random rants and references

The Arizona Minuteman Project (MMP) has had a good first 2 weeks with the Border Patrol acknowledging 317 calls from the MMP area, resulting in 846 arrests of illegal aliens. And as the Washington Times reports, their Border patrols inspire imitation, noting that the MMP :

"border vigil, which has nearly shut down a 20-mile corridor of the U.S.-Mexico border to illegal aliens, has spawned the creation of similar civilian patrols from California to Texas.
One of the new patrols, known as the "Yuma Patriots," was scheduled to begin operations today along the U.S.-Mexico border south of Yuma, Ariz., to curb rising numbers of illegal aliens flooding into southwestern Arizona."

And while the US Government officialdom is reluctant to comment :

"Mr. Simcox's Minuteman partner, James T. Gilchrist, said several Border Patrol field agents told him they "tremendously appreciate" what the volunteers are doing to bring attention to the porous border.
He said the agents, all of whom asked not to be identified, reported that since the volunteers arrived, apprehensions in the 20-mile area where the Minutemen have set up observation posts have dropped from 1,000 a day to less than 20.
Before the beginning of the Minuteman vigil, volunteers -- more than 600 of whom have completed a four-hour training session and spent at least one eight-hour shift on the border -- were accused of being armed racists prone to violence. No incidents have occurred during the first two weeks of operation."

But, perhaps the MMP shouldn't get all the credit for the huge decline in illegal border crossing. They may have had help as suggested by this provocatively titled story from - WorldNetDaily: ACLU aiding illegal entry into U.S.? . They report that an interviewee : " told Joseph Farah's nationally syndicated "WorldNetDaily RadioActive" audience yesterday that ACLU monitors sent to the border to watch Minuteman activity and report civil-liberties abuses to authorities have begun flashing lights, sounding horns and warning off illegals and their "coyote" human smugglers from entering territory patrolled by the volunteers." And that : "Border Patrol sources say the Mexican army recently moved about 1,000 troops to the Agua Prieta region, just south of where the Minutemen are. These troops, the sources say, are diverting all of the illegal alien and drug-smuggling traffic away from the Minutemen."

So, does that mean the ACLU is helping the Mexican authorities help the illegal border crossers find safer places to cross? Or has the ACLU given up on its goal of "monitoring" the MMP volunteers for human rights abuses and opted to become noise-makers instead?

Either way, they seemed to have not stopped the MMP from succeeding in making their goals of slowing illegal crossings, getting national attention to a serious national issue, and, even, inspiring some emulation. My first post on this suggested that the US Border Patrol should team with the MMP and treat this exercise as a learning experiment in civilian-official cooperation to solve a common problem. Well, some other civilians are now extending the experiment, and its still a good idea to cooperate with them officially.

Oh Yes - Sleeping Dogs. Well, from the Times article : "Several homeowners along the border have told The Washington Times that the presence of the Minuteman volunteers had resulted in the first time in years that their dogs were quiet and they could get a full night's sleep."

So, it seems the ACLU didn't stop the MMP and couldn't even keep the US homeowners and their dogs awake. But maybe they helped those Mexican folks divert the crossers to better routes.