To the joy of the Minutemen, Border Patrol figures suggest the number of illegal immigrants trying to cross in their zone in the past few days has dropped dramatically.
Well, now, there the Brits go again with that dry sense of humour...
Posted on 04/05/2005 6:01:17 PM PDT by 1066AD
Last stand against Mexican wave (Filed: 06/04/2005)
With their straw hats, deck-chairs and ample supplies of soft drinks, Jack Montrose and his three-man team of fellow pensioners would have struggled to make the ranks of the famed Minutemen of George Washington's day.
As their walkie-talkies crackled into life on the barren US-Mexican frontier, they were not quite sure whether they were Team Six or Team Ten of Arizona's new volunteer border-monitoring "Minutemen" - or even which way they should train their binoculars.
Latter-day Minutemen scan the border between Arizona and Mexico. The pensioners want to show the President how to stem the tide of immigration
But it takes commitment to sit in the blazing sun and clouds of dust for an eight-hour shift every day for a fortnight, as they plan to do.
As they deployed 100 yards from the dilapidated wire fence that marks America's most porous frontier, their determination to take a stand against the flood of illegal immigrants that pour across each year was undeniable.
They had a stern message for the half a million Mexicans who slip into the promised land of Arizona every year and also for President George W Bush whose proposed liberalising immigration reforms they deplore: enough is enough.
"We're not against immigrants," said Mr Montrose, 62, a retired engineer. "My great-great-grandfather immigrated here from Scotland. But they came the right way. They knew they had to take the oath of allegiance.
"These come the wrong way. It is an invasion. And I'm tired of our government, which doesn't give straight answers to the problem."
The Minuteman Project is the brainchild of Chris Simcox, the editor of Tombstone Tumbleweed, the newspaper in the town best known for the Gunfight at the OK Corral.
"Our aim is to send a message to Mr Bush and Congress that they have not listened to the demands of citizens," he said as he deployed teams every few hundred yards along five miles of border. "We are modelling what homeland security should look like. There should be National Guardsmen every 2,000 yards from the Pacific to the Gulf of Mexico. You can't find a greater threat to the US than right here."
His project is the fruit of mounting concern over immigration - an issue that splits Mr Bush's Republicans between the pro-business wing that welcomes cheap labour and the traditional law-and-order wing that is alarmed over the threat posed to security by the 2,000-mile southern border.
Mr Bush is pushing Congress to pass legislation allowing for temporary visas for guest workers. It is an attempt to bring millions of undocumented workers out of the shadows - and to court Hispanics to vote Republican - but is denounced as an amnesty.
The National Review, the house journal of America's conservatives, warned that immigration could fatally divide the Republicans just as abortion split the Democrats in the 1970s.
After Mexico's President Vicente Fox last month voiced concerns over the Minutemen, Mr Bush denounced it as vigilantism, which infuriated the volunteers. "I'm an American patriot yet Bush has the nerve to call us vigilantes," said William Breaux, 48, a huge Texan patrolling a dried-up river bed.
"Most of us voted for his sorry behind but he is giving our country away. He is a big disappointment."
Amid the parched culverts and thorny hills, US Border Patrol Service agents have one of the hardest jobs in America. Last year they sent home more than a million people. Yet piles of empty water bottles and clothing testify to the many who got through. The Census Bureau predicts that by 2050 the population will be 420 million, against 294 million in 2000.
In an unlikely coincidence a few days before the Minutemen deployed, the government announced more than 500 new agents for the border.
For Dottie Dalton, 66, a widow in a boater with a flowing white ribbon, and her friend, Robin Hvidston, that is the smallest of steps in the right direction. "Let our border patrol do their job," they shouted. "We are here to show Mr Bush it can be done."
Others cut more intimidating figures in their khaki fatigues, with side-arms and hunting knives, although they say all they do is identify suspected illegals and alert the border patrol.
Human rights groups warned that they would be infiltrated by white supremacists and highlighted the danger of confrontations.
But the mood is more carnival than carnivore and all parties are seizing the chance to polish their image. Helicopters buzzed the frontier and, in a rare public outing, Mexican patrols appeared on the frontier in sparkling orange uniforms and orange vehicles.
To the joy of the Minutemen, Border Patrol figures suggest the number of illegal immigrants trying to cross in their zone in the past few days has dropped dramatically.
Not that I think much of BOR these days, but it was nice to hear that his sympathies lie with the Minutemen.
Proof?
He came across very well. The sad thing is the tiny minority of freepers who have chosen DUmmie style attacks on them instead or rational reasons why the minutemen shouldn't be there.
Ping!
The GOP had better get serious about this or they might get worked in the next Pres. election.
You'd better believe the libs don't give a rats as* about principle and if one of them thinks he or SHE could win with a tough border policy they'll do it.
"Proof?"
I wouldn't count on it. Ive known about Simcox for several years now and thats the first time Ive heard that one.
Can you back that up? Waiting...
I'd sue the hell out of anyone that made a statement like that about me on a public forum, if it wasn't true. Truly outrageous for a conservative.
So far I haven't seen hide nor hair of the neo nazis who were supposed to be there either. You know if they were there the media would be all over it.
No. He found Juan trying to cross the border. Jesus made it across last week.
I haven't either. I guess they figured it'd be easier to sit at their keyboards and disrupt threads. :)
Yeah, Gilchrist was just on H&C. He told Colmes that he doesn't have any say over what the idiots (little girls) at stormfront post on their forums.
I notice ms-13 hasn't made an appearance either. Maybe the ones the feds rounded up last week were the leaders who were planning something.
"three-man team of fellow pensioners"
Isn't that what Bush asked for...Senior citizens to
do some volunteer work? <>g<>
The Minutemen are not "vigilante" as the MSM would like to call them. They are Baby-Sitters who are there to supervise the Border Patrol, which lacks either the qualifications or the will to do the job it is being paid to do.
To the joy of the Minutemen, Border Patrol figures suggest the number of illegal immigrants trying to cross in their zone in the past few days has dropped dramatically.
Well, now, there the Brits go again with that dry sense of humour...
During a time of war?
U.S. Constitution Article 4 Section 4:
"The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government,
Why the hell is our news the business of the Telegraph's? Have they got nothing better to report on? "Get a country" you losers.
Ah, lad, a fence such as the one at the bottom would restrict all that free trade, don't ya know?
I just heard a story about an illegal shanty-town in Willcox AZ that made my toes curl. I'm going to have to track down it's validity, I received it third hand.
LOL!
The "News" is global these days.
Their report was fair, what's your problem ?
We don't have to have that kind of population growth if we don't want it. It's our decision to make.
Three cheers for the Minutemen.
No. Jesus is in Mexico trying to fix their stinking mess of a culture.
BTTT
"To the joy of the Minutemen, Border Patrol figures suggest the number of illegal immigrants trying to cross in their zone in the past few days has dropped dramatically."
Now the Border Patrol has more guards for fewer attempts. The flood is now a trickle. Soon it could be a drip. Mexicans are now saying that this path is the most difficult. Hopefully, God willing, the pressures will disperse randomly at the other areas, which are more easy to absorb than massive pressure at one point.
FReegards....
"Look at all the labor we could pick up as they cross."
Have illegal aliens work on a wall along the border for a year or two, eh? Then send them back to Mexico? Interesting. FReegards....
Yea right, it is APRIL folks, we dont even start to warm up till June.
Another idea I have heard was encouraging Native Americans to form their Border Patrols to protect the reservations and provide some jobs.
America would increase her wealth ten fold if they stopped listening to the dumb a$$, communist greenies. With all that additional wealth, we could put up something that would dwarf The Great wall of China, and something that would work, like real conservatives, not rinos.
"Another idea I have heard was encouraging Native Americans to form their Border Patrols to protect the reservations and provide some jobs."
Good idea. I do, however, see this from a humorous lens. Bows, arrows, tomahawks.... [I know I know... wouldn't be that way.] Back to being serious, it is a good idea. FReegards....
Do you think President Bush should apologize for impugning their character if by the end of April they have not committed any acts of vigilantism? Do you think he will?
No.
The US Border Patrol bosses don't like citizens on the actual border. They hate pictures like the one I posted of our pathitic open border getting out to the sheeple.
"Undocumented Border Patrol Agent"
BUMP
If you could find them in Spanish, it would be even more fun.
Could you see the look on the face of some coyote when he comes across one?
L
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