The Minuteman Project (MMP) is a group of reportedly 6,500 volunteer citizens who are attempting to address and curb illegal immigration in the United States by patrolling the U.S.-Mexico and U.S.-Canada borders. The purpose of the group, in its own words, is:
to bring national awareness to the decades-long careless disregard of effective U.S. immigration law enforcement. It is a reminder to Americans that our nation was founded as a nation governed by the “rule of law,” not by the whims of mobs of ILLEGAL aliens who endlessly stream across U.S. borders…. Future generations will inherit a tangle of rancorous, unassimilated, squabbling cultures with no common bond to hold them together, and a certain guarantee of the death of this nation as a harmonious “melting pot.” The result: political, economic and social mayhem. [Link]
Not surprisingly, the MPP has generated a signficant amount of controversy: it has been accused of being racist, ineffective, illegitimate, and of having ties to Neo-Nazis. Last year, legal observers from the American Civil Liberties Union and the University of Arizona monitored the activities of the MMP volunteers, before the MMP left Arizona in April 2005. One concerned onlooker had this to say about the MMP’s work:
“It’s going to encourage a lot of negative implications for brown-looking people, if you want to call it that, racial profiling….” [Link]
To be sure, citizens can be an integral part of a wider law enforcement initiative. For example, community policing — which involves collaborative efforts between the police and members of the general public, and which demands compassion from the police towards the communities they serve — has shown encouraging signs of success, particularly in areas with high concentrations of minorities, such as Miami. However, the MPP is not a part of an official border patrol program; it is a self-appointed entity that acts in isolation and with an unfortunate view of diversity and multiculturalism. Moreover, there are fears from human rights organizations as to how the MMP actually carries out its patrolling efforts – through directly confronting migrants, apprehending them, or worse. There is, obviously, a human element involved with immigration (e.g., the sacrifice involved, the struggle to cross, and the motivition to provide a better life for the immigrant, his or her family, and those back “home”). The stories of Indians coming to the United States with little or no command of the English language, modest amounts of money, and uncertain job prospects come to mind. In fact, these stories lead me to appreciate all newcomers and immigrant hopefuls.
The Border Film Project researches this human element. In order to understand “the humanity present on both sides of the border,” the Project selected an unusual means: it
distributed hundreds of disposable cameras to two groups on different sides of the U.S.-Mexico border: undocumented migrants crossing the desert into the United States and American Minutemen trying to stop them. [Link]
The photos themselves are extremely gripping and present an interesting insight into the differences between the migrants and the Minutemen.
To anyone concerned with the MPP’s mission and its work, the MPP announced this week that it is not only returning to Arizona, but is expanding its operations to other states, including California, New York, and Washington.
Yes my friends, bring your passport – even for domestic travel.
Now that you’ve covered the “human element” side of things, can you come up with the other sides involved in this issue?
Haha! TLB, from your site it looks like you are a minuteman or Pat Buchanan himself!
Interesting pictures. I liked the “Similarities” section.
Here is “This American Life”‘s inimitable take on the Minutemen (first 20-odd minutes).
The minute (pun?) they actually start harrasing people with legal rights, for example, some ‘suspicious looking brown folks’ who are legal residents, minutemen will be breaking the law, that they claim to value and hold dear. If that happens, they should be prosecuted to the letter of the law.
There are plenty of assumptions made here. Does anyone have a news article or a reference of where minutemen have attacked or used violence as means to their goals? Every news article I’ve read so far says they monitor the areas and radio in locations to BP where they’ve observed people crossing over. Some do have weapons in case they’re attacked by smugglers (border partrol gets in quite a few firefights with smugglers and even corrupt ‘Mexican police’ that provide cover for drug runners.) Murder or violently attacking anyone is a crime, regardless of that person’s legality. However, providing intelligence, regardless of their motives, on locations of illegal immigrants is not illegal.
I’m not defending minutemen’s motives here. Some seem to be borne out of ignorance, some from concern that the Govt is failing to manage immigration appropriately, and others from geninue impact on their lives (local services, crime). The reality is from a macro-economic view, the migrants are filling a gap of low end jobs that aren’t being filled by other Americans. We need them, they need us. But by turing a blind eye to the communities that take the brunt of illegal immigration activities, while allowing other communites in the United States to benefit, a cause and effect leads to groups like minutemen.
One has to see a far more complicated dynamic here, which those photos I believe do so wonderfully. I don’t like this post (my opinion) because it skates out taking a cheap road out, especially with that final sensationalist statement.
Just curious, is illegal immigration and legal immigration all the same to you, without any distinction ?
This is a really interesting story, and the BORDERS project is really facinating. Thanks for posting about this!!
wow.. all i can say is wow. not just anti-muslim, anti immigrants also…
let the minute peoples come to york and see if they get their food cooked in many many many restaurants, grocerie store shelves stocked, flowers sold, residences cleaned, in fact, all those ‘little’ mean jobs that very few others seem to be willing to do, and see how they like not having immigrants, illegle or otherwise, around.
they wouldnt make it from the airport to the city, for that matter.
Related to this have you guys seen this proposed billboard in North Carolina which argues against issuing drivers licenses to undocumented immigrants? Fear-monger much?
These people forget that this nation was initially formed by immigrants & their later generations. Btw Dave, Miami is not a great example when talking about law enforcement.
Dave, thanks for posting about this! I did not know about the minutemen, prolly because they seem to have been inactive. My concern is whether another band of citizens will take it upon themselves to enforce anti-terrorism laws in the US and therefore just racially profile in the name of doing what the government should have been doing to prevent another attack. We had Operation TIPS. Seems to me that if we can tolerate the minutement, we can tolerate the anti-terrorism citizen-corps. Both immmigration and terrorism are complicated topics, but my guess is that these people and another TIPS would have a good amount of public support.
wtf…is it me, or did the “founders” of this country NOT “legally immigrate” here?
So do you all approve of coming here? Are any of you for open borders? So should we pretty much let anyone into the country barring if they are a terrorist etc?
Maybe we should first secure our borders and cities instead of worrying about bringing “freedom” and “democracy” in the middle east.
Well, I knew I was going to get hazed by SM sooner or later 🙂 The purpose of the post was simply to introduce the reader to the MMP and to the Border Film Project (to the extent that the reader didn’t already know about either entity). In a post that touches on immigration, it’s understandable to expect a prolonged discussion of the various factors involved in that subject (e.g., jobs, government resources, the law). My intent was much more modest. What I particularly liked about the Border Film Project is that it presents the human side of both the migrants and the MMP. The sacrifice, motivation, and desire of the migrants is what came through in their section of the photos; it is in that particular context that I noted my appreciation for what the migrants go through (the wisdom of their means and the legal status if they make it are separate questions). Also, Miami is a good example of community policing (I co-authored a government report citing to this fact. See the text accompanying footnote 45.) Finally, I noted that there are “fears” of how the MMP carried out their duties, fears that prompted the ACLU and others to monitor the MMP. For example, there were reports of border vigilantes killing migrants (see here) and of assaulting the legal observers (see here). There were also concerns regarding false imprisonment (see here), which is also illegal.
What is missing from most debates about MMP and ILLEGAL immigration is the fact that there is NO LEGAL WAY for a mexican national to immigrate to the USA who doesnt have family sponsorship and is unskilled. All the while USA needs the unskilled labor. That Lou Dobbs, rants everyday about illegal this and illegal that but I bet you, he cant even have CNN compound’s lawn mowed by US nationals. (as opposed to illegals) Lou Dobb’s is a loser who went to the industry during the go-go late nineties and found out how hard it is to make an honest buck .. so came back to CNN to get cheap publicity
vivio..
um, yea, thats pretty much what they did in early 1900’s , let anyone come in, its just that, they were predominantly white, from europe…
u think the europeans fell out of trees here??!!
thats what its really about isnt it, letting people in who arent white? cause guess what all those early justanyolbody immigrants were doing in nyc chicago and L.A., the menial jobs, ad everybody hated them too.. the same type of crap some peoples spout now, was probably the crap being spouted towards ‘their’ grandparents or great grandparents… tslk tsk. even.. hai hai
no one had a problem about them irish italians germans polish etc etc… funnee enough, they did let in, but then banned, chinese immigrants…
hmmm, some of the sm readers are stuck in a time warp, thinking that this is still good ol 1806…
for shame
PS:
btw,many who came were also ones getting kicked out of their countries for criminal behaviour. u think the forefathers of the mafia came here for the sun? so, i guess they were letting in ‘terrorist etc”
That’s an interesting website. The “Portaits” section features pictures of would-be migrants and lets them tell their story about the crossing and how they were caught.
I especially like this quote:
Bringing Lou Dobbs into the immigration debate is like bringing Kerry to discuss outsourcing. The man’s clearly a bigot who has no idea what America stands for. He is against both legal and illegal immigration. Wants to put a stop to H1B’s and Green Cards. Wants to stop outsourcing. Wants to build a fortress.
Rhetoric like: “Who is going to mow our lawn?” can be answered by “Whoever did it before illegal immigrants got into the business.” Free markets have a way of filling the labor gap. True, instead of paying $35 to mow my lawn, I would probably have to pay higher. Maybe $50. Maybe $60 tops.
It is interesting to see that usually those who favor illegal Latinos are also the same ones who want to stop Asian immigration. By no means is this limited to the Catholic churches of America(they favors illegals because they are 100% Catholic). Many desis also favor reduced legal immigration from India/China.
A conversation a few weeks ago in a desi get-together… The guy’s a professor in Princeton. He kept saying that America should allow everyone who wants to get in. I asked him if Princeton allows everyone who wants to get in? He said that was different. I said no – if Princeton can have standards (SAT scores etc), then America too can have standards(as long as they are not racial/religious etc). He became very angry and said that FOB’s don’t understand issues. I told him I was a citizen who went thru the legal process. That shut him up, but then the conversation turned to recent Bush’s visit to India where a proposal was made to increase H1-B’s. Our man jumped up denouncing it, saying that American programmers would be put out of a job. We (a whole lot of people had switched over to my side) blasted off asking him if he was more concerned about well-off programmers who would have to take a pay cut as opposed to poor American lawnmowers who would be out of a job. We told him we thought leftist university professors should be more concerned about the poor people, no? He shut up again.
M. Nam
dudette (#16):
Actually lots of Americans had problems with immigrants from Ireland, Italy, and Eastern Europe during the times when people from these countries and regions were migrating here en masse. Many countries have had a significant number of immigrants who come in to occupy the bottom rung in the social and professional hierarchy of that society, and these groups have always been ostracised, intimidated, and generally looked down upon – Turks to Germany; North Africans to France; South Asians to Britain; Chinese, Irish, Polish, Italians, certain South/East Asians to the US. This list obviously isn’t exhaustive – just a few examples.
It’s also true that having white skin makes it a lot easier as one of these immigrant groups to become part of the dominant culture, but this doesn’t mean that those with white skin were automatically accepted when they got to the US. This depends very much on the class position an immigrant group occupies.
Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes is an extremely moving example of the Irish immigrant experience in the US.
I said certain South Asians because many didn’t go to the States for unskilled work. They went with enough intellectual capital that yes, things were difficult at first, but because of the elite education they’d received in the Desh, they were able to become professionals and make some good money. The problem this group faced (and continues to face) was straight up racism.
Since this statement has come under fire, I feel obligated to add the following:
I grew up and went to school in Tucson, Arizona, and during high school I had to drive south to Nogales (that’s right on the Mexican border) for some gigs I had with my jazz group. On the way back up north from Nogales, the Border Patrol would sometimes (not always) have surprise checkpoints set up where every car would have to stop, and its driver, passengers, and contents questioned/searched.
Not carrying my passport for such trips would have been – as Dianne in Shaun of the Dead so aptly understates at the Winchester, “a very silly thing to do.”
m.v., if u look at my 2nd para, thats exactly what i said. and them being white not only made them ‘blend’ in, but it was more a case of class differences, seeign as the rich and affluent were not flocking to the US shores.
i have had heated, no, absolutely flaming, debates/bareknuckle fights with people whose parents’ ??, not their great grand, or grand, but thier fregging parents came as immigrants, who still had accents, and didnt speak thaaat well english, argue against immigration today.
what puzzles me is, i have met many s.asians vehemently against immigration whneen they themselves came, and not always as educated peoples with masters degree, nor legally as well.
i dont see why the rich and affluent can get to come, because they are qualified, and not the poorer working classes, who are th eones who actually ‘need’ to come. if person x’s parents can afford to send them here to get degrees and help them financially, they are unlikely to ‘need’ to come. people at home sell family lands they have had for generations and borrow money from family and assundry in th ehopes of coming here and bettering themselves, paying those loans back, and likely supporting a lot of people in their towns and villages.
majority of remitance monies returning to desh are from these people, not princeton collage professors…
Humane Borders, a faith-based (read interdenominational, for those not reading from Christian majority locales) humanitarian organization from Tucson, has more than 70 water cans set up along the US-Mexico border, which they maintain throughout the year, making sure there’s always water available for migrants who pass through. One of the major problems is education – people don’t understand the risks involved in walking through hundreds of miles of desert. The organization has also teamed up with Mexico’s National Commission for Human Rights to distribute maps of these filling stations, as well as information on the dangers of crossing the desert. [Link]
They also have a blog.
I have a couple of questions/observations after reading some of the bizarre responses that conflate legal and illegal immigration:
(1) Do you support the abolition of all immigration controls and laws in the US. (2) To take your logic of “years ago people moved to the US without any immigration restrictions”, and applying it to the Indian context: 60 years ago India and Pakistan were one country, so should border crossings be allowed today without checks because back in the day people could cross without hindrance ? (3) Should India also allow people to cross over from other neighboring countries without check, if they claim to be seeking “better lives and employment” ?
Or does your liberal warm fuzzy disregard for the laws of the land only apply to the American context ?
??? vikram, seriously dude, chill..
60 years ago, the u.s., funneely enough, was called the u.s., whereas as u say, india/pakistan/bangladesh, were one entity,now they are not.
maybe u should goto one of the border areas between countries mentioned above, because seeing as there arent fences, and locals dont give a $**t that they r supposed to be diff countries, only people like u apparently do. i have been to several of these border areas, and if u didnt know these were border areas, u would never be able to tell. people go about there daily lives oblivious to borders.
as to ur point, do i or anyone want to do away with immigration laws, no, that would be chaos, cause then others like u would ask if we wanted to do away with other laws, then more, then some more.. asking that their exist a reasonablity of laws, nd that legislatures take into account, u know, reality.
do away with illegal immigrants, and without changing existing immigration laws to account for short term unskilled labour, cities like nyc l.a. and dallas would come to a grinding hault.
this isnt a question of opinion, ask, or if u urself r in one of the cities, look around you, i doubt all those hard working people in the lowest brackets are here due to DV or H1B or E1 or what have u.
spouting is one thing, but spouting without knowing what ur talking about is,like someone on another post said, talkign to a brickwall.
wahhhhhhh s/he called us ‘libe-wahwah-ral’..
and i thought i was sniffsniff progressive and wahsniff sane.
Vikram (#24),
To answer your question: yes, I support the abolition of all immigration controls and laws not only in the US, but in all countries. If someone wants to live and work in another country, he/she should be allowed to without any restriction. This is obviously an ideal that would have to be implemented over the course of years, with much planning and treaties, and certainly couldn’t happen overnight.
That said, you seem to be conflating immigration issues with security issues. It is up to every country to pass laws which protect its citizens’ lives, safety, and well-being, and this involves protecting its borders against the threat of attack from outside, and this obviously means keeping terrorists out.
Um… are you really unable to understand an analogy ? The Indo-Pak pre-Independance situation was mentioned in the context that years ago what used to be accepted as commonplace is now no longer accepted as legal. Years ago people entered the US without any papers or visas. And now because of the prevailing law it is not legal anymore. Is that so hard to understand ?
This is kind of like saying that you are used to breaking the speed limit on the highways because there are no police officers around to enforce the law. Lack of enforcement of border law is not an excuse to condone deliberate breaking of the law. If you get caught, as with speeding, you can and should pay the price.
To excuse illegal immigration only serves to give ammunition to those who want to curb all immigration including legal immigration. And confused logic like yours adds fuel to that fire. By adding the excuse that somehow illegal immigration is “good” for business here only serves to allow those establishments profit from cheap exploited labor. So basically what you are saying is, “we need illegal immigration to line the pockets of rich business owners who are getting hard and tedious work done by people for low wages who have no benefits or legal protection”. Nice.
Obviously you have no clue (and ability to spell out complete words) as to what your are talking about.
vikram..
u r funeee…
keep smoking the good stuff…
and i ws unaware this was an english class?!??!!
??!!
there is a guy called al-jack on another forum u need to talk to, u r like peas-in-a-pod.
Ah ok, well that’s not going to happen on this planet in our lifetimes.
Huh ? And how does one distinguish between terrorists and the massive volume of people who would start to enter the country if your “open borders” policy was implemented ? You say “It is up to every country to pass laws which protect its citizens’ lives etc” . So what are immigration laws ? Aren’t they (in part) designed to weed out terrorists and other criminals ? I just don’t see your conflicting requirements being implemented without immigration laws.
Vikram (#28):
Doing away altogether with the notion of illegal immigration would allow for EVERYONE to be covered under the labor laws which currently exist in the US. If illegal immigrants found themselves without the constant threat of deportation, there would be no lawful constraints that would prevent them from organizing and demanding better treatment and pay from the business owners who are exploiting them.
I think what dudette was saying (although please correct me if I’m wrong) is that there are many, many people to whom the border is absolutely irrelevant. Their source of livelihood might just happen to lie on the other side of a border which was imposed on them maybe 50, maybe 20, maybe 2 years ago. For millions of people around the world (and borrowing from Brother Malcolm): “We didnÂ’t land on the Border. The Border landed on us!”
Ok… this is now going into a John Lennonesque “Imagine..” kind of utopia. But I will play along…
So you are doing away with the idea that there are any independant nations that protect their own industries,technologies and workers ? A sort of “global world state” where all nations freely exchange people and resources ? Without any restriction on protection of intellectual property, manufacturing etc ? We already have that in a sense with globalization where an industry can exist anywhere in the world and transfer its assets and technology to whereever seems the most profitable environment. So why do we need to open up borders ? Ford makes car parts in Mexico, Canada, Asia , Europe for example. Why is it necessary to throw open the borders when now the coveted American industries are moving outside the US borders ?
PropaMcGandhi, yes, thats excatly what i was saying, thanks for rewording it in a way ‘some’ people are maybe hoefully going to understand.
i was too busy laughing my butt off to stop long enough to write after reading some of the rather, ahrm ahrm, less telligent comments i have been reading.
cheers.
=)
Possibly true. But that is not the point here. The point is that there is a law that has to be observed. If they choose to ignore, that’s alright too. Just be aware that if they are caught, they will be prosecuted. The law tends to be rather humorless about such things, despite what Malcolm X said… 😉
Kind of reminds me of a joke I read:
When the Russian/Finnish border was being drawn, a farmer whose land lay in between the two countries was asked which country he wanted to go with. He pondered the question for a while and replied “Finland…I don’t think I can handle another of those Russian winters…”
I’m pretty sure that neither of us is qualified enough to be discussing this, but IF (big iffy iffy if) we want commit ourselves to capitalism and globalization then it seems to me that we would have to commit ourselves to the free movement of commodities (goods AND AND AND labor). What we have now isn’t capitalism or globalization. It is tamasha and it is aamasha.
“less telligent” …. riiiiight….we’re not all Mensa members like you.. 😉
yaaawn…
Yup, this is exactly what I’m talking about. I think a lot of us make the mistake of assuming that the borders are there, they always were there and they’ll always be there. But they weren’t. The borders were created, to keep people out and to keep people in.
Just take a look at the CIA World Factbook’s list of territorial disputes. Particularly relevant might be the border dispute between Pakistan and India over the Siachen Glacier. Wait, did I say border dispute? I meant, people have been fighting over a place where it’s too damn cold for anyone to live.
“On average, one Pakistani soldier is killed every fourth day, while one Indian soldier is killed every other day. Over 1,300 Pakistani soldiers have died on Siachen between 1984 and 1999. According to Indian estimates, this operation had cost India over Rs. 50 billion and almost 2,000 personnel casualties till 1997. Almost all of the casualties on both sides have been due to extreme weather conditions.”
In the words of one of my favorite bands (Propagandhi): “F* the border! F* the border! F*** THE BORDER!”
Dudette, Let me try to explaion the above phenomenon. The ones with Masters degrees and who are already rich back home dont want more unskilled people to come because they dont want Indians to get “watered down” if you know what I mean.
The ones who have come on family sponsorship also dont want others to come because they feel that this family connection, which brought them to this land, is some kind of entitlement. This is like being born into “Thakur” family… Thats an entitlement. They dont want others to have this entitlement. This is hang over of the DEEPLY heir-archical society of India.
Well these are my views, for whatever its worth. I am sure some will not agree with it.
PropaMcGandhi, senseless is what it is. border disputes are #1 choice of all governments to distract citizenry from internal problems. u know, like iraq war, focus on terrorists, cows wondering over the border, chickens laying eggs on the wrong side, avian flu, madcow, cartoons, michael jackson…
they should roshumbo for it is what i say…
RC,
I have to agree with you.
Often, you see strong exclusivist veiws among highly educated who are safegaurding their “brand” for what is worth and the family-based immigration is “I have passed through the door, now let the door be closed”. Not necessarily from South Asia only.
Some of the most racist comments I have heard here toward other minorities are from FOBs (be it from India, China, Taiwan) who are minorities themselves. Some of it is just plain ignorance or………
Thanks Kush!!! I didnt know that even non S.Asian felt like “preseving brand”. Thats interesting.
Madurai Vivekan, total tangential question. You mentioned you were in a jazz band in high school. What did you play?
RC,
Very perceptive regarding the “watering down” and “entitlement” mentality.
Madurai Vivekan writes:
This will happen as soon as all countries voluntarily give up nuclear weapons!
Seriously…I once was telling a bunch of people that as a gesture of recent bonhomie, the US should not only increase H1B visas for India, but create a special window for Indians to immigrate to the US. India has 300 million middle-class, which is English speaking, upwardly mobile and attuned to democracy, free-speech and other values that the US holds dear. They would be a nice fit in US society, and if the US allows 2 million Indians in for just five years each, then that’s just ten million Indians. It won’t make a dent on either side. The US will also gain immensely.
I was shouted down by the older desis who came in the 70’s and 80’s, but the newer desis were all up for it. What a change a generation makes!!
M. Nam
Man, I don’t even know where to start with this one. WHY should only middle-class, English speaking, upwardly mobile, attuned to democracy (what are in God’s green earth are you talking aboout?) people be allowed to migrate? It’s funny that you present this as some kind of criticism of the desis who came in the 70’s and 80’s, but isn’t this EXACTLY the kind of exclusivist attitude that Kush Tandon (#42) was talking about? Your liberalism only extends as far as it will serve your own self-interest.
Did I misunderstand what you were saying?
Prop,
I did not mean it in a elitist sense. I was talking from the pov of a seamless transition and greater immediate benefit to the US as well to build a stronger bridge between the two countries.
M. Nam
M Nam #45 On one hand you’re talking about being against “watering down” and “entitlement” attitude and on the other hand you say ONLY middle class and upwardly mobile Indians should be allowed to the US. What about the other 90%? Will they “water down” the quality of desis if they migrate here? Please explain yourself.
just an aside – it is this middle-class english speaking layer that comes here to kannedah and sits around twiddling their thumbs or selling mp3 players at best buy becaues they cant get jobs.
on the flip side – there is an ongoing debate here on changing immigration criteria to relax the ‘english/french language rules’ and getting more skilled tradesmen – speak what you want just do your bit for society – god knows there’s enough space here for everyone – but at least out here, the so called “middle-class, english speaking, upwardly mobile” immigrant demographic is not going to have it easy. it might be differnt in the states
Mouspad Marauder, I think M Nam just accentuated the positives of a certain group of India, with respect to the whole immigration thing. I agree with him on that. Educated middle class people from all over the world are one of the major reasons of the extra ordinary wealth that US has. (Attracting the best minds). In fact thats what CEOs of Cisco, Microsoft and other tech companies were lobbying the congress for.