Volunteers begin border watch

San Diego Union-Tribune
Oct. 02, 2005

The third group of anti-illegal-immigration activists to patrol the U.S.-Mexico border locally since July launched a monthlong vigil yesterday in hopes of prodding Washington into securing the nation's borders.

The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps volunteers gathered by a brown metal post-and-rail border fence south of Jacumba to watch for illegal border crossers and report them to the Border Patrol.

The group invited the media so it could transmit its message to Washington: that the federal government has failed in its responsibilities to secure America's borders.

"If this wakes a few people up, then it's done its job," said John March of Valencia. His son, a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy, was shot to death by a suspected illegal immigrant in April 2002 during a traffic stop.

Several members of the group criticized media coverage of their efforts as slanted and described any characterization of the group as vigilantes, racists and wannabe law enforcement agents as unfounded.

"None of us want to be Border Patrol agents," said Tony Dolz, a Cuban-born Santa Monica businessman. "We're doing this only to send a message to the president that he cannot hide the fact that this is a broken border."

Dolz said he got involved in the group because of his concern after the Sept. 11 attacks that terrorists could be slipping across the nation's border undetected.

Another civilian patrol, calling itself the California Minutemen, drew about 40 people to Campo in July. Two weekends ago, a group calling itself Friends of the Border Patrol planned and then called off patrols by about two dozen volunteers who had reporting for training after a confrontation with protesters.

The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps that gathered yesterday is part of a larger, Arizona-based group formed in the wake of a border-watch event there in April. Organizer Tim Donnelly said the number of volunteers wasn't important and wouldn't say how many people had shown up or how many were expected to join the vigil.

It appeared that fewer than 100 people assembled yesterday morning. They wore T-shirts with slogans such as "Undocumented Border Patrol Agent" and "Americans Defending America."

The group also condemned businesses that hire illegal immigrants as part of the problem.

This summer, the city of San Diego's Human Relations Commission passed a resolution denouncing civilian patrols.

Yesterday was the 11th anniversary of Operation Gatekeeper, a government border crackdown.

Enrique Morones of the immigrant-assistance group Border Angels marked the occasion with a message claiming that Gatekeeper was responsible for the deaths of border crossers in remote locations who often perish under extreme weather conditions. In a wide-ranging diatribe that criticized the war in Iraq, the governor and conservative media, Morones accused the Minutemen and other groups of racism.

A spokesman for a local human-rights group this week suggested that civilian patrols could be infiltrated by racists, and that some groups are encouraged to carry guns.

Donnelly said he wouldn't infringe on the constitutional rights of any volunteers, including the right to bear arms provided for in the Second Amendment.

In a speech from the back of a Jeep, Donnelly invoked the spirit of the original Minutemen and their rejection of the tyranny of foreign rule.

"In 2005, what we need is a nation of Minutemen – citizens who are not only prepared to take (up) arms, but citizens who regard the preservation of liberty as the basic purpose of their daily life," he said.

Donnelly called the group's mission a humanitarian one. He said stricter border enforcement would curtail the exploitation of illegal immigrants in the U.S. work force, and that volunteers would offer food and water to border crossers.