Minutemaids Scared of the Dark, turn tail and run...

[JoseCuervo]

First overnight shift a rough one for civilian border patrol

BY MICHAEL MARTINEZ

Chicago Tribune


ON THE ARIZONA-MEXICO BORDER - (KRT) - The fledging civilian patrols of the Minuteman Project had just began their first overnight surveillance of the border when a rumor ricocheted among the 11 volunteers posted along the cattle fence that marks the international line.

As many as two dozen members of the nation's latest Public Enemy No. 1, the Central American-based gang called Mara Salvatrucha 13, or MS-13, were reportedly aiming to attack the Minutemen with assault rifles from the cloak of a moonless night.

Chaos and a brief comedy of errors ensued. Suddenly, volunteers hopped into their cars and led one another on an aimless flight, seeking refuge at one of their posts that wasn't even manned. Then they realized they had no command station or even a commander. The radio operator at the Minuteman headquarters wasn't responding.

The panic subsided when volunteer Darrel Wood, 44, a former Army special forces member, urged calm in the early minutes of Tuesday.

"What do you guys make of all this? Are we making a statement or are we looking like idiots?" asked Wood, a Minuteman leader and phone company field technician from Price, Utah, addressing some of the dozen journalists trailing the team. "I just hope no one gets hurt. It would be a sad thing."

The dangerous graveyard duty was a pioneering moment for the grass-roots Minuteman Project, which is so angry about illegal immigration that it has just launched a program to patrol the border this month. This past weekend the group placed about 200 volunteers on a 2.5-mile stretch of the border just outside the town of Naco, Ariz.

Arizona is the nation's busiest smuggling corridor.

In the high desert mountain landscape tinged minty green this spring, the volunteers use binoculars and night scopes to spy migrants sneaking into the United States and then call the Border Patrol. Minuteman organizers claimed their tips led federal agents to apprehend more than 100 illegal migrants so far this week, a number U.S. officials couldn't confirm.

By dawn Tuesday, however, the first official day of surveillance ended in the San Pedro River Valley, and volunteers acknowledged that inadequate preparation left them disorganized in the night shift's initial stages.

Still, their rag-tag efforts stood as a symbol of protest against President Bush's failure to stem massive illegal immigration, they said. Bush has called the volunteers "vigilantes." Many of them carry sidearms and wear body armor. Their civilian patrols have also been criticized by some as racist.

Without more volunteers for the midnight duty, Minutemen acknowledged partial defeat in trying to cover a small stretch of the border. Most illegal crossings of migrants and drug carriers occur at night, U.S. authorities said. Many migrants and smugglers have already found routes around the Minutemen posts, according to Mexican border agents, who have also stepped up their own frontier patrols.

It wasn't a complete failure, the volunteers said, because starting with weekend kickoff activities, their controversial initiative attracted international attention.

Though many of the 11 observers were disappointed at the low turnout for the 10 p.m.-to-6 a.m. assignment, none indicated surrender.

"I feel great, I feel energized," said Tim Donnelly, 38, of Twin Peaks, Calif., a drill bit manufacturer who wore a cowboy hat and an oilskin duster and carried a long-barreled, pearl-handled Colt 45 tied to his leg. "Now we're back on the issues. We're not just on the hype."

"No brag, but I wasn't scared," said Buddy Watson, 60, a retired South Carolina prison guard who now lives in Springdale, Ark., following the MS-13 incident. "I believe this is the start of something."

But the momentary rumor, passed up and down the gravel Border Road outside Naco, clearly unnerved the Minutemen, who set up observation posts beside their pickups and cars in the chilly spring night.

The rumor gained credibility when Watson confirmed to all that he was warned of the threat during an organizational briefing earlier in the day.

Then one volunteer from Houston drove his pickup to each watchman to spread the word.

"Let's go now, guys!" shouted the volunteer, who identified himself only as Bill, 48, a technical field worker and whose girth resembled a football nose tackle. He asked that his last name not be used.

"If my leader is being attacked, I'm ready to defend him. Let's go!" Donnelly added, jumping into his pickup.

After several minutes of confused driving, the men exited their cars and circled on high ground off the road. The 11-man crew was visibly smaller than the prior shift's 31 observers.

Watson reminded his colleagues of instructions from Minuteman founder Jim Gilchrist, a Vietnam veteran and retired accountant from Orange County, Calif.: "Upon confrontation, Mr. Gilchrist said, `Back away and stand aside.'"

One panicked man, about 6-foot-2 and appearing in his 50s, entered the circle and interjected: "It's kind of hard to back away from an automatic weapon.

"It's not our job to confront the worst gang in the world! I'm not going to get involved in a military operation!" the man said. "We can't see more than 50 feet, and we got people crawling up in black camouflage!"

Another suggested return fire. "If anybody fires, it's a threat upon us," he said.

Donnelly added: "Should we have a word that means `Get out!' Like `Alamo?'"

Bill interrupted: "This isn't a test of testosterone. Ain't nobody going to be called a (sissy) if they don't want to stay."

Then a reporter asked about the safety of a colleague sleeping in a tent down the road. "I can't worry about that," Bill responded.

Bill then ran to two passing Border Patrol vehicles. He returned and told the unit that the Border Patrol didn't know anything about a possible MS-13 attack in the area.

Eventually, Wood, the former special forces soldier, became a voice of reason, assigning men to two posts a half mile apart. Bill then left the contingent, leaving only 10 volunteers to monitor the border.

"We can't stop everybody. We're just here to make a statement," Wood said. "What can you expect when you've never done this before?"

Wood described the moment as Minuteman lore in the making.

"I think it's a wake-up call for the patriots," he said. "They'll have stories to tell their grandchildren."

---

 

[JoseCuervo]

Amid the silliness is a very serious issue. What if the Minutemen next came to South Texas? Imagine a bunch of middle-aged men, all armed, running and driving around the Rio Grande levees in a state of panic. These goofballs could shoot at anything that appears, including a Border Patrol van or, as occurred a few years ago near El Paso with tragic results, a young boy guiding a herd of goats home.

This is precisely why federal agencies have tried to discourage the Minutemen from sweeping into the border. The danger doesn’t come from any smugglers or immigrants. They know what they’re doing. The danger is from the clueless vigilantes, who are driven primarily by panic and paranoia.

It’s panic that has brought them to the border in the first place. Despite the fact that immigrants have flowed into the United States constantly since this land was discovered, and largely without incident, the vigilantes have dreamed up the threat that immigrants are all terrorists, and that only they can stop the threat. It feeds the paranoia they already have about immigrants taking all their jobs and filling their welfare rolls.

People with that kind of irrational thinking shouldn’t be running around with loaded rifles and handguns.

Illegal immigration should be addressed, but it should be left up to people who are trained and who know the terrain and, most importantly, the rights of those they might catch crossing illegally as well as everybody else who lives near the area.

The Minutemen’s statement has been made. Now, for the safety of all involved, they should go home and leave the delicate and complicated job of patrolling our borders to members of the Border Patrol, who actually know what they’re doing.

The Brownsville Herald

 

[Delw]

Damn gunner, you come to an all new low, quoteing editorials , next you will be quoteing stuff from the latino news paper in east LA. or maybe one of those newpapers from those over seas places you go all the time.

I kinda felt sorry for you since you posted it yesterday and no one had responded



Add'd
sorry I forgot your JoseCuervo in SI and Elkgunner in the hunting forums.

 

[snake river rufus]

He's a dumbass on any board using any name

 

[Michaelr]

ignore is working perfectly

 

[WH's OutdoorsChick]

Then Do not acknowlege this post by posting

 

[MattK]

SRR- Speaking of dumbasses...you know something about that don't you.

 

[JoseCuervo]

Damn gunner, you come to an all new low, quoteing editorials , next you will be quoteing stuff from the latino news paper in east LA. or maybe one of those newpapers from those over seas places you go all the time.

Just didn't want you to think I was the only person who thought the Minutemaids were looney tunes.....

 

[Michaelr]

Then Do not acknowlege this post by posting

Maybe I'll add you to the list

 

[WH's OutdoorsChick]

I am not sure what the Ignore list Exactly is, but hey do what ya got to do SWEETTHANG hump

 

[Michaelr]

I am a bad girl, Come Spank ME!

 

[danr55]

A bit of examination will show you Del, that the editorial he quotes from comes from the Chicago Tribune. That's the same paper that called in a Black day in America when the Brady Bill was not extended but let fall into the darkness that gave it birth. The same paper that claims anyone who owns a handgun should be declared a criminal. I could go on for a while, but I think the point is well made. Anyone who would even bother reading that leftist pc rag deserves whatever drivvle they happen to find in it.

 

[WH's OutdoorsChick]

I am a bad girl, Come Spank ME!

That is right Michael...Would you like to do the Honors

 

[Michaelr]

Sorry, happily married

 

[BuzzH]

So Danr...what news paper do you read?

Let me guess, you dont read a newspaper...

Oh, and the Limbaugh Letter is NOT a newspaper...in case you were wondering.

 

[Michaelr]

sierra times

 

[Delw]

I read SI for all my current news and Info

Delw

 

[Moosie]

Delw... At least you don't go traight for the Hard core stuff

 

[cjcj]

Minutemen are supposed to retreat thats the order if threatend [non-confrontational] Hose B loses again.

 

[danr55]

No Buzz, I don't read the Limbaugh letter. I think Rush is as crazy as Hillary. I read the Arizona Republic. Not with as much pleasure as I used to now that it's owned by the same broad that owns the LA Times and the San Francisco Chronicle and the Chicago Sun Times.. etc.. Far left fall off the edge liberal. Everything is slanted in the direction of the owners. Which, since it's their newpaper, I guess they are entitled to do, but I wish someone would just print the facts and leave the interpretation and editorializing to the readers..