Minutemen Readying New York Patrol Along State’s Border With Canada

Civilian border patrols, like those that have generated fierce debate in the Southwest, are planned to start along New York’s border with Canada on October 1.The leader of the Minuteman Civilian Defense Corps, Chris Simcox, will be keynote speaker at a four-hour meeting planned for Saturday in Babylon, on Long Island. The meeting is intended to organize and train volunteers to patrol the Canadian border in New England and New York. Mr. Simcox’s group started patrols in Arizona in April and plans to launch a nationwide effort in October, according to a spokeswoman for the Minutemen, Connie Hair.The weekend meeting will focus on recruitment and training for the October patrols, Ms. Hair said. It is being held on Long Island instead of in a border town because the New York metropolitan area is a population center, because there has been “lots of interest” in the group from the region, and because the group hopes to highlight the relationship between the area’s gang-related crime problems and what they view as lax border enforcement.The patrols in New York will have the support of at least one Empire State politician. A Republican candidate for Senate, John Spencer, issued a press release yesterday announcing his intention to attend the meeting Saturday.The Minuteman organization is a civilian group that describes its mission as helping law enforcement authorities prevent illegal entry to the country. Members patrol the frontier to look for potential criminal activity. Critics charge that the participants are vigilantes. Ms. Hair says, however, that patrols only alert law enforcement when they spot illegal immigrants, and the group exhorts members to obey all laws. The patrols function as a sort of neighborhood watch, Ms. Hair said.The group currently has members in most states, Ms. Hair said, although she was unable to provide an up-to-date number. The group also has a Canadian branch, which plans to patrol the other side of the border, she said.The Minuteman movement has been fueled by frustration at widespread illegal entry in the Southwest, where the governors of New Mexico and Arizona recently declared states of emergency in border counties as a way to secure millions of dollars of additional federal money to stem the inflow. According to a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Mario Villarreal, an average of 1.1 million suspected illegal entrants are apprehended each year by the approximately 9,800 agents stationed along the border with Mexico.In contrast, the northern border is often perceived as much quieter. In recent years, the number of apprehensions along the length of the northern border has hovered between 10,000 and 12,000, according to Mr. Villarreal. About 1,000 agents patrol that border, he said.Mr. Spencer views illegal immigration and the Minuteman group’s attempt to combat it as “a question of national security,” a spokesman, Christ ian Winthrop, told the Sun. Mr. Spencer believes “we need to get a handle on who is in the country right now,” Mr. Winthrop said.In New York, reaction to news of the upcoming meeting was muted. Spokesmen for Senators Clinton and Schumer and for Governor Pataki declined to comment for this article.Elsewhere, reaction of public officials to the Minutemen has been mixed. Rep. Tom Tancredo, a Colorado Republican who is chairman of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus, publicly thanked the group after meeting with some of its members in April, describing them as “good citizens who ask only that our laws be enforced.”The governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has also praised the group. “They’ve done a terrific job. And they have cut down the crossing of illegal immigrants by a huge percentage,” he said in April.Others, however, have expressed skepticism. It is hard to say how effective the group’s patrols in the Southwest have been, a spokeswoman for Governor Janet Napolitano of Arizona, Pati Urias, told the Sun. Ms. Urias credits the group with attracting publicity but argues that the governor’s intense lobbying and declaration of emergency have been more successful in spurring federal action.Law enforcement officials question the wisdom of civilian border patrols on safety grounds. The Minutemen are “individuals who have good intentions but could possibly place themselves in very dangerous situations,” Mr. Villarreal said. He noted that four border agents have been killed in the line of duty since the current border agency was created in March 2003. Violent incidents are common, he said.Mr. Spencer’s press release refers specifically to gang-related crime as a serious consequence of illegal immigration, singling out the Mara Salvatrucha gang, also known as MS-13. The group, originating in El Salvador, is believed to smuggle people and drugs across the Mexican border, and since February it has been the target of a massive federal law enforcement operation, Operation Community Shield. Mr. Spencer notes that the gang is implicated in a string of violent crimes in Nassau and Suffolk counties.Although MS-13 appears to be very active along the Mexican border, there have been only “a couple” of arrests related to MS-13 along the northern border, Mr. Villarreal of Customs and Border Protection said. The most common drug-related crime along the Canadian border involves marijuana smuggling, and it tends to be a more serious problem in the Northwest.

Minutemen Readying New York Patrol Along State’s Border With Canada

Minutemen Readying New York Patrol Along State’s Border With Canada

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