Minutemen to patrol in New Mexico, Arizona over weekend

[Desertdog]

IMHO telling the enemy where you are going to be and when you will be there is just plain stupid.
Now that the word is out what will the smugglers do, move to some other area or try to slip in and see if they can eliminate the MM?


Minutemen to patrol in New Mexico, Arizona over weekend
http://kvoa.com/Global/story.asp?S=4388668


COLUMBUS, N.M. -- At least two dozen members of the civilian Minuteman Civil Defense Corps plan to patrol southern New Mexico near Columbus over the weekend, looking for illegal immigrants from Mexico.


Volunteers from New Mexico, Colorado and California will patrol the border through Sunday, said organizer Bob Wright.

It will be the first time the group has been in southern New Mexico since members spent October patrolling in the Hatchita area. That month, the organization said it reported 20 people crossing illegally; the U.S. Border Patrol said it was not possible to tell how many reports immigrants came specifically from the Minuteman.

In first weekend of patrolling in October, Minuteman volunteers did not detect any illegal immigrants, although a Border Patrol spokesman reported that Saturday as busy, with captures of 63 illegal immigrants in the Lordsburg sector, which includes Hachita, and 136 in the Deming sector.

Wright said the organization hopes to schedule more regular patrols in southern New Mexico.

Arizona members of the Minuteman plan a weekend patrol in the Three Points area southwest of Tucson. Some 50 to 65 volunteers are expected along three to four miles of a dirt road off Arizona 286, said Stacey O'Connell, head of the organization's Arizona chapter.

Three Points, about 35 miles north of the border, has become a popular pickup point over the last year or so for smugglers to get migrants who have made their way north, on foot or in vehicles, to Tucson and Phoenix.

Volunteers patrolled part of the Arizona-Mexico border near Naco last April, reporting sightings of illegal immigrants to the Border Patrol. The effort garnered national attention and served to launch similar patrols in other parts of the country.

 

[History Nut]

Minuteman mission

If the Minuteman mission was to apprehend the illegal crossers, then you would be right. However, the mission is to "observe and report" to the BP so they can apprehend and to bring attention to the media and public so pressure can be brought to bear on our politicians to actually do the right thing. To get attention from the media and politicians requires announcing our intentions. Yes, the bad guys usually 'go around' the published MM positions. We do impede traffic in the areas watched. The local ranchers love that. Many have come by posts and expressed profound thanks for their first good night's sleep in years. Keep in mind that there will be the openly announced sites and probably several more that are not announced. Many of the areas in New Mexico are quite remote and rugged. Communications alone is a problem. Cell phones don't work and there just are not enough HAM radio members to provide good coverage.

If you think it is so dumb, try volunteering for at least one weekend and find out for yourself. If it is just the tactics you are criticizing, remember that there isn't a Minuteman/woman out there that isn't thinking of the day they can go home because the Federal Gov. has finally deployed the troops to secure the border until a decent fence is built and enough BP agents are trained and on duty to stop the flow. Most are older/retired. Most have already 'done their duty' in their youth but are willing to risk their life again to do something good for this country. They are not getting paid. They know there is a price on their head by the drug cartels. They consider it a 'badge of honor'. They provide eyes and ears to help the BP agents that our gov. sends out with .40 cal pistols against military trained and equipped drug gangs. They step forward like Americans have since 1775 to right a wrong and don't wait for 'government approval' to do it. They may not do it "right" but they are doing it, which is a lot more than I can say for the critics and naysayers out there.

If you don't like it, then call/write/visit your Congresscritter NOW and tell them you want the Army/Marines/Air Force/Navy/Coast Guard/State Defense Forces/underused Federal Swat teams and any other entity along the border to seal it tight! Then maybe the American People can sleep a little better at night.

OK, rant off. If I jumped down your throat a little too hard, it is because it is a slightly sensitive subject for me.

 

[rick_reno]

Isn't this the group that President Bush called "vigilantes"?

 

[Harve Curry]

History Nut,
My hats off to all of you Minutemen

​

.
I wish I could be down there helping out but making a living and family prevents me now.
Thanks for the update, and be careful.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

IMHO telling the enemy where you are going to be and when you will be there is just plain stupid.
Now that the word is out what will the smugglers do, move to some other area or try to slip in and see if they can eliminate the MM?

If the Minuteman mission was to apprehend the illegal crossers, then you would be right. However, the mission is to "observe and report" to the BP so they can apprehend and to bring attention to the media and public so pressure can be brought to bear on our politicians to actually do the right thing. To get attention from the media and politicians requires announcing our intentions. Yes, the bad guys usually 'go around' the published MM positions. We do impede traffic in the areas watched. The local ranchers love that. Many have come by posts and expressed profound thanks for their first good night's sleep in years. Keep in mind that there will be the openly announced sites and probably several more that are not announced. Many of the areas in New Mexico are quite remote and rugged. Communications alone is a problem. Cell phones don't work and there just are not enough HAM radio members to provide good coverage.

If you think it is so dumb, try volunteering for at least one weekend and find out for yourself. If it is just the tactics you are criticizing, remember that there isn't a Minuteman/woman out there that isn't thinking of the day they can go home because the Federal Gov. has finally deployed the troops to secure the border until a decent fence is built and enough BP agents are trained and on duty to stop the flow. Most are older/retired. Most have already 'done their duty' in their youth but are willing to risk their life again to do something good for this country. They are not getting paid. They know there is a price on their head by the drug cartels. They consider it a 'badge of honor'. They provide eyes and ears to help the BP agents that our gov. sends out with .40 cal pistols against military trained and equipped drug gangs. They step forward like Americans have since 1775 to right a wrong and don't wait for 'government approval' to do it. They may not do it "right" but they are doing it, which is a lot more than I can say for the critics and naysayers out there.

If you don't like it, then call/write/visit your Congresscritter NOW and tell them you want the Army/Marines/Air Force/Navy/Coast Guard/State Defense Forces/underused Federal Swat teams and any other entity along the border to seal it tight! Then maybe the American People can sleep a little better at night.

OK, rant off. If I jumped down your throat a little too hard, it is because it is a slightly sensitive subject for me.

Oh I get it now. The Minutemen announce their intentions for the publicity while at the same time putting illegal crossers on notice as to where the Minutemmen will be and so many of those crossers will then avoid the watched areas and slip into the US. In other words, the Minutemen make themselves look like they are working hard to protect our borders while at the same time telling the opposition where they will be so that the opposition can cross elsewhere, thereby perpetuating the problem and further adding justification to the Minuteman project and giving locals in the immediate area of the action the false sense of security that they are protected. The problem is, once you leave that area and announce you are deploying elsewhere, you leave exposed those folks who supposedly felt so safe because the illegals will know that you are no longer protecting that area.

History Nut, you cannot be serious. By broadcasting your location under the goal orientation of observing and reporting, you are tipping off the crossers to cross places other than where you are because if they cross where you are, you will report them. As such and from a security standpoint, Desertdog is right. If you were truly interested in observing and reporting illegals crossing into the US and not so concerned with getting press for yourselves, you would do your "jobs" first and then report to the public on what great protectors you are and bolster your claims via Border Patrol arrests that you think came as a result of your actions.

Y'all like comparing yourselves to the Minutemen of the Revolutionary War by having adopted their name and then making frequent references to them and how y'all are similar. I don't seem to recall any accounts of where the Minute Men notified the British as to where they would be.

It is interesting that you made the connection to the Minutemen and 1775. The Minutemen were handpicked elite fighters picked from local town militias and were usually under the age of 25. Okay, so that parallel doesn't work. The Minutemen were not run from a centralized command. Maybe that parallel works.

So what of 1775? That was the year the Minutemen gained glory and lost it, being disbanded. There were there for the Shot Heard Around the World in the opening Lexington and Concord battles. The British retreated and the poorly organized Minutemen and others who were primarily loyal to their own home towns, did not pursue the British. Formed in 1774, the Minutemen were disbanded in 1775 after the battles, in part because it was noted that the Minutemen behaved as local militia to protect their own areas and not to protect the colonies in general. So they were disbanded and the colonies started their own army under George Washinton that would protect the colonies as a whole.

Since they were disbanded in 1775, the contribution of the Minutemen to the Revolutionary War was very short as the war continued until 1783.

And History Nut, you invited Desertdog to come out and participate since he thought what you were doing was dumb. I just about spewed soda all over my computer when I read that. He called your tactics "stupid." Why would he want to come out and participate in something that he perceives as stupid? That would mean he was some sort of moron as one who knowingly goes out and participates in something he knows to be stupid. Is that the type of person you want in the Minutemen? So much for the parallels with the short-lived hand-picked elite forces of the 1774-1775 Minutemen.

 

[Thain]

My proverbial hat is off to the Minute Men.

I'd be out there with you, but here in Michigan we don't get too many illeagals from Canada. (And when we do, we just sign `em up to play hockey for Lake Superior State and MSU.)

 

[Don Gwinn]

Actually, the implication, pretty clearly, was that criticism of the organization's tactics might be better accepted from someone who has shown by deeds that he has at least as much dedication and expertise as the current Minutemen. Frankly, that observation was offered much more politely than yours.

Let's all make sure we stay on the High Road. If you have a substantive criticism of the Minutemen group's tactics, by all means voice it civilly. If you disagree with their mission, say so and we can discuss that. Lay off the aggrieved righteousness in the meantime, please.

 

[Biker]

The Minuteman strategy could easily be seen as area-denial tactics. Pick a heavy traffic point, announce your intentions, force the illegals to other, more difficult crossings where they may be more easily apprehended.
In any case, hats off to the Minutemen. Y'all make me proud.
Biker

 

[xd9fan]

Good God bless em and we need more of them!!!

 

[longeyes]

The Minutemen are gadflies, scouts, and lantern-bearers. They are, excuse the expression, consciousness-raisers for a subject of critical public importance. We all realize that the Minutemen have been denied, by our own government, the right to actively combat the illegal invasion, so they are doing what they can, and that's to keep what's going on in the public eye and, one hopes, gather political momentum and, where necessary, change some minds.

They deserve enormous gratitude from any who care about our nation and our laws.

 

[ball3006]

How would anyone know.....

if the announcement where the minutemen are is real, or not, just to get the illegals to relocate? Disinformation works very well. My hat is off to an organization that will work on this illegal problem where the government will not......but then again, why would the govt tell you what all they are doing with the illegal problem. Don't want the bad guys to know the whole game plan reguardless what the dimocrats say......chris3