S. Utah residents aid patrol at border
By PATRICE ST. GERMAIN
patrices@thespectrum.com
ST. GEORGE - When Randy Green's 22-year-old daughter heard something on the news about the citizen border patrol on the Arizona-Mexico border, she told her father that she wanted to go.
The issue of illegal immigrants is a personal one for the father and daughter. Eleven years ago, an illegal immigrant raped Green's daughter in her bedroom. She was then stalked by the rapist's friends. Eleven years later, she is still working to put the experience behind her.
"If I could help someone not go through what I went through 11 years ago, it would be worth it," Green's daughter said. "To this day, if I think someone is following me, I get nervous."
The father and daughter were participating in the Minuteman Project, which is a group of volunteers who are patrolling the Arizona-Mexico border in an attempt to curtail illegal immigration.
That particular area is considered by some to be the most vulnerable stretch of the southern border.
Randy Green said his daughter felt that if she could help stop one illegal immigrant from coming across the border, she would feel she had done something worthwhile.
"My daughter was the driving force," Green said. "What happened to her when she was 11 years old nearly destroyed our family."
Although Green and his daughter could not participate in the actual patrol because he had to be back at work Monday, the two found the experience to be an eye-opener.
Green's daughter said fences were torn down in places, and the fences that were intact were only four feet high. She said she thought there would be more of an obstacle and was disappointed that the fence was the only means of keeping illegal immigrants out of the country.
Green said despite media reports of only a few hundred people showing up for the citizen patrol, he estimated there were about 600 volunteers for the patrol, which started Monday and will run for about six weeks.
Staying with Glenn Spencer, who maintains an American Border Patrol Web site, which deals with illegal immigration, the father and daughter participated in the volunteer orientation in Tombstone, Ariz. They attended rallies at the Naco and Douglas border patrol stations in Arizona.
Green said Spencer has a new home right on the border near the San Pedro River, which runs north into Arizona from Mexico. The river is a freeway for illegal immigrants, Green said, and the river bottom is filled with tire and foot tracks despite being a riparian reserve under Bureau of Land Management jurisdiction.
Joining the hundreds of civilian volunteers, most armed with binoculars and a cell phone, were about 500 additional border agents, Green said.
Green said that from Spencer's home, they watched a suspected drug runner chased by border patrol agents cross back over the border into Mexico, effectively ending the chase.
Green said the drug runners often will pay people to cause a commotion. Once the attention of border agents is occupied, the immigrants cross the border in another area.
Set up in sectors, Green compared the civilian patrol to a big neighborhood watch, with very few of those on patrol actually armed.
"We were just the extra eyes for the border patrol," he said.
Both Green and his daughter said they don't have a problem with people immigrating to the United States as long as it is done legally.
"This is how we all got here," Green said.
Green's daughter said the problem with the system is that illegal immigrants are picked up and deported without consequences.
"It's like a free trip back home to visit their family, and then they come back into the country," she said. "I don't have a problem with people coming here to get money to help support their families as long as they are doing it legally."
http://www.thespectrum.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050406/NEWS01/504060310/1002
By PATRICE ST. GERMAIN
patrices@thespectrum.com
ST. GEORGE - When Randy Green's 22-year-old daughter heard something on the news about the citizen border patrol on the Arizona-Mexico border, she told her father that she wanted to go.
The issue of illegal immigrants is a personal one for the father and daughter. Eleven years ago, an illegal immigrant raped Green's daughter in her bedroom. She was then stalked by the rapist's friends. Eleven years later, she is still working to put the experience behind her.
"If I could help someone not go through what I went through 11 years ago, it would be worth it," Green's daughter said. "To this day, if I think someone is following me, I get nervous."
The father and daughter were participating in the Minuteman Project, which is a group of volunteers who are patrolling the Arizona-Mexico border in an attempt to curtail illegal immigration.
That particular area is considered by some to be the most vulnerable stretch of the southern border.
Randy Green said his daughter felt that if she could help stop one illegal immigrant from coming across the border, she would feel she had done something worthwhile.
"My daughter was the driving force," Green said. "What happened to her when she was 11 years old nearly destroyed our family."
Although Green and his daughter could not participate in the actual patrol because he had to be back at work Monday, the two found the experience to be an eye-opener.
Green's daughter said fences were torn down in places, and the fences that were intact were only four feet high. She said she thought there would be more of an obstacle and was disappointed that the fence was the only means of keeping illegal immigrants out of the country.
Green said despite media reports of only a few hundred people showing up for the citizen patrol, he estimated there were about 600 volunteers for the patrol, which started Monday and will run for about six weeks.
Staying with Glenn Spencer, who maintains an American Border Patrol Web site, which deals with illegal immigration, the father and daughter participated in the volunteer orientation in Tombstone, Ariz. They attended rallies at the Naco and Douglas border patrol stations in Arizona.
Green said Spencer has a new home right on the border near the San Pedro River, which runs north into Arizona from Mexico. The river is a freeway for illegal immigrants, Green said, and the river bottom is filled with tire and foot tracks despite being a riparian reserve under Bureau of Land Management jurisdiction.
Joining the hundreds of civilian volunteers, most armed with binoculars and a cell phone, were about 500 additional border agents, Green said.
Green said that from Spencer's home, they watched a suspected drug runner chased by border patrol agents cross back over the border into Mexico, effectively ending the chase.
Green said the drug runners often will pay people to cause a commotion. Once the attention of border agents is occupied, the immigrants cross the border in another area.
Set up in sectors, Green compared the civilian patrol to a big neighborhood watch, with very few of those on patrol actually armed.
"We were just the extra eyes for the border patrol," he said.
Both Green and his daughter said they don't have a problem with people immigrating to the United States as long as it is done legally.
"This is how we all got here," Green said.
Green's daughter said the problem with the system is that illegal immigrants are picked up and deported without consequences.
"It's like a free trip back home to visit their family, and then they come back into the country," she said. "I don't have a problem with people coming here to get money to help support their families as long as they are doing it legally."
http://www.thespectrum.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050406/NEWS01/504060310/1002