Government Condemns U.S. Civilian Patrols

Mexico condemned U.S. civilian groups that patrol the Mexican border to stop illegal immigrants, calling them racist and unacceptable.

Self-styled “peaceful vigilantes” in California said this week that they planned to mount a civilian patrol along a stretch of desert border east of San Diego in July, similar to April patrols in Arizona.

“The shows of racism and xenophobia ... particularly on the border between Mexico and Arizona, and which threaten to extend to other U.S. states, are unacceptable,” Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez said at a conference on immigration in El Paso.