ISU Bengal

Issue date: 4/20/05 Section: News

DOUGLAS, AZ. - After one week of scanning the desert for illegal immigrants, Minuteman Project founder Jim Gilchrist declared success.

The number of migrants crossing the desert has fallen. Word is out in Mexican border towns that the Minutemen are watching. And the federal government is paying attention.

Still, not everyone is happy with the 1,000 or so volunteers who pledged online to show up in Arizona to search for illegal crossers

Border agents say the volunteers are complicating their job--and costing taxpayer dollars every time an agent responds to a tripped border sensor, courtesy of the Minuteman Project.

All this and three weeks left to go.

This month, volunteers from across the country converged in Arizona for the project, fed up with what they see as the government's inability, or refusal, to protect the nation's borders.

On April 2, Border Patrol agents made 344 arrests near Douglas. A day later, on the eve of official Minuteman patrols, agents made 178 arrests. The decrease was a result of stepped-up Mexican patrols, said Andrea Zortman, spokeswoman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Agents say the dip in apprehensions isn't because of Minutemen. Historically, when Mexican troops increase patrols, the number of crossings decreases, which is the current case, Zortman said.

From April 1-6, the Border Patrol says, it stopped 1,630 illegal immigrants crossing in the Douglas area. Minuteman leaders couldn't say how many of those arrests were the result of their efforts.

Opponents also joined the debate, though in fewer numbers, holding silent vigils in protest of potential migrant abuse while legal monitors stood alongside the Minutemen to ensure no one's rights were violated.

At the end of April, most of the Minutemen will leave, as will many of the migrant-rights advocates. Until then, both sides will stamp their impressions on southern Arizona, which has transformed into the center of the immigration debate.

Some scenes from the border:

One is a retired accountant. The other is a small-town newspaper editor.

Both share a passion for sealing the borders and reforming the country's broken immigration policies, they say.

Jim Gilchrist, an Aliso Viejo, Calif., resident, founded the Minuteman Project after listening to a radio show one day. On the way to Starbucks for coffee, he thought up the Minuteman name.

Chris Simcox, a Tombstone, Ariz., resident, has taken out search groups for years as part of Civil Homeland Defense, a similar but much smaller Minuteman-like effort he leads.

Both leaders drank in the attention with glee. They joked, offered sarcastic rebuttals to journalists' questions and warned that the "media can be your enemy."

When one reporter asked what kind of planes the Minutemen would be flying, Simcox replied, "F-16s," to the applause and laughter of fellow volunteers. And so it went for the first week.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools