Citizen Border Patrol

In the run-up to the citizen Mexican border patrol projects designed to watch for illegal immigrants crossing the border, the Border Patrol, immigrant rights groups and even Pres. Bush jumped to conclusions and generally considered the volunteers to be “vigilantes.” The immigrant rights groups still do, but then what can you expect from groups which openly advocate flouting the immigration laws of the country? Of course, these Hispanic oriented groups are referring to illegal Hispanic immigrants. I have not heard of these groups advocating turning a blind eye to the illegal immigration of other ethnic groups, or say would-be terrorists.

Probably the initial bad-mouthing of the volunteers had some grain of truth when you realize that undoubtedly there were a few racists among the volunteers. However, the results of the border efforts do not bear out a conclusion that the majority of border volunteers fit the racist mould. None of the dire predictions of the killing and/or harassing of illegal immigrants were ever fulfilled. And, there sure were plenty of people on the border watching for such actions.

Now, Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Robert Bonner is floating the concept of a “Border Patrol Auxiliary.” It seems that the Border Patrol headquarters is now validating what individual Border Patrol Agents have been saying, often anonymously for fear of losing their jobs, that the citizens on the border were effective and did not commit crimes against the illegal immigrants.