SAN DIEGO - Four San Diego legal groups announced today a newly formed coalition to monitor the activities of anti-illegal immigration groups expected to patrol California's border with Mexico as early as mid-July.

The legal groups plan to recruit and train volunteers to observe and record interactions between the patrols and migrants.

"When people take the law into their own hands, they undermine our legal system and place all of us in jeopardy," said Lilia Velasquez of the Association of Immigration Law Attorneys.

"We do not want these vigilantes in our community at all. But if they come, we are prepared to help ensure that they do not violate anyone's rights."

Two groups, Friends of the Border Patrol and the United States Border Patrol Auxiliary, have indicated they intend to use volunteers to halt illegal immigration between Mexico and California this summer.

Those organizations are a spinoff of the Minuteman Project, a group of volunteers who monitored Arizona's border with Mexico last April.

The purpose of the San Diego Legal Observer Coalition's monitoring will be to deter potential abuses such as assaults and unlawful arrests, according to organizers from the AILA, San Diego La Raza Lawyers Association, American Civil Liberties Union of San Diego & Imperial Counties and National Lawyers Guild.

"We are also prepared to secure legal representation for anyone with an actionable injury," said Sylvia Baiz, of the San Diego La Raza Lawyers Association.

Training, which will be mandatory for all legal observers, will begin in the next couple of weeks, according to organizers.

Monitoring will be modeled on similar efforts by the ACLU in Arizona.

"We believe that our presence and our non-confrontational approach were largely responsible for there being no serious incidents in Arizona," the ACLU's William Aceves said. CNS-06-30-2005 14:22