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Carroll Cox: Rural Arizona
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MINUTEMEN PROJECT
Border Sentiment: President Bush Betraying Us Robert Ludwig Bothell, Washington Apr 22, 2005 I recently returned from the Arizona border. While at the Minutemen demonstration, there seemed to be two concurrent thoughts:
What I heard the people saying: We have been betrayed by President Bush. I visited with Tim and his wife, residents who live about four miles north of the border. He spoke of the trails used by the Mexicans as they come north across his property. He also has abandoned mine shafts in his property. The homemade backpacks used to carry drugs across the border are dumped in these shafts. He told me there were nights when a pickup comes onto his property, lights off of course. The drugs or people are loaded and off they go. He knows of a car graveyard where stolen out of state cars have been left after being used for transportation. He knows that he and his wife's identity have been copied as more than once, they have had their mail stolen. A woman from Tucson told me that she was tired of hearing of traffic accidents involving UDA's -- Undocumented Aliens. It bothers her to hear of a pickup truck or van, overloaded with people, overturning and causing either deaths or injuries. I talked with a man from Tucson telling of his disgust with a center being set up in Tucson to aid the illegals in finding daily work. This center is within two miles of his house and he had no trouble presuming who broke the glass in the camper in his back yard, ate or took all the food, stole his clothes and filled the toilet. From the style of clothes left, he knew the person had just come across the border, was about five feet tall, and had some large cuts on his left arm where he cut himself on the broken window glass. So to him, it would just be a matter of going down to the work center and find someone wearing very baggy clothes (the Tucson owner was about six feet tall) with a bloody left arm. But it was so commonplace that he was told if we investigated all the alleged thefts by UDA's, we would have no time for anything else. One Californian expressed concern that if people from Mexico could so easily cross the border, wasn't it a matter of Homeland Security to protect the borders from others who may be terrorists coming in the same way. The border guards at this protest were very tight lipped. I tried to ask one as to the best place to see as much of the wall through Naco as I could and he said that he couldn't answer and all questions had to go through the information officer. The sheriff's department was much friendlier. On Friday night, I was speaking with a member of the sheriff's department in Tombstone. He said that he felt that this protest wouldn't stop the traffic in people or drugs. Where there is money to be made, if one crossing area became closed, they, the coyotes would simply find another. I heard that one coyote could make thousands of dollars with each trip. Yet, with all the problems, fears and frustrations the UDA's bring, no one was willing to begrudge them the want of coming to the U.S. for a better life. It just needs to be done within current immigration means -- not illegal night time crossings. The Press For each Minuteman, there is an equal number of press, each wanting their story. Tombstone is a relatively small town, so when I arrived on Saturday evening and saw seven television satellite trucks sitting on one street corner, you knew where the goings-on were. I was told when the organizational meeting got out, the more radical you looked, the more reporters were around you. If you were radical and had a pistol, so much the better. Home |News |State Briefs |Editorials|Letters |Key Legislation |Privacy Policy |Contact Us
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