Free Republic

Many of the minimum wage laws passed in recent years, including in major cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago, include waivers allowing unionized businesses to pay their employees below the minimum. The waivers in effect make unionizing workers a low-cost option for businesses unwilling or unable to pay the new minimum wage, which in cities such as San Francisco and SeaTac, Wash., which also has a waiver, will climb as high as $15 an hour when fully phased in. In those cities, businesses can sign a collective bargaining agreement with a union that sets the wages below...

HEREFORD — The local civilian anti-illegal immigration group American Border Patrol has expanded its operations to a 100-acre ranch here that fronts both Mexico and the San Pedro River. The group says it will use the property as a base to continue demonstrating how inexpensive technology can help secure the border. During a Friday night fund-raising barbecue for Republican presidential candidate Tom Tancredo, ABP founder Glenn Spencer showed off the ranch’s six-camera surveillance system to a crowd of approximately 150 people. As Spencer displayed a split screen projection of the views from four of the cameras, Mike King, ABP’s technical...

Some Arizona residents aren't waiting for the president or Congress to curb illegal immigration. Instead, they're arming themselves, creating so-called private citizen patrols. Others refer to them as vigilantes. Whatever you call them, more and more are forming in border towns like Sierra Vista and Douglas where those citizen patrols aren't only toting guns, they're recruiting new members. They're even using sophisticated technology in their hunt for border crossers. For example, an unmanned plane offers a bird's-eye view of the border, including group after group of illegal immigrants sneaking across the border. The most popular smuggling route in the country...

BISBEE - The head of a civilian border watch group is being forced to leave the home from which he had coordinated patrols to stop illegal immigrants entering Arizona. Superior Court Judge Stephen Desens issued a preliminary injunction barring Glenn Spencer from operating a business in the subdivision where his American Border Patrol was headquartered. The Pueblo del Sol Property Owners Association Inc. had requested the order on the grounds that Spencer was violating the association's covenants, conditions and restrictions, which bar the operation of a business from the properties covered by the association. Spencer's attorney, Michael Johns, told Desens...

American Border Patrol president Glenn Spencer stands in front of a media screen as he speaks to attendees at a meeting held Saturday at the Windemere Hotel and Conference Center. Spencer talked about the plans and past successes of his group. (Mark Levy-Herald/Review) SIERRA VISTA -- Starting Monday, the American Border Patrol will feed live video from its unmanned aerial vehicles to the Internet. The organization is continuing to use, modify and develop new technologies to monitor the border as a way to look for illegal drug smuggling and immigrant activities, , said Glenn Spencer, founder of the American...

The leader of a Sierra Vista-based border-watch group pleaded not guilty in Cochise County Superior Court Monday to a felony count of reckless discharge of a firearm. Glenn Spencer, leader of American Border Patrol, was originally facing charges that included felonies for firing a rifle outside of his home in August, hitting a neighbor's garage, but a grand jury did not indict him on the more serious counts. The charge of reckless discharge of a firearm carries a maximum penalty of 18 months in jail and a $150,000 fine, said Vincent Festa, a prosecutor with the Cochise County Attorney's Office....

Spencer now facing only one charge for incident By Nate Searing Herald/Review SIERRA VISTA -- American Border Patrol President Glenn Spencer will be arraigned in Justice Court 5 in Sierra Vista Tuesday after a being formally charged with felony disorderly conduct last week. Spencer, 66, picked up his summons for the charge from the Cochise County sheriff's office in Sierra Vista on Wednesday. A grand jury indicted him on Aug. 22. The charge stems from an incident on Aug. 1 in which Spencer allegedly fired a gun near his home at Equestrian Avenue and Yaqui Street. The shots, which came...

An Arizona newspaper owner and founder of a citizens' group whose goal is to thwart illegal immigration says U.S. Border Patrol officials in Washington have instructed field agents in his area to contact local authorities whenever the group intercepts and turns in illegal aliens. Chris Simcox, editor of the Tombstone Tumbleweed and leader of Civil Homeland Defense, or CHD, told WorldNetDaily local Border Patrol supervisors and agents say their orders to contact the Cochise County Sheriff's Department whenever his volunteers hand over illegal aliens came straight from Washington, D.C. "[Last] weekend we were notified by a Border Patrol supervisor that...

The leader of a southwestern U.S. border group that electronically monitors illegal-alien traffic has been arrested on gun-related charges, according to local law-enforcement officials. Authorities with the Cochise County (Arizona) Sheriff's Department arrested Glenn Spencer, founder and head of the American Border Patrol on Saturday, charging him with three counts of disorderly conduct with a weapon, a count of endangerment and a count of criminal damage. It was unclear how long Spencer could go to jail if convicted of all counts. According to the Sierra Vista Herald, Spencer was held in the county jail until Sunday. Sheriff's department spokeswoman Carol...

For discussion and information. SIERRA VISTA -- The president of the American Border Patrol said today that his group is accelerating its plans to move its headquarters from an upper middle class neighborhood south of Sierra Vista to a rural ranch. "It has always been our ultimate goal to move," Glenn Spencer said this morning. The number of instances the organization's high-tech equipment has been stolen has moved up the relocation by a couple of months, he said. Because of the loss of a large mobile satellite Internet transmitter, some of the operations for gathering and transmitting information about illegal...

SIERRA VISTA -- The president of American Border Patrol was released from jail Sunday after being arrested Saturday morning on three counts of disorderly conduct with a weapon, a count of endangerment and a count of criminal damage. Glenn Spencer, 66, was released from county jail on his own recognizance Sunday morning after an initial court appearance, said Carol Capas, a spokeswoman for the Cochise County Sheriff's Department. "I should have been released Saturday, but the judge never showed up," Spencer said today. The arrest stemmed from an incident Friday night in which two gunshots were heard near Spencer's home...

SIERRA VISTA -- The head of the American Border Patrol was arrested Saturday and booked into jail on three counts of disorderly conduct with a weapon, a count of endangerment and a count of criminal damage. Glenn Spencer, who lives south of Sierra Vista is being held in the sheriff's Sierra Vista jail pending his initial appearance today, said Carol Capas, spokeswoman for the Cochise County Sheriff's Department. No one was injured in the reported shooting, and Spencer did not resist being arrested around 8:30 a.m. Saturday, she said. The incident that led to Spencer's arrest began about 9:30 p.m....

<p>A satellite cell phone in one hand and a global-positioning satellite unit in the other, Glenn Spencer of the American Border Patrol poses at the group's headquarters in Sierra Vista. In the background is an antenna that connects headquarters to the Internet.</p>