Watchers now watching Minutemen
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Watchers now watching Minutemen
As Minutemen eye border, Aguila Del Norte watches them
MICHELLE THERIAULT
THE BELLINGHAM HERALD
As of this weekend, the people watching the border now have people watching them.
The Washington Minuteman Detachment began a month-long border watch on Saturday, the same day that the Aguila Del Norte Legal Observer Program kicked off its campaign to monitor the Minutemen with an April Fool's Day rally called "Fools on the Border" at Blaine's Peach Arch Park. Rhetoric surrounding the thorny issue of the Minutemen's presence in Whatcom County grew heated.
On Sunday, Jay Martin, a newly minted Minuteman from Edmonds on his first patrol, sat in his white pickup on a bucolic stretch of D Street in Blaine, close to where a greenbelt meets Canada.
He had a CB radio in the cab of the truck, and a sign and laminated badge identifying him as a Minuteman.
A feeling of an "erosion of borders, things just getting out of hand" had spurred him to join the Minutemen and make the 1½-hour drive to the border.
For his eight-hour shift, he'd been watching for suspicious activity along the road. Lacking any, he'd also been reading Wine Press Northwest magazine.
Carl Shook's first day as an Aguila Del Norte legal observer was similarly uneventful.
"We drove up to H Street and all the other dead-end roads," he said. "And we kind of scoped it out, got a feel for the terrain. It was a pretty low-key day."
They saw a Minuteman, who seemed to be observing the surroundings from a vehicle.
"They looked like they were doing pretty much what we were doing," he said.
While the border scene was placid, both sides had fiery words for each other.
"The reason this has escalated to such a national level is because of groups like the Minutemen project that are out there causing fear, pain, and frankly pushing people to the limits," said Rosalinda Guillen, director of the Aguila Del Norte Legal Observer Program for the Coalition for Professional Law and Border Enforcement.
The Aguila Del Norte legal observers are there because "we've been getting second-, third-, fourth-hand information from the sheriff, the media. We want to get the information ourselves," she said.
The program will monitor Minutemen, watching for aggressive or harassing tactics that target Latinos. She said that four to six observers visited Minutemen border sites over the weekend.
"We still believe this is an extremist group, it's racially motivated," Guillen said.
Minutemen members, gathered at their headquarters "Camp Standing Bear" on Valley View Road, said that their actions were safe, legal and aimed at creating respect for borders.
"We're no more than a neighborhood block watch," said Gary Cole, the operations manager for the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, the national group.
Protesters who want the Minutemen off the border are "advocating anarchy and that the laws of the United States not be enforced," Cole said.
There are 22 Minutemen at the border, said Tom Williams, sector chief of the Washington Minutemen Detachment.
For all their differences, the two groups do have one thing in common: They both say they'll be at the border all month.
Reach Michelle Theriault at (360) 756-2803 or michelle.theriault@ bellinghamherald.com.
