Posted on 05/28/2006 11:26:54 AM PDT by traumer
A group of US volunteers that has been patrolling the frontier with Mexico to stop illegal immigrants has started building a fence along the border.
The Minutemen group plans to erect a combination of barbed wire, razor wire and steel barriers along a 10-mile (16km) stretch of privately-owned land.
Hundreds of volunteers gathered in Arizona for an inauguration ceremony.
The Minutemen are allowed to report illegal crossings to border police but have no right to arrest suspects.
Human rights groups have accused the Minutemen of xenophobia towards illegal immigrants - but the group denies this.
The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps is taking action again and doing the job the federal government will not do
Minutemen to patrol border
US President George W Bush backs plans to curb illegal immigration by extending a fence along the Mexican border and increasing the number of patrols along it.
The question of easing - or tightening - curbs on illegal immigrants is one of the most divisive issues in US politics, provoking fierce debate among Democrats and Republicans.
'Taking action'
The Minutemen have long campaigned for a secure fence along the border.
The group has now begun building its fence at the site where it conducted its first patrols in November 2002.
"Many have talked of building a secure fence between Mexico and the United States," the group said on its website, adding that it is now "taking action" and "doing the job the federal government will not do".
A spokeswoman for the group told the Associated Press news agency it would take three weeks to build the fence, costing an estimated $100,000 (£53,900).
She said the group had already raised $380,000 (£204,700) to build more fences.
Competing bills
President Bush's plan for better border security is part of a package of measures approved recently by the US Senate.
But the package also contains provisions for a guest-worker programme and for offering citizenship to some illegal immigrants.
Its opponents say it is too soft and that all illegal immigration should be criminalised.
The Senate bill will have to be reconciled with a tougher immigration bill, backed by the House of Representatives, if any part of it is to become law.
Vigilance is a good thing.
ping
"Thunder on the Border," click the picture:
Our Minutemen are heroes--the Continental Minutemen would be proud!
Bravo to the Minutemen!
The BBC finally got something right.
Yet another headline that doesn't match the story.
Minute Men doing the job Washington refuses to do.
Will a 10 mile fence do much good?
What isn't clear about the effect of thirty to forty million illegals in the US? How would any other country in the world deal with thirty to forty million, mostly illiterate, hungry,jobless, homeless, Spanish speaking poor folk ethnically cleansed from Mexico dumped over their border?
The BBC, is the New York Times' poodle.
They are helping to stop mexican reconquistas from looting our national treasury.
Let's combine border security with the illiteracy problem:
Construction needs to begin immediately on a 2,000-mile Borders Book fence.
Want to cross? Read 20 books and then fill out the application form in English.
Vigilante in Spanish means watchman. Not threatening at all.
I'm sure this has come up but I must've missed it. What is law regarding citizen's arrest of illegal invaders?
One would hope so. Ask el Presidente W why he has a fence around the WH and the VP's residence at the Nat. OBservatory.
"Vigilante in Spanish means watchman. Not threatening at all."
We don't speak Spanish and neither do the British.
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