SOUTH OF THREE POINTS (By Susan
Carroll, Arizona Republic) April 2, 2006 Volunteers with the
Minuteman Civil Defense Corps returned to the U.S.-Mexican border on
Saturday, holding a rally outside a remote, adobe ranch house before
spreading out in the Altar Valley southwest of Tucson to watch for
undocumented immigrants.
About 200 supporters turned up for the noontime rally, where
speakers called for tighter border controls and political candidates
stumped for donations and votes.
The organization's leader, Chris Simcox, said the group's message
was clear: "We don't need immigration reform. We need our borders
secure and our laws enforced."
The kickoff Saturday marked the one-year anniversary of the launch
of the then-named "Minuteman Project," a volunteer effort organized
by Simcox and Jim Gilchrist, a retired California accountant.
The group received national media attention and claimed to have
thousands of volunteers, although because the patrols were spread
out and the shifts staggered, there was no way to reach an accurate,
independent count.
On Saturday after the rally, a line of 20 cars and trucks left the
rally to head out to the desert in the remote Altar Valley, where
the volunteers set up "observation posts," parking their cars a few
hundred yards apart and sitting in lawn chairs.
They plan to conduct around-the-clock patrols until the end of
April.
Along the side of Arizona 286, near where the Minuteman volunteers
had set up camp, about 20 American Civil Liberties Union legal
observers tried to gain access to the patrol areas and were trying
to determine if it was private or public property.
Michelle Dallacroce, a new Minuteman volunteer from Phoenix,
shielded her eyes from the sun with a black cowboy hat, sitting
outside a silver Lexus sports utility vehicle late Saturday
afternoon.
"I'm out here because our borders are insecure," said Dallacroce,
who lives near a day-labor center in Phoenix.
"I have neighbors being broken into, cars being vandalized and
robbed. My children have never ridden their bikes around the block
alone, ever, since we've lived here."
