Random Thoughts From Marybeth

Watching the Watchers

The Minuteman Project is a group of volunteers who are watching the Mexico/Arizona border and reporting sightings of illegal immigrants to authorities.

The ACLU has labeld the group "vigilantes" and decided that the Minutemen need watching.

"Under the Constitution, every person regardless of immigration status is entitled to due process, and private vigilantes are not permitted to take the law into their own hands," said Lucas Guttentag, Director of the ACLU Immigrants’ Right Project.

If the goal of the Minutemen is to report illegal immigrants to the border patrol, isn't "due process" what they are providing them? And making sure that it happens in a timely manner.

I disagree with the "vigilante" label. From what I have read, volunteers who have any contact with the immigrants (good, bad, or indifferent) are asked to leave. I think Tom Delay's comparison of the Minutemen with a neighborhood watch program is more accurate.

I'm having a hard time understanding the ACLU's logic...American citizens watching their border and reporting an actual crime (illegal immigrants, drug smuggling) is bad. Americans watching other Americans doing this because they may witness a crime (threats or harassment) is good.

Even if the ACLU finds little to report, they have that covered too. "We feel that our presence has already had an impact in terms of deterring illegal behavior and that is why it is so important that we continue our activities through the month of April." (Caroline Isaacs, the executive director of the American Friends Service Committee in Tucson)

Funny, I read her quotation and if I didn't know it came from the ACLU group I could have just as easily believed it was from a Minuteman volunteer. The only difference is that we know there was illegal behavior - immigrants and smugglers crossing the border - before the Minutemen arrived and that it has declined since they have been watching. We don't know that there was illegal behavior by the Minutemen, just that the ACLU thought it was a possibility.

If this is true, maybe the ACLU needs to turn the cameras on themselves if they are so concerned with harassment and illegal activity. With behavior like that, I guess it's no surprise they assume ill intent on the behalf of others.