Volunteers set to patrol Ariz. border

TOMBSTONE, Ariz. -- Hundreds of self-styled ''minutemen" from across the country converged on this historic town of the Old West yesterday to begin a monthlong citizen effort to stem the flood of undocumented immigrants pouring across the Arizona border from Mexico.

Recruited largely over the Internet, the volunteers will fan out along 23 miles beginning Monday to ''observation posts" about a quarter-mile apart. The volunteers hope to bolster what they consider woefully the undermanned federal effort to prevent hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants and potential terrorists who cross clandestinely from Mexico each year.

Many of the volunteers are expected to carry guns, as they are permitted to do under Arizona's ''open carry" law, according to project cofounder Jim Gilchrist. ''That's a way of life here," said the retired accountant from California.

Once in place, the volunteers will stand watch around the clock in shifts and have been instructed to report any bands of undocumented immigrants to the Border Patrol, which will be given the geographic coordinates of the suspects. Organizers have told the volunteers not to confront the suspects, many of whom are transported into the country by armed smugglers, and to stay at least 300 yards away.

''There are no rules of engagement because there will be no engagement," Gilchrist said.

The US Border Patrol has distanced itself from what is known as the Minuteman Project, arguing that border agents do not need untrained civilian help and raising concerns about the potential for violence between volunteers and undocumented immigrants.

Organizers said former members of the Marines, special forces, and Navy SEALs have fanned out near this town of 1,500 about 30 miles from the Mexican border. In addition, 16 civilian planes and 40 pilots have joined the effort.

''We're the neighborhood watch," said Tim Donnelly of California, standing across from the historic OK Corral in downtown Tombstone. ''We're doing the job that Congress won't do."

Law enforcement was tight in Tombstone yesterday, as Cochise County sheriff's deputies and Arizona Rangers swarmed through the historic downtown in foot and vehicle patrols.

Although organizers have downplayed the potential for violence, the risk of danger is on the minds of many volunteers. Donnelly, for one, said he will carry his Colt .45 handgun when he takes a turn on night patrol.

''Would you go into a battle zone without one? That's what the border is now," Gilchrist said. The gun, he added, ''is for the half of 1 percent chance that someone would attack me. I want to go home to see my children."

In Gilchrist's view, any violence will be initiated by smugglers of immigrants or drugs. As the project was being publicized over the last few months, Gilchrist said he received more than 400 ''death wishes" from groups such as MS-13, a Salvadoran gang that uses the sparsely populated border to funnel drugs into the United States.

Gilchrist scoffed at the Department of Homeland Security's announcement this week that 534 additional agents would be assigned to the 370-mile Arizona border. ''Five hundred is nice, but they should have sent 2,500," Gilchrist said. ''We literally have to seal the entire border."

Last December, Congress authorized the hiring of an additional 2,000 Border Patrol agents next year. But President Bush including funds for only 210 in his budget request for fiscal 2006. His proposal to admit 300,000 guest workers from Mexico a year also drew criticism from some volunteers.

At least 550,000 undocumented immigrants were captured in southern Arizona last year, slightly more than half of the 1.1 million apprehended by the entire Border Patrol in 2004. Although high-tech ground sensors and aerial surveillance have been added to Arizona's border security, nearly 3,000 people a day are believed to cross into the state from Mexico. In all, about 500,000 undocumented immigrants are estimated to live in Arizona.

The boisterous crowd that waited yesterday to register for the project included volunteers from as far away as Pennsylvania and military veterans in their 70s. They were mostly white, but appeared to include Latinos, other minorities, and a significant number of women.

American flags were emblazoned on leather jackets and sewn on shirt pockets. More than a dozen state flags were held aloft, and some volunteers arrived with Revolutionary War symbols such as the ''Don't Tread on Me" flag. Some volunteers arrived in convoys of campers, and Tombstone hotels were fully booked.

''We're here defending the Constitution and harassing politicians," said Lawrence Headrick, 73, who drove three days to Tombstone from Tunnel Hill, Ga. ''I spent half my life in the military. Why quit now?"

June McWilliam, 50, a Boston University graduate from suburban Philadelphia, said she flew to Tucson and drove to Tombstone to help the project. ''We're exercising our freedom of speech and freedom of assembly" to protest the flow of undocumented immigrants who cause higher taxes and disease, she asserted.

''We are a nation of immigrants," she said. ''But legal immigrants before, they had to undergo health checks."

Gilchrist hailed the crowd of volunteers, who he predicted would grow substantially before Monday, and compared their effort to that of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., ''who never gave up." Gilchrist told the gathering that he believed the cause is worth sacrificing his life.

''I can't think of a better reason to die than the First Amendment," Gilchrist said. ''That's what the country was founded on."

The volunteers and Gilchrist vehemently rejected that they are acting as vigilantes, although President Vicente Fox of Mexico has described groups such as the Civil Homeland Defense -- a militia created by Minuteman Project cofounder Chris Simcox -- as ''immigrant hunters." Simcox is the editor of the local newspaper, the Tombstone Tumbleweed, whose website has spread the word about the project.

''Take the 'e' off 'vigilante,' and what have you got?" Donnelly asked. ''It's vigilant."

Gilchrist said no volunteers from hate organizations would be accepted, although he conceded that screening is neither ''ironclad nor failsafe." Donnelly said that his screening consisted of a telephone interview. ''We want no participation from any racist group," Gilchrist said.

The organizer described the volunteers as ''a good cross-section of American society. None of them impresses me as a gunslinger."

However, one observer from Colorado, who had taken a road trip to see the commotion firsthand, expressed nervousness about the guns that many were believed to have brought with them.

''These guys walking around packing guns, who the hell are they?" said Gene, who asked that his last name not be used. ''First time I see something going on, I'm out of here."