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Volunteers Sought to Guard Northern Border, US Officials Voice Concerns
From the Boston Globe's Franco Ordonez: Inspired by the hundreds of civilians who converged on the Mexican border this spring to help patrol for illegal immigrants, a new Framingham[MA]-based group is seeking volunteers to head north instead -- to guard the Canadian border. Jeffrey Buck, the 32-year-old cofounder of the controversial Framingham- based Concerned Citizens and Friends of Illegal Immigration Law Enforcement, has formed the New England Minuteman Association. Buck traveled to Arizona on three separate occasions to work with the Minuteman Project. Now he wants to replicate the Arizona group's work, with a few tweaks, in New England. The original Minuteman Project gained national attention in April when volunteers assembled near Tombstone, Ariz., to police the border. Organizers have said that the effort, which lasted about a month, alerted federal authorities to more than 300 cases of illegal immigrants crossing into the United States over a 23-mile stretch of the border. But President Bush denounced the volunteers as vigilantes... The Canadian border is approximately 5,000 miles long. Roughly 1,000 agents patrol it. Those agents last year arrested 2,800 illegal immigrants crossing the border in the Swanton, Vt., region, the most heavily trafficked border area in New England; another 400 were arrested in the area near a crossing in Houlton, Maine, according to the agency. Similar volunteer groups have popped up in several other parts of the country, including San Diego and Chicago. Federal officials are not enthusiastic. Ali Noorani, executive director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, which advocates for immigrant and refugee rights, called the appearance of Buck's new group and those like it is a ''sad state of affairs" that would only cause more harm than good. Noorani said most people would agree that the immigration system is broken, but he does not believe that recruiting untrained citizens to man the border is wise. Buck... said he wants to recruit Americans who live along the border to help be the eyes and ears of his group. In addition to border patrols, Buck hopes the New England Minuteman Association can serve as a hub for the various groups calling for stronger enforcement of immigration laws that already exist in Massachusetts, Maine, Vermont, and Connecticut. Posted by: Pappy 2005-07-08 |
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