Bush calls Minutemen Vigilantes

[Charlie P]

WACO, Texas -- President Bush yesterday said he opposes a civilian project to monitor illegal aliens crossing the border, characterizing them as "vigilantes."
He said he would pressure Congress to further loosen immigration law.

You don't inforce the laws we have in place now why bother to loosen them

than 1,000 people -- including 30 pilots and their private planes -- have volunteered for the Minuteman Project, beginning next month along the Arizona-Mexico border. Civilians will monitor the movement of illegal aliens for the month of April and report them to the Border Patrol.
Mr. Bush said after yesterday's continental summit, with Mexican President Vicente Fox and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin at Baylor University, that he finds such actions unacceptable.
"I'm against vigilantes in the United States of America," Mr. Bush said at a joint press conference. "I'm for enforcing the law in a rational way." Sure you are George.


The Minuteman Project was born out of a long-held perception among many residents that more Border Patrol agents are needed to handle the flow of illegal immigrants.
Mr. Bush was criticized by both Republicans and Democrats earlier this month for failing to add 2,000 agents to the Border Patrol, as set out in the intelligence overhaul legislation he signed in December.

Kinda hard to enfoce laws with out anyone guarding the border ain't it??

The president's 2006 budget allows enough money to add only 210 agents for the U.S. borders with Canada and Mexico. That's rational



Mr. Bush said he will "continue to push for reasonable, common-sense immigration policy." Like opening the flood gates.

He has proposed legislation to grant guest-worker status to millions of illegal aliens already in the United States.
The legislation has attracted scant support in Congress, where it is widely regarded as another amnesty that will encourage even more illegal immigration.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, of Nevada, says Democrats have been willing to work with Mr. Bush, but that first the president must persuade congressmen of his own party to embrace his plan.
"Unfortunately, the right wing of the president's party continues to put forward proposals that neither help make progress towards comprehensive immigration reform, nor help truly protect our borders," Mr. Reid said.
Mr. Fox, who has said he seeks an open border, has applied constant pressure on Mr. Bush to get the guest-worker program through Congress. Mr. Bush has pledged that he will do all he can.

Could this be the common sense approach??


Mr. Fox said yesterday that his country is dedicated to making sure border crossings are legal and orderly. "We discussed the issue of border crossings and how we can protect our borders and be efficient along the border." What are they going to do come across single file.


The official agenda of the one-day summit was centered on economic matters and the three leaders reached agreement on what they called the establishment of the "Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America," designed to build upon the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Mr. Martin said he pressed Mr. Bush to get the United States to drop its ban on the importation of Canadian beef -- imposed because of fears of spreading mad cow disease -- and to reduce tariffs on softwood lumber, but no commitments were made.
Canada earlier this year said it would not participate in the U.S. missile-defense program, and Mr. Martin said there is little chance he would change his mind. "On [missile defense], the file is closed," Mr. Martin said.
"But our cooperation in terms of defense, in terms of our borders, in terms of defense of our common -- our frontiers is very -- is not only very clear, but it is being accentuated."
Mr. Bush said he had not imposed a June deadline on North Korea to rejoin talks with the United States, Russia, South Korea, ***an and China with the intention of North Korea giving up its nuclear-weapons program.
"I'm a patient person," Mr. Bush said. "But the leader of North Korea must understand that when we five nations speak, we mean what we say."
Stephen Dinan contributed to this report from Washington.


How did I vote for this man??[>:][:'(][:@]

[david m]

leaving the issue of his enforcement aside, i will say that i agree that we shouldn't allow vigilante groups to patrol the borders.

[Charlie P]

Why?

[Bob H in NH]

a vigilante takes the law into his own hands, from the above, these guys sound like spotters who would then call in to the border patrol, sort of like a neighborhood crime watch, F&G poacher lines etc.

The problem is if more folks are watching/reporting, who's going to actually handle the ifnormation and take action on it?

--Bob

[david m]

ORIGINAL: Charlie P

Why?

honestly, because they are not trained to do the work, and i don't don't think it can be done responsibly without some sort of oversight, which would essentially make it a government agency...which we already have.

[hillbillyhunter1]

i don't understand why Bush is so lax on the immigration problem--Obviously he wants illegal immigration or is so apathetic to the problem that it has the same effect. Does he consider illegals as adding constituents to his political base, or want more mexican restuarants (I do love mexican food), or what?

How could you be against a group of volunteers like the minuteman unless they started breaking the law. They haven't done that, that we know of yet, right?

[Charlie P]

Why didn't George ask Vincente what he was going to do about the M-13 gang that is threatening to attack the Minutemen?

Is George also opposed to people that right down license plates in drug infested neighborhoods and give the numbers to the Police?

How about people that patrol their neighborhoods or the Guarduan Angels??

[tardfarmer]

Bush is an idiot and this issue is going to lose the republicans the next presidency unless they run someone like Tancredo who will actually shut the border down.

[Aught Six]

Alright, that's it! I've had enough of Bush and his BS immigration policies (or lack thereof). I respect the man greatly and supported his presidency, but he has his head stuck so far up his behind that the lump in his throat is his nose. I don't understand how he can be so right (IMHO) on terrorism yet so wrong on immigration, an issue that is intricately tied into our terrorism concerns.

What really gets to me now is his characterization of the Minutemen as vigilantes. First off, their policy is to obey all U.S. laws--calling the Border Patrol hotline isn't exactly taking matters into your own hands.

And besides, it's "We the people...", isn't it? If the federal government isn't going to enforce its own laws and policies, are we to sit by idly and hope for the best while we're being invaded?!

"I'm against vigilantes in the United States of America," Mr. Bush said at a joint press conference. "I'm for enforcing the law in a rational way."

Right, it's awfully easy to enforce the law when there isn't any!

[Alsatian]

Vigilantes arise where law does not prevail. Plain and simple, where the law is enforced, vigilantes do not arise.

I am not an expert on this issue, but I get a sense that people who live and/or own land along the borders are in both danger and find their property threatened by illegal border crossing. I think an argument can be made that it is a duty of the US government to maintain this border -- that is enforce the border laws -- or it really is not a border. To some extent, the sovereignty of this land along the border is not maintained -- this land is not US sovereign territory but rather an unclaimed disputed possession -- if laws are not enforced and personal property is in jeopardy.

If nothing else, the "vigilantes" will draw attention to the failure of current border forces and to the need for action. Of course, the "vigilantes" do not call themselves vigilantes. It seems they are planning just this, to highten awareness of the problems.

I don't know what the hidden agenda is with this border thing and illegal aliens from Mexico, but it seems very obvious to me there is such a hidden agenda. Something doesn't smell right. What in the F&*#@(**& do we care about what Mexico thinks about jack squat? And yet Bush acts like a snivelling psychophant to Vincente Fox. Why? Is this to curry the latino vote? I don't know.