Sugar Hill Kevis
2nd January 2007, 16:42
full article, Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1981025,00.html)
Two men stand working in the afternoon sun just yards from the US-Mexico border. Clad in hard hats and work shirts, tool belts slung around their waists, they have been toiling at this spot in the Arizona desert since early October.
One holds an iron stanchion while the other bolts a horizontal bar to it. But before the joint can be tightened, the whole structure starts to sway. A shout goes up: "Watch out!" The five metre pole lurches toward the dry red earth, bringing its neighbour down with it. The latest weapon in the fight against undocumented migrants looks a little shaky.
The iron and steel fence is the latest project from the Minutemen, the volunteer group of anti-immigration activists that has placed itself at the sharp end of the immigration debate since launching a highly publicised series of border watches in 2005. Now, frustrated at what the group sees as the inaction of government, it has taken matters a step further, building its own border fence at a cost of around $1m (£510,000) at one of the busiest points on the line, 90 miles from Tucson.
"It's not only a symbol, although its creation is symbolic of something," says Al Garza, national executive director of the Minuteman Civil Defence Corps. "It's saying: Congress, Mr President, we've pleaded, now we're demanding. You've told us it can't be done, well we're just a handful of people and we're doing it."
Wearing a white Stetson and bearing a crisply trimmed white moustache, Mr Garza is the picture of a border activist. A retiree who moved to Arizona from California less than four years ago, he served in the US Marine Corps and worked as a private investigator in California for 35 years.
"We know that the observation won't quash or deter immigration," he says, "so we thought what was the alternative: a fence."
But there is a flaw in the Minutemen's plan. While the US-Mexico border stretches for 1,993 miles, from California to Florida, the Minuteman fence when finished will be just one mile long.
I find it quite remarkable that the Minutemen believe taking one mile out of nearly 2000 will somehow halt or significantly curb the the entrance of immigrants in to America they must be 'sadly' mistaken...
That being said, is it realistic to think this will impact the US govt to take more drastic measures on border control?
Two men stand working in the afternoon sun just yards from the US-Mexico border. Clad in hard hats and work shirts, tool belts slung around their waists, they have been toiling at this spot in the Arizona desert since early October.
One holds an iron stanchion while the other bolts a horizontal bar to it. But before the joint can be tightened, the whole structure starts to sway. A shout goes up: "Watch out!" The five metre pole lurches toward the dry red earth, bringing its neighbour down with it. The latest weapon in the fight against undocumented migrants looks a little shaky.
The iron and steel fence is the latest project from the Minutemen, the volunteer group of anti-immigration activists that has placed itself at the sharp end of the immigration debate since launching a highly publicised series of border watches in 2005. Now, frustrated at what the group sees as the inaction of government, it has taken matters a step further, building its own border fence at a cost of around $1m (£510,000) at one of the busiest points on the line, 90 miles from Tucson.
"It's not only a symbol, although its creation is symbolic of something," says Al Garza, national executive director of the Minuteman Civil Defence Corps. "It's saying: Congress, Mr President, we've pleaded, now we're demanding. You've told us it can't be done, well we're just a handful of people and we're doing it."
Wearing a white Stetson and bearing a crisply trimmed white moustache, Mr Garza is the picture of a border activist. A retiree who moved to Arizona from California less than four years ago, he served in the US Marine Corps and worked as a private investigator in California for 35 years.
"We know that the observation won't quash or deter immigration," he says, "so we thought what was the alternative: a fence."
But there is a flaw in the Minutemen's plan. While the US-Mexico border stretches for 1,993 miles, from California to Florida, the Minuteman fence when finished will be just one mile long.
I find it quite remarkable that the Minutemen believe taking one mile out of nearly 2000 will somehow halt or significantly curb the the entrance of immigrants in to America they must be 'sadly' mistaken...
That being said, is it realistic to think this will impact the US govt to take more drastic measures on border control?