is the word Brazos, a term the early Texas Rangers used when they needed assistance, Buelter said.
Simcox and associates agreed to aid the chapter by helping them organize, creating an operations training manual and serving as expert consultants. With yet another group joining ranks, Simcox also issued a warning to the federal government that the political activist group is growing and almost every state in the union is represented.
“If we don’t see the National Guard and the U.S. military on the border by October, we’re going to [patrol the border] again, and this time we’re going to have 20,000 volunteers on our borders,� Simcox said. “And if you don’t do it again, we’ll give you another warning. In six months, if you don’t put the U.S. military or National Guard on the border, you might be faced with an army of 100,000 citizens.�
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Simcox met with Sarco residents over the weekend and with Sheriff Robert DeLaGarza of Goliad and Sheriff T. Michael O’Connor of Victoria earlier on Monday. DeLaGarza said he was surprised that such a large crowd showed up for the meeting.
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“I’m not here to endorse the group one way or the other,� DeLaGarza said. “This office and the community of Sarco is doing everything they can do.�
Frustration is mounting among law enforcement officers whose manpower, jurisdiction and budget constraints restrict their ability to deal with the problem.
“If we don’t stir up some attention with the federal government and put more teeth into the law, we’re just spinning our wheels,� said Danny Madrigal, an investigator in Goliad County and resident of Beeville.
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Simcox sided with local law enforcement officials and placed the blame squarely on the politicos in Washington, D.C.
“Four years after 9-11, I’m quite disappointed with our nation’s inability to secure this nation’s borders,� Simcox said. “You know, national security seems to be on the lips of every government official – homeland security, national security – we seem to be making sure they’re safe over in Afghanistan, Korea and in other countries and if we can protect their borders, I darn well expect my government to protect mine.�
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The Arizona Minuteman said the problem in Cochise County (Arizona) “has gone away,� however, it took “the real government to prove to our public servants who’s really in charge.�
“We wrote letters, sent e-mails, attended town hall meetings and we received nothing but lip service,� Simcox said.
In 2002, a group of about 40 citizens decided to “up the ante.�
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“If the government’s not going to do it, then we’re going to challenge them by doing it ourselves,� Simcox said. Like the Sarco group, they partnered with local law enforcement, with about half the first group retired law enforcement agents and military veterans who Simcox said were willing to say, “if you’re not going to do it, we’re going to do it for you.�
Securing 2,000 miles of border is a monumental task, he said, adding that “we have a president who, I’m sorry, is guilty of dereliction of duties when it comes to securing our communities, our nation and our way of life.�
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“I don’t accept my government saying it can’t do this job,� Simcox said. “I don’t accept that the greatest nation on the face of the earth, according to us, that we can’t do anything, especially securing our communities and our nation, especially post Sept. 11.�
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The co-founder said the Minuteman Corps is a political-activist group and a reinvention of the civil defense movement of World War II era, “where citizens watch out for our neighbors and our community and more importantly we’ve called the bluff on this bureaucracy called homeland security.�
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During the earlier meeting with Simcox, the Victoria County sheriff said he talked about the manner in which humans are smuggled in Texas as opposed to Arizona.
“What we did was try and show the fundamental differences between Arizona and Victoria,� O’Connor said. “They can stand on a pickup with a pair of binoculars, identify illegal immigrants and then make contact with the authorities to check it out. Here, you can’t determine who’s in a car traveling 70 miles per hour.�
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Both sheriffs said they would work with the group as long as the activists didn’t break the law and remained non-confrontational. Most residents and law enforcement officials deemed a worsening scenario, with immigrants other than Mexican nationals.
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Falfurrias resident Dr. Mike Vickers, a veterinarian who serves 12 counties, said he is “ready to put some people in Brooks County.�
“This [increase] started about five years ago and just snowballed,� Vickers said. “We used to get about 150 illegal immigrants a week, now we get 150 or more a night. I have a fence crew working every day to keep the fences repaired.�
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While the majority of the crowd gave resounding applause to Simcox’s remarks, not everyone in the crowd was happy at the prospect of Minutemen in Texas. A few young protesters outside the auditorium carried signs bearing “Minutemen equals KKK� and “Migrant workers are not terrorists.� Che Lopez with the Southwest Workers Union traveled from San Antonio to be at the meeting.
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At least one audience member was troubled that Minuteman patrols could not differentiate between Mexican-Americans and illegal immigrants which will lead to more Mexican-Americans being stopped and searched.
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“I’m deeply disappointed that this has been distilled down to the most base affront to my senses and to whatever I’ve lived for in my life,â€? Simcox said. “That somehow the rule of law is equated with the color of your skin or race. This is not about race, color or creed â€â€