Taco Bell May Want to Change Their Marketing Slogan

The Lord of Truth believes this has bad idea written all over it...

Hundreds of volunteers, some of them armed, are expected to take up positions along the Mexican border Friday and begin patrolling for illegal immigrants - an exercise some fear could attract racist crackpots and lead to vigilante violence.

Organizers of the Minuteman Project said the civilian volunteers, many of whom were recruited over the Internet, will meet first for a rally in this one-time silver mining town, then fan out across 23 miles of the San Pedro Valley to watch the border for a month and report sightings of illegal activity to Border Patrol agents.

Minuteman field operations director Chris Simcox described the project as "the nation's largest neighborhood watch group" and said one of the goals is to make the public aware of how porous the border is.

Jim Gilchrist, a retired accountant from Aliso Viejo, Calif., who organized the project, said that some volunteers will carry handguns, which is allowed under Arizona law, but are being instructed to avoid confrontation, even if shot at.

Still, law enforcement officials and human rights advocates are worried about the potential for bloodshed.

Critics contend the project may attract anti-immigrant racists and vigilantes looking to confront illegal immigrants. At least one white supremacist group has mentioned the project on its Web site.

"They are domestic terrorists that represent a danger to the country and could promote a major border conflict that will have serious ramifications and consequences," said Armando Navarro, a University of California-Riverside political science professor and coordinator of the National Alliance for Human Rights, made up mostly of Hispanic activists.

Michael Nicley, chief of the U.S. Border Patrol's Tucson sector, said the volunteers are "not the kind of help the Border Patrol is asking for."

Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever said he fears immigrant smugglers might open fire on the volunteers.

I think it's a bit of hyperbole to characterize these guys as terrorists. I even have trouble viewing them as vigilantes, since the stated goal doesn't even involve the apprehension of illegals. And the fact that racists and white supremecists support a tighter border is a red herring in my mind. Terrorists probably support a looser border, don't they?

However, I'm with the sheriff here -- the potential for violence is a huge issue, and we've got an armed confrontation likely to occur. But I'm also peeved that the Minutemen have now been targeted by a Mexican crime syndicate...

Mara Salvatrucha is among the most successful smugglers of drugs, weapons and people across the U.S.-Mexico border.

It's ruthless, too: When federal authorities arrested more than 100 gang members two weeks ago in Operation Community Shield -- spanning New York, Los Angeles, Washington, Baltimore Miami, Dallas and elsewhere -- more than half of the suspects had prior arrests or convictions for murder, assault, arson, weapons offenses or charges of drug possession. Mara Salvatrucha has reportedly issued "green lights" to kill police officers in Virginia and Maryland. Such a criminal enterprise -- which, we point out, is the largest criminal syndicate in the Washington area -- benefits greatly from lax border security and under-funding of the U.S. Border Patrol.

Thus, it is clear that Project Minuteman threatens to complicate things for its smuggling and law-breaking operations. Project Minuteman's 1,000 or more observers will likely be able to spot the gangsters as they attempt to cross into Arizona. They will be able to report on suspected criminal activity involving illegal border-crossings and point the Border Patrol toward the worst offenses. Some of the Minutemen with valid licenses will be armed. The Minutemen have been instructed to holster their weapons and not to confront any suspected lawbreakers. Their only purpose is to spot offenders and report them to the Border Patrol.

But Mara Salvatrucha may well do its best to force them to react otherwise, given the stakes for a criminal enterprise like Mara Salvatrucha and its violent record inside the United States.

Two key lessons here are that criminal enterprises benefit from lax enforcement and that ordinary citizens protest when the federal government fails them.

Well, that's for sure. I think we need to figure out a way to step up border enforcement so citizens don't feel compelled to enforce the laws themselves. Until then, I think we're sitting on a powder keg. And Chris Muir in his March 30th strip has a good point. You know you're in trouble when people start comparing your policies to the U.N.