A retired accountant, Mr. Gilchrist conceived the idea of organizing people to patrol the Arizona desert in April for illegal immigrants and report them to the Border Patrol. The project has attracted nearly 1,000 volunteers and 30 private planes.
Mr. Gilchrist says that although some of the watchers will be "responsibly armed," they will not try to make arrests or confront anyone, but simply report illegals to the proper authorities.
The Arizona ACLU has vowed to monitor the monitors. Groups have protested Mr. Gilchrist outside his gated community.
On Wednesday President Bush, at the summit meeting with President Vicente Fox of Mexico and Prime Minister Paul Martin of Canada, when asked about the project, said, "I'm against vigilantes in the United States of America. I'm for enforcing the law in a rational way."
Mr. Bush might have jumped the gun in referring to the Minuteman Project as "vigilantes" with a negative connotation. There is nothing inherently wrong with citizens' groups helping to enforce laws; police agencies clamor for citizen cooperation and tips all the time, especially after an especially egregious crime. It remains to be seen whether Mr. Gilchrist's effort will be peaceful, or explosive.
As to Mr. Bush's point about law enforcement: The problem is that immigration law is not now enforced in a rational way by the authorities, in large part because, as currently crafted, our immigration laws are not especially rational themselves.
Our immigration laws amount to efforts to repeal reality. There is honest work available in the United States for people from Mexico willing to do it. The legal-immigration quotas are unrealistically low.
The best way to reduce illegal immigration - so the Border Patrol can focus on threats like terrorists - is to expand the quotas and consider other kinds of worker programs, not to beef up enforcement with citizen amateurs.
Don't expect much out of the OC Register on the issue of illegal aliens. Though still a fairly decent paper, it has been in decline for the last 10 years, primarily due to its increased pandering to the Mexican contingent that has pretty much taken over Santa Ana.
>>There is honest work available in the United States for people from Mexico willing to do it.<<
Such as mechanics on commercial airliners, .....a job that American mechanics absolutely hate because of the required licensing, low pay and poor benefits.
/sarc
"There is nothing inherently wrong with citizens' groups helping to enforce laws; police agencies clamor for citizen cooperation and tips all the time, especially after an especially egregious crime. It remains to be seen whether Mr. Gilchrist's effort will be peaceful, or explosive."
I live in a pretty rough area of a suburb to Oklahoma City where there is a great deal of gang activity. There is a neighborhood watch here and a group of civilians that patrol the streets at night, unarmed, in vehicle with a flashing yellow light. This is all done in cooperation with the city PD. In fact, the PD provides these folks with a radio so they can quickly contact the department if they spot anything. They are not allowed to confront anyone or attempt arrest, just simply to let the police know.
Now if these folks in Arizona will stick to simply reporting illegals crossing to border patrol folks. And if they do not attempt apprehension of illegals or conforting them. And if they do not place themselves in situations where they could be attacked by illegals and then claim "self-defense" and kill some. Then they are not vigilantes, they are just a "neighborhood watch" group. I don't see why anyone should have a problem with this except for someone with an agenda that wants illegals to pass without being seen, or doesn't want the border patrol to be embarassed for not keeping the borders secure.
Apparently Pres Bush equates "enforcing the law in a rational way" to kissing vicente fox's a$$.
"On Wednesday President Bush, at the summit meeting with President Vicente Fox of Mexico and Prime Minister Paul Martin of Canada, when asked about the project, said, "I'm against vigilantes in the United States of America. I'm for enforcing the law in a rational way." "
If you were enforcing the damn laws we already have their wouldn't be a minuteman project. We need more of these groups all along our southern borders until our government starts doing what they should have been doing all along.
Enforcing it by not enforcing it. Sounds rational to me.