http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincitie ... 192942.htm
State of siege
Arizona has become the No. 1 crossing point for migrants headed north, angering residents and prompting what the U.S. government calls a vigilante effort to stop the flow.
BY SUSANA HAYWARD
Knight Ridder News Service
TOMBSTONE, Ariz.
The fiery embers of the Wild West smolder on Toughnut Street in Tombstone, where a former schoolteacher runs an armed movement to close America's borders to migrants and potential terrorists.
A few miles away, in the town of Palominas on the U.S. side of the border, residents complain that every day they find soiled diapers, plastic water bottles, torn fences, injured livestock and sometimes rotting bodies.
And in Altar, Mexico, 60 miles south of the border, businesses thrive on providing everything migrants might need to survive the long and perilous trip north, from backpacks and water bottles to cell phones for summoning U.S. police if they get lost in the desert.
Welcome to Arizona's 389-mile border with Mexico, the most common and deadly passage for migrants trying to reach the United States. Of the 1.1 million illegal migrants arrested last year, 52 percent were in Arizona, according to the U.S. Border Patrol. Ten years ago, most illegal border crossings occurred in more populated areas along the California and Texas borders.
As a result, the hot, dusty regions of southern Arizona have taken on a lawless feel perhaps unequaled since more than a century ago, when lawman Wyatt Earp and his three gunslinger brothers shot it out with the Clanton gang at the O.K. Corral.
Cars are festooned with bumper stickers reading: "What part of illegal immigration don't you understand?" or "Corporate America supports immigration to depress wages and increase profits." Newspapers carry near-daily reports about migrants dying from dehydration or fatigue, of people being held hostage in smugglers' safe houses and of drug-smuggling crimes.
And with summer under way, and temperatures often nearing 120 degrees, the Border Patrol has geared up to try to head off the deaths of migrants stranded in the desert. The U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection has added 1,000 agents to the 2,000-person force assigned here a year ago and have doubled the number of aircraft patrolling the area, to 52 helicopters and planes.
Already, 1,750 migrants in distress have been rescued this year, more than the 1,347 rescued last year, the Border Patrol reports. At least 21 migrants reportedly died trying to make the crossing in the first two weeks of July.
Still, the government is not doing enough for Chris Simcox, a former elementary school teacher in Los Angeles who in 2002 picked Tombstone as the headquarters for his controversial Minuteman Civilian Defense Corps, a crew of mostly white-collar volunteers who've taken up the task of catching undocumented foreigners.
Simcox's small office is stacked with bulletproof vests, weapons, walkie-talkies and other military-style paraphernalia. He claims that many of the estimated 10 million undocumented workers in the United States are criminals and drug traffickers, that immigrants take jobs from Americans, drive wages down, don't pay taxes, belong to gangs and are exploited by employers, creating a U.S. culture of "indentured servants." He cites no source for his statistics.
Bush administration officials, including the president, have denounced Simcox's group as little more than vigilantes and say their presence on the border makes it likely that violence will occur.
Simcox scoffs at the idea and points for support to the group's mobilization in April, when they launched a monthlong vigil along a 20-mile stretch of border. Some 1,000 volunteers, mostly from out of state, showed up, sporting weapons, camouflage clothing, binoculars and night-vision goggles. They sat on lawn chairs in 24 posts and waited.
Simcox says they caught 700 people from 26 countries, including Iraqis, Iranians, Chinese, Bosnians, Pakistanis and Russians â€â€
