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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: bentway who wrote (253827)	10/6/2005 4:28:55 AM
From: GUSTAVE JAEGER	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1570373

Re: 7. Minutemen promise to raise our voices -- on cellular phones along the borders of America and in the halls of Congress -- in the defense of the rule of law. The American people are firm but fair, and we share their great compassion for the many powerless victims of cruel, illegal human trafficking and labor exploitation. But we also support our citizens' adamant rejection of the blatant disregard for our laws and ordered liberty represented by the U.S. government's failure to secure our borders, enforce our nation's sovereignty and end the flood of illegal trafficking into American territory. Well, the way I see it is that that Minuteman outfit certainly fits the American psyche --I mean the bunker mentality of many an angry-white-male... You're a nation of gun-toting, self-righteous soldier-citizens --not unlike the Israelis-- and, although I'm doubtful the Minuteman border patrols will succeed in slowing illegal immigration and thwarting terrorist plots, I can see its usefulness in terms of social control --as an outlet for frustrated white Americans who might otherwise enroll in much more violent, clandestine militias.... As far as the Canadian border is concerned, I still believe they're overshooting --clue: Minutemen take patrols north Canadian border is new front in effort to spot illegal immigrants - Yvonne Abraham, Boston Globe Wednesday, October 5, 2005 The Minutemen have come to New England. The civilian group, which previously focused its efforts on patrolling the Mexican border with California and Arizona, is turning its attention to the U.S.-Canada line. "The north is still a threat to national security," said Chris Simcox, president of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps. "There are 1,000 Border Patrol agents to cover a 4,000-mile northern border. It's an outrage." The organizers are seeking volunteers to watch the 789-mile Canadian border along New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont, in addition to the other northern states, to prevent the entry of illegal immigrants. The volunteers park themselves in lawn chairs on the U.S. side of the border, with binoculars and cell phones, ready to report illegal entrants, who may be crossing over fields, through woods and along unmanned roadways. Local officials question the necessity of the volunteer force. "It's not like we have a porous border like the Mexican border is," said Doug Hazlett, town manager in Houlton, a border town in northern Maine. "People don't come across to work illegally or anything like that." So far, the patrol has consisted of one group of a dozen or so volunteers watching the border in Vermont over the weekend. They did not spot anyone trying to cross illegally, Simcox said. Immigrant-rights groups decried the effort, accusing the Minutemen of importing intolerance to the region. "You never hear complaints about the U.S.-Canada border up here," said Judy Elliott of the New Hampshire Immigrants' Rights Task Force. "So I don't think it comes from New Hampshire people at all. It comes from folks from outside who are trying to bring a malicious message into this state." The federal Department of Homeland Security has beefed up security along the U.S.-Canadian border since 2003, tripling the number of agents there. Hazlett said that in addition to the officers, helicopters and other aircraft survey the area regularly. Customs and Border Protection officers arrested 7,340 people along the northern border in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, according to preliminary figures. About 2,100 of those people were arrested in the border regions of New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont. During the same year, about 1.2 million people were arrested by border patrol officers along the 2,000-mile border in the American Southwest. sfgate.com