Minuteman National Blog

From the Foster''s Daily Democrat on Sunday:

Minutemen: We''re just doing a good deed

Immigrants'' group: Tactics are worrisome

By NATE PARDUE

EXETER — For the most part, they sit in lawn chairs on fields and rural terrain — and wait.

Sometimes the day''s highlight is lunch at a nearby restaurant.

"It can be pretty boring. We figure if we''re lucky, maybe we''ll see a moose go by," said Ron Oplinus, 64, an Exeter resident and director of the New Hampshire chapter of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps.

The group, with more than 8,000 members nationwide, is made up of private citizens who serve as an unofficial border patrol. They are not affiliated with U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, the nation''s official border protection agency.

Their tools of the trade: cellphones, binoculars and something comfortable to sit on.

Members of the 16-person New Hampshire group will visit the town of Pittsburg, with a population of 863, to man the Canadian border for two days starting on Saturday. They will watch for illegal immigrants trying to enter the country in what is the state group''s first formal "operation."

Their efforts are necessary, Oplinus said, because the federal government doesn''t have enough manpower to do it themselves.

"Nobody really wants to do this, but as concerned citizens, it''s something we feel we have to do," said Oplinus, a retired engineer, divorcee and father of three. "We''re just another set of eyes and ears."

Minuteman operations begin with the selection of a location anywhere along the Canadian and Mexican borders. Members stake out their posts with other members of the group for safety reasons. Selecting a location is not a systematic process — anywhere there is a chance for illegal border-crossing has potential.

If they see anyone who appears to be crossing the border illegally, they call the nearest U.S. Customs and Border Protection office and provide any information they can — such as license plate numbers and physical descriptions.

The Minutemen are within their rights to patrol the border, as long as they are law-abiding and don''t interfere with Border Patrol officers. But federal officials aren''t going as far as to say the group''s efforts are constraining illegal immigration.

"The successes we are seeing are due to the men and women on the front line who work for the Border Patrol every day. We don''t fly in, work for a month, and leave. We are there every day, no matter the climate, patrolling and securing the border," said Todd Fraser, a Border Patrol spokesman.

Ross DeLacy, a Border Patrol spokesman for the Swanton, Vt., district, which includes New Hampshire, said there have been no instances where the Minutemen''s efforts have led to arrests of deportable aliens in the region.

But Oplinus said his group is making a difference, and hundreds of illegal immigrants have been identified and deported because of Minuteman operations in states like Arizona and Texas.

There essentially are two rules volunteers must follow before they can become part of the Minutemen: "obey all laws" and "avoid all contact with illegals."

"We don''t want to mix it up with these folks. We don''t want to take the law into our hands," Oplinus said.

But that''s exactly what some groups feel the Minutemen are doing.

~SNIP~

To read the entire article, 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 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

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

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.

From the Ocean County Observer:

Minutemen turn eyes to Lakewood
BY EDDIE HOLLOWELL
STAFF WRITER
LAKEWOOD — Each day, volunteers for the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps monitor the United States'' border with Mexico.

In a private border security project that began in April 2005, the volunteers watch and wait for men, women and children to attempt to illegally cross the border. Then they report them to the U.S. Border Patrol.

Yesterday, members from the New Jersey chapter of the Minuteman group had their eyes on Lakewood.

"We have to abide by the laws, but they don''t and nobody does anything about it," said Frank Shallis, 52, one of four Minutemen who spent the morning on Clifton Avenue yesterday.

Each morning, hundreds of day laborers gather for several blocks on Clifton Avenue waiting for contractors to come by and employ them for a day of work. Many are Spanish-speaking, undocumented residents.

It wasn''t the day laborers that the small group had their eyes on, but rather those employing them.

"I can''t fault them," the Somerset County resident said of the workers.

"I understand they have families, kids to feed. If I were them I''d probably do the same thing. But we have to enforce the laws of this country," Shallis said. "I fault our government for not keeping control of the situation."

Reached by telephone yesterday, Committeeman Robert W. Singer, who is also a state senator, said the legality of the situation is out of the township''s hands.

"I would more than welcome the federal government or the state to come in and do their jobs and take this situation out of our hands," Singer said. "We do not have the capacity or the authority to ar rest (the illegal workers or their employers)."

There is a continual discussion at Lakewood Committee meetings about the issue, and officials said they have been working behind the scenes to come up with a solution.

At Thursday night''s meeting, Mayor Meir Lichtenstein said the committee believes they have come up with a solution, crediting Singer and Committeemen Raymond G. Coles.

Officials declined to comment on the specifics of the plan, saying they will make a public presentation within the next couple of weeks. But on Thursday Lichtenstein again said he was open to the idea of setting up a muster zone, where immigrants seeking work could gather, adding, "We just need to find the right place."

The Minuteman group that gathered yesterday said towns that establish muster zones are allowing illegal activities to take place and are endangering their residents, both legal and illegal.

Lakewood resident Diane Reaves, 47, said she has taken her three children — ages 15, 13 and 11 — out of the public school system and began home schooling them. She said the schools are forced to cater to many students who either don''t speak English or don''t speak it well. She said this language barrier took attention in the classroom away from her children and was harmful to their education.

"When my grandparents came here from Italy they had to learn English to assimilate," said Reaves, who stood with the Minutemen group yesterday, along with her 13-year-old son Andrew.

~SNIP~

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

Minuteman Texas leader Dr. Michael Vickers in the San Antonio Express News:

Comment: Minutemen fill void left by law enforcement

Web Posted: 03/12/2006 12:00 AM CST
Mike L. Vickers
Special to the Express-News

As a citizen and rancher who has experienced the horrors of illegal immigration firsthand, I would like to respond to the Feb. 27 editorial "Aid from the state blitzes Minutemen."

There is no question in my mind that this editorial, denouncing the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, or MCDC, is a display of the total ignorance of the reality of the illegal immigration crisis on our nation''s southern border.

I live in Brooks County, 70 miles from the border and not four miles from a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint that is intended to catch illegal aliens. My ranch and those of my neighbors are negatively impacted on a daily basis by literally hundreds of suspected illegal aliens.

These are not people who are out jogging and have become lost. They are not hunters after game, and they are not children walking to school. They are the citizens of other countries who have paid thousands of dollars to a human "coyote" to take them to the United States in violation of our laws.

They are simply evading the Border Patrol by trespassing on my land. They cut my fences and destroy thousands of dollars of my property every month.

And the human cost is staggering. Last year, our dogs were found playing with a human skull. Last year, Brooks County''s limited resources were exhausted by the investigation of and the care for the bodies of 60 suspected illegal immigrants.

~SNIP~

To read entire commentary, click on the title link!

ANNOUNCING NEW YORK BORDER OPERATION STARTING SATURDAY, APRIL 1

The New York Minutemen are announcing their Northern Border Operation starting Saturday, April 1st. In October we had participants from 3 northern states. Lets break that number! Both the Border Patrol and the NY State Police have confirmed to the NY Minutemen that the situation at the northern border is worse then what is being reported. We need the help of some dedicated Minutemen from across the country. Length of this operation will be determined by participation.

Thank You,
Pete Lanteri
NY Minutemen
rzrblade@optonline.net

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

DR. MICHAEL VICKERS NAMED TEXAS STATE DIRECTOR OF MINUTEMAN CIVIL DEFENSE CORPS

(PHOENIX, AZ) March 9, 2006 – Al Garza, National Executive Director of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps (“MCDC”), today announced the appointment of Dr. Michael Vickers as Texas State Director for the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps.

Dr. Vickers, a veterinarian and ranch owner in Falfurrias, Texas, has seen firsthand the consequences of our unsecured borders. He estimates that last year, in nightly trespasses traversing his and his neighbor’s private land, an average of 1000 illegal aliens per day damaged fencing and other property, dispersed livestock and strew trash—as they made their way north after violating the U.S. national line. His ranch lies about 70 miles north of the Mexican border along Highway 281, a major route used by illegal aliens and drug smugglers.

As Texas State Director, Dr. Vickers will be responsible for recruiting fellow Texans, enforcing the MCDC standard operating procedures and overseeing the operations of local Texas MCDC chapters.

Dr. Vickers is bi-lingual. He is fluent in Spanish and English and is fond of Mexican culture. He is a native Texan, born and raised in the town of Sinton.

Dr. Vickers is a 1972 graduate of Texas A&M at College Station. His veterinary practice led him to discover what became known as the Ames strain of anthrax in 1981. He also specializes in treating animals bitten by poisonous snakes. The bulk of his practice is ranch practice, treating livestock in a 10 county area of South Texas.

Last October, Dr. Vickers’ ranch served as the headquarters for the Texas part of MCDC’s month-long ‘Secure Our Borders’ operation.

Dr. Vickers will lead a similar month-long effort in Texas this April.

In a statement, Garza congratulated Dr. Vickers on his appointment, “The Texas Minuteman Civil Defense Corps chapter is in great hands with Dr. Mike Vickers at the helm. With all the mixed signals coming from Washington, this year will see an influx of illegal border crossers seeking to take advantage of proposed guest worker amnesty programs. I have every confidence that Mike will do us all proud as he leads the effort in Texas to get the federal government to secure our borders.”