Invigorated by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's praise for the Minuteman Project in Arizona, a Chino group says that it has enlisted hundreds of volunteers to patrol the Mexican border near San Diego this summer.
Organizers are hoping that Border Watch will keep the national spotlight on what they see as a failure of the Bush administration to secure the country's borders from illegal immigrants and terrorists.
"This is not about race," said Andy Ramirez, 37, chairman of Friends of the Border Patrol. "It's about protecting America's borders."
Ramirez, whose grandfather was a Mexican immigrant, said he had collected more than 300 applications from former military personnel, police officers, customs agents and others. Volunteers will not confront illegal immigrants, he said, but will report their location to the Border Patrol.
Opponents, including the ACLU of Southern California, worry about the potential for violence and escalating racial tensions. They denounced the citizen brigades as vigilantes and questioned the campaign's motives.
"I think the only reason behind this effort is to get media attention," said Christian Ramirez, director of the San Diego office of the American Friends Service Committee, a peace and social justice organization. "The Minuteman Project was very successful in selling the concept that they were protecting the nation and supporting Border Patrol agents.... It was a publicity stunt."
The first training session is scheduled for June, but patrols won't begin until August because of the need for extensive planning, organizer Andy Ramirez said.
The Minuteman Project, which ended its armed patrols in Arizona last week, is supporting the new effort and helping gather volunteers.
Minuteman leaders called their operation a success and took credit for a drop in the number of illegal immigrants crossing into the United States. They said the project resulted in the detention of nearly 350 immigrants along the 23 miles of the Arizona border where the group patrolled. But Border Patrol officials said the decrease in crossings was more likely the result of the Minutemen's presence combined with other factors, including the intense media attention they generated on both sides of the border, as hundreds of journalists flocked to the area.
The Bush administration also deployed additional agents to Arizona, while the Mexican government deployed troops on its side.
