Civilian Border Patrol teams--Good? Bad?

[VulcanRider]

...Nearly 500 volunteers have already joined the Minuteman Project, anointing themselves civilian border patrol agents. They plan to patrol a 40-mile stretch of the southeast Arizona border throughout April when the tide of immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border peaks....

...Officials concede the 370-mile Arizona border is the most porous stretch on the U.S.-Mexico line. Moreover, recent intelligence indicates that al Qaeda terrorists are likely to enter the country through the Mexican border, James Loy, the deputy secretary of the Homeland Security Department, said last week....

...Civilian patrols are nothing new along the southern border, where crossing the international line is sometimes as easy as stepping over a few rusty strands of barbed wire. But they usually are limited to small, informal groups, leaving organizers to believe the Minuteman Project is the largest of its kind on the southern border....

...Officials fear the Minuteman patrols could cause more trouble than they prevent. At least some of the volunteers plan to arm themselves during the 24-hour desert patrols. Many are untrained and have little or no experience in confronting illegal border crossings....

Read more here

Seems like a good idea to me. Since official law enforcement in that area is stretched too thin to be fully effective, they need help. They're just embarassed to admit it.

[Orbost]

Well, if it were restricted to a Neighbourhood Watch scheme (albeit over a vastly extended area) then no problem.

But when you talk about the volunteers arming themselves, I would have serious doubts. Border control must be done by officers of the law, in accordance with the law. I can just imagine truckloads of gun-toting rednecks patrolling the desert, looking for Mexicans to shoot. "Sorry officer, it was dark and I thought he had a gun", "well, never mind civilian, it's lucky you had your M16 and laser scoped sniper rifle with you. Keep up the good work"

[Lox]

I agree with Orbost. While there is a security threat here, and we have many problems with the current immigration/border patrol situation, I don't think the answer is for private (presumably untrained) citizens to arm themselves. Too much chance for needless violence. Perhaps if they were possees headed up by an INS field agent...

[Violet]

Originally posted by Orbost: Well, if it were restricted to a Neighbourhood Watch scheme (albeit over a vastly extended area) then no problem. But when you talk about the volunteers arming themselves, I would have serious doubts. Border control must be done by officers of the law, in accordance with the law. I can just imagine truckloads of gun-toting rednecks patrolling the desert, looking for Mexicans to shoot. "Sorry officer, it was dark and I thought he had a gun", "well, never mind civilian, it's lucky you had your M16 and laser scoped sniper rifle with you. Keep up the good work"

That is a very unlikely scenario in Arizona. Not very many rednecks in these parts LOL.
I think that with proper background checks, training, and supervision, this could work. More likely than not it would be infiltrated by people who would help illegals cross for cash though. Training the serious land owners on AZ's border lands and giving them the legal channels to capture illegals or scare them back into Mexico would be the best way to go. They would know better (imo) who would be serious in their aid and who would be in it for themselves when bringing in people who are familiar enough with the territories to want to be a part of these types of groups.

[Lucern]

My concern, is who exactly would volunteer for such a thing? As in not get paid, but would drive around armed looking for border crossers?

I question the mind-set of people who would do that on their own time. There's a tendency to blame immigrants in this country, and we're not free of racism either. I think it'd be naive to think that all of these individuals have purely good intentions here. Don't get me wrong, there have to be some people looking to help out the situation genuinely.

What's the worst that could happen? Abuse and murder, and an international incident. Even if it's very successful, illegal immigration cannot be stopped (it can, however, become more dangerous), and stopping it entirely is of questionable value for the types of necessary jobs that migrant workers fill annually. If we think it's such a big concern, we should be funding actual border patrol agents. It should be noted that Al Qaida easily passed through our immigration system legally before 9/11. Canada's border, btw, has a reputation for being extremely easy to cross, anyone know anything about that?

Besides, it's dangerous work. One of the worst serial killers in the past hundred years lived near the border, raping and killing scores of women in the desert. Drug-runners might easily have civilians outgunned. Traffickers might easily have civilians outgunned, or more easily evade them than real agents.

You generally get what you pay for, after all, and we'd be lucky to get by with no problem on this one.

[ 02-22-2005, 03:55 PM: Message edited by: Lucern ]