Minuteman National Blog

From California Minuteman Tony Dolz:

97% of Illegal Aliens Take Jobs That Americans Want and Need
by Tony Dolz
Published in American Chronicle
April 7, 2006

The most recent Pew Hispanic Center ''s study indicates that 97% of 12 to 20 million illegal aliens are working in construction, hospitality, manufacturing, restaurant, administrative and service jobs. Are these jobs that Americans will not do?

The distinguished Senators Kennedy, McCain, Specter, Brownback, DeWine, Martinez , Hagel and Graham appear to believe that Americans are lazy and unmotivated to do a days work. If this is so, then who did these jobs before unethical employers opted to break the law by hiring a massive number of illegal aliens on the cheap? Incidentally, who is doing these jobs today in states where ethical employers are still hiring Americans, paying living wages, healthcare benefits and on-the-job accident insurance?

Whereas most Americans feel great compassion for the 5 billion people living outside the industrialized world, anyone of who would live a better life in America; our Senators seem to place their sympathies with the crooked and influential employers that want to keep the criminal alien employees that are already working for them. If this were not the case, the illegal alien employers represented by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce would not object to granting Guest Worker status ONLY to those who have never violated our immigration laws.

Let''s be honest about this. The Senate Judiciary Committee amnesty proposal is in effect an amnesty for the criminal employers who have been avoiding employer sanctions since the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA). IRCA was America ''s last failed attempt at granting amnesty to criminal aliens to stem the tide of illegal immigration. The border security and employer (of illegal alien) sanction provision of IRCA were not enforced. So after eliminating the 3.5 million illegal aliens in the United States via the 1986 amnesty, the number of illegal aliens has swollen to 12 to 20 million in 20 years. Why? Because our government did not secure our borders and enforce employer sanctions as promised in the IRCA.

The Government Accounting Office (GAO) report dated March 6th, 2006 concludes that the agency that would be in charge of the proposed amnesty of 2006, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service, is incapable of administering and enforcing the new amnesty, therefore condemning the proposed 2006 amnesty to failure from the start.

28% of prisoners in federal prisons are illegal aliens, according the United States Justice Department. Not all of those 12 to 20 million illegal aliens have come to America to work. Some have come to commit crimes.

Only 5% of those surveyed by the Pew Hispanic Center in December 2005, who have been in the U.S. for two years or less, were unemployed while still in Mexico . Unemployment plays a minimal role in motivating workers from Mexico to migrate to the U.S.

As to the "hard-working" claim, the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) notes: "The proportion of immigrant-headed households using at least one major welfare program is 24.5 percent compared to 16.3 percent for native households."

If we think that education is going to protect our jobs against globalization on one hand and on the other, the labor cheapening effect of open-borders, think again.

Our Senators and some in Congress are working closely with America ''s most powerful business interests, many controlled by multinationals and globalized capital, to either outsource your job or import both skilled and unskilled labor in massive proportions. The idea is that skilled workers in other countries will work for less than comparably educated Americans; and that when labor, when properly viewed as a commodity such as sugar or oil, gets cheaper with over-supply. If you are relying on the Senate and the Congress to ensure your wellbeing and that of your children, you are sadly mistaken. Their efforts are creating open borders is only one part of the problem.

The front page Los Angeles Times article dated March 6, 2006 entitled “ That Good Education Might Not Be Enough , states, "More education has been the right answer for the past few decades," said Princeton University economist and former Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Alan S. Blinder, "but I''m not so convinced that it''s the right course" for coping with the upheavals of globalization. Most studies suggest that beyond the manufacturing sector, the "offshoring" of jobs has been comparatively modest. But some analysts say the ground has been laid for a substantial pickup. In a recent paper, Blinder offered a rough estimate that suggested that as many as 42 million jobs, or nearly one-third of the nation''s total, were susceptible to offshoring.

A growing number of Americans: Democrats, Republicans and independents, agree with the sentiments expressed by the Democrat Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid who is quoted as saying, “ Currently, an alien living illegally in the United States often pays no taxes but receives unemployment, welfare, free medical care and other federal benefits. Recent terrorist acts, including the World Trade Center bombing, have underscored the need to keep violent criminals out of the country.”

The Field Poll of September of 2005 showed that 81% of Californians are concerned about illegal immigration and 49% think that is a very serious problem. The Field Poll of March 2006 showed that 57% of registered voters think illegal immigration is a serious problem and a whopping 71% of registered Republicans share that view. It seems that many now agree with Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid even as he is now supporting the Guest Worker Amnesty tooted by President Bush.

President Bush and the Republican Senators echoing his wishes would like to correct us when by all appearances the forgiveness of crimes and tax fraud committed by illegal aliens looks like an amnesty. The President claims that it is not. In my opinion the penalty for illegal immigration is deportation; anything less is amnesty.

On light of the utter failure of America ''s last attempt at granting amnesty, IRCA of 1986, there must not be any talk of Guest Worker programs until our borders are secured, employer sanctions are enforced and the last illegal immigrant has left or has been deported from our land.

To make your opinion heard about the proposed amnesty of 2006, you are welcome to visit www.numbersusa.com where you can use tools to contact your Congressperson and Senators.

Congressman Charlie Norwood of Georgia (one of the really, really good guys!) has a great article today in Human Events on La Raza and the connections with MEChA:

by Rep. Charlie Norwood
Posted Apr 07, 2006

The nation''s television screens many days recently have been filled with scenes of huge crowds carrying the colorful green and red flag of Mexico viewers could well have thought it was a national holiday in Mexico City.

It was instead, downtown Los Angeles, Calif., although the scene was recreated in numerous other cities around the country with substantial Mexican populations. Hordes of Mexican expatriates, many here illegally, were protesting the very U.S. immigration laws they were violating with impunity. They found it offensive and a violation of their rights that the U.S. dared to have immigration laws to begin with.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa mounted the podium, but any hopes that he would quiet the crowds and defend the law were soon dashed. Villaraigosa, himself, has spent a lifetime opposing U.S. immigration law.

For law-abiding Americans without knowledge of the dark side of our current illegal immigration crisis, all this is unfathomable. For those who know the truth about the "La Raza" movement, these demonstrations were a prophecy fulfilled.

It is past time for all Americans to know what is at the root of this outrageous behavior, and the extent to which the nation is at risk because of "La Raza" -- The Race.

There are many immigrant groups joined in the overall "La Raza" movement. The most prominent and mainstream organization is the National Council de La Raza -- the Council of "The Race".

To most of the mainstream media, most members of Congress, and even many of their own members, the National Council of La Raza is no more than a Hispanic Rotary Club.

But the National Council of La Raza succeeded in raking in over $15.2 million in federal grants last year alone, of which $7.9 million was in U.S. Department of Education grants for Charter Schools, and undisclosed amounts were for get-out-the-vote efforts supporting La Raza political positions.

The Council of La Raza succeeded in having itself added to congressional hearings by Republican House and Senate leaders. And an anonymous senator even gave the Council of La Raza an extra $4 million in earmarked taxpayer money, supposedly for "housing reform," while La Raza continues to lobby the Senate for virtual open borders and amnesty for illegal aliens.

La Raza movement, the agenda that led to those thousands of illegal immigrants in the streets of American cities, waving Mexican flags, brazenly defying our laws, and demanding concessions.

Key among the secondary organizations is the radical racist group Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan, or Chicano Student Movement of Aztlan (MEChA), one of the most anti-American groups in the country, which has permeated U.S. campuses since the 1960s, and continues its push to carve a racist nation out of the American West.

One of America''s greatest strengths has always been taking in immigrants from cultures around the world, and assimilating them into our country as Americans. By being citizens of the U.S. we are Americans first, and only, in our national loyalties.

This is totally opposed by MEChA for the hordes of illegal immigrants pouring across our borders, to whom they say:

"Chicano is our identity; it defines who we are as people. It rejects the notion that we...should assimilate into the Anglo-American melting pot...Aztlan was the legendary homeland of the Aztecas ... It became synonymous with the vast territories of the Southwest, brutally stolen from a Mexican people marginalized and betrayed by the hostile custodians of the Manifest Destiny." (Statement on University of Oregon MEChA Website, Jan. 3, 2006)

MEChA isn''t at all shy about their goals, or their views of other races. Their founding principles are contained in these words in "El Plan Espiritual de Aztlan" (The Spiritual Plan for Aztlan):

"In the spirit of a new people that is conscious not only of its proud historical heritage but also of the brutal gringo invasion of our territories, we, the Chicano inhabitants and civilizers of the northern land of Aztlan from whence came our forefathers, reclaiming the land of their birth and consecrating the determination of our people of the sun, declare that the call of our blood is our power, our responsibility, and our inevitable destiny. ... Aztlan belongs to those who plant the seeds, water the fields, and gather the crops and not to the foreign Europeans. ... We are a bronze people with a bronze culture. Before the world, before all of North America, before all our brothers in the bronze continent, we are a nation, we are a union of free pueblos, we are Aztlan. For La Raza todo. Fuera de La Raza nada."

That closing two-sentence motto is chilling to everyone who values equal rights for all. It says: "For The Race everything. Outside The Race, nothing."

If these morally sickening MEChA quotes were coming from some fringe website, Americans could at least console themselves that it was just a small group of nuts behind it. Nearly every racial and ethnic group has some shady characters and positions in its past and some unbalanced individuals today claiming racial superiority and demanding separatism. But this is coming straight from the official MEChA sites at Georgetown University, the University of Texas, UCLA, University of Michigan, University of Colorado, University of Oregon, and many other colleges and universities around the country.

MEChA was in fact reported to be one of the main organizers of those street demonstrations we witnessed over the past weeks. That helps explain why those hordes of illegal immigrants weren''t asking for amnesty -- they were demanding an end to U.S. law, period. Unlike past waves of immigrants who sought to become responsible members of American society, these protesters reject American society altogether, because they have been taught that America rightfully belongs to them.

MEChA and the La Raza movement teach that Colorado, California, Arizona, Texas, Utah, New Mexico, Oregon and parts of Washington State make up an area known as "Aztlan" -- a fictional ancestral homeland of the Aztecs before Europeans arrived in North America. As such, it belongs to the followers of MEChA. These are all areas America should surrender to "La Raza" once enough immigrants, legal or illegal, enter to claim a majority, as in Los Angeles. The current borders of the United States will simply be extinguished.

This plan is what is referred to as the "Reconquista" or reconquest, of the Western U.S.

But it won''t end with territorial occupation and secession. The final plan for the La Raza movement includes the ethnic cleansing of Americans of European, African, and Asian descent out of "Aztlan."

As Miguel Perez of Cal State-Northridge''s MEChA chapter has been quoted as saying: "The ultimate ideology is the liberation of Aztlan. Communism would be closest [to it]. Once Aztlan is established, ethnic cleansing would commence: Non-Chicanos would have to be expelled -- opposition groups would be quashed because you have to keep power."

~SNIP~

To read the rest of this great article, click on the title link!

The Senate has voted against cloture on the Martinez-Hagel "compromise" which means it will not come to a floor vote (in effect tabling the bill for the time being).

The Democrats yesterday would not allow more than three amendments (were blocking the votes) to the bill. There are twenty amendments. Even Lindsey Graham was on the floor last night speaking out against the compromise without the full Senate having its say on amending the "compromise" as put forth out of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

They are voting on cloture for Frist''s "border security only" bill right now. You can watch on CSPAN2.

Rush Limbaugh had some kind words for the Minutemen on his show yesterday:

SNIP

There''s a television term. Have you heard the term "jumping the shark," when a show has a jump-the-shark moment? The jump-the-shark moment is when a television show does something so stupid and so bad that it forever dooms the program, and it can''t recover from it, and the term actually has roots in reality. Back in the days of Happy Days, there was an actual scene in which Fonzie is out water-skiing somewhere and has to jump a shark.

A shark shows up. It was a stupid scene. It made no sense. The show never recovered after that scene, and now every television show has its jump-the-shark moment. Well, this movement, I said last week, with these 500,000 people in LA and all over the country, I said, "Waving the Mexican flag is going to be the jump-the-shark moment for the illegal immigration movement," and this is exactly what it is. This backlash is starting to happen, and it''s not public yet, we''re just starting to get little feelers of it. But I''m telling you these people running around waving the Mexican flag, and then demanding that no law be passed that effects them and what they want to do here, including be illegal, people aren''t going to put up with this.

They''re going to realize this isn''t about immigration. So the jump-the-shark moment in the illegal immigration movement has arrived. I''ll tell you something else that constitutes the jump-the-shark moment is the fact that all of these kook left wing communist groups have now taken over the movement, ANSWER and the Free Palestine movement. I mean, it''s a typical collection of wacko, extreme leftist, pro-communist groups that have co-opted now the illegal immigration movement, and they''re the ones that are putting on this big May Day March and protest and national boycott. May Day! The day that the communists and the Soviet Union drove all their military equipment past the reviewing stand at the Kremlin.

Well, the illegal immigrants want to be... It tells you who they really are and who their leaders are, and if they wanted to be co-opted by a bunch of pro-communist, anti/hate-America crowd people, then that''s going to be another jump-the-shark moment. There can be two. There can be. There''s usually only one, but once the American people get an idea that the hate-America crowd in this country has adopted the illegals, you''re not going to find... You hear this guy in Phoenix (and he''s just one of many, I''m telling you, who are out there), these leftists, liberals, they''re having their compassion thrown right back in their face, folks. "We must understand the poor from around the world, and if they want to come here and improve their lives, why, who are we to stand in their way?"

Well, they''re having that compassion thrown right back in their face because these people to whom they are extending all this compassion and understanding and feeling and pain, suffering, understanding, they''re throwing it right back in their face. And it''s going to cause even more reaction. There''s a story in the LA Times today: "Florida Governor Jeb Bush Calls Tone of Immigration Debate ''Hurtful.'' Accusing politicians of ''pounding their chests'' on immigration for short-term political gain, Florida Governor Jeb Bush said Tuesday that the tone of the debate had been ''hurtful'' to him and his Mexican-born wife, Columba."

I can''t think of a single prominent voice on our side of this debate who''s been anything but respectful and civil. I wish President Bush and Governor Bush, when they want to talk about the "incivility" out there, would name some names. Are they talking about J. D. Hayworth? Who are they talking about? This story talks about the Minutemen, and it talks about some members of Congress. The Minutemen? I mean, they''re out there calling the Minutemen "vigilantes." They''re not breaking the law!

They''re not doing anything that''s on the wrong side of the law. And yet here we have people being called vigilantes who are just obeying the law, while they''re trying to do something about this illegal incursion into the country. The illegals are given a pass, they''re called "the backbone of America." We''re not allowed to criticize them. The Minutemen are called vigilantes! It''s 180 degrees out of phase. It''s the left, it''s their side, that''s urging all these protests. These protests, people are carrying the flags of foreign countries. It''s their side trying to force on the American people illegal immigration that the people reject on principled grounds. It''s their side using names like "nativists" and "know-nothings" and "racists" to describe people who are concerned about the illegal immigration problem.

As far as I''m concerned, we have argued the facts, and we have argued the law, and we''re said now to be using a "negative tone" by those who are using the negative tone. The "negative tone" is coming from all of the people trying to get everybody up to speed for supporting this. Look at who they''re teamed with. They''re teamed with ANSWER. I told you this yesterday, a bunch of truly radical hate-America groups. Why doesn''t Senator McCain, why doesn''t President Bush, why doesn''t Governor Bush chastise those people? Senator McCain''s out there advising the illegals. (McCain Impression) "Don''t fly those Mexican flags. Fly American flags out there." He''s advising them. It''s too late, the jump-the-shark moment has taken place. But it''s amazing to see who is being criticized as uncivil and mean-spirited in this. (interruption) Well, I know. That''s right. Because we''re using the term "illegal," we are mean spirited. That''s what I mean. We''re sticking to the facts and the law.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I just made the point: You got Governor Bush and President Bush, McCain, all these people -- I call them the open-borders crowd; that''s what they are, the open-borders crowd -- accuse people like me of being "uncivil." The Minutemen are "vigilantes", and I ask, "Name for me one person who''s being uncivil who''s dealing with anything other than the facts here?" Well... (press release).

"The National Association of Hispanic Journalists urges news media to stop using dehumanizing terms when covering immigration, calls for stopping the use of ''illegals'' as a noun, curbing the phrase ''illegal alien.'' As protesters march in the streets and debate intensifies in Congress over how to fix the nation''s immigration laws, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists calls on our nation''s news media to use accurate terminology in its coverage of immigration and to stop dehumanizing undocumented immigrants." They''re not "immigrants." They''re not coming here to "immigrate," and they are illegal. Now, see, I guess I''ve just been "uncivil," right?

I said it twice, but I also raised my voice. I raised my voice in the attempt to make a point, to be emphatic. Here you have a bunch of journalists who are openly admitting that accuracy is not what they are about! Spin and propaganda is what they are about. Don''t call them what they are. Don''t call them "illegals," and don''t call them "illegal aliens," and don''t even refer to them as just "undocumented workers." They''re not even immigrants. The ones we''re talking about have no desire to immigrate. They''re coming here for work. So they can''t point out to me anybody who''s being "uncivil," and I don''t know why the open borders crowd is not upset at who it is that''s organizing this big May Day shebang. This group called ANSWER, it''s really part of the hate-America crowd, and they''re just a bunch of renegade communists.

SNIP

Click the title link to read the rest of Rush Limbaugh''s spot on analysis.

Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) gave a blistering floor speech yesterday. Here''s the text as released by his office:

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Pat Roberts, Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence today urged Democrats to stop delaying progress on critical immigration reform legislation to strengthen border security.
Senator Roberts delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor:

“We are about to go on a two week recess without doing anything to secure our borders. There are 32,200 reasons why we should reach accommodation to pass a good immigration reform bill. That’s 32,200 people that will be coming across our borders during the two weeks that we’ll be in recess. 2,300 are coming across per day.

“As Chairman of the Intelligence Committee, I know how this effects our national security. 1.2 million illegal aliens were apprehended as they came across our borders last year. Two or three times that amount were not apprehended. If you lived in Tucson, that number was about 439,000. If you live in Yuma, California, that was approximately140,000. In McAllen, Texas, 135,000. Now that is in just one year. Of the 1.2 million that were apprehended that came across illegally, not to mention those that are not apprehended, 165,000 were persons coming from countries other than Mexico. Where did they come from? The Middle East, Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe. We know because we have apprehended people from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, Somalia, and Venezuela.

“These folks may be trying to find a job and be part of the American dream, but they may have other goals as well. Truthfully, I think this is only a snapshot of reality. I think the Intelligence Community can tell you who we have caught, but they can’t tell you who we haven’t caught. So, everyday that we argue about this that’s potentially 2,300 threats to national security coming across the border.

“I encourage my colleagues across the aisle to allow a series of amendments to be considered and move on with the debate of this bill. Otherwise, I have to tell you, the people of Kansas are going to look at me and every other Senator and say, ‘What on earth are you doing going on recess for two weeks when you have 32,200 people coming into the country, most of whom are not vetted and could endanger the security of the United States?”

To borrow a phrase, "GO, PAT, GO!"

An accurate report from today''s Associated Press. If you''ll click on the title link to read the entire article, you''ll get numbers from more than just Arizona.

The numbers are up GREATLY as a result of the human tsunami "jumping the queue" to illegally cross the border to take advantage of the President and the Senate''s proposed amnesty.

From the AP:

Nearly 600 illegal immigrant sightings reported

Associated Press
Apr. 5, 2006 05:40 PM

TUCSON- Minuteman border watch volunteers deployed in Arizona this month have called in close to 600 sightings of illegal immigrants observed crossing through the desert southwest of here.

Connie Hair, spokeswoman for the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, said that Minutemen had reported 591 sightings of suspected illegal immigrants to the U.S. Border Patrol from Saturday, when the monthlong operation south of Three Points began, through early afternoon Wednesday.

She said the calls resulted in 203 apprehensions by the U.S. Border Patrol.

When Minutemen staged their first such patrols last April along the border near Naco in southeastern Arizona, they claimed credit for sightings that resulted in apprehension of about 330 illegal immigrants for the entire month.

~SNIP~

To read the entire article, click on the title link!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

AS SCHOOLS BAN OLD GLORY, MINUTEMEN EXTEND ‘TAKE AN AMERICAN FLAG TO WORK DAY’
TO EVERY THURSDAY IN APRIL AND MAY 1ST

AUDIO STATEMENT AVAILABLE

(PHOENIX, AZ) April 5, 2006 – Chris Simcox, President of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, today extended Monday’s call by Minutemen for citizens across the country to make every Thursday in April “Take An American Flag to Work Day!” The Minutemen are rallying Americans to culminate their patriotic show of support for our flag on Monday, May 1st—when communist, anarchist and other pro-illegal alien radicals are attempting to stage a nationwide strike promoting amnesty and unsecured borders. The Minutemen call on our nation’s silent majority to publicly carry an American flag to work and everywhere they go, beginning Thursday, April 6, and continuing every Thursday in April through Monday, May 1st.

The extension through May Day of the “Take An American Flag to Work Day” campaign was requested by Minuteman volunteers and supporters who are outraged by the recent desecrations of the American flag by pro-illegal alien mobs. Current reports of the banning of the American flag and patriotic red, white and blue clothing by school districts in San Diego, CA and around the country in reaction to illegal alien student walk-outs have given even greater urgency to the “Take An American Flag to Work Day” initiative of the Minutemen.

As reported by Jerry Seper in The Washington Times on April 4, 2006, the May Day pro-illegal alien and unsecured borders boycott is being organized by the ANSWER coalition, a front group for the communist Workers World Party whose steering committee includes radical anti-American groups such as the Free Palestine Alliance, the Partnership for Civil Justice, the Nicaragua Network, the Korea Truth Commission, the Muslim Student Association, the Mexico Solidarity Network and the Party for Socialism and Liberation.

Simcox issued the following statement in support of “Take an American Flag to Work Day”:

“The American flag has been burned, dragged in the streets, thrown in the garbage and hung upside down under the flag of Mexico on U.S. soil by pro-illegal alien protesters. Now Old Glory is being banned by U.S. government-funded schools around the country so as not to offend illegal aliens and their enablers.

“Fundamental respect for Old Glory seems the least the President should ask of the millions of illegal aliens to whom he’s offering amnesty—not only at the expense of the American soldiers, taxpayers and institutions subsidizing their illegal presence on our territory, but at the expense of our national honor, dignity and sovereignty.”

A thirty second, broadcast ready PSA audio message by Minuteman member and RightMarch.com President Dr. William Greene about “Take an American Flag to Work Day” is available at this link:

http://www.minutemanhq.com/audio/Green4MMen.mp3

From the Center for Security Policy, this decision brief on the Mexican constitution. The hypocrisy of the Mexican government knows no bounds:

The Mexican solution

(Washington, D.C.): The Congress has received lots of free advice lately from Mexican government officials and illegal aliens waving Mexico''s flag in mass demonstrations coast-to-coast. Most of it takes the form of bitter complaints about our actual or prospective treatment of immigrants from that country who have gotten into this one illegally - or who aspire to do so.

If you think these critics are mad about U.S. immigration policy now, imagine how upset they would be if we adopted an approach far more radical than the bill they rail against which was adopted last year by the House of Representatives - namely, the way Mexico treats illegal aliens.

In fact, as a just-published paper by the Center for Security Policy''s J. Michael Waller points out, under a constitution first adopted in 1917 and subsequently amended, Mexico deals harshly not only with illegal immigrants. It treats even legal immigrants, naturalized citizens and foreign investors in ways that would, by the standards of those who carp about U.S. immigration policy, have to be called "racist" and "xenophobic."

Mexico''s Glass House

For example, according to an official translation published by the Organization of American States, the Mexican constitution includes the following restrictions:

Pursuant to Article 33, "Foreigners may not in any way participate in the political affairs of the country." This ban applies, among other things, to participation in demonstrations and the expression of opinions in public about domestic politics like those much in evidence in Los Angeles, New York and elsewhere in recent days.

Equal employment rights are denied to immigrants, even legal ones. Article 32: "Mexicans shall have priority over foreigners under equality of circumstances for all classes of concessions and for all employment, positions, or commissions of the Government in which the status of citizenship is not indispensable."

Jobs for which Mexican citizenship is considered "indispensable" include, pursuant to Article 32, bans on foreigners, immigrants, and even naturalized citizens of Mexico serving as military officers, Mexican-flagged ship and airline crew, and chiefs of seaports and airports.

Article 55 denies immigrants the right to become federal lawmakers. A Mexican congressman or senator must be "a Mexican citizen by birth." Article 91 further stipulates that immigrants may never aspire to become cabinet officers as they are required to be Mexican by birth. Article 95 says the same about Supreme Court justices.

In accordance with Article 130, immigrants - even legal ones - may not become members of the clergy, either.

Foreigners, to say nothing of illegal immigrants, are denied fundamental property rights. For example, Article 27 states, "Only Mexicans by birth or naturalization and Mexican companies have the right to acquire ownership of lands, waters, and their appurtenances, or to obtain concessions for the exploitation of mines or of waters."

Article 11 guarantees federal protection against "undesirable aliens resident in the country." What is more, private individuals are authorized to make citizen''s arrests. Article 16 states, "In cases of flagrante delicto, any person may arrest the offender and his accomplices, turning them over without delay to the nearest authorities." In other words, Mexico grants its citizens the right to arrest illegal aliens and hand them over to police for prosecution. Imagine the Minutemen exercising such a right!

The Mexican constitution states that foreigners - not just illegal immigrants - may be expelled for any reason and without due process. According to Article 33, "the Federal Executive shall have the exclusive power to compel any foreigner whose remaining he may deem inexpedient to abandon the national territory immediately and without the necessity of previous legal action."

~SNIP~

To read the entire decision brief, click on the title link!

New Mexico had less than 10 reports of sightings of illegal crossers for the whole month of October last year. The Mexican government had placed flashing red lights on the Mexico side of the border to mark off where the Minuteman posts were in New Mexico. Yet they''re already well over 7 times the number of reported illegal crossers in the first four days of this month.

This just in from Bob Wright:

New Mexico Border Operations Update

The New Mexico Minuteman Corps border watch operation
is off to a successful start.

After three nights of operations, we have spotted and reported to
border patrol 72 illegal border crossers.

Enduring high winds and bitter nights, the personnel of New Mexico''s
chapter of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps have overcome the mission
friction created by mother nature to contribute to the national effort
to secure America''s borders.

"You can''t really understand the numbers until you''ve been here and
seen it" says veteran Minuteman Tom Young of Colorado.

There is still time to go to the border!

Contact Bob Wright for more information.
Email: nmvolunteer@yahoo.com

This just in from Texas! We called and got a count as of this morning for sightings: approaching 200. They do not yet have from the Border Patrol the number of those apprehended.

Last October, the entire count for sightings was just over 800, and they have already reached one quarter of that count in the first four days of the patrol this month!

You also have to take into consideration that this is sightings on a private ranch 70 miles north of the border. Amazing.

From Carolyn Crouch at the border:

The month-long, 24-7, April border watch operation of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps. is gearing up with wildly amazing reporting of illegal aliens in South Texas.

Last night, the radios and volunteers were hopping!

Starting from just after evening deployment, the sightings began to pour into HQ. The local Border Patrol office was quickly put on "speed dial."

Throughout the night, very large groups of illegals were spotted and reported.

Compared with the month-long October operation, the numbers of illegals making the march into our country have increased exponentially. We are truly being invaded.

Would a city-dweller tolerate literally hundreds of people tramping through their yards every 24 hours? The local ranchers are at their wits'' end over what to do to stop the daily (and nightly) trespassing and destruction of their property. While it is difficult to imagine, there are literally hundreds of illegals trespassing on private property every 24 hours.

It is difficult to adequately describe what happens to the ranches in South Texas and all along our southern border due to the flood of illegals traveling through the property. The water tanks are fouled. The property is littered with backpacks, clothes, assorted personal hygiene items, empty water bottles, and the list goes on. Fences are cut, resulting in the risk of livestock being loosed on public roadways, and financial loss to the owners.

Bottom line. This is the United States of America. This situation is simply unacceptable.

To join or donate to Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, go to http://www.minutemanhq.com.

Carolyn Crouch for
Linda Vickers
Aide to State Leader of Texas
So Tx/Coastal Bend Chapter Leader

Thanks to Just Us for bringing up the subject of a Constitutional amendment regarding citizenship to those born here of visitors to this country or of illegal aliens.

And thanks to Citizen Shoemaker for offering this link from the Director of The Claremont Institute Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence where some of the most important conservative thought and writing are produced.

The 14th Amendment was never intended to bestow citizenship to those born here of visitors or illegal aliens. It is yet another in a long string of judicial activist Supreme Court decisions that usurp the authority of the legislative branch. No Constitutional amendment is required to stop this illegitimate practice. Further, this is another reason that the courts in this country are so important. No matter what the issue, it will all be settled in court one day. Consequently, one of the most important issues you could possibly vote on in the future is who will be appointing judges to the federal bench.

From the Claremont Institute''s website:

Constitution''s Citizenship Clause Misread

December 10, 2005

Tamar Jacoby ("Kiss the Melting Pot Goodbye," Nov. 19) finds my interpretation of the Constitution''s Citizenship Clause "alarming" because it would permit Congress "to exclude illegal immigrants by statute" rather than by constitutional amendment. Ms. Jacoby''s argument demonstrates a misunderstanding of the Constitution''s mandate and the political theory on which it is based.

The 14th Amendment provides that "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens . . . ." To treat the last clause as describing merely territorial jurisdiction, as Ms. Jacoby does, is to render the clause superfluous. Even temporary visitors are subject to U.S. jurisdiction in that sense; everyone here has to obey our traffic laws, for example. The clause must therefore mean something much more -- an allegiance-owing jurisdiction.

The debates in the Congress that approved the clause, and the unanimous opinion of the Supreme Court justices who first interpreted it, confirm this understanding. Sen. Reverdy Johnson of Maryland explained during floor debate, for example, that "all this amendment provides is, that all persons born in the United States and not subject to some foreign power -- for that no doubt is the meaning of the committee who have brought the matter before us -- shall be considered as citizens of the United States." The author of the provision, Sen. Jacob Howard, announced that the clause "will not, of course, include foreigners."

The Supreme Court first considered the clause in the Slaughter-House Cases of 1872, unanimously recognizing that the phrase "was intended to exclude from its operation children of . . . citizens or subjects of foreign States born within the United States." This view was confirmed in the 1883 case of Elk v. Wilkens. The phrase, according to the court, meant "not merely subject in some respect or degree to the jurisdiction of the United States, but completely subject to their political jurisdiction, and owing them direct and immediate allegiance." Children of temporary visitors to the United States, particularly those who are here illegally, owe primary allegiance to their parent''s country, not to the U.S., and are therefore not guaranteed citizenship by the terms of the 14th Amendment.

Congress retains the power to offer citizenship more broadly than the Constitution requires, of course, pursuant to its plenary authority over naturalization. To date, it has not done so. In 1898, the Supreme Court raised the citizenship floor mandated by the Constitution slightly, to include children of legal, permanent residents who, by virtue of a treaty with the Chinese emperor, were never eligible for citizenship themselves. But to read the holding in Wong Kim Ark as determining that the Constitution also mandates automatic citizenship to children of temporary, illegal immigrants not only presses the Constitution''s text beyond the breaking point, but significantly intrudes on Congress''s plenary power over naturalization.

More fundamentally, such a view permits illegal immigrants, by their unilateral and illegal action, to demand membership in a political community supposedly grounded on mutual consent. It permits people such as Yaser Esam Hamdi, who clearly owed his primary allegiance to a foreign power and who was captured in Afghanistan in armed conflict against the U.S., to lay claim to the protections of citizenship merely because he was born in Louisiana while his father was on a temporary work visa. And it prevents Congress from making the critical policy judgments about the level of sustainable immigration that the Constitution deliberately assigns to it, providing instead a strong incentive for illegal immigration that fosters the kind of separatist communities within our midst that have produced mass riots in France. We should be heartened, not "alarmed," that Congress is beginning to take its responsibility over immigration seriously.

Dr. John C. Eastman

Professor of Law

Chapman University School of Law

Director, The Claremont Institute Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence

This just in from Stacey O''Connell:

Minutemen:

Tuesday April 4th: As of this AM, MCDC AZ has reported just over 400 illegal aliens to Border Patrol crossing our lines, with 132 detained by BP from those calls. I can say that weve worked this area of operations many times in the past, and Ive never seen it so active. The influx of illegal aliens is incredible, almost unimaginable. That is what the call for amnesty does to our border lands.

Our Kick Off Rally went well. Our speakers continued to move and motivate people throughout the afternoon events. Bay Buchanan was a very passionate speaker, and we were lucky to get her for the events. Goldwater, Bob Eggle, all very moving speakers. We thank all of our speakers for their time Saturday.

Rick Oltman from FAIR presented MCDC/Simcox with an exact replica of the lantern used by Paul Revere during the Revolutionary War. A grand lantern, made of pewter, 16" high, the candle was lit........"One if by Land".......she will burn all month long as we guard our posts. The lantern was purchased from the Old North Church in Boston, the church that held the first "One of by Land, Two if By Sea" lanterns, so that all Minutemen could see. Thanks Rick, you are a great patriot.

The weekends events flew by as Minutemen from across the country began taking posts along the Arizona arid desert at 4PM that afternoon. Maine, Vermont, North Carolina, Minnesota, New York, Alabama, they came in droves to fill our posts and guard our nation. Over 200 Minutemen through the weekend, and they are still coming.

Media and reporters from all across the land joined as Minutemen gathered to hear their Safety Briefs; Fox News National, ABC National, and many local TV crews and newspapers.

We were blessed with the presence of the ACLU once again. Ray Yberra and AZ State Representative Kirsten Sinema stood tall outside the gate to the ranch house as our shift leaders lead their teams of Minuteman past them into private ranch property were nobody was allowed, but Minutemen. They complained to the Sheriffs Office, but were told again and again, no entry allowed. They are eager to find even the slightest part from SOP by any Minuteman.

The 3 MCDC Aircraft were in full glory flying over the rally, tipping their wings, being fueled by the cheers of Minutemen! David Roglins plane even had stenciled on the wings, "MM AZ" !! We had our first air support mission Sunday afternoon when 85 illegal aliens moved through our lines and AirOne flew in circles above them, leading Border Patrol in for the capture!

It was great to see old friends again, Minutemen from last April and summer operations. Teams of Minutemen that we have long to hear from attended. Rick Lowell cooked up three meals a day for our campers so nobody would go hungry. Our admin team lead by Connie Foust ran a perfect crew as the registration and check-in process was flowing smoothly. Our Comms team lead by Will Marriot and Warren McQuigen ensured long range comms, and keep everyone informed. And or course, our Sector Chiefs and Shift Leaders ran shift after shift of Minutemen to and from the field. I am lucky to be surrounded by such wonderful people that can take the reigns and run an operation.

I will write weekly, giving you full insight to the operations and gossip from the Arizona Operations. If you''ve not yet come to stand your time, I have a post waiting for you.

Semper Vigilans.

Stacey O''Connell
AZ State Director
MCDC

From Native American on another blog post:

I just heard Senator McTraitor... OH I''m sorry... McCain got booed by some union guys at a presentation where he bad mouthed the American worker once again. He had the arrogance to offer anyone in the room $50.00 an hour to pick cabbage in Arizona and many in the crowd said they''d take it and McCain got pissed! Here''s the link to the article

http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-mccain-booed,0,7036880.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines

Now I''ve got an idea let''s just keep calling and emailing the crap out of him asking him about the $50.00 an hour Cabbage picking job. Get your fake Spanish accents ready and call him at (202) 224-2235 and email him at http://mccain.senate.gov/index.cfm?fuseaction=Contact.Home

Spread the word and let''s harass the crap out of this j#(^#$$! Oh yeah, throw in the words "You''ll never be the President because I don''t vote for DEMOCRATS" in there somewhere.

Thanks for your suggestions, Native American!

An excerpt from the Newsday article:

McCain is Booed by Labor Activists

By RON FOURNIER
AP Political Writer

April 4, 2006, 2:51 PM EDT

WASHINGTON -- Sen. John McCain threatened on Tuesday to cut short a speech to union leaders who booed his immigration views and later challenged his statements on organized labor and the Iraq war.

"If you like, I will leave," McCain told the AFL-CIO''s Building and Construction Trades Department, pivoting briefly from the lectern. He returned to the microphone after the crowd quieted.

"OK, then please give me the courtesy I would give you."

~SNIP~

McCain is a pompous blowhard. They should have let the arrogant S.O.B leave.

To read the entire article, click on the title link!

As debate in the Senate drags on, there doesn''t seem to be consensus by enough people to reach cloture and overcome a filibuster that would allow a vote on the McKennedy amnesty bill in the Senate!

What great news!

I''m sure Ted Kennedy is knee deep in a bottle of scotch by now (Mary Jo Kopechne could not be reached for comment), and John McCain (the Presidential candidate in search of a constituency) has likely threatened to pass a law banning corporate and Vietnamese campaign contributions for everyone in the Senate, except he and his fellow members of the Keating Five (are there any left in the Senate but McCain?).

Keep up the pressure, folks. If there is no consensus on the structure of amnesty, there will very likely be a vote on Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist''s border security FIRST bill. This is the best we''re likely to get from the Senate... and we''ll deal with the visa issue in the Frist bill in conference to reconcile the Senate bill with the House.

Call, phone, fax, email -- AND MEET WITH YOUR SENATOR, if possible. Force the vote on the Frist bill, and your Senator -- no matter which party, after being unable to reach a "compromise" on amnesty will be forced to vote up or down on border security only! What a connundrum for the pro-amnesty crowd. How will they be able to explain a "NO" on border security vote after not being able to reach a compromise on amnesty? HA!

And a special "Alex Haley Award" goes to Senators Mel Martinez and Chuck Hagel for their "ROOTS" compromise proposal. How absurd to ask, as the basis for amnesty, by definition an "undocumented" illegal alien for authentic documentation proving how long they''ve been in the United States. What a way to flood the criminal black market with fresh dollars for forged documents! Do we have to remind these Senators that four of the 9/11 hijackers used the underground illegal alien black market to secure drivers licenses? I suppose we do. Martinez and Hagel are geniuses! NOT.

Further, every single one of these ludicrous amnesty proposals count on the Department of Homeland Security growing to a gargantuan size in an attempt to administer amnesty to the 12-20 million illegal aliens already here (it is likely those estimates are stunningly low, and the true numbers soon will be dwarfed as the human tsunami continues across our southern border to get in under the wire for amnesty).

How much would this amnesty cost the American taxpayer? More than likely we could pay for a fence along the entire southern border and parts of the north, a doubling of the Border Patrol, 36,000 National Guard deployed to the border and the entire War in Iraq for what this amnesty would end up costing us in not only administration but social services for the tens of millions of people who will come out of the woodwork (and across the borders) to apply for amnesty.

From the Fox News website this evening:

GOP Senators Look for Compromise on Immigration Reform
Tuesday, April 04, 2006

WASHINGTON — Immigration reform continues to split the Senate as no single plan to address the more than 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States has emerged with enough support to defeat a deal-ending filibuster.

Key votes testing the viability of any of the proposals being debated could occur on Thursday. The so-called cloture votes would shut down any possible filibuster. It would take 60 senators to defeat the parliamentary tactic, but at this point no bill has the support of 60 senators.

"I do not think we have the votes for cloture right now or it''s very close, and to have a cloture vote and fail would just set us back," said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., who helped usher to the Senate floor the most popular bill, sponsored by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.

McCain said a majority in the 100-member Senate support his and Kennedy''s proposal to provide green cards to illegal immigrants after they''ve worked in the United States for six years. But the lawmakers acknowledge that conservatives who oppose the measure on grounds it amounts to amnesty have enough support to block the measure.

Immigration has sharply divided Republican senators as well as the rest of the nation. Hundreds of thousands of immigrant protesters have marched in cities around the country in support of a guest worker program, and organizers are planning a "National Day of Action" on April 10 in 65 cities in support of a guest worker plan.

On the flip side, volunteer groups like the Minuteman Project have assailed the Bush administration for lax border security and started going out on their own to monitor the border and report border jumpers to federal officials. Opponents say President Bush''s support for a guest worker program amounts to "amnesty," or giving illegal immigrants greater access to citizenship than those who enter according to current U.S. law.

"What we cannot support ... is amnesty. To me, amnesty is when you give someone who has clearly broken the law a leg up on the pathway to citizenship. Giving illegal immigrants a special path to citizenship essentially rewards people who broke the law," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.

Frist has offered a separate bill that does not deal with illegal immigrants, but boosts border enforcement and cracks down on employers who hire illegal workers. The House in December passed a bill that would make being in the country illegally a felony.

Frist spoke after the vast majority of the Senate GOP attended an hour-long meeting Tuesday morning to hear proposals for a compromise. But numerous members emerged to say no compromise had been found.

What had been offered at the meeting was a plan by Sens. Mel Martinez of Florida and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, in what is being dubbed a "roots concept" bill.

The Martinez-Hagel bill would propose splitting illegal immigrants into two categories: those who have been in the United States for more than five years and those who are newer arrivals. Those who can prove they have been in the United States for at least five years would be allowed to stay and file for legal residency and citizenship under the rules set out by the McCain-Kennedy plan. According to that plan, illegals would have to pay a $2,000 fine and back taxes, would have to be proficient in English and civics and would have to pass a background check. After 11 years, they could become U.S. citizens.

Those who have been in the United States less than five years would have to go to "a point of entry" like El Paso, Texas, and fill out papers to stay. They would not have to return to their country of origin. It''s unclear if these people would be able to get on the path to citizenship; most likely they would not.

~SNIP~

To read the entire article, click on the title link!

This just in from Tim Donnelly:

April Border Watch Sees Increased Traffic

The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps hit the borders again in CA with little fanfare from the media, who were too busy making sure that the public saw only sanitized, "peaceful" coverage of the violent, anti-American mobs in the streets of many of our cities.

Many of our membership were discouraged until they came down to the border watch, where at least they felt they could make a difference. One person described it as "therapy".

All the talk in the Senate & in the media about Amesty has increased traffic immensely. Border Patrol (BP) has considerably fewer assets deployed to deal with the onslaught of crossings and smuggling as political will at the top wanes and leans toward Amnesty (aka Guest Worker).

What can you do? If you can make it the border, come.
If you cannot, tell 10 friends, and get at least one to join, and come in your place.

Keep calling your representatives.

Tell your Senators that you do not want to reward people who raise a foreign flag on our streets and desecrate the American flag with citizenship.

Tell your Congressman that you would rather they do nothing than than saddle us with an amnesty, guest worker program or whatever else they want to call making illegal behaviour legal.

Here are my thoughts on what we should push for:

1) Secure the border by any and all means necessary in the interest of National Security and Public Safety.

2) Give enforcement of our immigration laws a chance:
Pair up the IRS & OSHA with ICE to go after illegal employers who exploit cheap, illegal, unregulated labor that is subsidized by the citizen. Prosecute any and all fraud of public benefits programs.

3) Don''t do anything with 12, 20 or however many million are here illegally for at least 5 years. They are not living in the shadows. We are repeatedly told they are not a threat to us. So, what''s the rush?

Let''s see if securing the border to prevent further illegal crossings combined with enforcement efforts aimed at employers and those who defraud us of public benefits, will dry up demand.

It is possible that a lot of the people here illegally will voluntarily go home if companies have to pay a huge price for hiring them, and if we stop handing out benefits to illegal aliens that should be reserved for citizens in need.

If we allow another amnesty, if history is our guide (think 1986 amnesty first, enforcement never), we will wind up with 3 times as many people applying as we think are here illegally.

Those are my thoughts. Below is a report of the activity in our area:

This weekend we saw 3 times the traffic on the first weekend that we saw for the whole month of October:

O''Neill Valley:

Friday, March 31st
1600 hrs: BP spots 15 individuals crossing.
Apprehends 3 along with 11 back packs containing 879 lbs. of marijuana and 1 AR15 Assualt weapon with (2) 30 round banana clips, 13 guys flee south

Boulevard, CA:

22:30 hrs: 12 POI''s spotted walking down private road near our camp. Reported. No confirmation of apprehension, but massive BP presence in area.

Sat, April 1st, 2006

Boulevard, CA:

6:30 AM: SD Sector Chief Braun spots 2 coyotes
(guides) wearing booties to cover their tracks, headed south. (could have been the guides who trafficked the group of 12 the night before)

Sun, April 2nd, 2006

9:00 AM. C. Braun and Ops crew spotted 3 POI''s on back road and reported to BP.

Undisclosed location:

9:45 AM: Director of Ops, Imus spots additional group of 4 POI''s (persons of interest) northbound cross border. 3 males; 1 female. Radios in sighting. Observes BP apprehension.

Boulevard, CA:

19:30 PM MM volunteers Waite observed 2 POI''s standing on corner of private road to campground and HWY 94. They pulled over on opposite side of road to report to BP. Both individuals ran toward their car thinking they had stopped to give them a lift.
Unconfirmed at this time whether BP provided transport.

20:45 PM: MM volunteers heading out for an op spotted a DHS Bus picking up 15 POI''s at same location.
Appears some major human smuggling ring is operating right adjacent to MM field headquarters in the Outdoor World RV Park.

Godspeed.

Tim Donnelly
Leader, Minuteman Civil Defense Corps of California

Senator Johnny Isakson of Georgia has announced that he will seek to amend any illegal immigration legislation with an amendment to prohibit implementation of any guest worker program until the Department of Homeland Security certifies in writing that U.S. borders are sealed and secured.

Sounds interesting and worthy of support in case the RINOs side with the Democrats and push guest worker amnesty through.

Isakson: No Guest Worker Plan
Until Department of Homeland Security Certifies That U.S. Border Is Secure
‘Before we address any other issues, we must secure and seal our borders’

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) today announced that he is seeking to amend the immigration reform legislation currently being debated on the Senate floor to prohibit implementation of any guest worker program until the Department of Homeland Security certifies in writing that U.S. borders are sealed and secured.

“The people of this country are looking to us to secure our borders for the homeland and for immigration. We must secure them first before we do anything else,” Isakson said on the Senate floor. “Those reforms that involve guest workers must only be implemented after the certification by the Secretary of Homeland Security that our borders are secure.”

Isakson’s amendment would prohibit the implementation of any guest worker program until the Secretary of Homeland Security certifies in writing to the President and to Congress that the border is sealed and secure. Isakson offered the amendment this morning, and the Senate was expected to vote on it in the next several days.

Isakson cited the 1986 amnesty program created by President Ronal Reagan that granted amnesty to 3 million illegal immigrants but failed to appropriate the funds necessary to secure the border. The result, Isakson said, was that millions more immigrants flooded into the United States illegally and now are straining our schools, our hospitals and our local jails.

“I will fight as hard as I can to see to it that whatever passes this United States Senate requires first and foremost the securing of our border before the extension of any guest workers or creation of any new guest worker program,” Isakson said. “If we don’t, we’ll have recreated the problem we created in 1986. We will deal not with just 3 million illegals coming, but millions and millions and millions more – all because we looked the other way.”

Isakson also planned to introduce other amendments to beef up security along the U.S. borders that mirror the provisions of a border security bill he introduced on March 9. That bill, S.2394, provides increased manpower, equipment and technology to secure the U.S. border and stop the influx of illegal immigration, including a provision to provide more than $450 million to acquire and maintain a squadron of at least 25 unmanned aerial vehicles with high-tech sensors and satellite communication. This would allow coverage on the border by an unmanned vehicle 24 hours a day. Currently, there is only one unmanned aerial vehicle operating along the U.S.-Mexico border.

On Feb. 22, Isakson led a Congressional delegation to the U.S.-Mexico border, which included stops in San Diego, Fort Huachuca, Ariz., and Manzanillo, Mexico. In Arizona, Isakson viewed the one and only unmanned aerial vehicle operated by Customs and Border Protection. This one vehicle is flown along the border and can detect individuals trying to come across the border illegally. The border protection agents then use the signals from this detection system to catch these illegal immigrants and to stop them from entering the U.S. On the border at San Diego, Isakson was present when scanners detected a pickup truck with a false bed concealing 13 illegals.

This just in from Dr. Mike Vickers, in Texas:

Texas Border Operations Update

On Saturday, April 1st, the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps began its month-long border watch on a ranch in South Texas. The ranch is 70 miles north of the Rio Grande River, which separates Texas from Mexico. Hundreds of volunteers from all over Texas and many other states will be traveling to South Texas to participate in this April month-long watch. The area is inundated with hundreds of illegal aliens on a daily and nightly basis causing damage to ranchers’ land, homes, and the environment.

More than 87 illegal aliens were reported by midnight on April 1st, the first day of the border watch! Some of these sightings are available on video.

A community effort of law enforcement was done in the capture of a Coyote and 17 illegals. The Texas State Troopers, the local sheriff’s department and the Border Patrol all converged upon the vehicle in question. The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps gave first alert to the illegal activity.

The April month-long border watch is being conducted on the borders of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, and several states along the Canadian border.

There is still time to go to the border!

This field report just in from Dr. Tom Williams, Washington State:

After consultation with our Sheriff, we delayed going on line until the protestors left the Border and blockaded Camp Standing Bear. We were having a great cookout, with Bill G. Orig MM, and Bear cooking. The Sheriff re-positioned the OBL. who tried to follow us as we posted, about 1600 but we locall boys know the county roads and had great comm. Ray Yuberra had training up here for the Legal Observers, buts the Sheriff wouldn''t tell them were our OP''s were.

A Seattle radio show asked me what we were going to do with all the protesters/observers, and I said that we were frightened of the confrontation, so we may go to Seattle to Home Depot. That spawned a anti-MM plan, with protesters there, and telling all to dress in work clothes, get picked up by certaub vehicles which would take them to a ralley point, drop the off only to get picked up by another organizer etc. They were dissapointed by our absence.

We put my well known big white truck on the line and put MM Winnie the Po in it, with my well known USMC cap and red, white and blue jacket -- I always will -- and left him there, private property. MM signs in the windows that we use. BP watched it, and it bacame a great joke, and now the position is known as "Winnie''s place". BP radio called and said Winnie has been on duty for 26 hours, and when was he going to get relieved?

The legal observers have yet to find us, but may have sat watching Winnie for two or three hours, but that is unsubstantiated..

23 MM on the weekend five new for training so far. 26 miles, eight to ten OP''s, 15 local MM and three out of towners, so far, for the whole month.

BP and SO have our backs. We make sure the camera operators can see our MM when we set up.

You fellows be careful down there.
God Bless

Lima6

Dr. Tom Williams

You can see Dr. Tom Williams in an interview on the Lou Dobbs program video posted yesterday.

The pro-illegal alien crowd is calling for a boycott of work, school and shopping on May 1st. Make sure to save up any big shopping you''ve got planned in the future for May 1st!

Strange how this "coalition" names themselves after the far left, pro-terrorist, hate-America-blame-America-first organization that exists in America today: ANSWER

Or is it a coincidence? Note the communist/socialist/pro-terrorist organizations leading this coalition: ANSWER''s steering committee includes the Free Palestine Alliance, the Partnership for Civil Justice, the Nicaragua Network, the Korea Truth Commission, the Muslim Student Association, the Mexico Solidarity Network and the Party for Socialism and Liberation.

Also please note the pro-Communist movement''s "May Day" celebrations are held on May 1st in recognition of the Soviet Union''s struggle for the communist laborer.

These people couldn''t do more damage to the pro-illegal movement if they tried!

From our good friend Jerry Seper in today''s Washington Times:

Boycott set to support illegals
By Jerry Seper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published April 4, 2006

Immigration rights organizers today will call for a nationwide boycott of work, school and shopping on May 1 to protest congressional efforts to clamp down on illegal aliens as part of pending immigration-reform legislation.

The "Great American Boycott of 2006" is only one in a series of large-scale events the protesters hope will sway lawmakers to put millions of illegal aliens on track toward permanent residency and U.S. citizenship.

"The massive March 25 march and rally in Los Angeles of well over one million immigrant workers and their supporters -- along with protests and student walkouts throughout the United States -- is irrefutable evidence that a new civil rights and workers'' rights movement is on the rise," said Raul Murillo, one of the key organizers and president of the Hermandad Mexicana Nacional.

"In order to realize the goal of legalization for the millions of undocumented workers, we have the obligation to keep pressing the Congress of the United States to legislate immigration reform that grants full legalization for all immigrants."

Sarah Sloan, a spokeswoman for boycott organizers, said the boycott, additional marches and rallies in at least 30 cities nationwide beginning next week are designed to highlight opposition to House legislation that would crack down on illegal aliens.

The Act Now to Stop War & End Racism (ANSWER) coalition, which organized the Los Angeles march to win "full rights for undocumented workers," is confident its new "national action" will prove successful.

ANSWER''s steering committee includes the Free Palestine Alliance, the Partnership for Civil Justice, the Nicaragua Network, the Korea Truth Commission, the Muslim Student Association, the Mexico Solidarity Network and the Party for Socialism and Liberation. It denounces as racism attempts to criminalize illegal aliens.

A bill approved in the House, 239-182, would, among other things, increase immigration enforcement and border security, build a fence along 698 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border, make illegal entry a felony and penalize those who help illegals enter the United States.

Boycott organizers think the Senate Judiciary Committee, under the pressure of massive protests last week, adopted a series of reforms in sharp contrast to the House-approved bill.

The Senate bill that would create a guest-worker program and put millions of illegal aliens on track toward permanent residency was approved last week by the Senate Judiciary Committee 12-6. It now goes to the full Senate. If approved, then it and the House version must be reconciled before it can be presented to President Bush.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., Wisconsin Republican and author of the House bill, yesterday called border security and immigration reform "the toughest and most complex government policy issue around, and one that requires a civil, careful and thoughtful discussion to arrive at a policy that reflects that we are both a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws."

"I am disappointed by the erroneous accusations lodged against the strong House-passed border-security bill, aimed at preventing illegal immigration, that I sponsored," he said.

Mr. Sensenbrenner said alien-smuggling rings present an enormous problem and the House bill provides new tools for prosecutors to fight smuggling rings, "not the humanitarian and church groups, alleged by illegal-alien supporters." He said targeting alien-smuggling gangs is the intent -- and the effect -- of the House bill.

"I would hope everyone would embrace a good-faith effort to combat alien-smuggling gangs, rather than engage in fear-mongering that clergy and good Samaritans will be thrown in jail," he said. "That''s absolutely false -- and beneath the level of dialogue this important issue deserves."

~SNIP~

To read the entire article, click on the title link!

The Associated Press is reporting tonight that the Border Patrol spokesman, Johnny Bernal, would like to clarify his "misstatement" earlier today regarding the Minutemen and their reports of illegal aliens crossing the border. What he really meant to say is that there have been no reports of Minuteman violating anyone''s civil rights at the border:

Border Patrol Clarifies Minuteman Migrant Sightings

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) -- The U.S. Border Patrol has received calls from the Minuteman border watch group reporting sightings of illegal immigrants days into the group''s monthlong Arizona operation.

Johnny Bernal, a spokesman for the patrol''s Tucson sector which encompasses most of the Arizona-Mexico border, said Monday that he wanted to clarify an earlier misstatement that he had not seen a single report of any sightings.

"What I meant was that we have had no negative reports involving the Minutemen as far as assaults, violations of human rights, holding people at gunpoint," Bernal said. "As far as them calling in information, that has happened numerous times."

Chris Simcox, national leader of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, said Minuteman volunteers called the Border Patrol''s Tucson sector to report sightings of 298 people believed to be illegal immigrants between Saturday afternoon and Monday afternoon, including 85 people seen from an airplane.

Bernal said his office had not totaled the calls received, but that "at this point, my office does not have anything to contest their claims."

"I appreciate their positive statement, and we appreciate their help and we''re honored to be able to assist them in strengthening homeland security," Simcox said.

In Arizona, the Minutemen are operating near Three Points, about 35 miles north of the Mexican border. A few hundred volunteers are manning patrol lines along some 20 miles of private ranch land looking for intruders. They are to call or radio the Border Patrol with any sightings.

This is only the most recent border operation for the volunteer group. The initial patrol in April 2005 created widespread controversy, with civil rights groups and the Border Patrol saying they feared the potential for violence created by the presence of armed civilians on the border. No violent incidents were reported, however.

Border Patrol agents apprehended 23 people in one group Monday afternoon, bringing the total apprehensions to 82 people out of 298 sightings the Minutemen have reported since the operation began, Simcox said.

~SNIP~

To read the entire article, click on the title link!

Another from Claudia Cowan of Fox News from Sheppard Smith''s Fox Report tonight.

In this video, Claudia confronts the ACLU "Legal Observers" leader in Arizona, Ray Yabarra. Check it out!

To see the video: CLICK HERE!

Wonder if all of those Senators are happy about now that they waited until April to debate illegal immigration. They can''t be too happy with all of the positive coverage the Minutemen are getting nationwide, as well as the exposure of thousands of illegal aliens coming across the border every single day.

The video from Hannity & Colmes this evening with the Chris Simcox interview and the footage from Fox News and Minuteman cameras.

To view the video: CLICK HERE!

Fox News Reporter Claudia Cowan is on the border with the Minutemen and a Fox News satellite truck. They did this LIVE report today during the John Gibson Big Story program -- some great footage of the Minutemen in action and a group of illegals spotting the Minutemen and running back for the border.

To view the video, CLICK HERE!

Sean Hannity sent a Fox News camera crew to the border with Chris Simcox and the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps this weekend. The Fox crew went out on patrol with different groups of Minutemen.

The exclusive footage from the Fox News cameras will air tonight along with footage from Minutemen cameras and a live interview from Three Points, AZ, with Chris Simcox, as Fox News still has a satellite truck at the border with the Minutemen.

Hannity & Colmes
Fox News Channel
9:00 pm Eastern

For those who miss it, we will put up a link to the video when it becomes available!

Amidst an ABC article rife with inaccuracies about the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, they FINALLY got ONE THING RIGHT. President Bush DID NOT call the Minutemen "vigilantes."

Will wonders never cease? I know, I know, a stopped clock is right twice a day...

Also, in this story they report 5 illegals stumbling into MCDC Headquarters in Three Points, AZ yesterday. What they do NOT report in this article, and what they DID get on film, was that the group was starving and thirsting from their ordeal, the Minutemen present rescued them by giving them food and water before calling the Border Patrol. Further, that went unreported in this piece, one of the illegal aliens who spoke perfect English said ON CAMERA that he understood what the Minutemen were doing protecting America''s borders and that when he becomes an American citizen, he will join the Minutemen.

Wonder why they didn''t report the incident accurately? NOT.

From the ABC News website:

~SNIP~

all, eight states along the Mexican and Canadian borders will be staked out by the volunteers.

In addition to the Arizona apprehensions, a group of migrants crossing the New Mexico border was also reported to the authorities. "We hadn''t been on the line more than 30 minutes when we spotted our first group of seven," said Bob Wright, director the state''s Minuteman group.

The operation comes at a time when congressional efforts to reform immigration laws have put the issue at the center of a growing national debate.

Although last year''s project was peaceful, the Minutemen were criticized as "vigilantes."

President Bush, who favors a guest worker program that would allow illegal immigrants already holding jobs in the United States to stay, denounced "vigilantism" last year, without referring to any group in particular. This year he has said nothing so far.

~SNIP~

To read the entire article, click on the title link!

Click this link to watch a clip from Lou Dobbs Tonight about the Minutemen and the start up of MCDC''s Secure Our Borders operation.

A transcript of the segment should be up on CNN''s website later today. Click here to access the transcript.

This just in from California Minuteman, Tony Dolz:

By Tony Dolz
Website www.dolz.com
Published in American Chronicle
April 1, 2006

Our President tells us that Guest Worker Amnesty is not Amnesty. It is now transparent to most Americans that Guest Worker Amnesty is for the benefit of cheap illegal labor profiteers and their illegal employees. Tenaciously advancing this position is hurting our Republican Party and putting our nation at risk.

There is a history of deceit, mismanagement, corruption and misuse of tax-payers money behind our government''s past Guest Worker Amnesties not to mention the government''s failure to secure our borders and enforce immigration law.

Guest Worker Amnesty language was defeated in the House of Representatives by a large majority in December and by 6 out of 10 Republicans in the Senate Judiciary Committee this week.

In 1986 Congress passed the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA). IRCA established procedures whereby certain illegal aliens could apply for amnesty to remain in the United States and have their status adjusted to that of temporary resident aliens (8 U:S:C. § 1255). IRCA also contained provisions for employer sanctions for hiring illegal aliens. This was an amnesty, clear and simple.

As a result of the 1986 amnesty, millions of unethical employers were able to keep the cheap and docile illegal alien employees that they already employed. IRCA changed the status of 3.5 million illegal aliens to temporary residence status. Since then those former illegal aliens have grown families and brought in relatives for family reunification and thereby increasing their numbers by millions more. As for employer sanctions thereafter, it has been a great failure. Out of millions of crooked employers who intentionally and knowingly hired illegal aliens after 1986 only a handful has been fined. There were 3 employer sanctions in 2005.

Our government promised us in 1986 that if we, the people, consented to this amnesty to end all amnesties, that the government would secure our borders, stop the further inflow of illegal aliens and take away the incentive to come to our country illegally by enforcing employer sanctions.

Well, our government did not do as promised.

Starting from zero illegal aliens following the passage of IRCA in 1986, (the amnesty to end all amnesties), an unknown number of illegal aliens between 12 and 20 million or more have invaded our country and are claiming squatters'' rights. Virtually no employer sanctions exist and 1 in 20 workers in the nation is an illegal alien.

Have all the millions of illegal aliens come to America to work? Well, no!

28% of prisoners in federal prisons are illegal aliens, so a large percentage of them came here to commit crimes. In California the tax-payers pay $1.4 billion to incarcerate illegal aliens.

Illegal aliens also come for free medical care and a free education.

Through the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), the Federal Government mandates that emergency hospital provide medical services to the indigent including illegal aliens. The massive wave of illegal aliens in California and the nation are paid low salaries and are not provided with healthcare and on-the-job accident insurance by their crooked employers, so they use emergency hospitals for every need from treating the flu to a pregnancy. 60 emergency hospitals have closed in California and many are on the brink of bankruptcy.

Free education is another big attraction. Depending on the state, it costs between $8262 and $16,000 to educate one child per year in the United States . Earning minimum wage, most illegal aliens do not pay much tax, if any tax; but the state of California tax-payers pay $8262 for each illegal alien student in our public schools while the cost in Alaska is $16600 (Source: "Revenues and Expenditures by Public School Districts: School Year 2002-03," published by the Department of Education in November 2005) .

Other popular services for the badly paid illegal aliens includes Foods Stamps. The Federation of American Immigration Reform calculates that California tax-payers pay $10.5 billion to provide services to illegal aliens, or $1083 per household. In conclusion, some illegal aliens come to work, but not all and when they work, they don''t earn enough to take care of themselves and their families. The tax-payers have to make up the difference between the cheap wages the crooked employers pay and the cost of a living wage through compensatory tax-paid social services. The illegal aliens that are doing the best economically are the ones engaged in drug trafficking. According to a special investigation by CBS News in 2005, drug trafficking generates $140 billion annually.

Do illegal aliens come to do jobs that Americans will not do?
No, that is a myth.

~SNIP~

To read the entire article, click on the title link!

The Associated Press today is reporting that a Border Patrol spokesperson in the Tucson Sector, Johnny Bernal, says the Minutemen aren''t reporting any sightings to Border Patrol. Well, there have been plenty of sightings reported to Border Patrol over the weekend -- and we have video coming in from the field to prove it!

From the Associated Press:

Border Patrol, Minutemen at odds over sightings of migrants

Associated Press
Apr. 3, 2006 01:05 PM

TUCSON- A U.S. Border Patrol spokesman said Monday he had not seen a single report of any sightings of illegal immigrants by the Minuteman border watch group, which began a monthlong operation in Arizona on Saturday.

"I have not seen one single report - no reportable event as far as the Minutemen are concerned," said Johnny Bernal, a spokesman for the patrol''s Tucson sector, which encompasses most of the Arizona-Mexico border.

But Chris Simcox, national leader of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, called that "an absolute, blatant lie."

He contended that Minuteman volunteers had called in sightings of 262 people to the Border Patrol''s Tucson sector between Saturday afternoon and Monday morning - including 85 seen from an airplane.

In Arizona, the Minutemen are operating near Three Points, about 35 miles north of the Mexican border. A few hundred volunteers are manning patrol lines along some 20 miles of private ranch land looking for intruders. They are to call or radio the Border Patrol with any sightings.

This is only the most recent border operation for the volunteer group. The initial patrol in April 2005 created widespread controversy, with civil rights groups and the Border Patrol saying they feared the potential for violence created by the presence of armed civilians on the border. No violent incidents were reported, however.

~SNIP~

To read the entire article, click on the title link!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

TAKE AN AMERICAN FLAG TO WORK DAY THURSDAY, APRIL 6, 2006

MINUTEMEN WILL PARTICIPATE AT THE BORDER

PHOENIX, AZ (April 3, 2006) – Chris Simcox, President of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps (“MCDC”), announced today the Minuteman “Take An American Flag To Work Day,” Thursday, April 6, 2006. The thousands of Minutemen patrolling our borders each and every day, twenty-four hours a day for the month of April will be participating at the borders.

“TAKE AN AMERICAN FLAG TO WORK DAY!

“Please pass this message along to everyone you know and every patriotic blogger you can get involved. Contact any patriotic group you belong to. Call, email and fax your local media and talk radio shows. We don''t have George Soros to bankroll a publicity campaign. We just have us. Stand up for America and Old Glory this Thursday, and TAKE AN AMERICAN FLAG TO WORK!”

From Champlain, New York:

Minuteman Group Visits Area Borders

POSTED: 10:38 am EDT April 3, 2006
UPDATED: 10:53 am EDT April 3, 2006

PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. -- A controversial group of citizens calling themselves the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps will be visiting the New York, Vermont and New Hampshire borders with Canada over the next week.

The group wants to help U.S Border Patrol protect the borders around the country.

But border officials said all 6,000 miles of the border is patrolled by people watching ''round the clock using cameras and other technology -- and the job should be left to the trained professionals.

Minuteman spokesman Peter Lanteri said the organization simply wants to be an extra group of eyes and ears for the government.

"We''re all patriots," Lanteri said. "We all love our country. We don''t want to see it hurt. We don''t want to see people that aren''t supposed to be here, taking our jobs. It''s just a matter of -- we love our country, and we want to see it change direction, as opposed to where it''s heading now."

In a Press-Enterprise (California)newspaper op-ed, they really nailed El Presidente Fox:

Border hypocrisy

10:00 PM PDT on Sunday, April 2, 2006

It takes nerve for Mexican President Vicente Fox to call the United States'' lax immigration policy "harsh" and decry the construction of a border security fence as "shameful."

Mexico''s enforcement of its own southern border makes the journey of illegal immigrants entering the United States seem like a pleasant, guided tour.

The Mexican government in July 2001 invoked Plan Sur, or the Southern Plan, to stem the tide of illegal Central American immigrants into the country. Fox ordered thousands of soldiers to Mexico''s border with Guatemala and Belize. Those troops aided in the deportation of 150,000 illegal immigrants in the first year of the program. In 2004, Mexico deported 203,000 illegal immigrants, thanks to its beefed-up enforcement.

The Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies and the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at UC San Diego reported 2,000 human-rights violations of Central American migrants in the south of Mexico between 1998 and 1999.

Gabriela Rodriguez, the migrants'' rights expert on the United Nations Human Rights Commission, reported in 2003 that Mexico is "one of the countries where illegal immigrants are highly vulnerable to human-rights violations" including "degrading sexual exploitation and slavery."

Felipe de Jesus Preciado Coronado, the head of Mexico''s migration service, explained to the Washington Times in 2001 that his country''s southern border crackdown was necessary to solve the "national security problem" created by drug runners, human smugglers and other criminals.

That is, indeed, a sound national policy. And the United States can do the same -- minus, of course, the routine Mexican abuses -- without hearing lectures about the supposed immorality of securing its sovereign border.

What goes unreported by the mainstream media is our American law enforcement officers murdered as a direct consequence of the lawlessness at our borders.

From KVOA, Tucson, Arizona:

Grieving father supports Minuteman effort
April 3, 2006, 08:39 AM EDT

A grieving father whose son was killed by a suspected drug smuggler crossing the border illegally has come to Southern Arizona to show support for the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps.

The border watch group intensified its patrols over the weekend.

In August of 2002, 28-year-old Park Ranger Kris Eggle was killed as he pursued a Mexican national who illegally entered the U.S. through the border town of Sonoita, Sonora Mexico.

Kris Eggle’s father, Bob Eggle, says a more secure border could have prevented the death, and has returned to the desert where his son died to voice support for the Minutemen.

“(My son) was ambushed and murdered,” says Eggle as he gathered alongside some members of the Minutemen as they stood watch along the border.

Kris Eggle was killed in a hail of gunfire traded between a suspected Mexican drug smuggler and Mexican police at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument.

The suspected drug smuggler fled into Arizona by driving his car through an open area of the U.S./Mexico border.

Eggle says, “Where my son was murdered was not a fence, but (only) a line in the sand."

For that reason, Bob Eggle is in Southern Ariziona to voice his opinions on strengthening security along the border.

“He sacrificed his life in defense of our border,” says Eggle, “and, I''m here in his memory to offer support to these Minutemen who will try to guard our border.”

Officials from the U.S. Border Patrol say they neither support nor endorse Minuteman actions.

A spokesman for INS says law enforcement along the border should be done by federal agents, not private citizens.

However, Eggle says it goes beyond that: “If the border was under control, my son would still be here today. He''d be with me."

So, Eggle is also taking the opportunity to voice his support for a more secured fence along the U.S./Mexico line.

“Our borders are non-existent so that people come across in droves."

In some places, a barrier as little as a barb-wired fence, broken or cut through in many place, sits along the border, as was the case in the Kris Eggle was shot and killed by the man who crossed from Mexico into the U.S.

“And that, in fact, caused the murder of my son. That (being) too little response to create a danger zone along the border."

Meanwhile, dozens of members of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), calling themselves “legal observers,” followed members of the Minutemen organization over the weekend.

While observers report no abuse towards immigrants, they simply don''t agree with Minuteman practices.

Senator Jeff Sessions in debate last week on the floor of the Senate said the McKennedy amnesty fiasco should be called the "No Illegal Immigrant Left Behind Act."

Kudos to Senator Sessions of the great state of Alabama!

Excerpt from the Town Crier News blog:

~SNIP~

Wednesday, on the floor of the Senate, to his credit, Sen. Jeff Sessions displayed a visual of the 1986 Amnesty. You remember that - the promised “last amnesty” that would end illegal immigration???? His point was that the wording is the same as the Senate Judiciary Committee draft that they and the president won’t admit is amnesty.

Senator Sessions, in a matter of fact tone, stated that not only is this Senate Bill amnesty, it should be called “The no illegal Alien left behind Act!”.

Today every American needs to call their senator and let them know that no new guest workers, green carders, or “forgiven” illegal aliens are allowed until there is border security and that the legislation passed by the peoples House of Representatives is not to be ignored.

~SNIP~

Now a report on the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps 24/7 startup yesterday with a local Arizona flavor, from the Sierra Vista Herald:

Minuteman volunteers promise to do "Job the government won''t do"

BY JONATHAN CLARK

PASO ROBLES — The Minuteman Project kicked off its 2006 season of citizen border patrols Saturday with a rally filled with fiery rebukes of President Bush, the Senate and pro-immigrant protesters.

“President Bush, read my lips: secure our borders,” said Chris Simcox, Minuteman president and the event’s keynote speaker.

Dressed in an Uncle Sam T-shirt reading, “John McCain, I want you out of office,” Simcox borrowed the language of the current immigration debate to address the approximately 100 volunteers gathered at a private ranch 15 miles south of Paso Robles.

“We are here to take the job that Americans won’t take,” he said. “(Securing the border) is a job that George W. Bush and the Senate refuse to do.”

The Minuteman Project began a year ago to call attention to security problems along the nation’s porous southern border. Now the group is reprising its monthlong campaign just as the national debate over immigration heats up.

On Monday, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved a bill sponsored by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., that would create a guest-worker program and offer paths to citizenship for illegal immigrants. Critics have decried the bill as a form of amnesty for illegal behavior.

Meanwhile, Phoenix, Tucson and other cities with large immigrant populations have seen massive street protests against another measure that would make it a felony to be in the United States without documentation.

Simcox noted the current climate and warned his volunteers to “watch their p’s and q’s” as they carried out their mission of spotting and reporting illegal border crossers.

“There’s a good chance that with the level of tension right now, there will be some who try to force our hand,” he said. “So be extra alert and extra careful.”

Last year’s campaign drew concern from activists who worried the group would attract extremists and create violence. Border Patrol officials and President Bush also voiced concern over the group’s activities.

But the Minutemen were largely able to avoid unflattering incidents, earning them the respect of some citizens and political figures.

On Saturday, several politicians and political candidates took the stage to praise the Minutemen and criticize the current state of illegal immigration.

State Rep. Russell Pearce lashed out at Arizona cities and towns that he said acted as “sanctuaries” for undocumented immigrants and argued that there was a direct correlation between the state’s crime problem and illegal immigration.

Republican congressional candidate Randy Graf accused President Bush of promoting immigrant rights over those of U.S. citizens.

But perhaps the strongest words of the day came from Don Goldwater, Republican gubernatorial candidate and nephew of former Sen. Barry Goldwater.

Goldwater promised that if elected governor he would put the National Guard on the border, build a wall between the United States and Mexico, and go after businesses that hire illegal workers.

“And those illegal immigrants that are here now, I plan to put them in a tent city down on the border and use them as the labor force to build the wall and clean up the desert,” he said.

~SNIP~

To read the entire article, click on the title link!

From the Brownsville Herald, a report on the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps startup yesterday in Texas:

Minutemen Return
Group back in South Texas for patrols

BY CARI HAMMERSTROM
The Monitor

FALFURRIAS, April 1, 2006 — The Minutemen are back with more volunteers, better technology and an unwavering resolve to get the federal government to seal the borders.

Today begins the third month-long “Secure Our Borders” operation. The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps patrolled the southern and northern borders in October; civilian border observers will be doing much of the same throughout April.

The patrols will be ongoing in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, New Hampshire, New York and Washington.

But this time, the difference is that the full U.S. Senate is tackling contentious immigration reform in Washington.

The organization hopes its patrols will counter the numerous school walkouts and immigration rallies that activists have staged around the country.

“The original border Minuteman, Cesar Chavez, warned us decades ago that lawlessness breeds lawlessness; that allowing illegal immigration would drive down wages and import poverty. His predictions have been proven accurate,” said Chris Simcox, president and founder of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, in a statement.

“The current demonstrations are a not-so veiled threat of civil unrest if the government dares act to secure our borders.”

In Texas, the Falfurrias ranch of state director Michael Vickers will serve as the main stomping ground for the anti-illegal immigration group. His ranch, located just south of the Falfurrias U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint off U.S. Highway 281, is a hotspot for undocumented immigrant traffic.

Vickers has said in previous interviews that undocumented immigrants damage his fences, providing an escape route for livestock, and that they leave trash on his property as they try to circumvent the checkpoint.

In the Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley Sector, the area near Vicker’s ranch has been identified as the deadliest spot for undocumented immigrants. The leading cause of deaths is heat.

Vickers — a South Texas veterinarian specializing in treating animals bitten by poisonous snakes, and the discoverer of what became known as the Ames strain of anthrax — was appointed to the state director post in March. His duties have included recruiting volunteers for the movement, enforcing standard operating procedures and overseeing operations of local Texas chapters.

~SNIP~

To read the entire article, click on the title link!

The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps 24/7 border watches began yesterday in all four southern border states and in several northern border states.

From the Associated Press:

Minutemen Reopen Border Control Effort

By ARTHUR H. ROTSTEIN Associated Press Writer
© 2006 The Associated Press

THREE POINTS, Ariz. — Minuteman volunteers concerned about the continued flow of illegal immigrants across the border from Mexico gathered Saturday with lawn chairs, binoculars and cell phones for a new monthlong campaign aimed at raising public awareness.

A year after their first watch-and-report operation along the border in southeastern Arizona, members of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps embarked on a much larger effort in this state''s busy migrant-smuggling corridor.

"I''m concerned about what''s not being done by the government _ hasn''t been done for ages, apparently," said J. Glenn Sorensen, a retired school administrator now living in Flagstaff.

Sorensen, who was not involved last year, said he thinks the organization has already accomplished part of its purpose, "to draw national attention to an insecure border. I don''t think anybody wants to close the border _ I certainly don''t. Basically, I think they need to be secure."

No one in the group had any illusions about their campaign''s effectiveness, since it targets a relatively short section of the border for just a month. However, it comes at a time when Congress is debating changes to federal immigration laws, which have drawn supporters of legitimizing illegal immigrants to demonstrations across the country.

"This is like sticking a finger in the dike," said Ken Raymond, a retired electrical engineer and airplane mechanic from Tucson.

Yet some immigrants were apprehended. Minutemen volunteers in New Mexico alerted the Border Patrol to a group of immigrants Saturday.

"We hadn''t been on the line more than 30 minutes when we spotted our first group of seven," said Bob Wright, director of the state''s Minuteman group.

~SNIP~

To read the entire article, click on the title link!