New Congress provides impetus
Groups jockey in a daily derby for attention, money, credibility
By Brady McCombs
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 01.28.2007
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COCHISE COUNTY — On a frigid night 100 yards north of the Arizona-
Mexico border west of the San Pedro River, Michael King sits on a
couch inside a small house maneuvering a video-game controller as he
stares intently at a TV screen.
Black and white thermal images fill the screen as King pushes and
taps buttons, slides an adjuster and navigates the joypad. The goal:
find white figures moving north and call the Border Patrol.
This $85,000 camera system is the newest tool of the American Border
Patrol, a five-person team building its own virtual fence of
airplanes, cameras, sensors and unmanned aerial vehicles on land next
to the San Pedro River in Cochise County to show the Border Patrol
how it's done. Two to three times a week, president and founder Glenn
Spencer posts videos on the organization's Web site of illegal
entrants and drug smugglers that technical director King spotted and
reported.
" 'Surge' in Southeastern Arizona — Flood of Drugs/People Follows
End of Freeze," reads the headline above the link to the most recent
video of drug "mules" heading back to Mexico after reportedly being
frightened off by the American Border Patrol.
"Our job is to tell the truth about the border," said Spencer, who
moved to Arizona from California and founded the organization in
2002. "The American people have to know the truth so they can make
sound judgments."
In Southern Arizona, that truth depends on who's at the podium.
From Cochise County to the streets of Tucson, a host of immigrants'
rights and anti-illegal-immigrant groups work diligently to convince
people of the veracity of their truth.
They send e-mails; update Web sites with pictures, videos and links;
organize press conferences, meetings and protests; fundraise; travel
to Phoenix and Washington, D.C., to lobby legislators; carry out
patrols; and build fences.
With a new Democratic-controlled Congress and what analysts are
calling a tight, six-month window for immigration reform, both sides
are refining their strategies to stay on the front pages, in the
public consciousness, and in legislators' minds.
"We are investing a lot of resources and energy into impacting this
debate," said Jennifer Allen, director of Tucson-based Border Action
Network.
The organization has evolved from a local, volunteer-run outfit that
sprang up in 1999 to one that today focuses on influencing
immigration policy.
While they'll continue to maintain contact with local immigrant
communities, they'll spend much of 2007 in Washington, D.C.,
participating in networks, alliances and delegations working toward
immigration change. Such change includes a path to legalization for
those already here, and responsible border security, Allen said.
"Our communities are not against border security, they are not open
border communities," Allen said. "We are not an open border
organization."
Humane Borders and its volunteers from around the country won't
change any of their tactics with the new Congress, said founder Rev.
Robin Hoover. They'll continue to refill and service their 84 blue
water tanks throughout the Arizona desert in an effort to save lives.
They also will network with U.S. and Mexican officials to advocate
for immigration reform that includes an expanded program to bring in
necessary workers legally, he said.
"If you have comprehensive immigration reform, then you might begin
to have adequate resources for national security," Hoover said.
On March 26-30, Humane Borders will host the "International
Conference on the Migrant."
The Coalición de Derechos Humanos will focus on keeping border-
security measures out of immigration bills, said co-chair Isabel
Garcia. They'll travel to Phoenix and Washington, D.C., and take part
in coalitions, such as the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee
Rights, to pound home that message.
The group has divorced itself from what comprehensive reform has
become and is willing to butt heads with immigrants' rights
organizations that compromised to accept border enforcements, she said.
"To the immigrants' rights lobby and the Democrats and Mexico, we say
to them: Your strategy is an absolute failure," Garcia said. "What
did you get? Did you get amnesty for one person? You got a big fat
zero."
Anti-illegal-immigrant groups will focus on border security.
The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps is erecting a nearly one-mile fence
east of Naco, expected to cost $650,000, that will serve as a small
barrier and large symbol of the porous borders. Members will be
meeting with state and federal legislators to persuade them to vote
down anything resembling amnesty, said Al Garza, executive director.
"Our political arena right now is something that should be a
concern," Garza said. "They are talking a lot about amnesty. We did
this in 1986 and that's why we are in the position we are in."
Arizonans for Immigration Control will continue to do what they've
been doing for 20 years — sending out newsletters and organizing
monthly meetings. Their objectives are the same: educate people about
the problems of illegal immigration and support the efforts of Border
Patrol, said Wes Bramhall, founder and president.
"Our only objective is to try to keep our country the way it is for
the next generation," said Bramhall, 85. "My own personal opinion is,
one nation, undivided, one language. We don't want to be torn apart,
which, if we continue the way it is now, in another generation you
are not going to know this country."
Rifts and turmoil exist between all the groups who engage in the
daily derby for attention, money and credibility.
Immigrants' rights organizations commonly refer to anti-illegal-
immigrant groups as "vigilantes" and scoff at the media attention
given to them and their influence in Washington, D.C.
They are grandstanders that are fat on rhetoric and skinny on
substance, Humane Borders founder Hoover said.
"They have simplified down to fear-inducing sound bites an incredibly
complex political, social and economic dynamic," Border Action
Network director Allen said.
On the other side, anti-illegal-immigrant groups criticize their
rivals' misguided work. Ensuring the safety of illegal entrants is
important, but so is the sovereignty of the nation, American Border
Patrol founder Spencer said.
Bramhall took it a step further: "A lot of those people don't know
what country they live in."
And even though the organizations can generally be divided into two
sides, chasms and divisions exist among them as well.
Take for example, the way Hoover and Garcia handled the human-rights
awards given to them by the Mexican Human Rights Commission in December.
Hoover accepted it and attended the ceremony where new President
Felipe Calderón gave him his medal. Hoover was extremely honored and
didn't consider boycotting, he said.
Garcia, on the other hand, refused to attend the awards ceremony
after Mexican officials told her she would not be allowed to speak,
despite earlier assurances. She had planned to denounce the effects
of border enforcement by the United States, and the Mexican
government's complicity in the deaths of thousands of migrants.
Spencer used to support the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, but he
calls their fence a waste of time and money and a gimmick to raise
money. The original Minutemen have broken up into numerous groups
across the country with separate leaders and agendas.
In the end, the multitude of ideas and proposals cover the gamut.
"It's sort of like the market-place of ideas," said Spencer, who
first got involved in the debate in the early 1990s. "Different
people propose different things and it's up to the public to evaluate
each of these proposals."
The flurry of e-mails, protests and sound bites seems likely to rage on.
King, Spencer and the rest of the American Border Patrol crew will
continue to test the components of their virtual fence and look for
illegal border crossers with their high-tech camera. When it stopped
working on a recent night, they vowed to find out what was wrong.
"You can't give up," Spencer said. "What's plan B? Leave this open
and let in the whole world?"
● Contact Brady McCombs at 573-4213 or bmccombs@azstarnet.com.
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