Gov't Considers Using Border Patrol Volunteers

[Kadie]

Gov't Considers Using Border Patrol Volunteers

POSTED: 4:32 pm PDT July 20, 2005
UPDATED: 4:40 pm PDT July 20, 2005

LOS ANGELES -- The federal government is thinking of training volunteer border patrol groups such as the Minuteman Project and organizing them into a kind of Border Patrol auxiliary.

Robert Bonner, head of Customs and Border Protection, said the idea's in a very preliminary stage. He said auxiliaries are common among police and fire agencies, even the military, so why not for the Border Patrol?

Bonner said his agency "welcomes the eyes and ears" of citizens, as long as they help "in a responsible way."

more...
http://www.thekcrachannel.com/news/4749832/detail.html






Border chief says citizen volunteers could form patrol auxiliary
By JEREMIAH MARQUEZ, By JEREMIAH MARQUEZ

Wednesday, July 20, 2005



(07-20) 16:32 PDT Los Angeles (AP) --


The top U.S. border enforcement official said in an interview Wednesday that his agency is exploring ways to involve citizen volunteers in creating "something akin to a Border Patrol auxiliary" — a significant shift in rhetoric that comes after a high-profile civilian campaign this spring along the Arizona-Mexico border.


Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Robert C. Bonner told The Associated Press that his agency has focused on involving citizens after noting the willingness of volunteers to help federal agents catch illegal immigrants.


"It is actually as a result of seeing that there is the possibility in local border communities, and maybe even beyond, of having citizens that would be willing to volunteer to help the Border Patrol," Bonner said. "But with some training and being organized in a way that would be something akin to a Border Patrol auxiliary."


"We value having eyes and ears of citizens and I think that would be one of the things we are looking at is how you better organize, let's say, a citizen effort," he said.

more...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/07/20/state/n163239D25.DTL

[Teaser]

1. wow...stormtroopers...

great idea gang. Keep'em coming.

Paramilitaries work so well everywhere else.

[robliberal]

2. hmmmm

That will just further worsen tensions.

[firefox]

3. Nothing like free labor n/t

[goclark]

4. NOT a good idea, I saw some of the self nominating

volunteers with their guns on TV.

They looked like White Gang Members

NOT a good idea

[Betsy Ross]

5. Are you kidding?

This is like licensing the vigilantees. But we are learning the value of mercenairies, eh?

[MisterP]

6. Greenshirts! *places head in drill press*

think the Simcox Humpers that point to Bush's Potemkin disapproval will stop?

[MrSlayer]

7. Wouldn't it be better to just build a large wall?

Having citizen patrols might slow some of the illegals down but there is still far too much open area to get through. If they would build a high wall along the border loaded with cameras and shit it would be far more effective. I don't believe the government really wants to stop the flow of illegal immigrants.

[K-W]

8. I dont see any problem with this.

If people want to patrol the border so bad, why not organize them.

[electron_blue]

9. why not? Because this is one step closer to the police state that

Bush & Cheney and others like them want.

[K-W]

13. Border Patrol Auxillery isnt quite the SS.

They are just going to walk around in the desert and call border patrol units on immigrents, lets keep this in perspective.

[sled]

12. Not such an original idea...

"A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."

That damned old Constitution just seems to get in the way, every time this one party, acting like two, state, turns around...

[Cobalt Violet]

10. The corporations that rely on cheap labor won't like that.

[VegasWolf]

11. Brilliant!!!! Get these rednecks to don a uniform and then send them off

to Iraq instead of Texas.

[napi21]

14. Wait a minute! Weren't the minutemen "vigi;anties"?

I thought I remembered srub saying those guys were vigilanties and should never be there? Now, they're OK???

[reprobate]

15. The most dangerous thing in the world is a redneck with a gun and a cause.

[sled]

19. Absolutely...

The "Battle of New Orleans" comes to mind...not a bad legacy...next...

http://www.danielhaston.com/history/war-1812/neworleans-battle.htm

"Never has a more polyglot army fought under the Stars and Stripes than did Jackson's force at the Battle of New Orleans. In addition to his regular U.S. Army units, Jackson counted on dandy New Orleans militia, a sizable contingent of black former Haitian slaves fighting as free men of color, Kentucky and Tennessee frontiersmen armed with deadly long rifles and a colorful band of outlaws led by Jean Lafitte, whose men Jackson had once disdained as "hellish banditti." This hodgepodge of 4,000 soldiers, crammed behind narrow fortifications, faced more than twice their number.

Pakenham's assault was doomed from the beginning. His men made perfect targets as they marched precisely across a quarter mile of open ground. Hardened veterans of the Peninsular Campaign in Spain fell by the score, including nearly 80 percent of a splendid Scottish Highlander unit that tried to march obliquely across the American front. Both of Pakenham's senior generals were shot early in the battle, and the commander himself suffered two wounds before a shell severed an artery in his leg, killing him in minutes. His successor wisely disobeyed Pakenham's dying instructions to continue the attack and pulled the British survivors off the field. More than 2,000 British had been killed or wounded and several hundred more were captured. The American loss was eight killed and 13 wounded."

[silvershadow]

16. as a curious side note...

I saw a Border Patrol vehicle just a mile from my house in central Indiana yesterday. Thought that was curious. I only noticed it because of the unusual markings. I have lived here 40 years and its the first I have ever seen one. (Of course we are thousands of miles from the borders).

[PartyPooper]

17. Maybe the Border Patrol vehicle was stolen? *gasp*

Just a thought.

BTW, welcome to DU!

:D

:toast:

:beer:

[applegrove]

18. An excuse for not signing up for the military and fighting in Iraq.

A way to legalize "guest workers" and force laws to change that will help the elite fight back against the power of workers that will come when the boomer's retire and the country is desperate for people to fill those teaching, policing, nursing, worker, roles.

One of those ideas that serves many purposes so the Repukes will be into it. It subtly backs racists. The GOP likes that.

Anything to not devote tax dollars to home and spend it all procuring outside markets for the big elite.