Volunteers say they don't hate Mexicans
XAVIER ZARAGOZA/The Daily Dispatch
On Saturday the Minuteman volunteers gathered in small groups along Border Road. They took their positions north of the road and set up lawn chairs and peered through binoculars at the vast stretches of rolling mesquites in Mexico.
Traffic from both the volunteers and the media rolled east and west, dragging plumes of dust behind them.
Ivan Dunnich of Idaho sat with four other volunteers on a small rise just north of the road.
"You can't help but feel for them (migrants), they're wonderful people," he said. "But I don't want them to come here in large masses."
His point is that Mexicans should assimilate when they arrive into the country. But they don't; instead, they choose to remain in ethnic enclaves where they don't assimilate or share their culture with others.
Dunnich watched a thin dust devil that spun across the dirt road just before it broke and collapsed at the international boundary, which is only seven strands of rusted barbed wire fence.
"We don't hate Mexicans," he said.
He planned to stay a couple of weeks monitoring the border for migrants, he said.
Less than three feet away from the seven strand fence, Haskell of Houston-he only gave his first name-peered into Mexico through a high powered hunting telescope. He had a dirt road in his sights when suddenly a silver F-150 truck appeared. It was a moment of intense scrutiny, because the driver could be a smuggler, according to Haskell and others standing around.
The driver of the F-150 pulled over to the side of the road and stood on the bed of the truck. He appeared to be looking at all the folks gathered on the border, many of whom were just sitting there. The unknown man got back into the truck and left.
Haskell's complaint about migrants was that they were responsible for the disintegration of schools and the healthcare system.
"I've made a good living as a chemist and coming here to the border is my way of giving back to the country," he said.
By Sunday many of the volunteers returned to take their post, watching the day move slowly during their shift.
"It was thankfully slow and boring," said Ray Ybarra, a Stanford law student and organizer of a team of legal observers who have kept a close eye on the volunteers.
Ybarra and his team have been monitoring the volunteers in both Naco and Douglas Border Road. For the observers, as with everyone out there, the days have been long, hot, windy and uneventful-and it's only day two of a month long project.
http://www.douglasdispatch.com/articles/2005/04/05/news/01_volunteers.txt
XAVIER ZARAGOZA/The Daily Dispatch
On Saturday the Minuteman volunteers gathered in small groups along Border Road. They took their positions north of the road and set up lawn chairs and peered through binoculars at the vast stretches of rolling mesquites in Mexico.
Traffic from both the volunteers and the media rolled east and west, dragging plumes of dust behind them.
Ivan Dunnich of Idaho sat with four other volunteers on a small rise just north of the road.
"You can't help but feel for them (migrants), they're wonderful people," he said. "But I don't want them to come here in large masses."
His point is that Mexicans should assimilate when they arrive into the country. But they don't; instead, they choose to remain in ethnic enclaves where they don't assimilate or share their culture with others.
Dunnich watched a thin dust devil that spun across the dirt road just before it broke and collapsed at the international boundary, which is only seven strands of rusted barbed wire fence.
"We don't hate Mexicans," he said.
He planned to stay a couple of weeks monitoring the border for migrants, he said.
Less than three feet away from the seven strand fence, Haskell of Houston-he only gave his first name-peered into Mexico through a high powered hunting telescope. He had a dirt road in his sights when suddenly a silver F-150 truck appeared. It was a moment of intense scrutiny, because the driver could be a smuggler, according to Haskell and others standing around.
The driver of the F-150 pulled over to the side of the road and stood on the bed of the truck. He appeared to be looking at all the folks gathered on the border, many of whom were just sitting there. The unknown man got back into the truck and left.
Haskell's complaint about migrants was that they were responsible for the disintegration of schools and the healthcare system.
"I've made a good living as a chemist and coming here to the border is my way of giving back to the country," he said.
By Sunday many of the volunteers returned to take their post, watching the day move slowly during their shift.
"It was thankfully slow and boring," said Ray Ybarra, a Stanford law student and organizer of a team of legal observers who have kept a close eye on the volunteers.
Ybarra and his team have been monitoring the volunteers in both Naco and Douglas Border Road. For the observers, as with everyone out there, the days have been long, hot, windy and uneventful-and it's only day two of a month long project.
http://www.douglasdispatch.com/articles/2005/04/05/news/01_volunteers.txt