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Recently, the 9/11 FSA Foundation Board of Directors voted to give 9/11 FSA’s endorsement to the Minuteman Project. The Minutemen have organized what is, in effect, a neighborhood watch on our borders to help stem the tidal wave of illegal aliens among who are unidentified terrorists and violent felons. We postponed taking this action for a considerable period of time because, after all, under the Constitution it is the responsibility of the federal government to protect our borders in order to protect Americans from foreign invasion. However, we have finally given up any hope that the President and the Congress will live up to their oaths of office by enforcing US law, and this is why we decided to endorse the Minuteman Project.
To publicly demonstrate our support for the Minutemen, Joan Molinaro, Bruce De Cell and Peter Gadiel traveled to California last week to tour the California-Mexico border east of San Diego as far as the town of Campo. We also spoke at a Minuteman rally on the steps of the State Capitol in Sacramento along with others such as Lupe Moreno of Hispanics Against Illegal Immigration, Yeh Ling Ling of Carrying Capacity Network, radio host Terry Anderson and event organizer and Minuteman Tim Donnelly.
Because of false statements made about the Minutemen, we want to explain exactly what the Minutemen are and what they do, and what they don't do. The Minutemen are in every respect a neighborhood watch. A very effective neighborhood watch, but that is all. What they do is to walk along the border and watch for illegal aliens crossing the border and for other illegal activities such as drug smuggling. When they see illegal acts they phone for the Border Patrol or local police. The Minutemen are not “vigilantes” because they do not physically interfere with illegal aliens; they do not touch them. The Minutemen do not attempt to enforce the law.
A very large percentage of Minutemen are retired police officers and military, and that’s no accident. It is the result of the recruitment efforts of Jim Gilchrist, Glenn Spencer and others of the Minuteman leadership. Every Minuteman must pass a background check and receive instruction on what they will do and not do. No Minuteman has ever been arrested by any peace officer for acting unlawfully.
OUR VISIT TO THE BORDER
We won’t go into too much detail of our visit to the border, but here are some of the things we saw and learned.
Out in the rural areas while the US side of the border is typical of the rest of the US the contrast is amazing immediately on the other side of the rickety border fence. Whereas on the US side there are towns and highways and people, the Mexican side is a vast empty space. With one exception. Just couple of hundred yards inside Mexican territory on the tallest hill in the vicinity and within clear sight of the US is a very large house on a couple of acres surrounded by a tall, heavily constructed wall just like those around maximum security prisons. The area is a major drug smuggling corridor with Mexico’s notoriously corrupt police providing protection for the smugglers. Some of the Minutemen told us they have seen Mexican police cars unloading boxes inside the walls. Draw your own conclusions.
Bruce spoke to a Border Patrolman and after Bruce introduced himself as a 9/11 family member the officer told him that they were instructed by their superiors NOT to enforce many laws and regulations.
We then traveled to the town of Campo where there is a Border Patrol station. We learned that there are 143 (one hundred and forty three) vehicles of various types. There are 4 (four) Border Patrol agents based at Campo.
THE RALLY
This was a great success with several hundred people attending and a group of very good speakers. Bruce, Joan and Peter spoke. Joan told the audience that because our elected officials have not done their jobs, our borders have been left open to illegal aliens and the terrorists among them. These officials allowed her son to be murdered. “They took my son Carl, they are not going to take my daughters,” she said.
Bruce De Cell spoke of a forum he had recently attended at John Jay College in New York. Among the speakers was Dean Graham Allison of the Kennedy School of Government. Bruce spoke of how Prof. Allison said nuclear weapons can easily be brought into the US for Muslim extremists in packages as small as a bale of marijuana by the same criminals who smuggle drugs. Again, the failure of our government officials to secure our borders may lead to more murder.
Peter Gadiel spoke of Pres. Bush standing at the ruins of the World Trade Center after 9/11 and telling the American people "I hear you." Gadiel said that after meeting so many people whose loved ones had been murdered by illegals, injured by illegals, lost their jobs to illegals, seen their neighborhoods destroyed by illegals it's clear that "The President lied. He didn't hear us and he doesn't care about the millions of Americans who have been hurt by his refusal to enforce immigration law."
In contrast to our civilized rally the open borders mob had bused in about 600 people who, without bothering to get a permit, staged a noisy and violent demonstration adjoining the Capitol grounds. The demonstrators used air horns and electronically amplified whistles to try and drown out our legal rally. The only flag they flew was a large Mexican flag. It took several dozen Highway Patrolmen and Sacramento City Police, including mounted officers, to keep the mob under control. One Highway Patrolman was kicked in the stomach and punched in the face. His attacker and several others were arrested.
Interestingly, a friend who saw TV coverage of the event said that a "clergyman" supporting the demonstrators accused those of us at the Minutemen rally of spreading “hate” and “encouraging violence.”
Meanwhile, our rally was peaceful and restrained, and as we always see at secure border rallies the attendees reflected many races and ethnic groups united by a desire to secure our borders, support legal immigration, end illegal immigration and stop the invasion.
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