Posted on 10/05/2006 8:24:03 AM PDT by SwinneySwitch
New groups plans to concentrate on Texas immigration.
Thursday,
The former leader of the Texas branch of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps said Wednesday that he and other members split from the national watchdog group last month to form their own private patrol organization opposing illegal immigration: the Texas Border Volunteers.
Mike Vickers, a Falfurrias veterinarian and rancher, had been state director of the civil defense corps since March. He said the new group, which he heads as chairman, will focus its efforts in Texas and form a political action committee to influence statewide elections and public policy.
The committee will ask the Legislature to approve Gov. Rick Perry's request for $100 million next year to continue state efforts to fortify the border. Vickers is the Republican chairman in Brooks County
"We didn't want to be under the leadership that really didn't understand how the Texas border works," Vickers said of the split from the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, which was founded by Chris Simcox in Arizona and claims to have 250,000 members, volunteers and donors nationwide.
The Texas Border Volunteers, with about 500 members, want to avoid confusion with what Vickers called more aggressive offshoot watchdog groups using the Minutemen or Minuteman name.
"This has been a problem for us," Vickers said.
Members, most of them military retirees, will undergo background checks, he said.
With an illegal immigrant population estimated at 12 million in the United States and with federal inaction on a comprehensive overhaul, the number of citizen watchdog groups patrolling the border for illegal immigrants has grown.
Though some laud the groups, others are highly critical, likening them to vigilantes or complaining that they interfere with the work of law enforcement officers.
Vickers, 57, stressed that the Texas Border Volunteers patrol only private property, including remote ranchlands used by smugglers and immigrants to skirt immigration checkpoints.
"We're not enforcers of the law; we just report criminal activity," he said, adding that the volunteers will work closely with the U.S. Border Patrol and local and state law enforcement agencies.
A spokeswoman for the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps said chapters remain active in Texas and that Vickers' successor had already been named.
jcastillo@statesman.com; 445-3635
The polite version
TBV Ping!
B T T T
ping
Well, if it only took Mr. Vickers 18 months to to figure that out, that's not too bad. Texas Minutemen determined that in the third week of April, 2005, at the formation of TXMM.
The "problems" that they have had with TXMM are twofold. One, they tried to tell everyone TXMM was not "official and authorized" by Simcox. Second, they tried to claim MCDC is the "real" Minuteman Project in Texas. Wrong on both issues. One could ask Jim Gilchrist, the founder of the Minuteman Project. He personally suggested the name Texas Minutemen. In the third week of April, 2005.
Minuteman Civil Defense Corps (MCDC) in Texas is only that, MCDC in Texas. And apparently they are having more "problems" than the report indicates as the bulk (about 200) of their members in Texas quit. So did the bulk of the Oklahoma Minuteman Civil Defense Corps (MCDC) about one month ago. Also about 200 members.
Too many chiefs, not enough indians.
Agreed. Chris Simcox needs to get back on the team under the founder of the Minuteman Project, Jim Gilchrist. Or go, and let the MCDC folks go back to the real Minuteman Project. They would probably be much more productive under the Minuteman Project model for border watch operation. Right now The Texas Minutemen are conducting operations from the outskirts of El Paso to beyond Ft. Hancock (60 miles) and launching aircraft twice a day to select watch locations.
Chris simcox (MCDC) is doing... what? Asking for another couple of million for his barbed wire fence.
Thank you for all the kind words! It's about time the record was set straight. Currently "Don't tell anyone" I'm about 25 yards from the Fabens Port of Entry stuck in the mud with another vehicle up to our axels. I chose myself to watch the trucks until morning when one of the farmers can rescue me. I'm using the Verison Aircard to surf the net from the truck.
Shannon
In The El Paso Sector
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