Border Patrol Has Issues with ACLU Operatives in Monitored Sector
by Chad Groening
April 26, 2005
(AgapePress) - The union representing Border Patrol agents in the Tucson sector says its members have had no complaints about the volunteers taking part in the Minuteman Project, which is wrapping up this week in the Arizona desert. But apparently the Border Patrol has had some problems with the ACLU.Since the first of April, volunteers with the Minuteman Project have been conducting what it refers to as a "citizens' Neighborhood Watch" along the Arizona-Mexico border, looking for illegal immigrants crossing over into the U.S. and reporting those sightings to the Border Patrol. The group reports that as of April 24, 315 Border Patrol apprehensions have been "directly facilitated" by Minuteman volunteers.
Mike Albon is a spokesman for U.S. Border Patrol Local 2544, which represents the agents patrolling the 27-mile sector where the Minuteman volunteers have camped out this month. Albon says there have been no complaints from his rank-and-file about the volunteers' work.
"The Minutemen have not caused any problems for the agents in the field," Albon states. "We have not received any complaints [about] any of their activities being out of line. They have been real supportive of the [Border Patrol] agents in the field."
But the union spokesman says activities in the area by American Civil Liberties Union representatives have been counterproductive. "Apparently trying to catch the Minutemen doing something wrong, [someone] has been going out there and setting off [ground] sensors," he explains. Those actions, he says, have caused extra work for Border Patrol agents in the field. "They're counterproductive in [doing] things like that," he says.
Albon says his union is against any organization that opposes enforcement of American immigration laws. "We are against anything that is anti-enforcement," he remarks. "The union wants the immigration laws enforced -- and if the ACLU is supporting things that are not related to the enforcement of the law and are supporting people who are breaking the law, we do not condone that."
WorldNetDaily
reported in March that the Arizona chapter of the ACLU planned to monitor the activities of the Minuteman Project volunteers to "make sure they're not abusing anybody's rights." A spokesman for the ACLU told a local newspaper that a team of attorneys would be ready to file civil cases against project participants should any abuses occur.
Chad Groening, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
