 |
|
|
 News from Around the Americas | October 2005 
Minutemen Patrols Continue Amid Criticism
 Sara A. Carter - LA Daily Bulletin
| | Minuteman Project volunteers along the US/Mexico border. Hundreds of Minuteman Project volunteers have fanned-out across California, Arizona and Texas border areas during October to call attention to problems with illegal immigrants crossing into the US. |
As the rain tumbled down on Highway 94 outside the Campo Indian Reservation on Sunday, the men and women of a volunteer group hoping to keep illegal immigrants from crossing the Mexican frontier huddled beneath camper awnings waiting for clear skies.
From a world-renowned scientist to housewives, the small group of diverse volunteers, known as the Minuteman Civilian Defense Corps, has spent the past two weeks monitoring the San Diego border with night-vision scopes and high-tech listening devices.
And they don't plan on leaving until the federal government sends military personnel to secure the border and help the understaffed Border Patrol, they said.
"We're not standing out here against migrants and human rights," said Tim Donnelly, from Twin Peaks, near Lake Arrowhead, who heads the California group of Minuteman volunteers. "The illegals say my needs, my desperation, overrides your voice and the Constitution. We are not racists; we are Americans trying to protect our borders from drug smugglers, human trafficking and terrorists. If our government isn't going to do it, we will."
The Minuteman volunteers were not the only ones standing guard. Andy Ramirez, a Chino resident and chairman of Friends of the Border Patrol, an anti-illegal immigrant group, said he has several volunteers patrolling the Imperial Valley area of San Diego County.
Original members from the Minuteman Project have been patrolling more than 20 miles of the Campo sector of the county since the beginning of October, said cofounder Chris Simcox, who began the project in Arizona with James Gilchrist in April.
The project is now in 12 states, Simcox said Sunday from the group's base at Outdoor World Retreat, a campsite just north of the Mexican border. Simcox arrived with Gilchrist in the late morning to mingle with volunteers, some dressed in paramilitary clothing and others who looked like they just got back from a hike.
The two leaders spent the day plotting strategy about the future of the project and speaking fervently about how lax American policies with Mexico are destroying the country.
There are now 4,500 registered Minuteman volunteers from Michigan to California, Simcox said. Texas, California and Arizona have the largest groups of volunteers.
Gilchrist is campaigning in the race for the 48th District Congressional seat, representing Orange County. He said the illegal immigration issue will lead to his election in November.
"We are going to continue to defend the borders of this wonderful country, and when I'm elected it will be my mission to fight to enforce immigration laws in Washington," Gilchrist said.
As he prepared to head out for a Sunday night patrol, Simcox said, "This is a community service at the risk of being labeled racists and called names. Our job is to hold our government accountable and nothing has created more recent change regarding immigration than the voices of our volunteers."ACTIVISTS ON EACH SIDE
But as the nearly 50 Minuteman volunteers made it their mission to patrol the rough mountainous terrain near San Diego, those who oppose the civilian patrols have made it their quest to monitor the volunteers, who they believe are violating the civil rights of migrants.
"We're going to follow them wherever they go," said Vincente Rodriguez, an American citizen who was monitoring the volunteers with binoculars from the Mexican side of the border on Sunday. Rodriguez, a member of the National Alliance for Human Rights, waved a Mexican flag from his Toyota pickup on Sunday afternoon.
"They are afraid of the changing face of America, the Hispanic face, and they don't want to accept that change," he said. "But what they are doing is pushing (migrants) into more dangerous terrain and so many of them have died trying to cross."
Armando Navarro, chairman of the ethics department at UC Riverside and member of the National Alliance for Human Rights and the Gente Unida Coalition, has been an outspoken critic of the project that he believes is racially motivated.
"I was at a march in Calexico a few weeks back, and I will continue to speak out against those who oppress the migrants in our country," Navarro said. "The Minuteman volunteers have a racist agenda, and in this battle we will win the war."
On Sunday, more than a hundred people gathered at Border Field Park, where the border fence between the two countries disappears into the mouth of the Pacific Ocean, to mourn the deaths of more than 3,500 migrants who attempted to enter the United States and failed, Rodriguez said.
"So many innocent people die," he said. SEARCHING THE DESERT
Donnelly, who spent a cold Saturday night with four other volunteers at an observation post just outside the city of Boulevard, said the deaths of migrants are tragic, "but blame the Mexican government not the Minutemen or the policies of the United States."
The night air dipped into the low 40s, and the men sat silently along a desert plateau, hidden by the brush in their thick dark jackets. The full moon, covered by the passing of dark rain clouds, didn't completely hide the lights scattered across the border.
The sound of Mexican music was carried swiftly by the wind, and the men, some carrying weapons, communicated with hand signals. The volunteers were excited. But as quickly as the music came, it vanished.
Night-vision lenses turned a dark desert green, but still no migrants were seen. And the high-tech listening devices, which volunteers hoped would capture the voices of those hidden in the brush, picked up only the howling of the desert wind.
"It looks like it's going to rain," Donnelly said, as a dark fog fell over the desert and disrupted visibility. "It looks like we're going to have to call off patrols for the night."
The men grabbed their gear, loaded it into their trucks and headed down the winding rocky road toward the campground.
"We're dedicated, and we're not going to leave," Donnelly said. "These men and women dedicate their lives and their time because they care about this country. We aren't worried about just the illegal immigrants. What about the drugs, and what about terrorists who may bring in biological weapons?"
One Danger Of A Porous Border
And with such an open border, biological weapons and radioactive material isn't such a far-fetched idea, said Dr. Johan V. Hultin, a world renowned pathologist, who is famed for his discovery of the only sample of the Spanish flu virus, which killed more than 100 million people in 1918.
Hultin, from the Bay Area, spent the past weekend with his fellow Minuteman volunteers patrolling the San Diego border.
"My main concern is that a country that does not enforce its laws eventually has a society that loses respect for the rule of law," said Hultin, who immigrated to the United States from Sweden in 1949. Hultin's sample of the Spanish flu virus is being used to develop a vaccine for avian flu.
"It would not take much to bring in biological weapons or instruments for constructing a dirty bomb across such an open border. The prospect of this is frightening," he said.
Hultin and other volunteers near the Campo reservation were preparing to leave their posts for home on Sunday, as others prepared to begin their week of observation.
"I can't give up the fight for our country," said Dottie Dalton, a Murrieta resident who spent the weekend with Robin Hvidston, of Upland, both of whom have patrolled the borders since April.
"We are Americans fighting for the safety of our country, and we're going to continue to fight for its freedom," Dalton said.
The weekend ended without incident for the Minuteman volunteers. Their American flags, dripping wet from the day's rain, still waved in the cold westerly breeze.
And also undeterred by the weather, opposition volunteers still stood their ground on Mexican soil.
Along Highway 94, Border patrol vehicles could be seen passing the gray, empty desert as residents of the small community braced for another storm.
Sara A. Carter can be reached by email at sara.carter@dailybulletin.com |
| |
|
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us