- By JEREMIAH MARQUEZ, Associated Press Writer
Thursday, July 21, 2005
(07-21) 13:52 PDT LOS ANGELES, (AP) --
The Department of Homeland Security announced Thursday that it has no plans to enlist citizen volunteers to help patrol U.S. borders, one day after the agency''s top border enforcement official said he was exploring such an idea.
On Wednesday, Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Robert C. Bonner told The Associated Press that his agency was considering the training of volunteers to create "something akin to a Border Patrol auxiliary."
A Homeland Security spokesman issued a statement Thursday backing off Bonner''s controversial suggestion.
"There are currently no plans by the Department of Homeland Security to use civilian volunteers to patrol the border," spokesman Brian J. Roehrkasse said. "That job should continue to be done by the highly trained, professional law enforcement officials."
Roehrkasse added that Bonner, whose agency is part of Homeland Security, had not told department officials "any specific details of the idea."
Bonner''s comments followed the Minuteman Project, in which hundreds of volunteers — some of them armed — converged on a 23-mile stretch of the Arizona-Mexico border in search of illegal immigrants. The project drew international attention.
Before the project began, Bonner had urged citizens not to interfere with his agents'' work, saying "ordinary Americans" weren''t qualified for what can be a dangerous task.
But Bonner said Wednesday that his agency focused on citizen involvement after noting how eager Minuteman volunteers were to stop illegal immigration.
"It is actually as a result of seeing that there is the possibility in local border communities, and maybe even beyond, of having citizens that would be willing to volunteer to help the Border Patrol," Bonner said in an AP interview Wednesday. "But with some training and being organized in a way that would be something akin to a Border Patrol auxiliary."
Bonner noted that the idea was conceptual and that details such as whether citizens would be deputized to enforce federal immigration law hadn''t been worked out. A spokeswoman said that a range of proposals were being considered, including having volunteers do clerical work so more agents could work in the field.
A message left with a Customs and Border Protection spokeswoman was not immediately returned.
Immediate reaction to Bonner''s idea was generally skeptical.
A representative with the Border Patrol agents'' union called it irresponsible, immigrant friendly groups panned it and one organizer of the Minuteman Project said it was well-intentioned but not likely to become reality.
Homeland Security also said there already are programs for civilian volunteers such as Citizen Corps, which helps coordinate preparedness activities nationwide.
URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/n/a/2005/07/21/national/a135202D64.DTL