Minutemen Get Texas Cold Shoulder

A controversial civilian patrol group that helped capture hundreds of illegal immigrants along the Mexico-Arizona border is warning that if the U.S. Border Patrol is not bolstered with National Guard or other military troops this summer, the patrol will deploy to California in August and Texas in October.

But although Minuteman organizers said nearly 1,000 volunteers from around the country were ready, Texas civil rights groups, clergy, newspaper editorial boards and politicians are wary.

"I think it's a problem all of Texas has with having vigilante groups from other parts of the country come to our state to try to tell us how to run our business," said Democratic state Sen. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa, an author of a resolution that urged Gov. Rick Perry to oppose Minuteman plans.

Eleven senators signed it, and Democratic state Sen. Rodney Ellis wrote Perry that Minutemen "are not welcome in Texas." Perry responded that he cannot ban people from legal activity.

"He understands and appreciates the frustration that many Texans have with illegal immigration and its impact on national security, but ultimately this is a federal issue," Perry spokeswoman Kathy Walt said.

The Minuteman Project drew international attention in April when volunteers showed up in Arizona to prove the border could be secured simply by putting more personnel there. While they did not apprehend immigrants, Minuteman Project organizer Chris Simcox said the group alerted the Border Patrol to suspicious behavior and helped catch 335 immigrants.

Yet the Texas border differs from the Arizona border in key ways.

Most of the Texas land is privately owned, so Minutemen would need landowners' permission to be there. The border also is overwhelmingly Hispanic and more urban, and Minutemen opponents wonder how the volunteers will distinguish illegal immigrants.

Opponents also fear the movement is fomenting racial hatred.

"I don't think that there's any doubt that there's a tinge of racism beneath the surface in their attempt to try to stop immigrants from Mexico," Hinojosa said. "Why don't they do that in Canada?"

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in a radio interview in April said the patrols "have done a terrific job." An aide later said the governor would welcome the Minuteman Project in California.

After protesters in California threw rocks and unopened soda cans at police and those attending a speech by Minuteman founder Jim Gilchrist, Simcox called the protesters "brown supremacists."