Minuteman National Blog

This story from Tucson Weekly fills a glaring gap in news coverage of the problems on our southern border. There are always stories about the hardships illegal aliens experience during their journey north, but seldom a word about the American citizens whose houses and ranches lay in their path.

Many now feel abandoned by their government and their country at large; it is as though they have been deemed acceptable collateral damage in the ongoing debate.

Susie Clarke Morales lives in a place she calls a twilight zone. It''s a land where special beauty and unspeakable horrors go hand in hand. Her home sits barely 3 miles from Arizona''s open border with Mexico, and almost every day, she confronts the disasters that flow from this monumental failure of American will, this triumph of greed over national sovereignty.

The open border brings her face to face with human suffering on a grand scale. It makes her a prisoner in her own home. It fills her life with dread.

It''s late on a fall afternoon. We''re driving west from Nogales on Highway 289. Susie''s ranch is up ahead. Summer rain has made the pasture grass tall. It bends in the breeze that blows sweet and cool through the Coronado National Forest.

If you live in a twilight zone, it fits that you''ll have odd fantasies. Susie is talking about hers.

"Sometimes I wonder what it''d be like to go to Safeway and push my cart down the aisle without thinking about what''s happening at my house at that moment," she says. "Or what I''ll find there when I get home. Or who I''ll find there."

This is highly recommended reading. Just click this link and be prepared for a story guaranteed to raise your blood pressure. Read it -- then multiply this story by thousands.

The Edmunton Sun reports on a man who got caught smuggling OxyContin into the U.S. from Canada.

The phrase "it''s a dirty job but someone''s got to do it comes to mind. Click the title link for the details. (You''ve been warned!)

The Canada Press reports on a then 19-year-old Canadian who got paid $300 to help smuggle illegal aliens into the U.S. from Canada. He got probation after cooperating in the investigation.

The article describes some of the people he was trying to smuggle:

Canadian authorities have said three Indian women taken from the raft claimed to have paid $4,000 US each to smugglers for the trip from India to the United States.

A Pakistani family of four, including two children, ages 1 and 3, and another Pakistani were aboard the raft, which was spotted in an area of the river where currents are dangerous.

The East Valley Tribune reports on a sting operation targeting motel operators suspected of aiding human traffickers.

Read the story at the title link.

Only 17 ICE teams to remove 500,000 convicted felon illegal aliens.

11/10/05 Full text of Fox and Friends interview with John Torres below:

Torres: “We did a program on the ice program looking for fugitives that had been convicted of sex crimes against children. was that also the aim? They are the priorities. criminals, sexual predators, drug dealers.”

“We''ve arrested over 7,000 sexual predators. over 1,600 gang members under operation shield, this year alone.”

“What you have is illegal immigrants that don''t want to go back to their country. so they''ll come in, be bonded out into the communities, and they''ll have multiple hearings, stays, extended out for months, years, sometimes. then we have to find them, and they don''t want to be found. so we''ll knock on doors and have to take them into custody

“These are people who have already been convicted”

Steve: “then why are they out on the street?”

Torres: “They complete their sentence and are released back into the community as opposed to being released to us. “

Brian: “That''s -- why aren''t these people looking at their cases while they are locked up.

Torres: “They are. I can give you one example in Huntsville, Texas, that''s exactly how the process looks. we''ll interview them and hold a immigration hearing for them while they are in jail.

Steve: “The day they leave, they should put big red letters the day they leave, call immigration”

Torres: “What we''re talking about here, is the number of fugitives that have been ordered removed, nearly half a million across the country of which we have 17 teams.”

“We''re going to expand those to 44 teams. those teams have arrested 27,000 people.

Brian: so you feel people are giving you what you need?

Torres: Yes, but that''s part of the strategy of homeland security, working closely with the state and local so we can actually be more effective as partners.

Steve: John Torres from ICE.

In a press conference today, Rep. Sue Myrick (R-N.C.) announced three Al Qaeda terrorists were recently caught entering the United States from Mexico.

She made the announcement while speaking about the True ID Act she is proposing to penailize states that give drivers licenses to illegal aliens by slashing their federal grants.

Excerpt of Myrick''s statement:

"Our main concern is, who''s in our state? I mean this is a critical issue today. I mean they just arrested down on the border, what a couple of weeks ago, three al Qaeda members who came across from Mexico into the United States. I mean that''s a given fact. They were holding them in the jail down there."

Listen to Myrick''s remarks at her Congressional Website here.

The statement is made at about 8:45 into the audio clip.

The Associated Press reports from Mexico about the dominance by Mexican gangs of the illegal drug supply into the U.S.

An excerpt:

Mexico''s drug gangs have been highly successful in the past two decades, gradually replacing Colombian gangs in the United States to control the profitable distribution of cocaine from coast to coast. Colombia remains the world''s largest producer, but Larry Holifield, the DEA''s director for Mexico and Central America, told The Associated Press that Mexican cartels are now the most powerful in the world.

In 2003, Mexican traffickers supplied 77 percent of the cocaine that entered the United States. Last year, it was 92 percent, Anthony Placido, the top DEA intelligence official, told a congressional panel in June. The other 8 percent moved through the Caribbean.

Mexican gangs also dominate the growing methamphetamine trade, producing 53 percent of the drugs on the market in "super-labs" in Mexico as the U.S. tightens its laws. Much of the rest is made in clandestine labs in California, also run by Mexicans, U.S. officials say.

And as has been the case for nearly 100 years, Mexico is the biggest marijuana supplier to the United States and produces nearly half the heroin consumed north of the border, behind only Colombia.

The drug trade permeates life in Mexico. In Miguel Aleman, drug traffickers boost the local economy and rule with a combination of fear and awe, threatening or bribing anyone who dares to try to stop them.

In this city of 35,000 across from Roma, Texas, hit men are easily identified by their bulletproof pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles.

The traffickers have lookouts at every entrance to the city and informants on bicycles looking for anyone suspicious, townspeople say. They will photograph newcomers, including reporters, and question strangers.

Click this link to view Carmen and Connie, aka the Granny Brigade, on Fox & Friends this morning talking about their adventures on the Arizona border.

The Heritage Foundation hosted Texas Governor Rick Perry recently to speak about "Federalizing Disaster Response".

Toward the end of the speech, Gov. Perry addressed border security:

Let me conclude with a few remarks on border security as someone who leads the state with roughly two-thirds of our international border with Mexico. Based on intelligence, we know that al-Qaeda and other terrorist and criminal organizations see our lax border enforcement as an opportunity to import their operatives, weapons, and narcotics.

The border is under such great siege that in the first seven months of this year, the Border Patrol in Texas picked up 119,000 illegal immigrants who did not originate from Mexico--OTMs, as they are called in industry slang: Other Than Mexicans. Among those illegally seeking entrance are people from countries with a known al-Qaeda presence, such as Iran, Iraq, Bangladesh, and the tri-border region of Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina.

So many are coming over the border that federal officials are taking desperate measures, such as busing OTMs to towns like San Angelo, a mid-sized West Texas town 150 miles from the border. These illegal immigrants are sent to their community with little information on who they are or what past they arrive with. And here''s the worst part: Because of a lack of detention space, they''re asked to show up at a detention hearing weeks later on their honor. Most never do.

Last week, I announced a state border security plan to provide resources from my office to ramp up the law enforcement presence, the number of investigators, and the use of technology to track and deter this threat. But it is not a state role to enforce our international border. It is the role of the federal government.

If you are wondering how the federal government will respond to future disasters, look at how they are responding to the ongoing threat of disaster posed by a porous border and a treacherous enemy that seeks to take advantage of it. Yes, we appreciate the additional Border Patrol agents and the funding for new technologies contained in the latest homeland security bill, but it is not enough.

They should hire many more Border Patrol agents, expand the use of technology at and between ports of entry, and authorize homeland security funding to pay for law enforcement positions and overtime to expand patrols. And federal officials must significantly expand detention facilities so cities like San Angelo no longer bear the brunt of a nonsensical deportation system that depends on the honesty of those who have already broken our laws. It''s only a matter of time before the federal "catch and release" policy leads to another terrorist attack on our nation.

Newsmax reports on former President Bill Clinton''s thought''s on immigration and America.

"I''m very worried that one of the consequences of our tightness on immigration and visas as a result of 9/11 and terror, has led to a drop in many places of the number of foreign students coming to the United States to study and be graduate students," Clinton told an audience at the University of Minnesota on Saturday.

He said the U.S. needed foreign students because "we are nowhere near graduating enough scientists and engineers to maintain, given the size of our economy, a leadership role in the global economy."

Clinton said the terror trade-off wasn''t worth it.

"When we got real tough on visas - because one out of a zillion of them might have a bomb - we lost a lot of brains. We might have dodged a bomb but we lost a lot of brains."

Zip it, Mr. Ex-President. Please. The flying bombs of 9/11 were bad enough. Why chance it happening again.

WOAI-TV in San Antonio follows up on their report yesterday about a coyote''s view of smuggling illegal aliens across the Texas border from Mexico.

In today''s story, the coyote talks about whether he can detect a terrorist trying to get taken across the border.

An excerpt below. Full story and video report at the title link.

Brian: "How do you know someone you''ve smuggled into the United States is not a terrorist?"

Raul: "I don''t think so because I know the Spanish Language very well and the accents from other countries, too. I am sure that I didn''t bring anyone across like that. I''ve turned people away that I couldn''t trust, that didn''t come with good intentions. I won''t bring them across."

But Raul may just be telling us what he thinks we want to hear.

Eventually he admits he cannot know who is or is not a terrorist.

Raul: "Well, I make a mistake, but I''m not doing it with bad intentions."

SNIP

Border patrol says it''s also working more closely with Mexican authorities.

But from what we saw, they can''t count on the notoriously corrupt Mexican police.

At one point, they even showed up only to greet the coyote like a long lost friend.

Raul later told us he pays the cops big bucks to look the other way.

Raul: "It''s the (US) government''s fault. They create enemies where they had friends. They make enemies not friends trying to fight for land with oil. By going to Iraq they have created a great enemy that they''re still fighting. No, it''s not our fault. We''re just bringing people here that want to work and prosper."

OK, Raul. Sure. We believe you. Yep.....

The Washington Times profiles two of the leaders of the Arizona Minutemen in today''s paper:

NACO, Ariz. -- The "Granny Brigade," Carmen Mercer and Connie Foust, sits silently in the pitch-black desert night at their Minuteman observation post just a few yards from the dirt road and four-strand barbed-wire fence that separates the United States and Mexico.

With the temperature dropping into the low 40s and the wind whipping across the high desert, they wrap their legs in warm blankets. As sector bosses for more than two dozen Minuteman Civil Defense Corps volunteers on the night shift along what is known as the Naco line, the women, who have a combined eight grandchildren, scan the area with a night-vision scope.

Suddenly, a dozen black-clad illegal aliens, some wearing scarves over their faces, scurry out of Mexico, having crossed silently under a railroad trestle near a dirt road about a half-mile south of the border -- using the rugged terrain and the area''s brushy mesquite trees as cover.

"They were on us before we knew it," said Mrs. Mercer, a petite woman with a large .38-caliber revolver strapped to her hip. "They couldn''t have been more than 10 feet from us, and we were looking right at them.

"We dropped to the ground, and I don''t think they saw us," she said, gesturing with her arms as she relived the moment. "We whispered into the radio to report their position, hoping someone would hear us. It was very scary, but that''s what we came out here to do."

The women''s call had been heard by their Minuteman colleagues and several of the illegals later were rounded up by the U.S. Border Patrol, which responded after being called by the volunteers.

Click the title link for the rest of the story.

The Washington Post has an article today on the Herndon Minutemen keeping watch on a day labor site.

The article features a school teacher from Bolivia who gave up his profession educating Bolivian children so he could live and work illegally in the U.S.

George Taplin, leader of the Herndon Minutemen is quoted on his observations on the first week of operations:

"We accomplished more than we set out to do," Taplin said. "The main thing we wanted to do is start building our database with images of the different workers and employers. We also wanted to prove what most people thought, and what we had put forth -- this idea that the vast majority of the people who were there were illegal and the employers were regular employers, not people who came every once in a while looking for workers."

He said members of the group took pictures of workers and employers and then followed the employers to job sites to document the locations. "We found that some vehicles were coming back again and again, serving as taxis, to bring workers to the same work site," he said.

The Courier News reports on the Illinois Minuteman Project upcoming meeting in Elgin:

ELGIN — A grass-roots group that wants to stop immigrants from illegally entering the country will meet here next week.

The group''s leaders plan on using the "moral outrage" of residents over the recent Larkin High School Mexican anthem incident to lure people to join the organization.

"Illegal aliens are breaking the law. They''re here illegally and we give them all these benefits," said Rosanna Pulido, co-founder of the Illinois Minuteman Project. "I would come here too if I was an illegal alien."

Pulido, an American citizen, is of Mexican descent.

Spanish is her parent''s first language, and although she grew up in Chicago, she was raised immersed in the Mexican culture, she said.

KGBT-TV in Harlingen, Texas reports that the Texas Minuteman Civil Defense Corps chapter is not going away any time soon:

It''s been a week since the Minutemen officially wrapped up a 30 day operation in South Texas. But don''t think for a second they''re gone from the Valley.

Action 4 News reporter Ray Pedraza uncovered the group plans to stay until they get what they want from the federal government.

In the past several weeks, Action 4 News spent a considerable amount of time with the Minutemen Coalition.

These volunteers come from all walks of life but share one common goal, to protect our border.

SNIP

Minutemen national president Chris Simcox is offended that someone would make this a race issue.

"Well, how can border security be a race issue?", asked Simcox. "Border Patrol last year apprehended people from 70 different countries. It''s a national security, public safety issue. We don''t care who you are, what color your skin is, what language you speak, what music you like, what food you eat. If you''re coming across our border illegally, that''s a threat to our national security and public safety."

The Associated Press reports on the effort by Springdale, Arkansas to get more state and federal tax dollars by conducting a special census targeting illegal aliens in their community.

An excerpt:

Every additional person the census finds over the 2000 numbers - no matter their nationality or whether they''re in the country legally or illegally - will bring an estimated $62.50 per year in state funds to Springdale''s coffers, said David Tritt, the city''s human resources director.

"It (the extra revenue) could be as much as $900,000 to a million dollars a year," said Morgan, the finance director. That would make up for the roughly $750,000 the city will pay to conduct the census.

Other cities also are conducting special counts. At stake are millions of dollars in state revenues for roads and general projects that are distributed to cities based on population. The population count could also affect federal money coming to the cities.

BOHICA

Rasmussen Reports today announced the results of a survey on illegal immigration.

60 percent of those surveyed supported the idea of building a barrier on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Also, 75 percent said the issue of immigration is very or somewhat important in voting for President and Congress.

49 percent are against granting citizenship to children born in the U.S. by illegal aliens.

The poll was taken of 1500 adults. Margin of error is plus or minus four percent.

Details at the title link.

From WOAI-TV.

An excerpt:

The family of murdered St. Edwards University freshman Virginia Garcia have filed suit against the city of Austin, claiming Austin''s status as a so called ''sanctuary city'' led to Garcia''s murder, 1200 WOAI news reported today.

The 18 year old Garcia, who was known as Jenny, was stabbed to death insider her northwest Austin home, and police arrested an illegal alien, David Diaz Morales, 20, whom they said was ''infatuated'' with Garcia. Morales was also charged with burglarizing Garcia''s home.

Attorney Matt Burns said Austin''s very controversial policy of prohibiting police and other local officials from referring cases to federal authorities for immigration law violations and deportation led to Garcia''s murder, and is also in violation of federal law.

"The Austin police department has both informal and written procedures which actually prohibit police officers from cooperating with federal immigration authorities," Burns said.

Burns said the fact that Morales re-entered the United States after being deported, and the fact that he had previously been charged in the sexual assault of a child, would have qualified him for immediate deportation, meaning that he would not have been in Austin to murder Jenny Garcia, but that didn''t happen because of Austin''s ''sanctuary'' law.

The Cincinnati Enquirer has an article by Peter Bronson regarding the spiraling costs on the courts for the need for translators.

An excerpt:

Some defendants speak English fluently to police and lawyers, but then demand an interpreter in court. And most who get translators are illegals. "I''ve not seen a legal, to be honest," (Common Pleas Judge Patrick) Dinkelacker said.

The need for translators in the county''s 14 municipal and 16 common pleas courts is "incredible," said Bob Schoenfeld of the Common Pleas administrator''s office. "There have been a lot of questions raised as to how valid the needs are, but the courts have no choice."

SNIP

In dollars, $200,000 is not Quiche. But it''s only a small down payment on the costs of illegal immigration.

And that has many Americans ready to join the Minuteman border-patrol posse. Legal immigration is healthy and good for our region. We''re all immigrants. But illegal immigration is flooding us like a broken levee. It''s not just costly. Wide-open borders are hazardous in a war on terrorism. Dinkelacker said one of his recent defendants was wanted by Homeland Security.

The Bellingham Herald published a statement by Whatcom County Sheriff Bill Elfo on his dealings with the Washington State Minutemen.

An excerpt:

Organizers of the Whatcom Minuteman project contacted me last summer and informed me of their plans to perform a "border project" in Whatcom County during the month of October. The primary organizer for the event was Tom Williams of Deming. Mr. Williams explained the purpose of the project and MM organization in Whatcom County is two-fold. First, he explained that the MM seek to keep the country secure by reporting illegal border crossings to the U.S. Border Patrol. Second, he said, the MM are attempting to make a political statement through their activities and call attention to what they see as ineffective enforcement of the immigration laws through heightened public awareness and drawing media attention to their activities.

Mr. Williams was very adamant that MM participants would not detain or attempt to detain anyone and that the MM role would be strictly limited to reporting border crossings occurring between the ports of entry, to the United States Border Patrol. Mr. Williams also stated that all activities were planned at fixed posts in the immediate area of the border and that there would be no incursions by MM participants into housing areas or other locations remote from the border.

Mr. Williams indicated that the MM organization has met resistance to operations in the past and that they planned on carrying out their activities despite any objections. While I believe enforcement of the immigration laws and border-related crimes are best handled by the federal agents who are well trained to perform these functions, the MM did not reveal any objectives or plans that constituted criminal violations. Lacking any evidence of criminal intent, the Sheriff''s Office did not have authority to intervene or impose any prior restraints on MM activities.

SNIP

The MM project began in early October and concluded on October 30th. Our deputies, the local police departments and the U.S. Border Patrol closely monitored the situation. The undersheriff and I personally went to the area of the border on multiple instances including evenings and weekends. No criminal behavior on the part of the MM was observed nor was any reported. We detected no deviation from the voluntary commitments Mr. Williams had previously tendered.

The Bellingham Herald reports on the Washington State Minutemen finishing up their month-long border watch. Details at the title link; an excerpt below:

The Minuteman volunteers might conduct another patrol effort in April.

In the end, Williams said the Minutemen''s border watch got what the group wanted: more attention to border security issues. Just last week, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said he wants to add 1,500 new agents to the Border Patrol and build more fences across the border - a move Williams applauded.

"We haven''t seen anything from Congress or the president yet," he said. "Homeland Security is getting its assets together to get more agents on the ground. That''s reassuring.

"We Minutemen know the answer is with the Border Patrol. It''s not us guys sitting on our pickup trucks with our wives drinking coffee."

WOAI-TV in San Antonio has a stunning story of a coyote and his clients as they try to get across the border.

WOAI gave the coyote a night vision camera to record his smuggling a group of Brazilians in the U.S. and a confrontation with the Border Patrol.

The title link goes to the story on the WOAI Web site. Also on that page is a link to the video report.

Tonight WOAI follows up with a look at the implications for national security.

Michael Barone, one of the top political analysts in the country, has an op-ed on the coming Congressional fight on illegal immigration. The article is worth the click to read. Here''s an excerpt:

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff is busy ending our "catch and release" program. But Bush and Congress have not done much on new immigration legislation until this year. The guest-worker issue splits Republicans, and Democrats are not unified on it, either.

Some Democrats who favor guest workers are leery about what they consider overly harsh border security and reporting requirements. But as private citizens who call themselves Minutemen have taken to patrolling the Arizona border, and as the Democratic governors of Arizona and New Mexico have called for tougher border enforcement, pressure on Congress to act is enormous.

For several months, there have been White House meetings with members of Congress, including Democrats, on immigration. Now, the talk is that the House will take up the issue in December and pass a tough border security bill, which will probably be backed by all Republicans and many Democrats, and that the Senate will take up that issue and also consider the vying guest-worker bills early next year.

This is what the Minutemen have been working toward. Let your Representatives and Senators hear from you. Keep the pressure on them until they get it right.