Hi all....
My gawd you guys have been busy. Came in here wanting to help with the articles....you have my HUGE apologies if I duplicate something (will do my darndest not to.)
Edit to add: So that I don't screw up the great flow you guys have going...I'm gonna go ahead and post what I find, just on this thread. -Have tried to catch up on my reading with what has already been posted in this sig...but, I may still accidently dup something. Hope these help...
This from the U.K.
Fair Use:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1450762,00.html
US vigilantes begin border stake-out
Immigrants' rights activists fear that volunteers arriving in Tombstone, Arizona, for month-long patrol could provoke mayhem
Dan Glaister in Los Angeles
Saturday April 2, 2005
The Guardian
Hundreds of anti-immigrant activists were gathering in Tombstone, Arizona, yesterday to begin a month-long unofficial patrol of the border with Mexico. To greet them, hundreds of immigrants' rights activists planned to travel to the desert of Arizona from across the southern US.
And caught in the middle, are the thousands of undocumented immigrants who try to cross the border from Mexico each day, and the hundreds of US government border patrol agents who try to stop them.
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"It's a dangerous place down there," says TJ Bonner, the president of the 10,000 member Border Patrol Council, which represents the agency's officers. "It's the wild west reincarnated."
The Minuteman Project, which is organising the volunteer patrols, is being run from the offices of the Tombstone Tumbleweed newspaper. Many of the volunteers are expected to be armed. They will wear improvised uniforms and be equipped with everything from shortwave radios to nightsights to a small fleet of light aircraft.
Their strategy is to split into groups of six, spread out across a 23-mile stretch of the border between the two countries, and wait.
They should not have to wait long: in January alone, the Tucson sector, which includes the portion south of Tombstone, saw 35,704 undocumented immigrants detained by the border patrol. In 2004 491,000 were apprehended in the sector. The reckoner generally used is that for every would-be immigrant apprehended, three enter the country.
Should the Minuteman volunteers see someone who appears to be an undocumented immigrant, they have been told to report the sighting to the authorities and stand aside while they do their work. "You will offer your assistance and become force-multipliers to assist their monumental task of turning back the tidal wave of people entering our country illegally," reads the project's website.
"If challenged, you will physically remove yourself from the situation ... The idea is for your firearm to remain holstered ... Why risk going to jail and ruining the mission by engaging a group of illegals? The time for that is not yet upon us. Remember, this is activism, yet it is symbolic at best. We know millions of illegals are here, thousands continue to come and nothing short of military intervention will cease the flow."
Some critics are concerned that despite the advice to remain within the law, elements attracted by the rhetoric could easily create mayhem. The Aryan Nation group has described the project as a "white pride event" and left leaflets in letterboxes in Douglas, a predominantly Latino town on the US side of the border.
The Los Angeles-based Latino gang MS-13 has reportedly instructed its members to travel to Tombstone to teach the Minutemen a lesson. The former silver-mining town, the setting for the gunfight at the OK Corral in 1881, is a fitting location.
But the potential for violence seems to have diminished in recent days as the Minuteman Project has sought to describe itself as a political protest, aiming to highlight the inadequacies of federal immigration policies.
"We certainly do appreciate any support from any group of citizens, and we share their frustration at the federal government's inaction," Mr Bonner says.
"But we do have concerns about what they are proposing to do. It's a political protest about the government not meeting its responsibilities: could they do it in a safer environment? Absolutely."
Robin Hoover, the president of Humane Borders, a group that leaves water for immigrants trekking across the Arizona desert, says the potential for violence lies elsewhere.
"I can just imagine some guys on day four or five, and they're having their tailgate parties and drinking some beer, and along come some drug mules.
"These people are armed, and don't take kindly to having their business interrupted.
"I can certainly understand people wanting to bring attention to the border, because it's broken. But only the federal government can fix it. The circumstances of this are just a chemistry for confusion and possibly death."
Others are concerned that the Minutemen will turn into what their critics already call them: vigilantes. Chris Simcox, an organiser of the group and the editor of the Tombstone Tumbleweed, was convicted on a federal weapons charge last year, and some point to the illegal detention of immigrants by US citizens in the area.
But while allegations of abuse of immigrants abound, there have been no prosecutions. The immigrants, say law enforcement officials, refuse to press charges.
Whether the Minuteman Project lives up to the hype remains to be seen. A month is a long time to sit in the desert. But it might succeed in highlighting the country's dysfunctional immigration policies and bringing pressure to bear on the Bush administration.
Both George Bush and his Mexican counterpart Vicente Fox have criticised the Minuteman Project, with Mr Bush denouncing the participants as vigilantes, and Mr Fox saying international law would be used to prevent such groups from making progress.
But the politicians have succeeded in bringing all sides in the debate together to condemn their proposed solutions.
Mr Bush's guestworker programme, says Mr Hoover, was drawn up by the US chamber of commerce. Mr Bonner says that "until the government gets serious and enacts tough legislation on employers of illegal immigrants" the problem will remain.
Both sides agree that, should a combination of gangs, vigilantes and federal agents achieve the unlikely feat of closing down the Tucson sector border, it will have one effect: those who they are trying to stop will simply move to another point on the frontier.
My gawd you guys have been busy. Came in here wanting to help with the articles....you have my HUGE apologies if I duplicate something (will do my darndest not to.)
Edit to add: So that I don't screw up the great flow you guys have going...I'm gonna go ahead and post what I find, just on this thread. -Have tried to catch up on my reading with what has already been posted in this sig...but, I may still accidently dup something. Hope these help...
This from the U.K.
Fair Use:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1450762,00.html
US vigilantes begin border stake-out
Immigrants' rights activists fear that volunteers arriving in Tombstone, Arizona, for month-long patrol could provoke mayhem
Dan Glaister in Los Angeles
Saturday April 2, 2005
The Guardian
Hundreds of anti-immigrant activists were gathering in Tombstone, Arizona, yesterday to begin a month-long unofficial patrol of the border with Mexico. To greet them, hundreds of immigrants' rights activists planned to travel to the desert of Arizona from across the southern US.
And caught in the middle, are the thousands of undocumented immigrants who try to cross the border from Mexico each day, and the hundreds of US government border patrol agents who try to stop them.
Article continues
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"It's a dangerous place down there," says TJ Bonner, the president of the 10,000 member Border Patrol Council, which represents the agency's officers. "It's the wild west reincarnated."
The Minuteman Project, which is organising the volunteer patrols, is being run from the offices of the Tombstone Tumbleweed newspaper. Many of the volunteers are expected to be armed. They will wear improvised uniforms and be equipped with everything from shortwave radios to nightsights to a small fleet of light aircraft.
Their strategy is to split into groups of six, spread out across a 23-mile stretch of the border between the two countries, and wait.
They should not have to wait long: in January alone, the Tucson sector, which includes the portion south of Tombstone, saw 35,704 undocumented immigrants detained by the border patrol. In 2004 491,000 were apprehended in the sector. The reckoner generally used is that for every would-be immigrant apprehended, three enter the country.
Should the Minuteman volunteers see someone who appears to be an undocumented immigrant, they have been told to report the sighting to the authorities and stand aside while they do their work. "You will offer your assistance and become force-multipliers to assist their monumental task of turning back the tidal wave of people entering our country illegally," reads the project's website.
"If challenged, you will physically remove yourself from the situation ... The idea is for your firearm to remain holstered ... Why risk going to jail and ruining the mission by engaging a group of illegals? The time for that is not yet upon us. Remember, this is activism, yet it is symbolic at best. We know millions of illegals are here, thousands continue to come and nothing short of military intervention will cease the flow."
Some critics are concerned that despite the advice to remain within the law, elements attracted by the rhetoric could easily create mayhem. The Aryan Nation group has described the project as a "white pride event" and left leaflets in letterboxes in Douglas, a predominantly Latino town on the US side of the border.
The Los Angeles-based Latino gang MS-13 has reportedly instructed its members to travel to Tombstone to teach the Minutemen a lesson. The former silver-mining town, the setting for the gunfight at the OK Corral in 1881, is a fitting location.
But the potential for violence seems to have diminished in recent days as the Minuteman Project has sought to describe itself as a political protest, aiming to highlight the inadequacies of federal immigration policies.
"We certainly do appreciate any support from any group of citizens, and we share their frustration at the federal government's inaction," Mr Bonner says.
"But we do have concerns about what they are proposing to do. It's a political protest about the government not meeting its responsibilities: could they do it in a safer environment? Absolutely."
Robin Hoover, the president of Humane Borders, a group that leaves water for immigrants trekking across the Arizona desert, says the potential for violence lies elsewhere.
"I can just imagine some guys on day four or five, and they're having their tailgate parties and drinking some beer, and along come some drug mules.
"These people are armed, and don't take kindly to having their business interrupted.
"I can certainly understand people wanting to bring attention to the border, because it's broken. But only the federal government can fix it. The circumstances of this are just a chemistry for confusion and possibly death."
Others are concerned that the Minutemen will turn into what their critics already call them: vigilantes. Chris Simcox, an organiser of the group and the editor of the Tombstone Tumbleweed, was convicted on a federal weapons charge last year, and some point to the illegal detention of immigrants by US citizens in the area.
But while allegations of abuse of immigrants abound, there have been no prosecutions. The immigrants, say law enforcement officials, refuse to press charges.
Whether the Minuteman Project lives up to the hype remains to be seen. A month is a long time to sit in the desert. But it might succeed in highlighting the country's dysfunctional immigration policies and bringing pressure to bear on the Bush administration.
Both George Bush and his Mexican counterpart Vicente Fox have criticised the Minuteman Project, with Mr Bush denouncing the participants as vigilantes, and Mr Fox saying international law would be used to prevent such groups from making progress.
But the politicians have succeeded in bringing all sides in the debate together to condemn their proposed solutions.
Mr Bush's guestworker programme, says Mr Hoover, was drawn up by the US chamber of commerce. Mr Bonner says that "until the government gets serious and enacts tough legislation on employers of illegal immigrants" the problem will remain.
Both sides agree that, should a combination of gangs, vigilantes and federal agents achieve the unlikely feat of closing down the Tucson sector border, it will have one effect: those who they are trying to stop will simply move to another point on the frontier.