HANDS UP.(The Talk of the Town)

The packing guidelines in the Official Minuteman Civil Defense Corps Volunteer Training Manual fall into three categories. First, there's the essential "Minuteman Duffle," which should include sturdy shoes, clean socks, cellular phone, camcorder, and bug spray. Lip balm is also key, as "sunburn and chapped lips are probably the most common ailments" afflicting volunteers "on the line." The items in the second section,"Nice to Have," are somewhat less common--ground pad and blanket, night-vision equipment, a spotting scope--but nothing you couldn't find at an army-navy store. It was the third section of the list that had several citizens in a near-panic at American Legion Post 94, in Babylon, on Long Island, where the Minutemen were holding a recruiting drive on a recent Saturday. Motion sensors? Infrared detection devices? A thermo-camera?

"We call that stuff 'Extra Handy' for a reason," Chris Simcox, the Corps's president, assured the forty or so residents who had turned out for the session. Simcox had come to Babylon from Tombstone, Arizona, where, until recently, he published the Tumbleweed, a local newspaper. In October, the group--which has been running freelance patrols along the U.S.-Mexico border since 2002, prompting President Bush to call its members "vigilantes"--began dispatching civilian guard units to the Canadian border. Simcox was hoping to fill out their ranks with eager Long Islanders. "Just give me one, two days," he said to them. "Bring a lawn chair, put on a floppy hat, and sit and watch the line with binoculars."

Most of the potential grunts didn't need much convincing. "We're all living in border towns now," a high-school teacher named Margaret declared. She described the problem, at least as it went down in Farmingville, where she lives: "We've got Portuguese restaurant owners. They have Mexican chefs who do these little chickens that people like to eat." She went on, "There was an overnight explosion--and I'm not exaggerating--of illegal aliens standing on our corners. Literally hundreds on one street, affecting our quality of life, not letting us get into stores, accosting our daughters for sex." She explained how one day, fed up, she dialled 911. "The operator called me a bigot and hung up," she ...