Officials, rights groups debate legality of 'Minuteman Project'

By: EDWARD SIFUENTES - Staff Writer | Thursday, March 10, 2005 12:11 AM PST ∞

Law-enforcement officials appeared this week to have mixed reactions to the controversial Minuteman Project, planned by a group that says that next month, it will patrol a desolate stretch of the U.S. border with Mexico in search of illegal immigrants in Arizona.

And a group of Latino activists announced it was preparing its own group to protest the Minuteman Project.

More than a dozen area residents are among the 860 people registered to participate in the monthlong border-watch project, said Jim Gilchrist, a retired Orange County accountant who is organizing the group. He says he does not know how many people will actually participate.

The National Alliance for Human Rights, a loose-knit group of largely Latino and immigrant rights' activists headed by UC Riverside Professor Armando Navarro, met Monday to discuss how to address the Minuteman Project, Navarro said.

Latino activists said they are worried by the lack of attention Arizona officials, including Gov. Jane Napolitano, are giving to the so-called Minutemen.

"My main concern is that they have been able to pull this thing together without much protest from the Bush administration and (Arizona Gov. Janet) Napolitano's administration," Navarro said.

Navarro declined to give specific details of the plan, saying it is still being developed. He said the group planned to make an formal announcement next week.

The U.S. Border Patrol's top official, Robert Bonner, has warned volunteers of the Minuteman group about the risks of trying to spot illegal immigrants crossing the border. Sheriff's officials in the area have also warned of the dangers, but said that deputies will not interfere with the group as long as they don't break any laws.

"If they do what they say they are going to do, then we shouldn't have any problems," said Cmdr. Rod Rothrock, of the Cochise County Sheriff's Department, which is responsible for the southeastern Arizona area were the Minuteman group plans to watch.

Gilchrist said Tuesday that the group does not promote violence or hate. He said that the volunteers are motivated by concerns over unchecked illegal immigration through the nation's southern border. The group hopes to highlight the porous border by attracting national and international media, he said.

However, immigrant and human rights activists said that many in the group's ranks will take advantage of Arizona's lax gun-carrying laws to bring weapons. They say the remoteness of the area and the lack of formal training among the group's members is an invitation for violence.

"It could be even worse now with civilians not knowing the boundaries," said Roberto Martinez, a longtime San Diego immigrant-rights activist.

Gilchrist, a Vietnam War veteran, said the group was being incorrectly criticized as a bunch of racist, gun-toting vigilantes. He said many in the group are average citizens, including former police officers, doctors and pilots.

"The primary reason for this was to bring awareness to the issue," Gilchrist said. "This is not a declaration of war on Mexico or Asia or anything like that."

Among the 860 people that have signed up through the group's Web site, Gilcrhist said, are more than a dozen residents from San Diego and Southwest Riverside counties.

The group said it plans to patrol a 20- to 40-mile stretch of the border south of the historic town of Tombstone, where the legendary confrontation between outlaws and lawmen took place at the OK Corral. The area has become one of the main paths through which illegal immigrants cross the border into the United States.

Gilchrist said the volunteers will use planes and hilltop observers to spot illegal immigrants. Those suspected of crossing the border illegally will be reported to the Border Patrol. The volunteers will not come into contact with the illegal immigrants, he said.

Of the 1.1 million illegal immigrants caught by the U.S. Border Patrol last year, about half entered the United States through Arizona, according to immigration authorities. Much of the illegal immigrant traffic has been pushed toward that area since the mid-1990s when authorities reinforced the border in California through Operation Gatekeeper.

Operation Gatekeeper increased the number of agents that patrol the border with Mexico in San Diego County. New border fences and electronic detecting equipment in the area has also made it more difficult for illegal immigrants to cross through that section of border.

Gatekeeper was introduced after civilian involvement along the California border pressured the federal government to increase resources here.

In the early 1990s, Operation Light Up the Border attracted many local residents to demonstrations, shining their car headlights at the border to discourage illegal immigrants from crossing here, said Martinez, who was then director of the San Diego office of the American Friends Service Committee, a human rights advocacy group.

Martinez said the Border Patrol and Arizona law enforcement agencies are not doing enough to discourage people from participating in the Minuteman Project, which he said could lead to confrontations.

"They have the power and the authority to keep them away," he said. "They used to escort me off the border and I was just taking notes."

Rothrock, of the Cochise County Sheriff's Department, disagreed. He said the group has a constitutional right to assemble peacefully.

"It's a free country and if anyone wants to come, they are more than welcome to participate," he said. "Everything that they have said they are going to do is very much within their rights."

Contact staff writer Edward Sifuentes at (760) 740-5426 or esifuentes@nctimes.com.

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