Posted on 05/12/2005 6:49:04 AM PDT by Arrowhead1952
Other patrols are being considered for New Mexico and California
By Edward Hegstrom
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Thursday, May 12, 2005
HOUSTON -- After spending a month engaged in a citizens patrol along the Arizona-Mexico border, the Minutemen are finalizing plans to come to Texas.
Chris Simcox, the leader of the controversial Arizona project to prevent the entry of illegal immigrants, says he has tentatively set October as a date to begin patrols along the Rio Grande in South Texas.
Other patrols are being considered for New Mexico and California.
But Simcox said that there are serious logistical problems for patrols in Texas. Most of the land along the Texas border is privately owned, and some of it is urbanized, unlike the open lands the group walked in Arizona.
And the same reports of drug violence that have scared some tourists away from the South Texas region also have become a concern to the Minutemen.
"The Texas border is pretty dangerous right now," Simcox said.
That won't scare the Arizona-based citizen patrols away, he said, but it does mean they will be more careful in planning their operations in Texas, which might even include efforts to disrupt the flow of drugs.
"Security becomes a serious issue because we are going to be annoying a lot of people," including leaders of the drug cartels, he said.
The monthlong Minuteman Project patrol in Arizona probably diverted the flow of illegal immigrants instead of preventing it, government officials say.
Minuteman organizers say the Border Patrol apprehended fewer than 5,000 illegal immigrants in the 20-mile region they patrolled for a month, as opposed to 60,000 the year before.
But organizers did serve to draw attention to the issue. President Bush called the Minutemen "vigilantes," but California Gov. Arnold Schwarze- negger praised them.
Houston organizers opposed to illegal immigration say they are ready to go to the border.
"Get geared up and get ready, because we're going to be there in October," said Wanda Schultz of Houston, a representative of Americans for Zero Population Growth.
Schultz and her husband went to Arizona last month to participate in the Minuteman effort.
Border representatives were less enthusiastic.
"I think the Minutemen would probably create more problems than they would solve," Brownsville Mayor Eddie Trevino Jr. said.
Trevino said that most people in South Texas believe the Border Patrol is doing its job. Increased government patrols in recent years have reduced crime in Brownsville, he said.
Texas also has a string of cities with Mexican twin cities, where regular cross-border traffic is a boon to the local economies and where citizen patrols might not be welcome.
"We're trying to distinguish between terrorists and tourists," said Trevino.
That's a difficult task better left to trained professional law enforcement, he added.
Though the Minutemen initially considered patrolling near Brownsville, Simcox said he is considering going much farther northwest, to the Big Bend National Park.
He's also reaching out to South Texas ranchers who might consider inviting the Minutemen to patrol their private land.
But recent history might make that effort more difficult. A group called Ranch Rescue did a number of patrols on private South Texas ranches in 2003, including one on a ranch near Hebbronville. Two illegal immigrants from El Salvador claimed that they were detained, and one said he was pistol-whipped by a Ranch Rescue representative on patrol.
A jury deadlocked on an assault charge against the Ranch Rescue representative. But the two immigrants filed a civil suit against both Ranch Rescue and the landowner. The owner, Joe Sutton, settled out of court.
Simcox says the Minutemen can't be compared with Ranch Rescue. Representatives of the Minutemen have been told to notify the Border Patrol when they spot an illegal immigrant crossing the border but not to attempt an arrest themselves.
Ranch Rescue "took a much more militant approach," Simcox said.
I agree.
You bring up valid points which somehow I sidestepped. I was thinking that if they should want to station themselves something like a mile back from the actual border (river), then it certainly is going to be private property. There are levee roads however and rural crossroads as you mentioned, the distance from the river would have to be determined in order to effectively use public access. All those things could sure produce enough access to be quite effective in this effort.
At any rate, I am bustin' with joy that this issue is not going to just go away or be swept under the governmental rug as easily as I'm sure they first thought...
Keep it up Freepers, what a network of "outsourcing" of information.
Most rank and file BPs totally support this effort, and if approached correctly, will advise MM where they might be advantageously placed as "extra eyes."
Tell your friends and relatives in Illinois they have some patroling to do too!!!!!
chicagominutemanproject@hotmail.com
We are looking for a few hundred volunteers!!
Red
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.