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On TB every waking moment
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/index.php?page=local&story_id=040105a1_minuteman
Minutemen gather in Tombstone for border watch
Organizers say up to 1,300 civilian volunteers will patrol between Naco and Douglas for next month.
CLAUDINE LoMONACO
Tucson Citizen
TOMBSTONE - Volunteers for an armed civilian patrol have begun arriving in this old mining town to kick off a monthlong effort to stop illegal immigrants from crossing a stretch of the Arizona-Mexico border.
The effort, known as the Minuteman Project, is the culmination of months of organizing that has brought international attention to southeastern Arizona.
Organizers say up to 1,300 volunteers will patrol 23 miles of the border between Naco and Douglas in Cochise County, one of the most popular crossing points in Arizona. Last year, Arizona accounted for more than 52 percent of all apprehensions along the Southwest border.
Tombstone's mayor and other officials have welcomed the Minutemen as a source of tourism dollars.
"We're hoping that they come spend some money in town," said Tombstone Marshal Kenn Barrett, head of the town's law enforcement agency, "have lunch, buy a belt buckle and a T-shirt and then go on their way to the border."
But some residents worry. "I feel like the rest of the country thinks we're a bunch of gun-toting rednecks ready to shoot Mexicans," said Dixie Van Asch, who rents rooms at the Tucson Motel. Van Asch questions the economic impact the project will have on the community, which annually draws up to 500,000 tourists. And she worries about the type of people the project has attracted.
Last Sunday morning, she walked out of her house to find a plastic bag weighted down with rocks. Inside, she found an anti-immigrant flier from the National Alliance, considered one of the country's largest white supremacy organizations.
The fliers also showed up in Douglas, Nogales, and Bisbee.
Chris Simcox, the editor of a local newspaper and a project organizer, has refuted any link between the Minutemen and white supremacists or any other racist organizations. Simcox has accused Douglas Mayor Ray Borane, a frequent critic, of distributing the fliers in an attempt to smear the project.
"I wonder what he's smoking," the mayor replied. "He has no idea the kinds of people they're going to be attracting."
National Alliance chairman Erich Gliebe, who refers to the group as "white separatist," confirmed that local members of the group distributed the fliers in an attempt to build on the efforts of the Minuteman Project. Reached by phone in West Virginia, he said he didn't know if they would participate in the project.
"We have found that a lot of people in the area are sympathetic to our message, but won't admit it," Gliebe said.
Minutemen gather in Tombstone for border watch
Organizers say up to 1,300 civilian volunteers will patrol between Naco and Douglas for next month.
CLAUDINE LoMONACO
Tucson Citizen
TOMBSTONE - Volunteers for an armed civilian patrol have begun arriving in this old mining town to kick off a monthlong effort to stop illegal immigrants from crossing a stretch of the Arizona-Mexico border.
The effort, known as the Minuteman Project, is the culmination of months of organizing that has brought international attention to southeastern Arizona.
Organizers say up to 1,300 volunteers will patrol 23 miles of the border between Naco and Douglas in Cochise County, one of the most popular crossing points in Arizona. Last year, Arizona accounted for more than 52 percent of all apprehensions along the Southwest border.
Tombstone's mayor and other officials have welcomed the Minutemen as a source of tourism dollars.
"We're hoping that they come spend some money in town," said Tombstone Marshal Kenn Barrett, head of the town's law enforcement agency, "have lunch, buy a belt buckle and a T-shirt and then go on their way to the border."
But some residents worry. "I feel like the rest of the country thinks we're a bunch of gun-toting rednecks ready to shoot Mexicans," said Dixie Van Asch, who rents rooms at the Tucson Motel. Van Asch questions the economic impact the project will have on the community, which annually draws up to 500,000 tourists. And she worries about the type of people the project has attracted.
Last Sunday morning, she walked out of her house to find a plastic bag weighted down with rocks. Inside, she found an anti-immigrant flier from the National Alliance, considered one of the country's largest white supremacy organizations.
The fliers also showed up in Douglas, Nogales, and Bisbee.
Chris Simcox, the editor of a local newspaper and a project organizer, has refuted any link between the Minutemen and white supremacists or any other racist organizations. Simcox has accused Douglas Mayor Ray Borane, a frequent critic, of distributing the fliers in an attempt to smear the project.
"I wonder what he's smoking," the mayor replied. "He has no idea the kinds of people they're going to be attracting."
National Alliance chairman Erich Gliebe, who refers to the group as "white separatist," confirmed that local members of the group distributed the fliers in an attempt to build on the efforts of the Minuteman Project. Reached by phone in West Virginia, he said he didn't know if they would participate in the project.
"We have found that a lot of people in the area are sympathetic to our message, but won't admit it," Gliebe said.