ACLU seeks volunteers to keep an eye on Minutemen project
Diana Washington Valdez
El Paso Times
http://www.borderlandnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050806/NEWS/508060311/1001
The American Civil Liberties Union will train volunteers to monitor the Minuteman project along the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas and New Mexico, and document any abuses of human rights or violence, said Claudia Guevara, a coordinator for the ACLU's Legal Observers program in El Paso.
The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps volunteers, and other groups like it, patrol the border to report immigrants who appear to have entered the country illegally. Critics have called them vigilantes.
Guevara said the program is designed to prevent violence and abuses against migrants and shed light on border conditions that lead to migrant deaths. "We won't be there to engage in dialogue or confront the Minuteman groups. We are a nonviolent group," she said.
El Paso County Sheriff Leo Samaniego and other sheriff's officials met Friday with Minuteman organizers who requested the meeting, said Rick Glancey, spokesman for the Sheriff's Office.
"Sheriff Samaniego characterized the meeting as positive," Glancey said. He added that organizers were advised in writing of Texas laws they must observe, and were told to call 911 if they encounter situations that require law enforcement.
"The message they conveyed is that they believe the Border Patrol is doing a great job, but they don't have the resources they need to do what is required to secure the border," said Glancey, who did not know which Minuteman organization met with Samaniego.
Minuteman leaders in Arizona could not be reached for comment. Their patrols will begin in New Mexico and Texas in October.
Clifford Alford, an organizer for Border Watch in Las Cruces, formerly called New Mexico Minutemen, said he welcomed the ACLU. "It's going to make it look like we have more people out there," he said, adding that in one month, his group prevented 280 people from crossing the border just by their presence. They also reported more than 100 suspected undocumented immigrants to authorities. "We are for changing the immigration laws, and we use a humanitarian approach," he said.
Ramiro Cordero, a senior patrol agent for U.S. Customs and Border Protection-Border Patrol, said "We are not going to make any comments on the ACLU's issues or views." Previously, officials of the federal border security agency said only that they would monitor the Minutemen's activities.
Beginning in October, ACLU Legal Observers volunteers will go out to the desert in groups with two-way radios, cell phones and a video camera.
"Legal observers will position themselves alongside Minuteman volunteers, but will remain separate from them ... (and) at all times remain nonviolent and nonconfrontational with both Minutemen and law enforcement," according to a program flier.
This email was cleaned by emailStripper, available for free from http://www.papercut.biz/emailStripper.htm