Minuteman Blog Central

The Sacramento Bee reports on the Minuteman rally on Saturday. The ''free speech for me but not for thee'' crowd was there. Fortunately law enforcement officers were there too.

One group wants to end illegal immigration. The other rejects what it calls the armed uprising that the first group has begun.
They clashed Saturday in the shadow of the Capitol, and three people were arrested. Still, it turns out, they agree on one thing: The system is broken.

"This isn''t about hatred. This isn''t about racism. We stand against a broken system that has failed all of us," said Tim Donnelly, leader of the Minuteman Corps of California, one branch of a group that organizes armed citizen patrols of America''s border with Mexico.

Donnelly''s group held a rally on the Capitol steps that drew about 200 people. The group supports a ballot initiative to create a new state police force to patrol the border.

The Associated Press reports on the wind down of Minuteman border watch patrols in New Mexico:

Minuteman member Steve Studley, 49, of Hobbs said the group reported about 20 illegal aliens. Studley, who spent three weeks near Hachita, N.M., said the group succeeded in deterring non-citizens from crossing illegally.

"That''s all we''re trying to prove, is that a presence is what it takes to deter them," he said.

SNIP

Studley said a goal of the Minutemen is to draw the federal government''s attention to the issue of illegal immigration. The Minutemen could return to Hachita again in April if no changes are made, he said.

"Unless the government does something drastic between now and April, we''ll probably be back again," he said.

The Los Angeles Times reports via KTLA that attacks on U.S. agents patrolling the Mexican border have doubled in the past year.

SAN YSIDRO, Calif. — Assaults against U.S. Border Patrol agents nearly doubled along the Mexican border over the last year as patrols cracking down on drug trafficking and migrant smuggling encountered increasing resistance — including the use of rocks, Molotov cocktails and gunfire.

At least 687 assaults against agents were reported during the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, up from the previous year''s total of 354 and the highest since the agency began tracking assaults across the Southwest border in the late 1990s, according to Border Patrol officials.

Most assaults occurred near urban smuggling havens such as Nogales, Ariz., and Tijuana, but cross-border skirmishes took place from remote California deserts to the banks of the Rio Grande in Texas.

The article is filled with examples of the assaults on Americans on American soil by those trying to enter our country illegally.

Toward the end of the article, an example of the cooperation extended by our neighbors to the south is given:

Their Mexican counterparts have agreed to erect 50 signs along the fence warning people that assaulting agents is against the law.

Thanks. That''ll help. A lot. Especially if the signs are real big.

The Washington Times has an article today on the Rough Riders, a group of New Mexico ranchers who have joined the Minutemen to patrol the border on horseback.

An excerpt:

PLAYAS VALLEY, N.M. -- For the 100 years that Robert Been''s family has been grazing cattle and raising horses on this isolated, scrub-brush desert in New Mexico''s southwestern corner, illegal aliens have been crossing into the United States.

Mr. Been, whose 2,500-acre ranch straddles a long-established immigration corridor, recalls his parents giving illegals food, water and clothing to guard against the cold desert nights. It was "just a way of life here."

"They were respectful of us, and we returned that respect."

But things have changed in this remote desert valley and the adjoining Animus Canyon.

"The alien smugglers and drug dealers we now face don''t care about anything or anybody. They are ruthless" and the "aliens are much different," said Mr. Been, 48.

"They''re tearing down our fences, destroying our water tanks, breaking into our homes, slaughtering our cattle, stealing our horses and threatening our families," he said as he prepared his horse for a daylong patrol along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The Washington Post has an article today on the adventures of the New England Minutemen in Vermont. The article is typical Post fare and is similar in perspective to The Boston Globe article published a few weeks ago.

The City Journal has an excellent article by Heather MacDonald based on an interview she did with Deputy Consul General Mario Velázquez-Suárez of the Mexican consulate in Los Angeles.

This is a lengthy piece, so fix yourself a cup of coffee before you click the link (maybe tea if you don''t want your nerves being too upset when you''re done.)

The Hill newspaper published an op-ed last Thursday by Texas Democratic Representatives Charles Gonzalez and Silvestre Reyes that calls for the Minutemen to go after employers hiring illegal aliens.

They got in a few digs on the Minutemen about our border watch operatons, but we''ve heard worse.

Thanks for the tip about holding employers accountable gentlemen, but we already are doing that with Operation Spotlight.

An excerpt:

If anti-immigration groups, such as the Minutemen, are truly serious about stemming the flow of illegal immigration, they should refocus their efforts and picket or boycott the work sites and employers that encourage illegal immigration by hiring undocumented immigrants. Ultimately, if you reduce the employment opportunities, you will remove the incentive for the vast majority of people who decide to come here illegally.

Gonzalez represents the San Antonio area, and Reyes represents western Texas, including El Paso.

One more thing, the Minutemen are NOT anti-immigrant. We are against illegal immigration. All we want is for immigrants to come through the front door and sign the guest book--just like when you visit a Congressional office.

The Valley Morning Star wrote about a debate last week between Texas Minutemen leaders Al Garza and Dr. Michael Vickers and two groups opposed to the Minutemen.

An excerpt:

KINGSVILLE - For weeks, the arrival of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps in South Texas fueled fiery debate among students at Texas A&M University at Kingsville.

"The issues of immigration and frontier ... justice affect everyone," said Aaron Cuevas, 22, a graduate student in political science here. "We wanted the information to come right from the source so it would go unfiltered, so students and residents could make educated opinions."

Tuesday night, Cuevas and other students helped the university sponsor a forum that pitted two Minutemen against the leader of an opposition group and two attorneys for a Mexican-American civil rights organization.

The Georgia Straight has an article by Terry Glavin about the Washington State Minutemen.

Read the whole thing, but here''s an excerpt:

These are the Minutemen. Two pals in a trailer, drinking coffee, content with one another’s company and the affections of three little dogs. They chat by walkie-talkie with about a dozen grandparents parked in cars and campers at a series of roadside spots along the border between Blaine and Sumas. They’re volunteers. They’re armed with binoculars. True enough, some of them persist in the charming and exotic American custom of lawfully possessing handguns.

But that’s it.

“I don’t even listen to Rush Limbaugh,” Tom Williams told me during my visit to the trailer one recent rainy afternoon. Williams is the white-bearded, 64-year-old state leader of the Washington Minuteman detachment. He’s a former U.S. Marine and a retired trauma counsellor. He lives in nearby Deming, in a nice little place on the Nooksack River. Hobbies: wildflowers, gold-panning.

The current usage of the phrase “immigation reform” easily qualifies as one of the most savagely twisted examples of semantics in current politics. Absolutely none of the proposals I have read to date has anything to do with immigration.

Nowhere in all the rhetoric and sophomoric sound bites is there a single reference to that forgotten group – legal immigrants. Remember them? They’re the honest people who are trying to reach this country using the legally prescribed channels. They spend thousands of dollars in fees, submit reams of paperwork, undergo thorough background and health checks – and wait for years while the bureaucracy shambles along and randomly loses key documents. It’s a miracle we have any legal immigration at all.

Has anyone reading this screed seen any proposals to fix legal immigration? If so, I really want to hear about it. Our government can’t even begin to handle the 500,000 still legally waiting offshore at any given moment in anything like a timely fashion. Our politicians must be living in a drug-addled alternate reality if they think the government can even begin to handle the 10 to 12 million illegal aliens estimated to be working here. Toss in their families and we could easily be talking about 30 million “guests”.

First, stop and think of the sheer size of the bureaucracy needed to administer a guest worker program of that magnitude. You would needs tens of thousands of new government workers: clerks, investigators, adjudicators, etc. One of the first things to happen would be diversion of a very large chunk of the legal immigration workforce at Citizenship and Immigration Services to handle the illegal alien hordes. Legal immigration would slow to a virtual halt; is that fair to those who have been trying to get here legally? Does this constitute “immigration reform”?

It is nothing but amnesty for illegal aliens, even if few of our politicians have the spine to admit it. Most politicians would have to put on a double pair of Depends undergarments before uttering the word. Unfortunately, amnesty is a constant aspect of the game on our southern border.

When an illegal alien is caught crossing the first time, it’s a misdemeanor. If they’re Mexican, they are offered voluntary deportation in lieu of charges – a form of amnesty – and returned home. The Border Patrol sees a lot of repeat clientele; under Federal law, each repeat offense is a felony. Still, they are “amnestied” back across the border, sometimes dozens of times. Do we let all the felony counts slide?

Let’s look at the colorful life of an illegal alien and the list of legal issues that make their existence here possible: document fraud, forgery, identity fraud, identity theft, working illegally, tax evasion, tax fraud, fraudulent use of government benefits, etcetera ad nauseum and most are considered felonies. Do we amnesty all of these activities as well?

If an American citizen gets caught at any of these pursuits they end up as a Guest Worker – as a Guest of the State – and amnesties are few and far between for them.

The government owes the rest of us the assurance that any guest worker meets the same background checks as anyone trying to legally immigrate. They at least owe us something better than the existing system that renewed several 9/11 hijackers’ visas six months after they died whacking the World Trade Center and killing a few thousand people.

Most illegal aliens have totally inadequate personal documentation. Many have fraudulent documentation, often in a variety of names. We really don’t know who they are and have little chance of adequately checking their backgrounds in their home countries or here. And remember, their home country really doesn’t want them back, especially if they have a troublesome past.

From a taxpayer viewpoint, just looking at the size of the required bureaucracy for screening illegal aliens to become guest workers, all the cheapness in cheap labor went right out the window. Tax collections go up to pay for it, or tax revenues are diverted away from programs for American citizens.

Now let’s look at the side of “immigration reform” that our leaders constantly promise, but haven’t delivered since the days of Dwight Eisenhower: enforcement. Every “immigration reform” measure since that time consisted of an amnesty and a promise of future enforcement. We certainly got the amnesties, but apparently the future that contains the enforcement has not arrived yet.

So, if it ain’t “immigration reform”, just what is all this bizarre yammering from the District of Corruption?

Well, part of it is economic reform for Mexico. Until recently, their oil revenues were at Number One on the official revenue list. Mexico’s oil revenues for 2004 amounted to $24 billion; remittances from its erstwhile citizens here in El Norte almost matched that. Add in the $8 billion generated by trafficking in aliens and oil comes in second. Those who dabble in diplomacy advise me not to mention this, but aliens and oil are at a very distant second and third place disadvantage when compared to Mexico’s illicit narcotics revenues. Mentioning this rude fact in polite company is the same level of social and diplomatic faux pas as openly remarking on the Queen of England’s buns.

Another part is political reform, again for the advantage of Mexico. The best one can say for Mexico’s government is that it has been totally ineffectual since its independence from Spain. Then again, it was worse before that. Now, however, they have the advantage of being able to ship the discontented, the indigent and uneducated off to El Norte, thus delaying any serious reforms in that benighted country – and our government lets them.

The last part is labor reform pure and simple, but this time on behalf of certain industries in the United States that have become addicted to cheap labor. The more cunning amongst this crowd do not want to see any reforms whatsoever. Why?

Hector, the legal guest worker would have the same protections as an American employee: prevailing wages, Workers Compensation, Social Security, and all those other expenses the employer is trying to avoid. Remember, it’s all about privatizing profits and socializing costs. If Hector costs as much as a gringo, then he’s no longer cheap labor. But hey, there’s always Carlos, the next illegal alien over the fence, to replace him in the under-the-table wage group. Besides, if our previous history of non-enforcement is any indication, our unscrupulous employers can expect a visit from unicorns long before they see a visit from Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.

Do you want a peek at the real dirty little secret of “immigration reform”? Just look closely at the AgJobs bill championed by Congressman Chris Cannon of Utah. Hidden away in the details (and truly the Devil is in the details) is language giving amnesty and official forgiveness to any employer who ever transgressed against hiring illegal aliens. (Now that''s novel -- an amnesty for Americans.) I’m willing to bet the entire bankroll that similar language gets weaseled into any new version of “immigration reform”.

So, if this really isn’t immigration reform, let’s not waste legislative time discussing it. Let’s talk about enforcement instead. Once the government proves the long term ability and will for real enforcement – from the border to the boardroom – maybe we can take another look at some sort of guest worker program in a few years. We’ve seen enough amnesties; now it’s enforcement’s turn. We don’t need new laws for enforcement; we have plenty that have just never been used. We just need the appropriations for the resources to make the system work – and an absence of political interference.

A parting shot at the Cheap Labor Lobby: It’s almost Halloween; a lot of law-abiding citizens really want to see some of you wearing orange for the occasion.

The CBS News website has a text version of their story that ran last night.

An excerpt below:

(CBS) They''ve been called everything from visionaries to vigilantes. Whatever you think of these self-described night watchmen of the border, the Minutemen seem to be right about one thing:

"It''s going to grow, and it''s going to surprise a lot of people who were hoping we would go away," one Minuteman says.

They''re not going away, CBS News correspondent Lee Cowan reports.

Click the title link for the rest of the story.

This week our California Border Watch hit full stride with an excellent turnout for not only the weekend, but also the entire week. Chris and the boys in the big blue bus rolled into town at 4 AM on Friday morning, then promptly departed for Chicago, where he walked among the hundreds of protesters who showed up at the Chicago Minuteman Project event, but was never recognized.. Never a dull moment. I participated in a panel discussion at the University of San Diego that same day. It was a bit one-sided, but I was well-received by all but one individual.

It was an excellent week for media: CNN sent Casey Wian down to our line, and he included us in a broader story on the Minuteman movement since April. In spite of rain and windy weather, the sun came through for us when CNN arrived. We had a Reader''s Digest reporter in camp who went on 2 night ops with us. Also, the Inland Valley Daily bulletin sent Sarah Carter and Marc Campos down to cover the press conference with Chris Simcox and Jim Gilchrist.

A lot of new friendships developed this week as we huddled together in the rain around a campfire, and a barbeque. We were able to eat together several times in camp as weather cancelled our night ops twice.

We have developed two new private property sites and one on public land. As our operation grows in effectiveness, it has also grown in size. The protesters no longer visit us. We think we bored them to death, which was our plan.

We are gearing up for our final weekend.

The rally in Sacramento looks to be excellent with a number of excellent speakers. It will be on the steps of the Capitol starting at 10 AM. For more information, please visit the website. Please join us if you are able.

All are invited to join us on the line on Saturday, October 29th.

On Sunday, October 30th, all Minutemen are welcome to join us for a brunch in the Outdoor World Campground at 37133 Hwy 94 in Boulevard, CA. Take Hwy 8 to the Live Oak Springs/Crestwood Drive Exit, turn right & then take your 2nd right on Church Rd. (directly opposite the entrance to the Golden Acorn Casino). Take Church Road until it ends at Hwy 94. Turn left on Hwy 94 and go one mile. Turn right on a partially paved road that leads to the campground entrance on the left. Note: please check in with the office and thank them for supporting us.

We will be manning the lines through Monday, October 31st, although we expect many people will go home on Sunday.

We hope to see you this weekend, even if you just drop by to celebrate the efforts of so many at our Sunday brunch.

Godspeed.

Tim Donnelly
Leader, Minuteman Corps of California

Oct. 23, 2005

Again, we are sitting on the Naco line, it is getting colder by the day. Of course, we are now desert rats, having lived in the desert for quite some time and it only needs to drop a few degrees and we are cold. The star studded sky is magnificent and it makes us realize how beautiful this State of Arizona is if it were not for the huge amount of undocumented aliens coming across.

We have just received a report from the Border Patrol. In the last 5 days,
Border Patrol has apprehended, with our help, 714 undocumented aliens, just on the Naco line. Yeah, it goes to show how effective we are. Because of our presence of covering about a 2-3 mile stretch, the illegal aliens are going around our posts where they are being welcomed by the Border Patrol.

Drugs have also been secured although Border Patrol will not give us that information. But we know it is the month of October and the drugs which have been harvested in September need to be delivered into the U.S.A. So, even though we are not getting numbers on how much drugs have been secured, we did find out indeed, it is taking place.

Our two brothers, of whom one of them has military background spot a group
again. They are sitting on a great spot and everybody envies them. Of
course, everybody wants to be the one to report sightings to the Border Patrol.

Suddenly, two illegal aliens are walking across to the U.S. and our two guys who have hit the ground are calling the coms station so they in turn report the incident to the Border Patrol.

Border Patrol dispatched a vehicle immediately and within about 3 minutes
the vehicle was on site. Report on apprehension will follow. Our two brothers then witnessed more aliens on top of a railroad trestle who were folding their laundry, believe it or not. Not a worry in the world, I
guess, still being safe in their own country. Scouts maybe? Did they try the run into what they think is their freedom? We have to get the information the next day from BP.

The rest of the night went rather quietly. But on our way out we spotted
about 10 Border Patrol vehicles, ready in place to stop and apprehend what was going around us.

If our presence on the border detains the aliens from coming across, then, President Bush, should not this prove to you that putting the National Guard on the border until we can find a permanent solution to secure the border is the only way to go to keep our country safe!

Thanks to all of our volunteers, the great patriots of America!
Carmen - sector chief Naco line
Connie - sector chief Huachuca line

The National Review has an op-ed by Allan Wall, a Texas Army National Guard soldier serving in Iraq who has seen first hand what troops stationed on a border can do to stem the tide of illegal border crossers.

Mr. Wall is speaking solely for himself, of course.

Here''s an excerpt:

Some say it''s impossible to secure our borders. I don''t believe it. Here in Iraq I''ve seen what a determined national policy can accomplish in a short time. Back home, borders could be secured, if the political will existed. The technical means exist already. We have the resources. We have the personnel. Some have suggested we use the National Guard to secure the borders.

I think it''s a great idea. An excellent idea. An idea whose time has come. Many of the tasks necessary to secure the U.S. border are the same tasks we are already performing here in Iraq. They could be carried out just as easily (and less expensively) on our own borders. Here in Iraq, National Guardsmen are patrolling 24/7, logging thousands of miles in armored humvees. Why can''t they do the same on our own borders ?

In Iraq, Guardsmen secure defensive perimeters, they man guard towers, they operate UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles). They do surveillance in the dark with night-vision equipment. Why can''t they do the same on the borders of their own country?

The regular Army is doing that in New Mexico now, Mr. Wall, and it''s working.

The interviews included Chris Simcox and Dr. Mike Vickers.

You can click the link below to watch the video clip of the CBS Evening News (national) report on the Minutemen.

CBS Evening News 10/25/05

In September 1973 a man picked me up hitchiking in Benson, Arizona, on my way from LA to Corpus Christi. Two Mexican men crossed I10 in front of us barefoot, south to north, with their shoes tied together and hung over their necks. They each had a small plastic bottle on a string, a hat, and nothing else. They looked like coyotes, glancing both ways up and down the freeway, then crossing way out in the middle of nowhere. Where were they going?

The old man driving told me they were illegals, that they had come from a village way down to the south over the mountains that we could just see in the distant haze, way down in Mexico, and that they had crossed the desert barefoot to save their shoes for when they found work. He said the bottle was for water, that they made the trip on about a quart. I had been out of the infantry just over two years and thought about their trip. I asked why they would do such a thing.

The man said that in Mexico there is no work for men like these, that their only income came from making the desert trip, finding piece work, then taking the money back to their village. He said that, recently, he had to have a sanitary pit dug at his house and that the backhoe man had wanted over a thousand dollars--which he didn''t have--but two Mexican illegals came along and dug the hole in one day with picks and shovels for fifty dollars. Fifty dollars, and sandwiches for lunch, and the hole was perfectly square--as good or better than the backhoe could do.

He said that just as America had become a source of income for these people, the local economy had come to depend on their labor. Otherwise, neither side would live nearly as well; they were co-dependant.

Sixteen years later I was a welfare worker in San Diego County, Calif. interviewing recent arrivals from Mexico every morning. Many of them were like the two men I''d seen crossing I10 in 1973; but most of them, applying for welfare, were pregnant women. I came to know why they came to America: Mexico doesn''t care. America cares, perhaps too much. I saw the supposedly infinite financial resources of the people of California being poured, like acid, over the decency, ethics and morality of the people of Mexico, reducing them to welfare dependency.

I taught English on the border, in the packing houses and barrios, in adult education, in migrant schools, and I supervised them for years as they passed through the American justice system in Texas--fascinating. I came to know them and the border, how its lack of structure draws the criminal element from both sides, how it feeds on innocence and need, encourages amorality and violence. The situation in California fifteen years ago was hopeless--I can only imagine the current misery there and in Arizona and New Mexico; public agencies and others wish it were as simple as when I worked there.

So now the border has gained national attention--thank God. If conditions I worked in fifteen years ago are considered the good old days, what will they be in another fifteen if we don''t do something now? With luck, a national movement will reform the border as labor was reformed at the beginning of the twentieth century, setting structure for the phenominal growth the border will see in this century. And as the population explodes, the Rio Grande Valley becomes one massive Los Angeles, the deserts fill up with Hispanic or Asian migrants, few of those people will study history to find us--who cared enough to challenge authority, to bring decency and structure to this nightmare.

The situation is that severe. What we do now will determine whether criminal activity or the rule of law dominate North America, as this wave of immigration sweeps north for the rest of the century.

I forgot to mention the men I worked with on Spring Street in LA in 1966 and 1967, who were there at the factory when I arrived at 7:30 and were there when I left at 5. They cursed when there was no work.
There is no place for men like these in Mexico--there should be.

Apparently, Mexico will not change. We on this side of the border, of all races and ethnicities, where there is a semblance of law and order, will have to do all the work.

Sacre bleu! The BayouBuzz website buzzes about Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu speaking out against the hiring of illegal aliens after electricians informed her they had been laid off and replaced by illegal aliens at a job site at the Belle Chase Naval Air Station. The reconstruction work is being done by subsidiaries of Halliburton.

An ICE investigation prompted by Landrieu found at least 10 illegal aliens working at the reconstruction site.

BayouBuzz reports Landrieu sent a letter yesterday to the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Citizenship to investigate federal contractors'' hiring illegal aliens for the Gulf Coast Reconstruction project.

Big trouble in North Dakota. Wal-Mart does the right thing, but a little late.

Details can be found at KXMA-TV

The CBS Evening News will feature a story about the Minutemen tonight. Will it be a straight news story or a hit piece? Tune in to find out. Check your local listings for time and station.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has announced that he will bring border security legislation to the Senate floor in February. This is good news, but that will happen four months from now. While we wait for the Senate to act, hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens will be taking advantage of the cooler weather and the catch and release program to continue overrunning our borders.

This month, the U.S. military has shut down a twenty mile stretch of the New Mexico border by staging a training exercise with the Border Patrol.

That''s the kind of action we''re looking for, but on a much larger scale and much quicker timetable. The status quo cannot be maintained. The stakes are too high for our national security.

Text of Dr. Frist''s message below:

Breaking News On Border Security

Author: Bill Frist, M.D.
October 24th, 2005

So many of you have written or posted on my blog about border security that I wanted to share some news with you first, tonight, before I let the Senate know tomorrow…

As many of you know, almost two weeks ago, I was down on the Texas border in the Rio Grande Valley. That night, over 400 illegal immigrants (and 200 pounds of marijuana) were seized crossing the border.

Again … that was just ONE night.

Sure … we caught 400. But you had to wonder, how many more slipped through unseen?

During my trip we took an aerial tour in a Blackhawk helicopter ... briefed in flight by Sector Chief Lynn Underdown.

The Rio Grande river in that sector is less than 30 feet across at some points ... illegal aliens cross in rafts and inner tubes - many of which I saw abandoned on the banks of the river.

From the helicopter, it became immediately clear that to protect this border is a massive challenge, and one that we must meet head-on.

Last week, President Bush signed a law to increase the number of agents patrolling our borders. A good step forward, but with an estimated 11 million people living here undocumented, it’s going to take more than just manpower.

Make no mistake, we’re a nation founded by immigrants. But we’re also a nation founded on the rule of law. And when people don’t respect the laws of our land, it’s OUR JOB to enforce them.

We need real immigration reform.

That begins by enforcing the laws already on the books.

We need comprehensive reform that protects not only our national security…but the interests of our economy. And by that, I don’t mean amnesty. Let me be clear: I oppose amnesty …individuals who violate America’s laws should NOT be rewarded for illegal behavior.

America has always opened her arms to those who long for a better life. But the simple fact is … a country that can’t control its own borders can’t control its own destiny.

So here is what I want you to know:

Tomorrow, I will announce that I will bring border security legislation to the Senate floor at the beginning of next year, in February…and I expect there to be a full and comprehensive debate.

We need broader legislation …legislation that reduces the number of deaths of people trying to cross the border illegally … reduces the trafficking in, and exploitation of, human beings that is so rampant today …and adds another layer of protection against the terrorist threat which still exists.

Above all, I hope this proposed legislation will open the door to a real conversation about how to fix our immigration system.

The time has come for meaningful reform … reform that looks to the future.

This country MUST do a better job enforcing our borders. And we will.

You have my promise to push for stricter enforcement.

You have my promise to stand beside the heroic agents – like Chief Underdown – working long hours in the face of overwhelming odds.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

9/11 FAMILIES FOR A SECURE AMERICA ENDORSE MINUTEMEN

ANNOUNCEMENT AT ‘SECURE OUR BORDERS’ RALLY ON CAPITOL STEPS IN SACRAMENTO

When: 10 a.m. Saturday, October 29, 2005
Where: West Capitol steps, Sacramento, CA

Tombstone, AZ (October 25, 2005) – 9/11 Families for a Secure America will announce their endorsement of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps (“MCDC”) at the “Secure Our Borders” rally this Saturday, October 29, 2005, on the West steps of the Capitol building in Sacramento, CA. The rally will also feature an appearance by Congressional candidate and Minuteman Project co-founder Jim Gilchrist as well as a signature gathering for the California Border Police initiative.

Confirmed participants include:

• Peter Gadiel, Joan Molinaro and Bruce DeCell, representing
9/11 Families for a Secure America
• Rally emcee Mark Williams, KFBK radio talk show host
• Jim Gilchrist, 48th Congressional district candidate and co-founder of the Minuteman Project
• Assemblyman Ray Haynes, Chairman, California Border Police Initiative
• John W. March, Father of murdered L.A. Sheriff Deputy David March
• Tim Donnelly, Minuteman Civil Defense Corps – California
• Andy Ramirez, Friends of the Border Patrol
• Terry Anderson, KRLA radio talk show host
• Dan Sheehy, Author, “Fighting Immigration Anarchy”
• Former Assemblyman Larry Bowler
• Lupe Moreno, Co-Chair, Latinos for Immigration Reform
• Country Singer Doug Alan, accompanied by Garrick Alden

MCDC has been conducting a month-long border watch program this October called “Secure Our Borders.” Over four thousand trained Minuteman volunteers have participated in non-confrontational border watch efforts on America''s northern and southern borders. Minutemen act as extra eyes and ears for the Border Patrol and report directly to authorities any sightings of border crossings at other than legal ports of entry.

USA Today has an article about the Washington state Minutemen. Click the link to read all about it.

CBS Evening News ran a story last night about the abysmal catch and release policy that Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff says will be ending sometime in the future.

In the meantime, CBS reports the the program is very popular with illegal immigrants and is actually encouraging them to break our laws.

What a country!

The National Republican Senatorial Committee has an online survey about illegal immigration.

You need to give them a name and e-mail address to take the survey.

Here are a few sample questions:

Do you believe illegal immigrants already in our country, holding jobs, should be granted a conditional amnesty?
Yes No Unsure

Should the U.S. military be empowered to patrol the border with Mexico?
Yes No Unsure

Do you support an expanded guest worker program that allows foreign nationals to come to this nation for a limited time if they are sponsored by companies willing to guarantee them jobs?
Yes No Unsure

There are nine questions in all. As of this posting, their server is having a problem handling the survey. Hopefully it''ll work better later today.

The Illinois Leader published an op-ed by Lee Enokian about the recent Minuteman conference held just outside Chicago.

Click the title link to read the piece. It''s worth the time to read.

USA Today has an article about the problem with illegal workers gathering at ''day labor'' sites around the country.

George Taplin, head of the new Herndon Minuteman chapter in Virginia is quoted a couple times.

The Washington Times has a front page story on the Minuteman volunteers in New Mexico.

An excerpt:

HACHITA, N.M. -- Known as "J-Man," the 25-year-old college student moves silently along a rock-strewn ridge overlooking the Playas Valley here, looking for aliens and drug smugglers crossing the rugged high desert into the United States from Mexico.

On top of a large lava outcropping known as the Towers, he is working what is called a "detached post" with two other Minuteman Civil Defense Corps volunteers, "Shorty" and "Grizzly," who man similar vantage points on opposite sides of the expansive ridge.

J-Man reports his position by walkie-talkie to his team leader, "White Shadow," a 76-year-old retired California man stationed atop the ridge, and returns to his binoculars trained on the valley stretched below as far as the eye can see.

SNIP

Highway 81 crosses into Mexico at Antelope Wells, some 45 miles south of here, where it becomes Mexican Highway 2. Alien and drug smugglers are taking their cargoes through the harsh Playas Valley and nearby Animus Canyon to Interstate 10, where the aliens and the drugs are routed both east and west.

Ironically, this major alien- and drug-smuggling corridor is adjacent to a Department of Homeland Security training facility in the abandoned mining town of Playas.

"These guys are walking right on the doorstep of a Homeland Security training facility," Mr. Cole said. "Someone ought to take notice of that."

Chris Simcox speaks from the back of a Jeep

Jim Gilchrist on the scene!

Photos from around the CA Minuteman line

This news footage just in from 10/22/05. For best viewing results, click on the link below then click on the "Play in Windows Media Player" link when the new browser window opens. Enjoy!

Seattle, WA Fox 40 News 10/22/05

Report on Washington State Minutemen

Washington, DC WUSA CBS 10/22/05

Further report on Herndon, Virginia, new Minuteman chapter to monitor and report day labor sites

On the Border with Carmen and Connie 10/22/05

Yesterday in the afternoon we sat the Huachuca Line with our flags and in a very public way. The support from the vehicle horns outnumbered by far the disgusting gestures given to us by a few.

We took position for the night on the Naco Line around 1900 hrs and settled in for the night. At 2230 hrs. from Post 12 we call "Old Faithful" came a report of a sighting of two people just over the fence, waiting to cross. We agreed Post 12 should vacate the area and Post 11 move quietly closer to Post 12 in order to have better visibility to observe if the individuals crossed after Post 12 left.

Again Border Patrol was positioned on the main border road waiting as they would pick up any crossers that had waited for the Minutemen to leave the area.

After a half hour and not seeing a reportable crossing incident we left and the Border Patrol remained behind to watch for the crossers who wait for us to leave the area.

We have in our group two wonderful volunteers named Nellie and Phil, they have joined us after traveling for two days from Utah. They are in their seventies. Nellie works the radio and she and Phil sit a post diligently with the group at night.

Phil has a walker because he has an artificial leg. With the terrain they stay close to the vehicle, but have great ears and eyes and have sighted suspicious activity. This is an inspiration to all of us.

Where is our government? They should be ashamed. Nellie and Phil are doing the job our government refuses to do.

We are starting our last week on the border and the group is tired, but hanging in there. We realize how important this issue is and they know we are making a difference.

Since last April, several bills have been introduced all over the United States on a state and federal level. Most of the bills are throw away band-aid solutions, but the public is aware of this problem and are understanding the Minuteman Volunteers will not stand down until we are honorably relieved of our post by the government. Relieving us of our duty and closing the border.

We will not compromise on this issue.

Several of our volunteer''s are already committed to returning in April for another month long border watch. The group is growing is size and determination.

It is not too late to join us on the border for even a few days, we welcome all new volunteers!

God Bless you all and God Bless America

Connie Foust - Sector Chief
Carmen Mercer - Sector Chief

We have begun something new here, to provide some clips of programs doing coverage of the Minutemen nationwide!

Click on the link to view each program!

Lou Dobbs, CNN 10/20/05

Casey Wian reports from the California border with the Minutemen!

WJLA Washington, DC, ABC 10/20/05

Report on Herndon, Virginia Minuteman Chapter Forming to observe and report illegal day labor activity

WRC, Washington, DC, NBC 10/20/05

Report on Herndon, Virginia Minuteman Chapter forming to observe and report illegal day labor activity

This just in from a Minuteman volunteer in Hachita, NM

Mexican Government Pamphlet "How To" Illegally Enter U.S. Found at Border

Earlier this year, the Mexican government began dissimination of a pamphlet complete with drawings and instructions on how to illegally cross the border into the United States, causing outrage among American citizens.

This came in via email today from one of our volunteers:

I thought you guys may want to see this. This is the Mexican pamphlet I found on the line in Hachita, NM the night of October 15, 2005. It was inside a empty backpack hanging on a fence near the rest area on I-10 at mile marker 53. I scanned it in and saved it as a JPEG file. Feel free to use it as an illustration of how the Mexican Government supports illegal immigration and survival in the desert.

NAME WITHHELD

These just in from California in a size that was able to upload!

Thanks, anymouse!

The Associated Press in Yuma, Arizona reports on conditions on the border in Wellton:

A measly, mangled five-foot-tall barbed wire fence is all that stands between the Wellton U.S. Border Patrol station''s area of responsibility and the thousands of illegal immigrants whom agents caught driving or hiking into the U.S. desert from Mexico''s Highway 2 this year.

"There are places where the fence is knocked down from drive-throughs, and aliens are able to get through the fence," said Mike Gramley, public information officer for the Border Patrol''s Yuma sector.

Known as "the highway of death" by Mexican newspapers, Highway 2 runs along the border through the middle of the desert for about 124 miles. The highway''s position atop a 10-foot high embankment and its remote location in the desert have made it notorious for fatal accidents.

But for Border Patrol agents here in Wellton, the section of highway south of their area of responsibility is a 64-mile-wide starting block.

"Drug and alien smugglers can drive off of Mexican Highway 2, and drive right up to the Border Patrol station there''s nothing there," acting Border Patrol Field Operations Supervisor Joe Brigman said.

Full article can be read at the title link.

The Associated Press in Albany, New York has a brief story about the start of the New York Minutemen''s ''Secure Our Borders'' operations this weekend.

The article says fifteen volunteers will participate. That ought to be enough to get the leftists'' knickers in knots.

The Washington Times reports today on the organizational meeting of the Herndon Minutemen held last night in Northern Virginia.

An excerpt is below, but please click the link above to read the entire article.

Herndon, Virginia-area residents concerned about illegal immigration met last night to organize a new chapter of the Minutemen, a group that gained notice across the country when its members began patrolling the U.S.-Mexico border.

Organizer George Taplin said those who met at the Herndon Fort Nightly Library are opposed to the taxpayer-funded, day-laborer center that town officials want to build, and want to expose employers, landlords and others who would exploit legal immigrants and illegal aliens at the center.

"This summer it came to a head," said Mr. Taplin, a retired Navy officer. "I saw what was happening in terms of the Town Council and the mayor not paying attention to the constituency and I tried to get people to step up and do something about it."

Mr. Taplin said he decided to take charge because many were eager to act but reluctant to lead. He arrived at a basic plan by searching the Internet and finding information on "Operation Spotlight" in Houston.

Thanks for stepping up to the plate, George!

The Western Front Online reports the latest from Bellingham, Washington on Tom Williams and the Washington state Minutemen.

Tom, Claude and the rest are doing a great job watching the border and representing the Minutemen. They''ve caused quite a stir, what with the Bellingham City Council resolution denouncing them and the constant interest from U.S. and Canadian media.

“More people are calling wanting to volunteer, and I can’t get off the phone with news organizations like FOX News and USA Today, who both want to run stories about us and our political statement,” Williams said.

Who knew thirteen people hanging out in lawn chairs could cause so much controversy?

A temporary posting - here''s a list current through 21 OCT of legislation currently introduced in the House and Senate dealing with replacing the Minutemen. We''ll try to followup over the next few days with a summary and analysis of each, but for now, you can click the "Thomas" link above, input the bill number, (i.e. HR 1986...) and read the text of each of the following.
-HillView

HR 1986 - DOD Assistance to Border Patrol (Goode - 45 cosponsors)
HR 3401 - State Defense Force Improvement Act (Wilson - 14 cosponsors)
HR 3704 - Federal Border Patrol Auxiliary Act (Drake - 3 cosponsors)
HR 3622 - State Border Protection Corps Act (Culberson - 51 cosponsors)
S. 1823 - Illegal Immigration Enforcement and Empowerment Act (Hutchison - 0 cosponsors)