AG: Feds to be told of immigrant arrests
Courier Post Online
Thursday, August 23, 2007
TRENTON (AP) -- State Attorney General Anne Milgram today ordered all New Jersey law enforcement authorities to notify federal immigration officials whenever an illegal immigrant is arrested for an indictable offense or drunken driving.
Milgram said the need "to have a uniform state policy on notification to immigration" became evident after a recent triple homicide in Newark. Before the directive, "all police departments in our state had complete discretion as to if, when and how to notify immigration authorities."
The policy, which follows the Aug. 4 killings of three Newark college students in a schoolyard by six suspects, also specifies that prosecutors and courts be notified.
Labels: illegal immigration
posted by NEWS at 7:42 AM
8 Comments:
The Bird Feeder Parallel...
I bought a bird feeder. I hung it on my back porch and filled it with
seed. Within a week we had hundreds of birds taking advantage of the
continuous flow of free and easily accessible food.
But then the birds started building nests in the boards of the patio,
above the table, and next to the barbecue.
Then came the poop. It was everywhere: on the patio tile, the chairs, the
table...everywhere.
Then some of the birds turned mean:
They would dive bomb me and try to peck me even though I had fed them out of
my own pocket.
And others birds were boisterous and loud:
They sat on the feeder and squawked and screamed at all hours of the day and
night and demanded that I fill it when it got low on food.
After a while, I couldn't even sit on my own back porch anymore.
I took down the bird feeder and in three days the birds were gone.
I cleaned up their mess and took down the many nests they had built all over
the patio.
Soon, the back yard was like it used to be.... quiet, serene and no one
demanding their rights to a free meal. * * * * *
Now let me think....... at first, our government gives out free food,
subsidized housing, free medical care, free education and allows anyone born
here to be an automatic citizen.
Then the illegals came by the tens of thousands.
Suddenly our taxes went up to pay for free services; small apartments are
housing 5 families: you have to wait 6 hours to be seen by an emergency room
doctor: your child's 2nd grade class is behind other schools because over
half the class doesn't speak English: Corn Flakes now come in a bilingual
box; I have to press "one" to hear my bank talk to me in English, and
people waving flags other than "Old Glory" are squawking and screaming in
the streets, demanding more rights and free liberties.
Maybe it's time for the government to take down the bird feeder . . . . . . . . .
(GO TO THE WEBSITE OF....NUMBERSUSA....FAX YOUR REPRESENTATIVES ABOUT THE FOLLOWING BILLS.)
2008 marks the second term for the 110th Congress and there are many important immigration-related bills going through both the Senate and the House. These bills include:
-HR 938, a bill to end chain migration
-HR 1430, a bill to end the visa lottery (HR 4065 would also end the visa lottery)
-HR 133, a bill to reform birthright citizenship (HR 1940, HR 4192, and S 1269 would also reform birthright citizenship)
-HR 4088, the SAVE Act
Please send a fax to your Members of Congress and urge them not to forget about immigration 2008.
Visit our website to find information on the multitude of immigration bills going through Congress.
Andy Rooney said on '60 Minutes' a few weeks back:
I don't think being a minority makes you a victim of anything except numbers.
The only things I can think of that are truly discriminatory are things like the United Negro College Fund, Jet Magazine, Black Entertainment Television, and Miss Black America.
Try to have things like the United Caucasian College Fund, Cloud Magazine, White Entertainment Television, or Miss White America; and see what happens... Jesse Jackson will be knocking down your door.
Guns do not make you a killer. I think killing makes you a killer. You can kill someone with a baseball bat or a car, but no one is trying to ban you from driving to the ball game.
I believe they are called the Boy Scouts for a reason; that is why there are no girls allowed. Girls belong in the Girl Scouts!
ARE YOU LISTENING MARTHA BURKE?
I think that if you feel homosexuality is wrong, it is not a phobia, it is an opinion.
I have the right 'NOT' to be tolerant of others because they are different, weird, or tick me off.
When 70% of the people who get arrested are black, in cities where 70% of the population is black, that is not racial profiling; it is the Law of Probability.
I believe that if you are selling me a milkshake, a pack of cigarettes, a newspaper or a hotel room, you must do it in English! As a matter of fact, if you want to be an American citizen, you should have to speak English!
My father and grandfather didn't die in vain so you can leave the countries you were born in to come over and disrespect ours.
I think the police should have every right to shoot your sorry ass if you threaten them after they tell you to stop. If you can't understand the word 'freeze' or 'stop' in English, see the above lines.
I don't think just because you were not born in this country, you are qualified for any special loan programs, government sponsored bank loans or tax breaks, etc., so you can open a hotel, coffee shop, trinket store, or any other business.
We did not go to the aid of certain foreign countries and risk our lives in wars to defend their freedoms, so that decades later they could come over here and tell us our constitution is a living document; and open to their interpretations.
I don't hate the rich I don't pity the poor.
I know pro wrestling is fake, but so are movies and television.
That doesn't stop you from watching them.
I think Bill Gates has every right to keep every penny he made and continue to make more. If it ticks you off, go and invent the next operating system that's better, and put your name on the building.
It doesn't take a whole village to raise a child right, but it does take a parent to stand up to the kid; and smack their little behinds when necessary, and say 'NO!'
I think tattoos and piercing are fine if you want them, but please don't pretend they are a political statement. And, please, stay home until that new lip ring heals. I don't want to look at your ugly infected mouth as you serve me French fries!
I am sick of 'Political Correctness.' I know a lot of black people, and not a single one of them was born in Africa; so how can they be 'African-Americans'? Besides, Africa is a continent. I don't go around saying I am a European-American because my great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather was from Europe. I am proud to be from America and nowhere else.
And if you don't like my point of view, tough...
I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG, OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, AND TO THE REPUBLIC, FOR WHICH IT STANDS, ONE NATION UNDER GOD, INDIVISIBLE, WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL! AMEN!
I was asked to send this on if I agree or delete if I don't. It is said that 86% of Americans believe in God. Therefore I have a very hard time understanding why there is such a problem in having 'In God We Trust' on our money and having 'God' in the Pledge of Allegiance. Why don't we just tell the 14% to Shut Up, lay down and BE QUIET!!!
Real Time Data
http://immigrationcounters.com/
Illegal Immigrants in Country: 21,481,684
OTM Illegals In Country: 534,444
Money Wired to Mexico Since Jan 2006: $ 28,539,468,999
Money Wired to Latin America Since '01 : $255,615,725,053
Cost of Social Services for Illegal Immigrants Since 1996: $ 397,453,923,765
Children of Illegals in Public Schools: 4,329,521
Cost of Illegals in K-12 Since 1996: $14,056,043,545
Illegal Immigrants Incarcerated: 362,926
Cost of Incarcerations Since 2001: $ 1,406,467,956
Illegal Immigrant Fugitives : 676,501
Anchor Babies Since 2002: 1,964,351
Skilled Jobs Taken by Illegal Immigrants: 10,462,630
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/11/us/11brfs-TRANSFERS.html
Immigrant Smuggling Money.
Arizona: Money Seizures Ruled Illegal
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THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: January 11, 2007
A judge has ruled that the state has no right to seize money transfers that originate in other states, dealing a blow to its effort to clamp down on immigrant smuggling money.
http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-105962-.html
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers working the El Paso port of entry interdicted a car with $1,858,085 in cash. The American currency was found in the door panels and the rear door of a 1992 Ford Expedition. According to CBP "The seizure is the largest currency seizure made at the El Paso port of entry in more than a decade and possibly the second largest ever."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1978744/posts
seize drugs
seize pets
seize pension
seize money
seize stocks & bonds
seize id cards, licenses, etc
seize boats
seize homes
seize .... the pattern!
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F05EEDC163DF930A25755C0A96E958260
Seizure of Ship Helps Officials Trace Route of Illegal Immigrants
http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/2006-04-20-ifco-raids_x.htm
Federal prosecutors said the seven current or former managers were charged with conspiracy to transport, harbor and encourage illegal immigrants to reside in the United States for commercial advantage and financial gain. The managers face up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each illegal immigrant worker
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/2008/02/29/vehicle_0301.html
Some Atlanta police welcome law that allows seizure of illegal immigrants' cars
The proposed law, House Bill 978, was approved by the state House of representatives this week. It still must pass the senate. The measure would allow police to seize cars of illegal immigrants who are involved in accidents or violate traffic laws.
https://www.nrahq.org/gateway_feedback.asp
The NRA gets blamed for illegal guns....are "we" (the average citizen of the U.S.A) buying illegal guns when we send SIGHTLESSLY 300 billion dollars out of the country to who knows where and purchase illegal guns and then BLAME THE "NRA"
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E03E7DC1F38F930A25757C0A96F958260
Amid a public debate over the tactics of New York City police officers, a Federal judge in Manhattan has ruled that the police violated the rights of a man who was stopped, searched and arrested in 1997 for carrying an illegal handgun and fake immigration papers.
http://www.fairus.org/site/PageServer?pagename=iic_immigrationissuecenters716c
To report illegal aliens call the DHS National Hotline 1 866 DHS 2ICE.
How to Stop Illegal Immigration
Illegal immigration is an enormous problem for the United States, and one that is growing, with nine to eleven million illegal aliens currently estimated to be in the U.S. While most efforts to halt illegal immigration have focused on our southern land border, the difficulties are spread throughout the immigration system. Spotty or haphazard efforts to end illegal immigration cannot succeed.
In order to compose an overall, cohesive plan, FAIR sponsored an experts' study that resulted in the report Ten Steps to Ending Illegal Immigration. It is important to realize that the proposals outlined below are not separate, but are interdependent parts of an overall plan to end illegal immigration--a plan that can succeed. The following are the key recommendations.
The loopholes that facilitate illegal immigration must be closed.
We need to:
use expeditious exclusion of fraudulent entrants at airports;
limit the Attorney General's excess authority to parole aliens into the country;
cap the number of asylum grantees;
reinstitute authority for the Border Patrol to conduct open-field searches;
stop seventy-two-hour deportation notices (known as "run letters");
eliminate legalistic delaying tactics in immigration hearings;
eliminate the visa waiver program.
Incentives for illegal immigration must be eliminated.
We need to:
stop giving citizenship to the children of illegal aliens and foreign visitors;
withhold work authorization to those with pending asylum claims;
establish a universal system for checking welfare and work eligibility;
end all public benefits for illegal aliens.
The penalties for violating immigration law must be increased.
We need to:
bar from later immigration those who make frivolous asylum applications and 'no-shows';
make alien smuggling and document fraud into racketeering crimes;
bar reentry to any alien receiving a five-year prison sentence;
withhold funds from localities that refuse to cooperate with efforts to end illegal immigration;
hold sponsors accountable for immigrants they sponsor;
deport immigrants who become public charges.
Existing programs that are particularly effective must be expanded.
We need to:
widen use of pre-inspection programs abroad and frequent-traveler inspection procedures;
extend the Border Patrol canine program and highway checkpoint system;
expand the institutional hearing program and the special U.S. Attorneys program;
increase interior repatriation and deportation hearings of criminal aliens by telephone;
broaden the assets seizure program.
Government agencies must coordinate their efforts better and more extensively.
We need to:
improve coordination between border agencies and between intelligence agencies;
limit judicial review of immigration decisions and expand judicial deportation;
give the National Security Council a role in ending illegal immigration;
combine the immigration service (INS) work form with the IRS work form;
speed notification to INS of jailed aliens, including certified records of conviction.
A greater investment must be made in the personnel who combat illegal immigration.
We need to:
increase personnel in Inspections, Intelligence, Border Patrol, and Detention and Deportation;
reduce temporary employees in INS Inspections and increase the permanent staff;
dedicate investigators to work solely on employment of illegal aliens;
expand on-going training programs for inspectors, intelligence officers, and investigators;
establish systematic performance reviews of immigration judges.
Top-of-the-line equipment must be available to the enforcers of immigration law.
We need to:
provide a facility for INS classified information;
establish equipment plans for INS Intelligence, the Border Patrol, and Investigations;
improve vehicle fleets of the Border Patrol, Investigations, and Detention and Deportation;
create a centralized case database for INS Investigations.
New technology must be harnessed to the battle against illegal immigration.
We need to:
introduce new, up-to-date technology in Inspections, the Border Patrol, and Investigations;
create a secure intelligence database and distribution system;
set up a verification system for welfare and work eligibility.
http://www.examiner.com/a-1349443~Study__Deportation_major_fault_in_U_S__immigration_policy.html
North Carolina Representative Wants to Tax Money Wired Home by Illegal Immigrants
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/280681/north_carolina_representative_wants.html
http://immigrationcounters.com/
Illegal Immigrants in Country: 21,481,684
OTM Illegals In Country: 534,444
Money Wired to Mexico Since Jan 2006: $ 28,539,468,999
Money Wired to Latin America Since '01 : $255,615,725,053
Cost of Social Services for Illegal Immigrants Since 1996: $ 397,453,923,765
Children of Illegals in Public Schools: 4,329,521
Cost of Illegals in K-12 Since 1996: $14,056,043,545
Illegal Immigrants Incarcerated: 362,926
Cost of Incarcerations Since 2001: $ 1,406,467,956
Illegal Immigrant Fugitives : 676,501
Anchor Babies Since 2002: 1,964,351
Skilled Jobs Taken by Illegal Immigrants: 10,462,630
When foreign workers are 'dumped' in the U.S.
One of the major labor issues facing the United States today is one nobody in Washington is willing to talk about. But unless they do, Johns Hopkins economist Steve Hanke says, they can't make intelligent decisions about immigration because they aren't dealing with a key source of the problem: labor dumping.
Labor dumping is what centralized and socialist governments do to evade the consequences of not allowing their citizens to enjoy the opportunities and prosperity that come with a free market economy. These governments send millions of unemployed citizens to countries with free markets. That's because nations with the lowest tax and regulatory burdens typically grow faster and create more jobs than countries with state-run economies.
Hanke points out that labor dumping is practiced by overregulated, overtaxed European countries like Turkey and Poland, where unemployment remains high despite massive emigration. But Mexico is by far the worst of the lot: 30 percent of its 38 million labor force works in the U.S. and sends back $23 billion in remittances each year. That is more than Mexico receives from its tourism industry and does much to explain why the Mexican government is actively facilitating labor dumping as an official policy, Hanke says.
It not only gets rid of Mexico's huge unemployment problem, it brings in so much foreign currency that the government has absolutely no incentive to make politically unpalatable changes to its inefficient economic system. Why bother, if you can just send the mess over the border and get billions of greenbacks in return?
American businesses know what happens when heavily subsidized foreign imports are "dumped" in U.S. markets. Steelmakers say Indiana, the largest steel-producing state, lost 17,108 union manufacturing jobs due to illegal dumping of hot-rolled steel from China and elsewhere. The industry wants higher tariffs to protect domestic producers. But nobody in Washington is even talking about what happens when cheap, below-market labor is illegally "dumped" here as well.
A 2005 Bear Stearns report estimates that Mexico's labor dumping has depressed American wages 4 percent to 6 percent, putting the social costs of the "largest migration wave since the late 1800s" at $30 billion per year. Since these costs are also borne by U.S. workers in the form of higher local, state and federal taxes, they can lose as much as 10 percent of their annual pay — considerably more than the 3.1 percent average wage and benefit increases they have received so far this year.
So what are President Bush and the Democratic majority in Congress going to do to protect the American worker from this unprecedented economic onslaught?
http://www.topix.net/forum/news/immigration/T8UK70F85RF2KEC67/p60
Also see http://www.immigrationwatchdog.com/?p=4178
http://www.diggersrealm.com/mt/archives/000919.html
Another Mara Salvatruchas Gang Leader Orders Attacks On Minuteman Project
By Digger
On March 11, 2005 I reported on Ebner Anivel Rivera-Paz, a leader of the vicious Mara Salvatruchas (MS-13) gang who is currently behind bars, issuing orders to attack members of the Minuteman Project while they are patrolling the Mexican border starting in April. Well now a second leader of the gang has issued the same orders to "teach a lesson" to the volunteer citizens patrol.
Washington Times
James Gilchrist, a Vietnam veteran who helped organize the vigil to protest the federal government's failure to control illegal immigration, said he has been told that California and Texas leaders of Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, have issued orders to teach "a lesson" to the Minuteman volunteers.
"We're not worried because half of our recruits are retired trained combat soldiers," Mr. Gilchrist said. "And those guys are just a bunch of punks."
...
The MS-13 gang has established major smuggling operations in several areas along the U.S.-Mexico border and have transported hundreds of Central and South Americans -- including gang members -- into the United States in the past two years. The gang also is involved in drug and weapons smuggling.
Gang members in America have been tied to numerous killings, robberies, burglaries, carjackings, extortion, rapes and aggravated assaults. Authorities said that the gang has earned a reputation from the other street gangs as being particularly ruthless and that it will retaliate violently when challenged.
The MS-13 gang, with 20,000 members nationwide, has risen in recent months to such prominence that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security, has begun a nationwide crackdown on gang members in this country -- as part of a sweeping law-enforcement initiative known as Operation Community Shield.
It just shows that when we actually put our mind to it we can actually deal with criminal elements.
On March 15, 2005 103 of the MS-13 gang were arrested. On that same day a member slashed his female attorney with a razor blade while in court.
Gang will target Minuteman on Mexico border
Enemy Territory
While Gilchrist is newly prominent on the anti-immigration front — he recently joined the California Coalition for Immigration Reform, a hate group whose leader routinely describes Mexicans as "savages" — Simcox has been active since 2002, when he founded Civil Homeland Defense, a Tombstone-based vigilante militia that he brags has captured more than 5,000 Mexicans and Central Americans who entered the country without visas.
"These people don't come here to work. They come here to rob and deal drugs," Simcox told the Intelligence Report in a 2003 interview. "We need the National Guard to clean up our cities and round them up."
But that was the old Chris Simcox talking, not the new, spiffed-up, buttoned-down, ready-for-primetime Chris Simcox.
The old Simcox described Citizens Homeland Defense as "a committee of vigilantes," and "a border patrol militia." The new Simcox — the one interviewed for dozens of national TV news programs and major newspaper articles about the Minuteman Project — characterized his new and larger outfit of citizen border patrollers as "more of a neighborhood watch program."
The old Simcox said of Mexicans and Central American immigrants, "They have no problem slitting your throat and taking your money or selling drugs to your kids or raping your daughter and they are evil people." The new Simcox said he sympathizes with their plight, and sees them as victims of their own government's failed policies.
Gilchrist gave his sound bites an even more extreme makeover by frequently comparing himself and most of his volunteers to "white Martin Luther Kings," and the Minuteman Project to the civil rights movement. He and Simcox both also preposterously declared in interview after interview that they had designed the Minuteman Project to "protect America from drug dealers and terrorists" as much as to catch undocumented immigrants and turn them over to the U.S. Border Patrol.
The mainstream American media largely failed to challenge these flagrant reinventions, even though Gilchrist's militant rhetoric about immigrants "devouring and plundering our nation" was still up on the Minuteman Project's Web site; even though Simcox's statements are public record (many were published in his own newspaper, the Tombstone Tumbleweed), and even though the Minuteman Project's leaders already had a record of lying to the media.
Early this year, white supremacist and neo-Nazi Web sites began openly recruiting for the Minuteman Project. In response, Gilchrist and Simcox proclaimed that neo-Nazi Skinheads and race warriors from organizations such as the National Alliance and Aryan Nations were specifically banned from participating. Pressured by journalists to explain exactly how they planned to keep these undesirables out, the two organizers said they were working with the FBI to carefully check the backgrounds of all potential Minuteman volunteers, only to have the FBI completely deny this was the case.
Gilchrist and Simcox then claimed they were personally checking out each and every potential volunteer using on-line databases. Even if this were true, one of Gilchrist's computers crashed the morning of April 1, wiping out the records of at least 75 pre-registered volunteers. As a result, the registration protocol in Tombstone rapidly degenerated into a free-for-all, and virtually anyone who showed up and gave a name was issued a Minuteman Project badge and told where to go the next day to be assigned to a watch post.
Gilchrist and Simcox further claimed to the media prior to April 1 that the only volunteers who would be allowed to carry firearms would be those who had a concealed-carry handgun permit from their home states, an indication that they had passed at least a cursory background investigation. In fact, virtually no one was checked for permits.
While most of the Minuteman volunteers were not organized racists, at least one member of Aryan Nations infiltrated the effort, and Johnny and Michael said they were two of six members of the Phoenix chapter of the National Alliance who signed up as Minuteman Volunteers. They said the other four had arrived separately in two-man teams in order to cover more ground and be less conspicuous. They said the Alliance members came out to support the Minuteman Project, but also to recruit new members, and to learn the remote hot zones for border crossers in Cochise County. They said they intended to return and conduct small, roaming, National Alliance-only vigilante patrols in the fall, "when we can have a little more privacy," as Johnny put it.
The day after the registration meltdown, the Minuteman Project sponsored a protest across the street from the Border Patrol's headquarters in Naco. It drew about 75 demonstrators, including Johnny and Michael, who sat quietly in camp chairs, wearing sunglasses and holding placards.
Michael's sign was decorated with a war-room graphic of arrows that represented armies marching north from Mexico and spreading throughout the United States.
"Invasion?" it asked. "What Invasion?"
The graphic on Michael's sign was almost identical to the imagery on a billboard the Alliance paid to put up earlier this year in a predominantly Latino neighborhood of Las Vegas and on Alliance fliers that were tossed onto driveways and lawns in Douglas and Tombstone in late March during a dead-of-night distribution drive.
"Immigration or invasion?" those fliers read. "Non-whites are turning America into a Third World slum. They come for welfare or to take our jobs. They bring crime. Let's send them home now!"
Johnny and Michael offered their last names to no one, and never spoke of their jobs, though Michael said he had fought in the first Gulf War with the 82nd Airborne Division. At the protest, he wore a desert camouflage vest over a black shirt emblazoned with a white fist and combat boots. There were other small clues to the pair's ideology. Driving to the protest, they blasted the white-power rock band Youngblood. Johnny made several references to the "14 Words," a white supremacist adage ("We must secure the existence of our race and a future for White children"). Johnny also had a National Alliance symbol tattooed to the back of his neck and "Born in the C.S.A." (referring to the Confederate States of America) inked below his left jawbone.
"We both grew up in El Paso, and we've been racially aware since we were kids," Michael said. "In the sixth grade, El Paso put in a forced busing program, and I got sent to a middle school that was 95% Mexican. I got my ass kicked about every day. Johnny and I started backing each other up and we've been fighting Mexicans ever since."
Though both have lived in Arizona since the late '90s, the Minuteman Project marked the first time either has dared come near the border.
"The only way I'd be down here is with a bunch of other white guys with guns," Michael said. "Whites are the minority in these border towns, man. They've already been taken over. This is enemy territory."
Lock and Load
The Minuteman Project's "command and communications center" was located on the campus of Miracle Valley Bible College, a former cult compound just outside Naco. Stained mattresses and dusty junk cluttered the halls of the compound's dormitory buildings, where 100 Minuteman volunteers slept two to a room.
Another 30 to 40 vigilantes pitched tents on a weedy ball field with a rusted backstop, where tumbleweeds soared and bounced on shrieking desert winds.
The social atmosphere on the desolate compound was saturated with paranoia, military fetishism and machismo. A neatly printed sign posted to the communal shower room announcing "Women's Shower Hours 7-9 and 3-5" was defaced with a scrawled "NO! MEN ONLY!"
By day two of the Minuteman Project, volunteers had taken to calling the college's cafeteria the "mess hall," the dormitories "barracks," and the boundaries of the campus "the perimeter." Security was tight. Armed guards patrolled the perimeter and stopped cars at the front gate to check occupants for Minuteman badges. Minuteman security teams randomly placed trip flares in the desert outside the compound's structures to alert them at night to the presence of intruders.
Rumors of imminent danger flew through the dorms regularly, along with shouts to "lock and load," because the notorious Central American street gang MS-13 was about to storm the campus.
MS-13 is a favorite bogeyman of the anti-immigration movement, and in late March unsubstantiated Internet rumors began swirling that MS-13 leaders had issued orders for hundreds of MS-13 members in Los Angeles and Phoenix to converge in Cochise County and "teach the Minutemen a lesson." The Washington Times reported these rumors as fact on March 28 in a front-page article headlined "Gang will target Minuteman vigil on Mexico border."
The night of April 4, a cry of alarm went up throughout the Miracle Valley compound that "a credible threat" had been received that armed MS-13 gang members were about to lead a charge of hundreds of Mexicans "over the wire" and against the Minuteman posts along Border Road.
Furiously donning body armor and loading weapons, Minuteman Project security officers and citizen volunteers piled into vehicles and raced to the rescue, only to find that, like all the supposedly impending assaults on the Bible college, the MS-13-led attack never materialized.
The Minuteman Project's culture of fear sprang from the top and then trickled down through the ranks. A towering bodyguard dressed all in black shadowed Gilchrist, and Simcox often donned a bulletproof vest (Simcox is prohibited from carrying a firearm due to his 2004 conviction for illegally packing a pistol in a national park while hunting immigrants).
When Johnny and Michael first arrived at their assigned post on Border Road, they warily eyed a rock formation atop a hill about 250 yards away, in Mexico.
"That's a perfect MS-13 sniper's nest," Michael said. "Keep an eye out for any glints of metal up there."
Johnny pulled out a pair of vinyl rifle cases from a hiding place in the heap of camping and military surplus gear that filled the back of his Toyota 4Runner. Inside the cases were assault rifles, a violation of the Minuteman's weapons policy, which required volunteers to arm themselves with handguns only. "They're loaded, and there are extra clips in there, just in case anything goes down," he said.
Carl found a depression in the earth behind his pick-up truck and called his squad together.
"This is our fallback position," he said. "If we start taking incoming rounds, everyone dive here and get your head down."
But there were no incoming rounds, and no invading, dark-skinned hordes. Day after day, hour after hour, the Minuteman Project volunteers spaced in seven posts along a mile-long stretch of Border Road sat in lawn chairs and milled around, staring at dirt, cacti, and the occasional jackrabbit.
There was so little action on the Mexican side of the fence that a lone cattle rancher riding his horse just south of the border was enough to spark a flurry of radio traffic: "Station Two, this is Station One, we have a mounted possible hostile coming your way, over."
The rancher smiled, waved, and shouted, "Hola!"
"He's probably scouting our troop strength and positions," said Michael. "I don't trust that guy."
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