Vigilantes Vow To Patrol Border And Block Mexicans

by Diego Cevallos

(IPS) MEXICO CITY -- "Freedom don't come for free" warns the Minuteman Project, a U.S. vigilante group that is calling for volunteers, especially people with law enforcement or military experience, "for the purpose of aiding the U.S. Border Patrol in 'spotting' intruders entering the U.S. illegally."

The invitation to help "protect our country from a 40-year-long invasion across our southern border with Mexico" is for April 1-30 in Tombstone, Arizona.

The 441 volunteers who have already signed up, according to the Minuteman web site, include 16 pilots with aircraft, such as para-gliders.

Minuteman, which is made up mainly of former members of the military, is just one of several anti-immigrant groups active along the U.S.-Mexican border. Some of these vigilante organizations have less than 10 members, and most only make sporadic appearances. But they all tend to use military weapons and strategies to help track down and catch undocumented immigrants.

"There are more and more of these anti-immigrant paramilitary groups, but we had never before seen any with as many volunteers as Minuteman claims to have," Jennifer Allen, director of the Border Action Network, a Tucson, Arizona-based immigrant advocacy group, told IPS.

Visitors to the Minuteman web site can fill in an application form to sign up for "spending 30 days along the Arizona border (across from the Mexican state of Sonora) as part of a blocking force against entry into the U.S. by illegal aliens" during the month of April.

The web site says the volunteers, who will camp out on land made available by local landowners or stay in lodging rooms, will carry out day and night patrols to "spot these intruders with the aid of binoculars, telescopes, and night vision scopes, and inform the U.S. Border Patrol of the location of the trespassers so that border patrol agents can intercept and detain them."

The group's stated intention is to draw attention to what it sees as the U.S. government's failure to adequately enforce U.S. immigration laws and to provide the required "manpower and funding."

Many undocumented immigrants cross into the United States along dangerous rivers or in remote desert areas where surveillance is weak. However, more and more vigilante groups are patrolling these areas.

In 2004, 347 Mexicans died in their attempt to make it across the border, including many who were hit by cars as they tried to dart across freeways. The total number of deaths for the 1994-2003 period was 2,605.

Although an estimated 400,000 Mexican immigrants make it past the increasingly strict U.S. border controls every year, more than one million fail in the attempt and are deported.

There are currently 39.9 million people of Mexican birth or descent living in the United States, five million of whom are undocumented immigrants.

"At the current rate of invasion the United States will be completely overrun with illegal aliens by the year 2025," says James Gilchrist, a former U.S. Marine and Vietnam veteran who heads the Minuteman Project.

"This Minuteman business is serious, and it's not the first (group to appear). We have to curb this xenophobia, because a tragedy is going to happen, and then we'll all be sorry," said Allen in a telephone interview from Arizona.

The Border Action Network is pushing for the legal prosecution of members of the vigilante groups, although so far without success.

"There is a certain amount of tolerance on the part of the local and federal authorities towards these gentlemen, who know absolutely nothing about immigration and the issues surrounding it," said Allen.

Although there have been reports of armed groups tracking down immigrants since the 1970s, none of their members has ever been arrested or put on trial.

Ranch Rescue, Civil Homeland Defense and American Border Patrol are among the vigilante groups sporadically active in several U.S. states along the Mexican border.

Riding in all-terrain vehicles or on horseback, dressed in military uniforms or as ranchers, their members search for immigrants in desert areas, which are the least heavily monitored.

When they come across immigrants, who usually travel in small groups, and have beaten, threatened and sometimes even had warning shots fired at them, the vigilantes force them to head to areas where the border patrol is certain to find and apprehend them.

Ray Borane, the mayor of Douglas, Arizona, said the Minutemen are not welcome in his town, because they are "white supremacists, racists and very dangerous people."

The Mexican government, through its consulates in Arizona, announced that it would keep a careful eye on the activities of the Minutemen, and would legally challenge any wrongdoing.

Last November, at the time of the elections that won for President George W. Bush a second term, Arizona voters passed Proposition 200, which amends the state's laws to require proof of legal immigration status for access to health care and education services.

The Mexican government and human rights organizations attempted to block implementation of the resolution through a number of legal mechanisms, but to no avail.

Since 2001, Mexico and the United States have been holding ongoing talks to negotiate a migration agreement. The Mexican government is pushing for the legalization of the status of immigrants currently living in the United States, but Washington is only willing to grant temporary work permits.