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JUDICIAL WATCH PARTICIPATES IN MINUTEMAN PROJECT ON U.S.-MEXICO BORDER
Judicial Watch Staff Members Stand Shoulder-to-Shoulder on the Border with the Minutemen
(Washington, DC) Judicial Watch, the public interest group that fights government corruption, announced today that JW staff officially participated in the Minuteman Project along the Arizona-Mexico border. JW staff experienced firsthand the detailed training and orientation given to Minuteman Project volunteers, then served an eight-hour shift at a border observation post on the “Naco line,” just outside Tombstone, Arizona. Judicial Watch’s Chris Farrell and Brandon Millett traveled to Arizona to participate in the project. Judicial Watch initiated an investigation of Border Patrol and Homeland Security practices based on JW staff observations.
The Minuteman Project began as an effort of concerned citizens who, after years of writing letters and sending faxes to government agencies and Congress, chose to become peaceful, socially responsible activists. Chris Simcox, co-founder of the Minuteman Project accurately states in literature given to volunteers, “The human flood breaching our Homeland Defense is not necessarily the enemy per se; drug dealers, criminals and potential terrorists are.”
Minuteman Project volunteers, who patrol the 23-mile border along Mexico and Naco, Arizona, 24 hours per day, seven days per week, operate 16 observation posts and have reported more than 500 illegal immigrants to the Border Patrol in their few weeks of service. One Border Patrol agent, who wished to remain anonymous, told Judicial Watch that he and other field agents “support the Minutemen 100 percent,” and that “the Minuteman Project was responsible for reducing illegal crossings in the Naco Sector by 600 percent” over the last two weeks.
Minuteman Project volunteers promise to report all illegal crossings to U.S. Border Patrol agents, and to promptly retreat if confronted or even acknowledged by illegal immigrants. The Project, which is slated to run until April 30th, received high praise from Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO), CNN anchorman Lou Dobbs, and others.
“The Minuteman Project proves false the government claim that nothing can be done to protect our borders,” said Judicial Watch Director of Public Relations Brandon Millett. “In just two weeks, a group of committed American citizens has completely shut down the Naco Sector, which was once a super highway for illegal immigrants. Imagine what we could accomplish as a nation if our elected officials applied the same resolve.”
“The foremost threat to the security of our nation is the federal government’s continuing failure to secure our borders. The Minuteman Project demonstrates that we can secure the border. Now it’s time for the politicians in Washington, D.C., to do their sworn duty. We’ve had enough excuses,” said Chris Farrell, Director of Investigations for Judicial Watch.
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AMERICAN PATRIOTISM AND NATIONALISM AT WORK:
THE MINUTEMAN PROJECT
by David M. Church
Illegal immigration is a staid threat that not only places the safety of American citizens at risk, but it also jeopardizes our sovereign culture. The federal government has remained dormant on this issue by failing to keep our borders solidified, and as American citizens, we can no longer remain lethargic on this issue. The Minuteman Project is one example of patriotic and empathetic citizens taking the initiative to aggressively buttress our homeland security by opposing illegal immigration.
The sole purpose of the Minuteman Project is to galvanize the political will of our elected emissaries so that they can vehemently take a stand against the rampant problem of undocumented immigrants crossing our borders. Without the resolute will to seriously and courageously confront this grave issue, our homeland security is in peril. The Minuteman Project made it very lucid that this is not a call to arms but a call to patriotic and selfless service in an effort to enforce our sovereignty. Our Founding Fathers gave us the prerogative to overtly opine and to promulgate our dissatisfactions with our government through the first amendment of our Constitution. The work of the Minuteman Project is transforming the myopic view of illegal immigration into a prominent issue that will manifest our frail borders to the American people.
The Minuteman Project has been berated by Mexico and other organizations and people to include American elected officials. In fact, the volunteers have been compared to vigilantes. These volunteers are far from vigilantes, but they are compassionate and patriotic Americans, who are passionate about protecting the sovereignty of our culture for generations to come. They dedicate their time, efforts and energy to a cause that directly affects you and me every single day. A vigilante would not provide food, water and even money to a dehydrated illegal immigrant as some volunteers have. Is this an act of a vigilante? I do not see suppression, but I do see compassion and dedication. These volunteers are assiduous in their efforts and they totally surrender their mind, body and heart to this noteworthy cause. In my book, courage, patriotism, altruism and patience do not constitute characteristics of a vigilante.
I think that the 9-11 Commission sums it up best by saying, “It is not a matter of if we get attacked again, but when.” If there is one thing that we learned from the calamities of 9-11, it is that the US must play a virile and adamant role in enforcing homeland security and this includes subjugating illegal immigration. The Minuteman Project strongly believes in enforcing our border security with vigilance, accountability and truth to protect our way of life. Without the will of the American people and our elected officials, illegal immigration will reach new heights and will be even more of an encumbrance especially if radical terrorists manage to infiltrate our borders. The Minuteman Project publicizes the truth about our border security, and as we all know, the truth can hurt, but the truth can also set us free.
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MEXICAN-AMERICANS TO CHALLENGE BORDER VIGILANTES
Comments in Bold are those of the Tumbleweed staff.
April 19, 2005
by Adriana Lopez
Angered by the actions of “Minutemen” civilian border guards, some U.S. citizens of Mexican descent are crossing from Mexico into southern Arizona in the hopes of being “detained” by the vigilantes so they can then sue them for violating their civil rights. Did anyone bother to tell these people that crossing the border anywhere other than a port of entry is illegal--American citizen or not?
“We know that it’s risky, but it’s the only way in which we can contribute to stopping those people who, like us, are civilians and have no right to detain immigrants,” organizer Antonio Madrigal told EFE. And just who is detaining anyone?!? A native of the Mexican state of Michoacan who became a U.S. citizen more than two decades ago, Madrigal heads the group Training Occupational Development Educating Communities, or TODEC, which aids immigrant communities in California.
His initiative is in response to the April 1 launch of the Minuteman Project, which involves a few hundred self-appointed sentinels taking up positions along a stretch of the Arizona-Mexico border to watch for undocumented immigrants trying to enter the United States. That number should be 777 self-appointed sentinels.
The Minuteman effort, which is condemned by the Mexican government and frowned upon by the Bush administration, coincides with the implementation of an Arizona law - approved by voters last November - that denies some services to people who cannot prove they are legal U.S. residents. And if you’re here legally, what do you have to worry about?
Madrigal told EFE that he is one of some 500 activists prepared to challenge the Minuteman under the banner: “No Human Being is Illegal.” He said he hit upon the idea of Mexicans with U.S. citizenship crossing the border “without papers” as the only peaceful way of confronting the vigilantes. Again, you cross the border anywhere but a port of entry, you have committed an illegal act.
Madrigal said he contacted Mexico’s consulates in Arizona and state authorities in his native Michoacan about securing an official repudiation of the Minutemen’s activities. And why do law-abiding, American citizens need to worry about a repudiation from Mexican authorities?
But the Michoacan official responsible for migrants’ issues, Claudio Mendez, denied offering any support to TODEC and voiced disapproval of Madrigal’s plan for taking on the vigilantes. Vigilantes?!?
“I don’t know anything about this group, and if it exists, how fine that there are associations worried about safeguarding the rights of dual-nationals. But at the same time I’m concerned about their assuming this kind of attitude, because defending migrants is the job of the federal government through diplomacy,” Mendez commented to EFE. WHAT?!? Someone in the Mexican government not DEMANDING that American citizens stand down?
Asked what he was doing to help emigrants, he said he sent a letter to Mexican federal authorities urging them to do more to protect migrants, and that his office provided courses to Mexicans living in the United States to inform them about their rights and how to defend them. How about insisting the Mexican government take care of their own? After all, aren’t they Mexican citizens?
Michoacan state lawmaker Jesus Martinez, a Chicago resident who became the legislature’s first expatriate member, said he approved of the TODEC initiative “because they’re not armed and they’re not doing anything outside the law.” ONE MORE TIME! Crossing the border at any location other than a point of entry is ILLEGAL! A Michoacan lawmaker living in Chicago????
The United States has roughly 20 million residents of Mexican descent, half of whom were born south of the border. Some 5 million of the latter are undocumented. Which census did these figures come from?
Michoacan is traditionally one of the Mexican states sending the most emigrants northward, and some of those expat Michoacanos no doubt accounted for a substantial percentage of the record $16.6 billion in remittances Mexico received last year from the United States. Which, by the way, now tops what Mexico receives for its oil.
Source: Copyright © 2005. Agencia EFE S.A.
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THE NEXT AMERICAN REVOLUTION
by Edward I. Nelson
President Bush is, literally, ripping this nation apart. There is no question that, unless he and the Congress that he controls, change their views on open borders, mass immigration, exporting jobs and importing “willing workers,” our soldiers may soon be fighting a war on a third continent, North America.
According to every poll taken in the past few years, more than 80% of the American people are very much opposed to all of the above. And this figure includes all races, colors and nationalities. Yet, the President has chosen to ignore the wishes, hopes and aspirations of this huge majority of Americans.
Certainly, Mr. Bush and the Republican Party deserve most of the blame for our current condition. For four years, this Republicans Administration, in full control of the White House, the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, are chiefly responsible for holding the borders open, exposing Americans to terrorism, uncontrolled immigration, increased crime and Third World diseases.
Why are the Republicans, who represent the conservative segment of our society, ignoring their political base and putting our nation at risk? Some suggest that this is merely payback to their fat cat supporters who prefer to use cheap or slave labor rather than to give living wages to Americans. Others suggest they are merely following the political strategy of Karl Rove and other advisors who have convinced them they must court the Hispanic vote to retain control of the government.
I believe the President has a totally different agenda. I believe he is intent on creating a borderless, hemispheric, free trade zone from the tip of South America to the North Pole. He is trying to emulate the European model, but unlike Europe, where most of the member nations are all First World economies, the Americas model has the richest and most advanced nation living next door to a banana republic, complete with corrupt politicians and oppressed, impoverished, illiterate people.
But to accomplish his dream, he is, necessarily, required to hold our borders open, knowing that he is putting us at greater risk of terrorist attack; knowing that our health and welfare systems will buckle and collapse under the strain of massive overpopulation; knowing that our environment will suffer terribly; knowing that thousands of Americans will die of Third World disease for which we have no immunity; and knowing that our social fabric, our language, culture and heritage will be torn to shreds.
Meanwhile, the American people, from both major parties, are more than just furious; they are ready to take to the streets. They feel a total sense of helplessness because both major political parties have simply decided to ignore them and, as a consequence, they have no place to turn.
And when there is no place to turn, the American people, especially those unemployed and underemployed; those who feel their taxes are subsidizing illegal aliens’ health and welfare instead of funding Social Security & Medicare; those who are running out of money; and those who have suffered at the hands of illegal aliens, will take matters into their own hands.
Already, one brave soul, Jim Gilchrist, founded Project Minuteman, in the hope that ordinary Americans, who love their country, will come out, at their own expense, and assist the terribly understaffed Border Patrol, in spotting illegal aliens and terrorists crossing our southern border.
It is not at all surprising that this group has already been branded by President Bush as “vigilantes” when, in fact, every participant deserves a Presidential Medal of Freedom for their selfless actions.
I am sorry to say I believe it is quite likely that blood will be spilled in American streets this year because of President Bush’s indifference to the American people.
On what is this assessment based? At our USBC headquarters, we receive thousands of emails and letters weekly. And many of these are from those Americans who reelected President Bush and gave him his alleged “political capital.” Most, if not all, now feel totally betrayed. Some are bewildered; others are getting the uncomfortable feeling that they’ve been hustled.
Having been dazzled by a clever campaign strategy that focused voters attention away from America’s real, pressing problems to emotional “moral” issues like gay marriage and abortion, many American’s are just now waking up to the stark reality of how bad things are:
Unemployment numbers are up; the stock market is headed down; the dollar is collapsing worldwide. Even as he is calling for open borders and guest worker programs, the President is announcing the end of Social Security. Health care is no longer affordable to the average American, but is available for free to illegal aliens.
The president’s often repeated slogan about matching willing immigrant workers with willing U.S. employers when no Americans can be found to fill the jobs is wearing thin with those millions of willing American workers who are unemployed or underemployed and is terribly offensive to every American who recognizes it as a lie hiding a hidden agenda.
Easily, the weakest link in our homeland security, our borders remain wide open to the extent that illegal migration today is as high as it ever was prior to 9/11. This outrage continues despite the fact that we now have hard evidence that terrorists are using Mexico as a staging area to stockpile their weapons and their troops. Our government’s response to these facts have been astounding - cut backs in border personnel; hiring freezes at Homeland Security; delays in deploying improved surveillance equipment at border checkpoints, harbors and airports; etc...
All of these actions have taken their toll on our nation, on our people; on our American way of life; and on our national psyche. Things have to change and they will. The only question is whether the change will be done in time to avoid civil unrest and bloodshed in the streets.
Unfortunately, the possibility exists that President Bush and his utopian fantasies of a world without borders have powerful allies on the other side of the aisle. Most of Washington’s elite, from both parties, are members of the Trilateral Commission, an organization whose stated goals are reflected in President Bush’s current border and immigration policies and his support for hemispheric treaties.
That would mean the American people can expect no relief from the political process. The last time that happened, there was another George ignoring the American people - King George. Is it possible that the Minutemen from Project Minuteman, guarding our borders in Arizona, could be the first faltering first steps of a new American revolution, trying to get the attention of this century’s King George?
All governments fall, eventually. The symptom is when those we elect begin to feel that they are superior to the people they supposedly represent. George Washington stated “:How soon we forget history. Government is not reason. Government is not eloquence. It is force. And, like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.”
Hopefully, this government will wake up and recognize that, as a servant of the people, it should obey our Constitution. Article IV, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution states that “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against invasion...”
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ILLEGAL ALIEN ARRESTED UNDER TRESPASS LAW
by David Brooks,
Telegraph Staff
NEW IPSWICH - In the latest twist of his public battle against illegal immigrants, Police Chief Garrett Chamberlain has taken what may be a unique legal approach: He has charged a man from Mexico with criminal trespass because he was in town without legal documents.
“He’s in the country illegally so obviously he’s in New Ipswich illegally,” said Chamberlain of the arrest, which was made on the shoulder of Turnpike Road after a routine inquiry Friday.
As defined in state law (RSA 635:2), a person is guilty of criminal trespass “if, knowing that he is not licensed or privileged to do so, he enters or remains in any place.”
Jorge Mora Ramirez, 21, who is living in Waltham, Mass., but is from Mexico, admitted to police that he was in the country on forged documents, Chamberlain said. Therefore, the chief said, Ramirez knew he wasn’t “licensed” to enter or remain in New Ipswich and so was guilty of criminal trespass.
“This is a state law we’ve had for a long time, but I’m the first to use it this way, so far as I know,” Chamberlain said Monday. “Basically, what it is, (federal immigration authorities) expressed no interest in taking custody of (Ramirez), so we’ve elected to address it by ourselves. . . . I knew of the law and figured we’d try this and see what happens.”
Immigration law is generally a federal matter that doesn’t come under the jurisdiction of local police departments. But Chamberlain has often expressed frustration with the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the past.
It’s not clear whether courts will allow police to prosecute people for crossing international borders by using a law more commonly applied to domestic disputes. Because Ramirez was not indoors, the criminal trespass is a violation, a level of severity less than a misdemeanor.
“It’s a novel theory,” said state Assistant Attorney Robert Carey, whose office was asked Monday by Chamberlain’s department whether the charge was allowed. “We aren’t aware of any sort of contrary authority to it, if you look at the statute.”
Federal ICE officials could not be reached for comment Monday.
New Ipswich police have had previous disputes with federal immigration officials over illegal aliens, including a much-publicized incident last July when New Ipswich detained nine men but had to let them go after ICE didn’t provide any assistance. Town police also arrested 11 illegal aliens from Mexico last October, but federal officials quickly showed up and took the group away.
On Friday at about 8:25 p.m., police said, an officer noticed a red Ford Explorer stopped, with its hazard lights on, on the westbound shoulder of Turnpike Road near Leel Road. The officer found Ramirez, who speaks little English, alone in the truck.
When Ramirez was asked for his license, according to police, he produced a Mexican driver’s license and a photo ID from Massachusetts with an incorrect Social Security number and no state seal.
Ramirez allegedly admitted that he was here illegally, said he was working for a construction company in Jaffrey and that all of his U.S. IDs were fake.
Ramirez was arrested for operating without a valid license and taken to the New Ipswich police station.
Police said they contacted federal ICE officials and advised them that they had an illegal alien in custody. Police say they spoke to several ICE officials, none of whom wanted to take custody of Ramirez, and were advised that the information would be forwarded to the Boston office for Monday.
Chamberlain then charged Ramirez with criminal trespass. He was sent to the county jail in Manchester when he couldn’t post a $1,500 cash bond.
It’s unusual to be jailed on such minor charges, but Chamberlain said Ramirez’s lack of connections to the area justified the move.
“He admitted (his identification) was fake, so we really don’t know who he is,” he said.
Since then, Ramirez has posted bail and is now free until his May 3 arraignment in Jaffrey-Peterborough District Court.
“Hopefully, between now and then, we’ll get some response (from federal officials) on his fingerprints,” Chamberlain said.
The chief declined to name Ramirez’s employer until the issue had been investigated further.
There are federal laws against employing undocumented workers, but apparently no state laws.
Chamberlain said he hoped his charge would stick and that it would be allowed under other states’ laws.
“If we can get every (police department) across the country to do this, it will really make a difference,” he said.
“If we’re going to have immigration, it needs to be controlled and we need to know what’s happening on our borders. Nobody will be able to look at me and say I didn’t try to do my part.”
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