Armed Volunteers To Patrol Border

Critics Fear Web-Recruited 'Minutemen' Could Spark Vigilante Violence

(CBS/AP) 
The announcement of the volunteer border patrol comes as the Homeland Security Department is assigning more than 500 additional patrol agents to the porous Arizona border Wednesday, saying they will help keep potential terrorists and illegal immigrants from entering the country.

The border buildup was to be announced two days before civilian volunteers with the Minutemen Project begin a month-long Arizona patrol against immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico line.

About 155 agents will be immediately sent to Arizona, according to a department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the buildup was not yet announced. Another 350 agents — all new trainees — will be permanently assigned to the Arizona border by Sept. 30.

Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever said he fears immigrant smugglers might open fire on the volunteers.

"I wouldn't anticipate that people of that persuasion would act or react any differently to anybody, citizen or law enforcement alike, if they were confronted and felt like their cargo was in jeopardy," he said.

The project's organizers gave assurances the volunteers will be closely monitored. "If it gets to a situation where someone's life is in danger," said David Helppler, Minuteman security coordinator, "I will end the project."

Project organizers said they expect 800 to 1,000 volunteers. How many might actually show is unclear; similar efforts in the past few years flopped. One of them drew only about a half-dozen people.

On Wednesday, the Homeland Security Department announced that it is assigning 534 additional agents to the porous Arizona border to help keep out potential terrorists and illegal immigrants.

The 370-mile Arizona border is considered the most vulnerable stretch of the 2,000-mile southern border. Of the 1.1 million illegal immigrants caught by the Border Patrol last year, 51 percent crossed into the country at the Arizona border.

Some people in this town nearly 30 miles north of the Mexican border, best known as the site of the 1881 shootout at the OK Corral, are eagerly awaiting the volunteers' arrival.

Tombstone Mayor Andree De Journett thinks of the volunteers as tourists and said they could boost the local economy.

"I've met five or six of them, they haven't been too bad so far," he said, estimating that 500 extra visitors for a month could mean $10,000 or more per month spent locally.

Marilynn Slade, Tombstone's city clerk, said the more attention drawn to illegal immigration, the better.

"The vast majority of the people feel that the feds should be dealing more aggressively with the problem," she said. "There's a huge, huge cry down here."

But some citizens of the Southwest say immigrants are not only not a problem, but are nearly necessary to sustain life in the United States.

"As a grower and processor, I'm virtually made a criminal because I can't harvest my crop without some illegal help," Ed Curry, of Curry Seed and Chile Co., told CBS' Bowen. "I think most Americans do not understand that their food chain would completely stop if we didn't have this help."