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Maybe they're nuts but Minutemen have been effective
Apr. 2, 2005 12:00 AM Say what you want about the Minuteman movement.
Call the people involved vigilantes. Call them gun nuts. Call them crackpots in camouflage.
I'd call them fairly effective. Before they even set foot among the scrub oak and chaparral of southeastern Arizona, they have done what politicians and policymakers in this part of the country have been unable to do. advertisement
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They have, as advertisers like to say, reached their target audience.
On Wednesday, just two days before the Minutemen assembled on the Arizona-Mexico border, the head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection hightailed it to Tucson to announce a "comprehensive strategy" to secure the border. Suddenly, Arizona is getting 534 new Border Patrol agents. Suddenly, Arizona is getting 23 aircraft to patrol the border, to bolster the 15 here. So urgent is the need, that 155 officers are en route. "The point is, we're determined to take control of our border," Robert Bonner, the border commissioner, said.
Well, that's novel.
Bonner said Wednesday's announcement had nothing to do with the prospect of hundreds of people headed to the banks of the San Pedro River to "help" the government do what it has been unable to do.
Of course it didn't. This administration and this Congress have been determined to take control of the border for years now.
Which explains why 11 million people are in this country illegally. Which explains why one in three newcomers to Arizona over the past five years is a person who had to sneak into the state. Which explains all those crackdowns on employers who provide the jobs that lured them here.
What crackdowns, you ask? Oh yeah, well never mind. Is it any wonder that some people finally got fed up?
Despite all the gnashing of teeth and wringing of hands, the Minuteman Project is really just a monthlong publicity stunt. But if the California accountant who organized it can keep his volunteers under control, and that's a big if, it could be the best thing that ever happened at the border.
Shame, after all, can be a powerful motivator. If nothing else, immigration is suddenly front and center.
President Bush has called them vigilantes, and Mexican President Vicente Fox decried them as "migrant hunters," vowing to take them to court if they break the law. As he should. But here's an idea. If you're worried about citizens mobilizing at the border, if you're worried about where all the anti-illegal immigration sentiment in this country is headed, there is a way to stop it.
Fix the problem.
Surely a country that can send people to live in space, that can cure disease, that can accomplish any number of amazing feats, can figure out a way to fix, finally, that standing joke we call our immigration policy. Surely the people we entrust with running this country can pass some realistic laws that actually work, then enforce them, at the border and in the workplace.
As for Mexico, surely a country that puts out guides telling people how to safely cross the border can put out a guide warning them not to dare try it.
The fact is, if Bush and Fox had done their jobs, the only people who would be in Tombstone this weekend would be tourists in search of the O.K. Corral. Instead, we'll be holding our breath this month and hoping that things don't blow up at the border.
For now, vigilance is the watchword.
The Minutemen will be watching the border crossers and human rights activists will be watching the Minutemen.
As for the rest of us: we should be carefully watching our leaders.
Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com or (602) 444-8635.
Apr. 2, 2005 12:00 AM Say what you want about the Minuteman movement.
Call the people involved vigilantes. Call them gun nuts. Call them crackpots in camouflage.
I'd call them fairly effective. Before they even set foot among the scrub oak and chaparral of southeastern Arizona, they have done what politicians and policymakers in this part of the country have been unable to do. advertisement
They have, as advertisers like to say, reached their target audience.
On Wednesday, just two days before the Minutemen assembled on the Arizona-Mexico border, the head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection hightailed it to Tucson to announce a "comprehensive strategy" to secure the border. Suddenly, Arizona is getting 534 new Border Patrol agents. Suddenly, Arizona is getting 23 aircraft to patrol the border, to bolster the 15 here. So urgent is the need, that 155 officers are en route. "The point is, we're determined to take control of our border," Robert Bonner, the border commissioner, said.
Well, that's novel.
Bonner said Wednesday's announcement had nothing to do with the prospect of hundreds of people headed to the banks of the San Pedro River to "help" the government do what it has been unable to do.
Of course it didn't. This administration and this Congress have been determined to take control of the border for years now.
Which explains why 11 million people are in this country illegally. Which explains why one in three newcomers to Arizona over the past five years is a person who had to sneak into the state. Which explains all those crackdowns on employers who provide the jobs that lured them here.
What crackdowns, you ask? Oh yeah, well never mind. Is it any wonder that some people finally got fed up?
Despite all the gnashing of teeth and wringing of hands, the Minuteman Project is really just a monthlong publicity stunt. But if the California accountant who organized it can keep his volunteers under control, and that's a big if, it could be the best thing that ever happened at the border.
Shame, after all, can be a powerful motivator. If nothing else, immigration is suddenly front and center.
President Bush has called them vigilantes, and Mexican President Vicente Fox decried them as "migrant hunters," vowing to take them to court if they break the law. As he should. But here's an idea. If you're worried about citizens mobilizing at the border, if you're worried about where all the anti-illegal immigration sentiment in this country is headed, there is a way to stop it.
Fix the problem.
Surely a country that can send people to live in space, that can cure disease, that can accomplish any number of amazing feats, can figure out a way to fix, finally, that standing joke we call our immigration policy. Surely the people we entrust with running this country can pass some realistic laws that actually work, then enforce them, at the border and in the workplace.
As for Mexico, surely a country that puts out guides telling people how to safely cross the border can put out a guide warning them not to dare try it.
The fact is, if Bush and Fox had done their jobs, the only people who would be in Tombstone this weekend would be tourists in search of the O.K. Corral. Instead, we'll be holding our breath this month and hoping that things don't blow up at the border.
For now, vigilance is the watchword.
The Minutemen will be watching the border crossers and human rights activists will be watching the Minutemen.
As for the rest of us: we should be carefully watching our leaders.
Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com or (602) 444-8635.
