The Minutemen

One is a 60-year-old general contractor. Another is a plastics supplier. Still another makes orthopedic braces and artificial limbs. Meet the folks of the Minuteman Project, said Margaret Talev in The Sacramento Bee, perhaps the most unusual border patrol in U.S. history. This week about 400 members of this volunteer army, all of them 'œdissatisfied with the government's response to illegal immigration,' fanned out across a rugged, isolated 20-mile stretch of the Arizona-Mexico border near Tombstone. Their self-appointed mission: to spot any Mexicans who try to sneak across, and report them to law-enforcement authorities. U.S. Border Patrol officials say they don't need or want the help, but the Minutemen are resolute. 'œThis is not a war,' said organizer Jim Gilchrist, a retired California accountant, to dozens of cheering followers. 'œThis is an assembly under the First Amendment.'

Actually, it's a tragedy waiting to happen, said the Chicago Tribune in an editorial. The Minutemen have sworn they won't physically 'œabuse' anyone and will merely monitor their movements, the better to effect their legal capture. But many of these characters—decked out in cowboy hats and camouflage fatigues, armed with knives and even guns—are clearly looking for trouble. Their ranks include 'œwhite supremacists and various other lug nuts.' Even President Bush has denounced their 'œvigilante' mentality. Yes, there's a real crisis at our borders. According to a Pew Hispanic Center study, 57 percent of this country's 10.3 million illegal immigrants are Mexican. 'œThere also have been reports of Islamic radicals trying to enter the U.S. through Mexico.' But the solution lies in 'œbilateral negotiations' with our neighbor to the south and other reasoned measures, not reckless, gung-ho theatrics.

'œCall them crackpots,' said Laurie Roberts in The Arizona Republic, but there's no denying that the Minutemen have already proved their effectiveness. Since they began their patrols, they've cut the number of Mexicans trying to slip through their perimeter by about two-thirds. And they've done 'œwhat politicians and policymakers have been unable to do'—namely, beef up the federal effort to secure the area. Just two days before the Minutemen even showed up for deployment, the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection suddenly announced that it would be sending Arizona 534 new border agents and an additional 23 spotter aircraft. A coincidence? Hardly. By shaming Washington into taking some direct action, instead of continuing to dicker about immigration reform, the Minuteman Project 'œcould be the best thing that ever happened at the border.'

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