Border watch group, human rights activists arrive for monthlong patrol
By: EDWARD SIFUENTES - Staff Writer
MIRACLE VALLEY, ARIZ. ---- Along the southern Arizona border, activists trickled in Thursday from miles away ---- some from North County and Riverside County ---- for a monthlong border watch at the U.S.-Mexico line.
A group called the Minuteman Project, led in part by an Oceanside man, plans to spend the month of April sending out teams of volunteers to detect and report illegal immigrants coming across the border. The group says 1,000 participants have signed up for the border watch, but only a handful showed up near the border Thursday.
A smaller bunch organized by UC Riverside professor Armando Navarro plans to protest the Minuteman Project and to look out for civil rights violations during the project's stint in Arizona.
On Thursday morning, just a few miles north of Arizona's border with Mexico, Minuteman Project organizer Jim Chase of Oceanside said in a makeshift "information center" that the controversial border-watch group he helped to start was already a success.
A few days before, as the group publicized its plans to patrol the border and shine light on holes in the government's Border Patrol system, U.S. Border Patrol officials said they would reinforce that section of the border with an additional 500 agents.
"We feel like we've won," Chase said at the Miracle Valley Bible College complex, where some of the group's volunteers are boarding.
But there were few signs of the Minuteman group in the small southern Arizona town where they were setting up shop.
Only about 20 of the more than 1,000 volunteers who signed up for the Minuteman Project through its Web site could be spotted Thursday afternoon in the complex of more than five acres, about 20 miles west of the border town of Naco, Ariz.
Tombstone, Ariz., was busy with tourists and media Thursday morning. But few participants of the Minuteman Project could be seen near the group's headquarters, the office of the Tumbleweed newspaper.
Outside the newspaper offices, a handful of men with guns at their sides were answering reporters' inquiries, but refusing requests for interviews with top organizers.
It is legal to carry guns in Arizona. And that worries many human rights advocates.
About 50 miles away, in the Mexican border town of Agua Prieta, some of those activists who plan to protest the Minuteman Project were also claiming a small victory.
"We're here," said Navarro, who organized a loose-knit group of human rights advocates to travel to the border in southwestern Arizona to protest the border watch group.
"We are a rapid deployment force," he said, referring to his organization, the National Alliance for Human Rights. He estimated that about 50 people will arrive this week from Southern California to participate in rallies, vigils and news conferences.
Navarro's group will also provide volunteers to be trained by the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona to become legal observers. The observers are expected to watch the Minuteman volunteers and document any offenses against migrants.
Rights groups said that the Minuteman Project represents an escalation of border tensions between Mexico and the United States. They have also said the illegal immigrants who cross the border are victims of a larger economic problem.
"The issue is that workers are coming over answering the call of U.S. employers," said Maria Anna Gonzales, a member of the National Alliance for Human Rights. "The country calls them with one hand and slaps them with the other."
The human rights group will hold a news conference in Agua Prieta today to counter the Minuteman Project.
"We need to use this opportunity to educate the people of the crisis that we face and that this issue needs to be resolved," Navarro said. "But that resolution is not going to come by the barrel of a gun."
Organizers of the Minuteman Project will meet today in the historic town of Tombstone, 50 miles north of the border, to provide an orientation for the volunteers.
Border Patrol officials in the Tucson area said Thursday that no problems had been reported as both sides prepare for their protests and counterprotests.
Commissioner Robert C. Bonner, head of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said Wednesday that the agency plans to deploy 534 agents along the Arizona border with Mexico to reinforce security.
Since the mid-1990s, most illegal immigrant traffic over the U.S. border with Mexico has shifted from California to the Arizona section of the border. That is after immigration authorities increased resources and manpower at San Diego and Imperial counties.
Connie Foust, 58, who lives a few miles north of the border in Miracle Valley, Ariz., said it is time to do the same for Arizona. She is one of the volunteers of the Minuteman Project.
"The reason why I am doing this is for the quality of life of my children and grandchildren, and because the government isn't doing anything but giving us rhetoric," she said.
Foust, who said she often finds illegal immigrants crossing near her property, said she is no vigilante, as some immigrant rights advocates have labeled those participating in the Minuteman Project.
"Here I am," she said spreading her arms mockingly. "A mother of four, with seven grandchildren, I'm a regular vigilante."
Contact Edward Sifuentes through his editor at (760) 739-6644 or eschultz@nctimes.com.
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2005/04/01/news/top_stories/0_16_494_1_05.txt
By: EDWARD SIFUENTES - Staff Writer
MIRACLE VALLEY, ARIZ. ---- Along the southern Arizona border, activists trickled in Thursday from miles away ---- some from North County and Riverside County ---- for a monthlong border watch at the U.S.-Mexico line.
A group called the Minuteman Project, led in part by an Oceanside man, plans to spend the month of April sending out teams of volunteers to detect and report illegal immigrants coming across the border. The group says 1,000 participants have signed up for the border watch, but only a handful showed up near the border Thursday.
A smaller bunch organized by UC Riverside professor Armando Navarro plans to protest the Minuteman Project and to look out for civil rights violations during the project's stint in Arizona.
On Thursday morning, just a few miles north of Arizona's border with Mexico, Minuteman Project organizer Jim Chase of Oceanside said in a makeshift "information center" that the controversial border-watch group he helped to start was already a success.
A few days before, as the group publicized its plans to patrol the border and shine light on holes in the government's Border Patrol system, U.S. Border Patrol officials said they would reinforce that section of the border with an additional 500 agents.
"We feel like we've won," Chase said at the Miracle Valley Bible College complex, where some of the group's volunteers are boarding.
But there were few signs of the Minuteman group in the small southern Arizona town where they were setting up shop.
Only about 20 of the more than 1,000 volunteers who signed up for the Minuteman Project through its Web site could be spotted Thursday afternoon in the complex of more than five acres, about 20 miles west of the border town of Naco, Ariz.
Tombstone, Ariz., was busy with tourists and media Thursday morning. But few participants of the Minuteman Project could be seen near the group's headquarters, the office of the Tumbleweed newspaper.
Outside the newspaper offices, a handful of men with guns at their sides were answering reporters' inquiries, but refusing requests for interviews with top organizers.
It is legal to carry guns in Arizona. And that worries many human rights advocates.
About 50 miles away, in the Mexican border town of Agua Prieta, some of those activists who plan to protest the Minuteman Project were also claiming a small victory.
"We're here," said Navarro, who organized a loose-knit group of human rights advocates to travel to the border in southwestern Arizona to protest the border watch group.
"We are a rapid deployment force," he said, referring to his organization, the National Alliance for Human Rights. He estimated that about 50 people will arrive this week from Southern California to participate in rallies, vigils and news conferences.
Navarro's group will also provide volunteers to be trained by the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona to become legal observers. The observers are expected to watch the Minuteman volunteers and document any offenses against migrants.
Rights groups said that the Minuteman Project represents an escalation of border tensions between Mexico and the United States. They have also said the illegal immigrants who cross the border are victims of a larger economic problem.
"The issue is that workers are coming over answering the call of U.S. employers," said Maria Anna Gonzales, a member of the National Alliance for Human Rights. "The country calls them with one hand and slaps them with the other."
The human rights group will hold a news conference in Agua Prieta today to counter the Minuteman Project.
"We need to use this opportunity to educate the people of the crisis that we face and that this issue needs to be resolved," Navarro said. "But that resolution is not going to come by the barrel of a gun."
Organizers of the Minuteman Project will meet today in the historic town of Tombstone, 50 miles north of the border, to provide an orientation for the volunteers.
Border Patrol officials in the Tucson area said Thursday that no problems had been reported as both sides prepare for their protests and counterprotests.
Commissioner Robert C. Bonner, head of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said Wednesday that the agency plans to deploy 534 agents along the Arizona border with Mexico to reinforce security.
Since the mid-1990s, most illegal immigrant traffic over the U.S. border with Mexico has shifted from California to the Arizona section of the border. That is after immigration authorities increased resources and manpower at San Diego and Imperial counties.
Connie Foust, 58, who lives a few miles north of the border in Miracle Valley, Ariz., said it is time to do the same for Arizona. She is one of the volunteers of the Minuteman Project.
"The reason why I am doing this is for the quality of life of my children and grandchildren, and because the government isn't doing anything but giving us rhetoric," she said.
Foust, who said she often finds illegal immigrants crossing near her property, said she is no vigilante, as some immigrant rights advocates have labeled those participating in the Minuteman Project.
"Here I am," she said spreading her arms mockingly. "A mother of four, with seven grandchildren, I'm a regular vigilante."
Contact Edward Sifuentes through his editor at (760) 739-6644 or eschultz@nctimes.com.
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2005/04/01/news/top_stories/0_16_494_1_05.txt