Citizen Border Patrols Hurry Up ... and Wait
NACO, Ariz. — John Lehmann came to this lonesome stretch of desert to find illegal immigrants, but on Saturday he couldn’t take his eyes off the wildlife.
“That’s a marsh hawk out there,†he enthused, as he watched the sleek bird sweep over the scrub. “We got them back in New York.â€
They also have illegal immigrants back in New York, which is why this corrections officer who had never been west of Buffalo was now standing a few yards from the Mexican border.
“I just want people who are coming to the U.S. to come here legally,†he said, scanning the harsh landscape with his binoculars. “In 10 or 20 years if this keeps up, we will have a real national crisis.â€
Lehmann, 46, was manning the last in a string of seven border outposts set up early Saturday along a 23-mile stretch of southeast Arizona by volunteers for the Minutemen Project. The roughly 200 participants have vowed to stay all month to deter illegal immigration.
Like many volunteers, Lehmann was carrying a gun and flying the flag of his state. He laid out bright pink strips on the ground so a Minutemen aircraft flying overhead could see his position.
The radio crackled.
“This is Rabbit One -- go ahead,†Lehmann said.
The pilot had spotted a group of what looked to be approaching migrants on the Mexican side of the border a few hundred yards from the rusted barbed-wire fence separating the countries.
The other radios sprang to life as sentinels up and down East Border Road chimed in with second-by-second reports of the group’s movement. Telescopes and binoculars from about 20 Minutemen were trained on the line of people in the distance.
Chris Simcox, one of the organizers of the project, warned that it could be an elaborate setup, provocateurs sent to confront the volunteers and make them somehow look bad.
“If they come over, we’ll stay out of their way,†Lehmann said.
At that point, the potential migrants were intercepted by members of Mexico’s Grupo Beta, which is charged with protecting the health and safety of those crossing the border. They turned the people around and led them back away from the fence.
Simcox rolled up in his car, smiling exultantly.
“They were on their way over here but saw us and realized they couldn’t make it,†he said. “I have been out here at night and counted up to 300 at once coming across. They will divide themselves into groups of 30 and all rush the fence at the same time. The Border Patrol gets maybe a third of them.â€
Simcox, who publishes the Tombstone Tumbleweed weekly newspaper, looked at the flimsy border fence with its truck-sized holes. Then he eyed the Minutemen volunteers camped out in SUVs and trucks up and down the road. Huge flags flew from each vehicle.
“I don’t care what it costs -- this is what homeland security should look like,†he said.
Southeast Arizona is the busiest illegal immigrant portal in the nation, with nearly half a million arrests last year. The Minutemen set up in the Naco Corridor, where most of the activity takes place.
It is here that migrants often take their chances against the desert as they head north. Many have died. Local hospitals, like the Copper Queen in nearby Bisbee, are on the verge of collapse due to the level of free care they must provide to immigrants injured during their crossing.
Drug dealers and smugglers frequent the area, which accounts for the number of Minutemen carrying side arms.
“I don’t want to shoot anyone, but I also don’t want to be a victim,†said 68-year-old Steve Fisher of Temecula, who carried a knife and a .38-caliber revolver on his belt. “This gun is so old it’s almost a collector’s item, but it’s a big gun and looks intimidating, which is why I carry it.â€
Jack Treese, 59, of Simi Valley stood nearby.
“They could easily snipe at us from across the border, and we couldn’t do anything about it,†Treese said.
Like all the Minutemen, Treese denied charges that the group was engaging in vigilantism.
In his view, unfettered illegal immigration is slowly eroding American society and no one has the political will to stop it.
The Minutemen say their mission is to report to the Border Patrol people they suspect are crossing the border illegally, not to detain or touch them. The Border Patrol has said it doesn’t want the help.
However, the Minutemen are standing their ground to do a job that, they contend, the government is failing to do.
“I’ve written letters and e-mails to President Bush,†Treese said. “What he is doing in Iraq is great, but on this issue he has failed. I’m fed up, and this is my way to get the government to do its job.
“If they don’t do anything, then we’ll be back.â€
As members of the group stood watch, they were also under surveillance: Monitors from the American Civil Liberties Union had hiked up behind the men.
“We are just going to keep an eye on what’s going on,†said Ray Ybarra of the Arizona ACLU, which wants to be sure no illegal immigrants’ civil rights are violated. The ACLU representatives carried their own radios, calling back and forth from locations around the area.
They also stood by during demonstrations by Minutemen and their supporters Saturday in Naco and in Douglas.
About 150 protesters gathered in front of the Douglas Border Patrol station chanting, “George Bush, do your job!â€
Sean Pearce, a police officer from suburban Phoenix, leaned on his pickup as Lee Greenwood sang “Dixie†on his radio.
“I think all of this will put the federal government on notice as to where we stand as citizens,†Pearce said.
He said that while on the job, he had been shot in the abdomen by an illegal immigrant as he executed a search warrant.
“Will this keep illegal immigrants from crossing?†he said. “Probably not.â€
Back on the border, the sun beat down fiercely. Simcox got on the radio and reminded everyone “to keep hydrated.†Time weighed heavily as they stared out at the vast, unmoving landscape.
It would be a long month.
Lehmann was already edging more toward bird watching than immigrant spotting.
“There’s that marsh hawk again,†he said brightly, as the bird glided over from Mexico. “Hey, look at that butterfly. Is that a monarch? We have those in New York.â€
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