News Report, Pablo Jaime Sainz, La Prensa-San Diego, Aug 30, 2005
http://news.pacificnews.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=960a2267f21679e7f909d91e79864b04
During the summer, when the so-called Minutemen arrived at the small border town of Campo, east of San Diego, Hugo Figueroa read in the newspapers that legal observers were closely watching the anti-immigrant group.
The student from Chula Vista wished that he could join them. Now he can.
A group of lawyers have come together in San Diego to recruit legal observers to closely watch the Minutemen, or as they're called in Spanish, cazamigrantes, that are planning to arrive at the border near Tecate on Sept. 16.
"That's the opportunity I was waiting for to participate and help out so that there's justice at the border," said 22-year-old Figueroa.
The goal of the San Diego Legal Observer Coalition, as the group of lawyers is called, is to observe and record the interactions between the Minutemen — who most likely will be armed— and the undocumented immigrants they are planning to stop, said Juan Gallegos, one of the founders of the coalition.
"The purpose of the monitoring is to deter potential abuses such as assault and unlawful arrest by documenting these interactions," he said.
The lawyer made it clear that observers will neither confront nor engage the vigilantes.
"We recognize that many volunteers will have strong feelings about the issues involved, but our purpose is to observe interactions and not to provoke incidents," Gallegos said.
Figueroa said he only wants to participate to be sure that there are no injustices against his compatriots.
Volunteer observers will be trained and then divided into groups of two or three people. They will have all the necessary equipment for observation and documentation, such as video and still cameras, binoculars and two-way radios.
The job of the volunteers will consist of three stages: They will attempt to follow the Minutemen at a distance of 10 to 30 feet; they will record the interactions between Minutemen and immigrants with the video and still cameras; and they will report to the proper authorities any illegal activities they observe, Gallegos said.
The lawyer warned that all volunteers must know that this is a high-risk activity, because of the potential for violence and the harsh mountain and desert conditions.
"When one goes out to observe what these anti-immigrant groups are doing, one knows one needs to be careful," said Figueroa, who added he will register for training to become an observer this week.
The group "Friends of the Border Patrol" has announced that it will begin its operations at different points near the Baja California border on Sept.16, Mexican Independence Day, a date that Gallegos called "deliberately provocative."
But Andy Ramirez, founder of Friends of the Border Patrol, said that the day was chosen for its symbolism and as a day when Americans can support Mexicans in declaring their independence from their government that "allows smugglers to control their lives and drug dealers to use children to get drugs across the border."
"This isn't a slap on the face of the Mexican people, but a great proof of support to end the exploitation from their government," Ramirez said.
Although Friends of the Border Patrol plans to stay at the border until Sept. 25, another Minutemen group, led by Oceanside resident Jim Chase, is planning to come back in October.
The San Diego Legal Observer Coalition is formed by four lawyer agencies: American Civil Liberties Union, American Immigration Lawyers Association, La Raza Lawyers of San Diego and National Lawyers Guild of San Diego.
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