Minuteman Project puts nation on edge
Minute by minute, we’re afraid of what could happen next.
Now that the volunteers have taken their posts along the border as part of the Minuteman Project, we’re waiting for the other shoe to drop – or the first shot to be fired.
The whole prospect of citizen vigilantes massing at the border to patrol for illegal immigrants should make the nation uneasy, just as it has President Bush.
Of course, the project, which bills itself as a nonviolent protest of American policy on immigration, counsels volunteers not to confront any immigrants they may see stealthily crossing the border.
On their daily foot patrols this month along a 23-mile stretch of the Arizona border with Mexico – the most vulnerable stretch of the countries’ 2,000-mile-long border – they are only to contact authorities of their sightings.
And their first spotting yielded 18 arrests.
Yet it’s probably not coincidence that the Wild West-flavored forces used Tombstone, Ariz., as their staging area. Many in the posse are armed. And their motives are varied.
Some claim to be looking for any terrorist who could be crossing the United States’ porous border. But many more, charged with racist zealotry, are on the lookout for stray immigrants making an illegal crossing.
While their frustration with government policy is understandable, the potential for violence is frightening.
Even Border Patrol agents are leery of the implications of so many armed civilians on the loose in a territory already beset by drug runners, smugglers and others making the crossing.
If nothing else, the Minuteman protest should serve as a wake-up call to the feds. U.S. policy on immigration has failed to make inroads on the huge number of immigrants who are in the country illegally, and it has generated a huge backlash of citizens ready to take the problem into their own hands.
That is why government needs to enforce the laws on immigration. The feds need to tackle what has become an emotion-tinged issue in a way that will reap results.
And those headed for the border need to leave the job of hunting for illegal border crossers to trained agents. Otherwise, they threaten to make a dangerous situation worse as they risk their safety and others’ in an already hostile environment.
http://www.dailybulletin.com/Stories/0,1413,203~23127~2801117,00.html
Minute by minute, we’re afraid of what could happen next.
Now that the volunteers have taken their posts along the border as part of the Minuteman Project, we’re waiting for the other shoe to drop – or the first shot to be fired.
The whole prospect of citizen vigilantes massing at the border to patrol for illegal immigrants should make the nation uneasy, just as it has President Bush.
Of course, the project, which bills itself as a nonviolent protest of American policy on immigration, counsels volunteers not to confront any immigrants they may see stealthily crossing the border.
On their daily foot patrols this month along a 23-mile stretch of the Arizona border with Mexico – the most vulnerable stretch of the countries’ 2,000-mile-long border – they are only to contact authorities of their sightings.
And their first spotting yielded 18 arrests.
Yet it’s probably not coincidence that the Wild West-flavored forces used Tombstone, Ariz., as their staging area. Many in the posse are armed. And their motives are varied.
Some claim to be looking for any terrorist who could be crossing the United States’ porous border. But many more, charged with racist zealotry, are on the lookout for stray immigrants making an illegal crossing.
While their frustration with government policy is understandable, the potential for violence is frightening.
Even Border Patrol agents are leery of the implications of so many armed civilians on the loose in a territory already beset by drug runners, smugglers and others making the crossing.
If nothing else, the Minuteman protest should serve as a wake-up call to the feds. U.S. policy on immigration has failed to make inroads on the huge number of immigrants who are in the country illegally, and it has generated a huge backlash of citizens ready to take the problem into their own hands.
That is why government needs to enforce the laws on immigration. The feds need to tackle what has become an emotion-tinged issue in a way that will reap results.
And those headed for the border need to leave the job of hunting for illegal border crossers to trained agents. Otherwise, they threaten to make a dangerous situation worse as they risk their safety and others’ in an already hostile environment.
http://www.dailybulletin.com/Stories/0,1413,203~23127~2801117,00.html