Endangering the Minutemen: credible reports indicate that the U.S. government is spying on border volunteers such as the Minutemen, and passing the intelligence on to the Mexican government.

"While Minuteman civilian patrols are keeping an eye out for illegal border crossers," reported the Ontario, California-based Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, "the U.S. Border Patrol is keeping an eye out for Minutemen--and telling the Mexican government where they are." News of the charge that the Mexican government was receiving intelligence from bureaucrats at the U.S. Border Patrol on Minutemen and other volunteer groups spread across the nation like wildfire.

Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) suggested that the cooperation between the U.S. and Mexican governments, along with the publication of a Mexican government report on "vigilantes," could have been designed to intimidate Minutemen. "Heavily-armed military officials stationed only yards from civilians are at least intimidating," states Tancredo. "I can only surmise that the Border Patrol bureaucrats' spying is meant to have a chilling effect on the Minutemen's recruitment of more volunteers." Of course, a congressional investigation earlier this year revealed that the Mexican government is flexing its military power on the border, often against even Border Patrol agents. Border Patrol Union Local 2544 in Tucson, Arizona, the largest group of Border Patrol agents in the country, states on its website that:

 
   President Bush is doing back flips to 
   assure the hypocritical El Presidente 
   Fox that America will not "militarize" 
   the border.... Fox has already "militarized" 
   the border. Mexico has plenty 
   of troops on the border. We know this 
   because we see them all the time and 
   they shoot at us with rather large .50 
   caliber rifles. All we can do is hope 
   their aim is bad, run from them, and 
   then watch as the cowards from our 
   government hide from the issue, and 
   their government lies about them 
   even being there. 

The bottom line, Minuteman spokesperson Connie Hair told THE NEW AMERICAN, is that "our lives were unduly placed in danger." Hair added that the Minutemen are "exploring legal action."

Laying on the Whitewash

The U.S. Border Patrol quickly shifted into damage control, issuing a vague denial: "Border Patrol does not report activity by civilian, non-law enforcement groups to the Government of Mexico," Border Patrol spokesman Mario Martinez stated in a May 9 press release on the issue.

Volunteer activists are skeptical of the Border Patrol denial--a generic statement that did not deal with the specific allegations--for good reason. "Nobody but law enforcement and Border Patrol knew where we were at," Andy Ramirez of the Chino, California-based Friends of the Border Patrol told the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin. "So how is our base address on a Mexican government document dated last August? Nobody, not even the media, had this information."