Real World Event Discussions
'Minutemen' to Patrol Arizona Border
POSTED BY: sgtgump
UPDATED: Friday, April 8, 2005 08:42
VIEWED: 2183
PAGE 2 of 2
Friday, April 8, 2005 8:42 AM
I hope the local cop you know has a safe vacation.
Looks like the Mexican authorities are temporarily stepping up efforts on their side of the border in an effort to lower the potential for problems (from "Minutemen find few migrants: Police in Mexico discouraging illegal crossings" Arizona Daily Star 04-05-05).
Quote:
excerpted from http://www.dailystar.com/dailystar/allheadlines/68940.php
...
Eager to avoid confrontations between volunteers and its people, Mexico is sweeping the area south of the Minuteman Project clear of migrants.
Gov. Eduardo Bours Castelo has placed 44 members of the new state police force across the border at La Morita, a cattle ranch that leads directly to the border south of Bisbee, said Diego Padilla the governor's Arizona representative.
The state police are working with Grupo Beta, Mexico's migrant protection force, which is plucking migrants out of the desert and depositing them in nearby Agua Prieta, where they are encouraged to wait before trying to cross.
"We are very crude with them; we tell them they may be shot, that there's rancheros out to stop them and hurt them," said Enrique Enriques Palafox, a Grupo Beta commander in Agua Prieta. The point is to terrify the migrants from the area so they won't cross illegally and encounter Minuteman volunteers, he said.
...
So far, fortunately, no one has been shot. But one man got himself food, water, twenty dollars and a T-shirt - at least the people he ran into didn't brand him or take an ear as a trophy. (from "Video clears 3 Minutemen" Arizona Daily Star 04-08-05). Pretty funny unless you're the one holding the T-shirt. Although it sounds like the man would make an ideal American - his first response was to file a complaint. We should make him a citizen for that action alone.
Quote:
excerpted from http://www.dailystar.com/dailystar/allheadlines/69461.php
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On Wednesday afternoon, Bryan Barton, 24, and two other volunteers, found an illegal entrant on Arizona 92 near Palominas, said Carol Capas, a spokeswoman for the Cochise County Sheriff's Department.
The men videotaped the encounter, which showed the volunteers approaching the man, giving him food and water and calling Border Patrol to pick up the entrant.
In addition, Barton gave the man $20 and a T-shirt that read "Bryan Barton caught an illegal alien and all I got was this lousy T-shirt."
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It's nice to laugh and everything but I think there's some real potential for violence. Especially when a known hate group was trying to piggyback on this event - sounds like it was without knowledge of the organizers. (from "Minutemen gather in Tombstone for kickoff of civilian border watch" Tucson Citizen 04-01-05). But I find it interesting that Simcox's first reaction was to blame someone for planting the fliers. Eerily reminiscent of the Mel Martinez Schiavo talking-points document that many were claiming was a Democrat fake (hint - it's legit).
Quote:
excerpted from http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/breaking/040105minute.php
...
But some residents worry. "I feel like the rest of the country thinks we're a bunch of gun-toting rednecks ready to shoot Mexicans," said Dixie Van Asch, who rents rooms at the Tucson Motel. Van Asch questions the economic impact the project will have on the community, which annually draws up to 500,000 tourists. And she worries about the type of people the project has attracted.
Last Sunday morning, she walked out of her house to find a plastic bag weighted down with rocks. Inside, she found an anti-immigrant flier from the National Alliance, considered one of the country's largest white supremacy organizations.
The fliers also showed up in Douglas, Nogales, and Bisbee.
Chris Simcox, the editor of a local newspaper and a project organizer, has refuted any link between the Minutemen and white supremacists or any other racist organizations. Simcox has accused Douglas Mayor Ray Borane, a frequent critic, of distributing the fliers in an attempt to smear the project.
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