Human trafficking’s profits spur horrors

Cross posted from Morning Coffee

The following Post is a bit long, but informative as to the scope and depth of the human smuggling rings. This underscores the need not only for enhanced border security efforts, but also the need for far more dedicated to law enforcement.     

Vicious organizations move thousands of immigrants through Valley every day  

In the world of human smuggling, metro Phoenix has emerged as an enormous staging area where illegal immigrants are held hostage in apartments, motel rooms or rental homes until relatives pay their fees.

State investigators say it is a $2 billion-a-year, black-market business that drives illegal immigration, spreading corruption and violence through the Valley. On any given day in the Valley, agents say, thousands of undocumented immigrants are stuffed into drophouses as “coyotes” collect the cash, arrange for transportation and fend off other smugglers who would steal migrant clients for ransom.

There are so many coyotes, estimated at more than 1,000, so many immigrants secreted in drop- houses, that money-transfer stores handle hundreds of millions of dollars a year in smuggling transactions. Friends or family already established in other states wire the payments to Phoenix.

During a federal court hearing last year, Special Agent Angel Rascon-Rubio of the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement described metro Phoenix as “the hub” of immigrant smuggling. “I would say that 90 percent of the transactions dealing with the sale of human cargo, those smuggled across the (Arizona) border, occur right here.”

The city is ideal for drop- houses because it’s close to the Mexican line yet far enough so there is virtually no Border Patrol enforcement. Valley freeways provide nationwide access. And large Hispanic neighborhoods offer cover for immigrants and smugglers.

“We are supporting an army of coyotes - an army of greedy, amoral, young, Mexican males,” said Cameron “Kip” Holmes, chief counsel with the Arizona Attorney General’s Financial Remedies Section. “They’ve become a subculture unto themselves: extremely violent, extremely dangerous, all manner of bad behavior.”

Even immigrant rights advocates despise coyotes as pariahs who victimize countrymen and infect Latino neighborhoods with violence and graft.

“They are the most vicious criminal element; corruption at its lowest level,” said Eliaz Bermudez, chief executive with Inmigrantes Sin Fronteras (Immigrants without Borders). “We in the Hispanic communities suffer the brunt of all these activities.”

The border is so dangerous and heavily patrolled that using smugglers seems like a necessary evil for those trying to bring loved ones into the United States, Bermudez said. But “paying the coyotes is like paying a drug dealer for your kids.”

The Arizona funnel

Until the past decade, crossing the border was so easy that smugglers were hardly necessary. Fellow immigrants helped one another through the gauntlet for, at most, a few hundred bucks.

Then federal authorities began cracking down: first in California and Texas, funneling illegal migration to Arizona. In the late 1990s, enforcement shifted here.

Hard-core criminals entered the business as prices climbed and smuggling became more lucrative. Smuggling rings started using sophisticated surveillance and communications. A Library of Congress report on Criminal and Terrorist Activity in Mexico says smugglers carry on “a technological arms race” with the Border Patrol and ICE. As a result, fees have doubled in just a few years.

The typical pollo, or chicken, as the immigrants are called, now pays $1,200 to $2,500 to be guided across the border, driven to Phoenix and shipped to a destination in the United States.

Mom-and-pop operations were scared off or eliminated.

“They’ve been killed,” Holmes said. “That’s largely what’s been found (as corpses) in the desert: old-style coyotes. … This industry is still relatively new and in the formative stages. That’s why we see more violence, and the more ruthless ones come to the top.”

Immigrants often are quoted one price by smuggling recruiters at the border, only to have the amount doubled by the time they reach Phoenix, said Rascon-Rubio, the ICE agent. Their only option is to pay, he added: “They owe a bill. That’s what this machine … is all about, achieving payday.”

The multimillion-dollar industry supports an array of small-time smuggling rings and sophisticated organizations with scores of members.

Tim Mason, an Arizona Department of Public Safety detective who has worked more than 200 coyote investigations, estimates that 1,000-plus coyotes work in Phoenix today, supported by untold legions of shady business associates. Virtually all of the smugglers are Mexican nationals without legal residency, rather than U.S. citizens or immigrants with visas.

Each ring member takes on specific duties. There are recruiters, guides, drivers, drophouse managers, cooks, guards, document specialists and money collectors. The coyotes typically operate in family networks, directed by a boss south of the border, which is where most of the money goes.

In short, Mason says, they are organized-crime syndicates: “It’s an illegal enterprise, a scheme. … It’s not your poor immigrant being smuggled by another poor immigrant. It’s an organization with significant structure and assets.”

Many smugglers treat their clients decently to encourage referrals, but there is no pity for those who can’t come up with fee money.

“They are beaten,” Rascon-Rubio said. “The women are assaulted. Children are separated from their parents. And, at times, the ultimate price is paid.”

Even the gentler smugglers are routinely armed with assault rifles, shotguns or pistols. Firepower serves to intimidate clients who might try to escape. It also defends against so-called bajadores, bandits who kidnap immigrants to collect the ransom for themselves. Kidnap 20 pollos, collect a $1,600 smuggling fee for each one, and you get $32,000.

Money trail

Last year, ICE estimated that 1 million illegal immigrants came through Arizona, with most of them stopping off at Valley stash houses. State prosecutors put the number at 3,000 to 4,000 daily, with nearly all relying on coyotes.

The entire operation hinges on a payment system, a way to get smuggling fees to the coyotes from pollos‘ relatives or friends.

Since early 2001, Western Union and MoneyGram stores have been required to provide the state Attorney General’s Office with transaction data on money senders and receivers. Investigators were stunned to discover Arizona had become a magnet for cash wired from popular destinations for illegal immigrants.

In 2005, for example, customers in Delaware sent 60 times as much money to Arizona than vice versa. South Carolina wired 38 times as much cash this way. New Jersey clients sent 31 times as much as they received.

In January of this year, wire transfers to Arizona from a dozen key states totaled $50.2 million, compared with $1.5 million sent from Arizona to those states. Holmes said the lion’s share of that money is for smuggling fees.

Agents use data analysis to identify smuggling organizations and block suspicious fund transfers. During a one-year period ending in March, they froze 12,417 transactions, seizing $23 million. The Attorney General’s Office also seized a dozen wire-transfer businesses for criminal complicity.

Western Union alone has 1,230 outlets in Arizona. The company has rigid standards and a team of specialists in Arizona who do nothing but train, monitor and review compliance by agents, said Sherry Johnson, media relations manager.

“Western Union has made it very clear that it will not tolerate illicit use of our services,” she said.

Nevertheless, the Attorney General’s Office says 95 percent of coyote business is done in wire-transfer stores. A DPS audit last year of the busiest Western Unions showed more than half of the cash recipients in personal transactions used fraudulent Social Security cards as IDs.

Mason refers to the money-sending aspect of smuggling as “the head of the monster.”

“If nobody gets paid,” he asks, “is anybody going to smuggle a UDA (undocumented alien)?”

Ripple effect

The new big business of human smuggling, with millions of dollars at stake and law enforcement circling, sets up more corruption.

Landlords charge double or triple the normal rent to human smugglers, accepting false IDs and keeping records off the books.

Department of Motor Vehicle workers supply fraudulent IDs.

Businesses launder cash.

Auto dealers and travel agents help with transportation.

Border inspectors are paid to look away.

Money-transfer clerks are supposed to verify IDs and follow financial disclosure laws. But under-the-table payoffs are commonplace. During one investigation, investigators set up a phony wire-transfer shop and had coyotes streaming in to collect their illicit fees. In another probe, undercover operatives acting as smugglers paid clerks to violate financial reporting laws.

“When we were doing Western Union stings, we never had a bribe turned down,” Holmes said. “The employees told us, ‘We pay our rent and car loans out of bribes. The wages are spending money.’ So, in effect, they’re working for coyotes.”

Bribery, known in Mexico as la mordida (the bite), is decaying business and government ethics, Holmes said.

“Arizona is on the brink,” he said. “We are in a very perilous situation because of the importation of bribery tolerance from everywhere south of our line. … Bribery is rampant. It’s a cultural thing.”

In one probe, travel agents were taking extra cash to supply airline tickets for pollos flying out of McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, where the Border Patrol has had no presence.

But most immigrants are hauled to Phoenix and across the country in cars, trucks and vans. The “load vehicles” represent another side industry. Holmes said monthly sales for a single auto dealership jumped almost $450,000 soon after the owner began selling vans to smugglers.

“It’s unbelievable the amount of money you can make if you get popular with coyotes,” he said.

The Collazzo gang

Consider the Collazzo Alien Smuggling Organization, about 70 members strong.

Authorities say the ring took in more than $18 million in smuggling fees during a six-month wiretap investigation that also uncovered drug trafficking, counterfeiting and fraudulent schemes.

Investigators learned about the gang from an informer who discovered a profitable scam involving used-car dealers along Van Buren Street in Phoenix.

Investigators began buying vehicles as part of a sting, posing as smugglers. Dealerships would charge premium prices, collecting full cash payment, and not declare the income. They filed fraudulent titles indicating that purchases were made on credit, with the dealer holding liens. If Border Patrol agents intercepted a van full of pollos, the dealer could claim ownership to prevent a government seizure. The van would be retrieved and returned to the smugglers.

Sellers also built secret compartments into vehicles for transporting cash or drugs, and they allowed coyotes to store the vans on their sales lots.

In the Collazo case of 2004, authorities seized 11 used-car lots and 359 vehicles. Gang members raked in such huge profits that they wanted to set up phony businesses to launder cash.

According to court records, Ruben Garcia-Boldo, a loan officer, helped undercover operatives obtain false driver’s licenses, immigration cards, Social Security numbers and student IDs so they could establish bank accounts, create businesses and buy homes.

Garcia-Boldo, 45, also developed plans for a company known as ABC Towing Masters, which would launder $80,000 per month. He proposed to get a 20 percent share. He even offered to set up a marriage to a legal resident for the informer, who pretended to be undocumented.

Garcia-Boldo, of Mexico City, admitted his role in the operation and pleaded guilty to a money-laundering conspiracy.

Shootouts

Along with corruption, the coyotes specialize in violence.

A few years ago, Valley detectives began noticing corpses of smugglers dumped along roads and in the desert.

Phoenix police blamed a 45 percent rise in homicides during 2003, as well as a 41 percent increase in home invasions, on coyotes and bajadores.

Criminal gangs got into a public shootout on Interstate 10 in 2003, leaving four dead and five wounded. Another bloodletting occurred in the rural community of Red Rock, north of Tucson. According to an ICE intelligence report, smugglers and their pollos were ambushed by bajadores and held hostage at a nearby livestock pond. The coyotes retaliated with bullets, killing two men.

In response, federal authorities launched Operation ICE Storm in October 2003, doubling the number of Valley agents and teaming them with local police. In 18 months, task force members made 374 arrests, captured 8,200 immigrants and confiscated hundreds of guns and vehicles along with $7.4 million in cash.

The campaign was touted nationally. Phoenix police said murders declined 30 percent during the operation, which resulted in 162 indictments.

‘Policia!’

But the smuggling remains so prolific that law enforcement isn’t able to keep up. On any given day, Mason says, coyotes can be spotted entering money-transfer shops all over the Valley.

On June 16 at 11 a.m., the DPS detective proves the point.

After parking outside a Food City store and MoneyGram outlet at Broadway Road and Country Club Drive in Mesa, Mason does a radio check to make sure the stakeout team is in place, then waits for smugglers to buy supplies from the market, or to collect smuggling fees at the wire-transfer shop.

Within minutes, two young Hispanic men enter Food City and load up on groceries. Mason says the tortillas, eggs and sodas are likely supplies for a house full of pollos.

The van heads down Broadway and pulls into the backyard at a tract-style home near Stapley Drive. Windows are covered; garbage cans overflow. More telltale signs. Mason sings a chorus line from the Cops reality show on TV: “Bad boys, bad boys. Whatcha gonna do?”

Two agents knock on the door, calling out policia, while others cover front and back. Blinds rustle. Eyes appear at windows. Suddenly, doors fly open and people tear out, jumping fences, cutting in front of cars.

All but five or six are captured. They sit in the front yard in scruffy clothes and plastic handcuffs, eyes down. A woman cries, clinging to her friend. Detectives frisk migrants and interview suspected coyotes.

In the house, there is no furniture. More than 20 bags of garbage are stacked in the pantry, oozing stench. Candles form a shrine on the kitchen counter beside hand-scrawled lists of names and misspelled destinations: “Marilu - New Yerse (Jersey).” “Humberto - Milguoquy (Milwaukee).”

As pollos are loaded aboard ICE vans, a call comes in: Detectives at the MoneyGram followed another target to an apartment just off Main Street. Four suspected smugglers surrendered quietly. Five immigrants locked themselves in a bathroom and had to be coaxed out. They sit on the floor while agents search the place, finding guns and cocaine.

In just a few hours, two drop- houses have been busted.

Mason drives off, mentioning that a Western Union in the next block is particularly popular with smugglers. As he slows in front of the business, a well-groomed Hispanic man leads several haggard immigrants into the store, fumbling with their paperwork.

“Would you look at that,” Mason says, shaking his head.

**This was a production of The Coalition Against Illegal Immigration (CAII). If you would like to participate, please go to the above link to learn more. Afterwards, email the coalition and let me know at what level you would like to participate.

Illegal immigration divides Senate Candidates

Cross posted from Morning Coffee

From the Missourian  

Sen. Jim Talent, R-Mo., argues that more border security is the key to stopping illegal immigrants, but State Auditor Claire McCaskill, his Democratic opponent in the November election, says the better strategy is to keep immigrants from getting jobs.

While Talent and McCaskill emphasize different solutions to the problem of illegal immigration, they also share some common ground. Neither advocates amnesty for illegal workers, and both want to crack down on the people who give them jobs.

“I’ve spent a significant amount of time in rural Missouri, and I know that there are areas of our state that are under a great deal of stress in terms of health care, social services and education because of the immigrant populations that have come in because of corporate agriculture,” McCaskill said. “So it is an issue. Frankly, it’s an issue even more acutely in our border states.”

Talent said the main way to prevent more illegal immigrants is through strong border security, which includes more fencing.

Talent co-sponsored a bill in the Senate to increase border security by adding more fencing, increasing border patrol officers, updating technology and increasing border checkpoints.

It also includes measures to prevent tunnels across the border and a plan in case of an emergency on the border. The bill was sent to the Judiciary Committee on June 23 and is still being reviewed.

“It begins with the border,” Talent said. “If you begin to think about this, once millions of people come into this country unlawfully, it is very hard to do anything with them.”

The expanded border security would also protect the U.S. from terrorist attacks and reduce the importation of illegal drugs, Talent said.

While McCaskill agrees the U.S. needs to tighten border security, illegal immigrants would not come to the U.S. if there were not jobs available.

While McCaskill agrees the U.S. needs to tighten border security, illegal immigrants would not come to the U.S. if there were not jobs available.

“The reason those jobs are there is because employers now know that under this administration there will be no enforcement,” she said. “They can do it with impunity, they can get away with it, and nothing is going to happen.”

McCaskill said her background as a former prosecutor and as state auditor would make it easier to find ways to prosecute employers who hire illegal immigrants. A lot of the paperwork employers turn in is easily detectable as fraud, she said.

“We make more complicated and more difficult criminal cases in this country every ten minutes than a case that would show someone was knowingly hiring illegal immigrants,” she said.

Also, enforcing the laws against employers would not be very expensive, because if the law is enforced against a few employers, it will have a deterrent effect on others.

“People are not going to want to hire illegal immigrants if they think there will be consequences,” McCaskill said.

Americans would fill jobs illegal immigrants now have if the employers began to hire citizens, McCaskill said. If there is not a large enough workforce after employers stop hiring illegal immigrants, then the government will need to look for a solution at that time.

“But this idea that is it ‘wink, wink, nod, nod’, where we jump up and down and say illegal immigrants are terrible and then we say to employers it is OK to hire them, that is wrong,” she said.

Once there are no jobs left, McCaskill said she is confident immigrants will return to their home country and can then apply for legal status like anyone else in the world.

McCaskill and Talent both agree the solution is not to grant amnesty to immigrants in the country because they are here unlawfully.

When the U.S. tried amnesty in the past, Talent said the number of illegal immigrants significantly increased.

“The value of permanent residency in the United States, much less citizenship, is so great to people around the world that if they think … Congress will eventually give those things to them, the pressure on the border is going to increase,” he said.

Another point both candidates agree on is that the U.S. is not ready to expand its guest worker program. McCaskill said the guest worker system does not work because people enter the country legally with their guest worker visas and then disappear.

“How do they just disappear?” she said. “How do we keep track of them? Until the government shows it can keep track of the illegal immigrants that we are allowing into the guest worker program, I cannot imagine it is a good idea to expand it.”

Talent said instead of expanding the guest worker program, the U.S. needs to look at fixing the legal immigration system and possibly expanding quotas so people will be more likely to have a chance to immigrate legally.

He added that his office regularly has a couple hundred immigrants who have Missouri sponsors and are attempting to immigrate legally.

“It’s a completely nonfunctional system, which is why I argue that we cannot, on top of this, put a multi-tiered amnesty program for 12 to 13 million people and a huge new guest worker program,” Talent said. “It’s impossible.”

Both Candidates are correct and both are incorrect. Border Security and Enforcement of current laws are equally important in addressing Illegal Immigration. Cracking down on one while ignoring the other does little or nothing in addressing the overall problem. McCaskill is correct in pointing out the Bush Administration’s abysmal record in enforcing immigration laws, particularly in prosecuting employers who hire illegals. But other than gripe about Bush, what has McCaskill done in her official capacity as State Auditor or previously, as Jackson County Prosecutor in going after those who hire Illegals? I couldn’t find anything that she has done in addressing the problem, other than bitch that Bush hasn’t done anything. Local and State officials throughout the country are taking steps to crackdown on companies hireing illegals, sadly the State of Missouri is not included in that group, at least not yet. The citizens of Missouri deserve and need representatives in congress who actually do something to address the problems this country faces. What is not needed is someone else to point fingers and give excuses for their own inaction. Frankly on this issue I don’t think either candidate provides the leadership that is needed to do what is absolutely necessary to secure our borders and crackdown on companies hireing illegals.

**This was a production of The Coalition Against Illegal Immigration (CAII). If you would like to participate, please go to the above link to learn more. Afterwards, email the coalition and let me know at what level you would like to participate.

MinuteMan Project Separates From MinuteManCivilDefence Corps

Cross posted from Red Hot Cuppa Politics

News on the MinuteMan financial debacle gets curiouser and curiouser.

This morning, there’s a front page announcement on the MinuteMan website that the MinuteMan Project is not the same as the MinuteMenCivilDefenseCorps. The MinuteMan Project is directed by Jim Gilchrist, who’s asserting that the MinuteManCivilDefense Corps run by Chris Simcox has no business dealings with the MinuteMan Project.

The MinuteManProject has a different web address from the MinuteManCivilDefenseCorps. You keep track of Jim Gilchrist on the Project site, and there’s news about Chris Simcox’s efforts to build a fence, and recruit civilian volunteers (plus donations) to assist the border patrol on the MMCDC site. I believe the two men have supported each other’s efforts in the past, and at one time were directly connected in the same efforts, which seem to have branched.

Anyway, here’s more on the MMCDC financial debacle.

From the Sierra Vista Herald, yesterday, and it looks like original reporting:

The critics complain that the organization formally known as the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps has been raising large amounts of money for a costly Israeli-style barrier but has been building only inexpensive range fencing. And they direct their disapproval squarely at Minuteman founder and president, Chris Simcox.

For his part, Simcox calls the criticism unfounded and petty, and insists his group will soon begin to construct the two-layered, Gaza Strip-model fencing as promised.

Last month, the Sierra Vista-based anti-illegal-immigration group American Patrol posted a report on its Web site comparing the barbed-wire livestock fence the Minutemen built at John and Jack Ladd’s ranch in Palominas with the design for an Israeli-style security barrier that had been promised on the Minuteman Web site …

The president of American Patrol, Glenn Spencer, said he was initially skeptical of the campaign due to his own experiences with Cochise County’s planning and zoning regulations. But he said he decided to speak out after he heard a Phoenix-area man had mortgaged his house to donate $120,000 for the fence.

Spencer said the Minutemen had told supporters their fence would cost $300,000 per mile and urged them to donate generously.

But he said the fencing they have built so far runs closer to $8,000 per mile.

“We have supported the Minutemen and Chris Simcox’s efforts for years,” Spencer said.

“However, in this instance, I felt they went too far in their zeal to gain support.”

Simcox rejected the idea the Minutemen had misrepresented their fence project. He said his group has always made it clear they planned to build a variety of barriers tailored to fit the needs of individual property owners. And he said the Ladds’ fence is still a work in progress, with vehicle barriers and concertina wire to be added at a later date

Here’s another problem: Apparently, the MMDC has used the Diener Consulting group, out of Pennsylvania. It’s a group that generates donations to your political cause, but the problem here is that Peter Kunz, listed as a contractor that manages the fence, works for Dinert Consulting. I have not been able to locate any actual construction credentials for him.

The MinuteMen have also affiliated themselves with Alan Keyes Declaration Alliance, declaring themselves a project of the Keyes group. From the WashingtonTimes, which has been spot on in their reporting, from July 20th:

The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps calls itself a “project of the Declaration Alliance,” although few MCDC volunteers know what the alliance does or why Minuteman donations are routed through the charity founded and headed by conservative activist Alan Keyes.

Several Minuteman leaders and members questioned the wisdom of ceding control over fundraising to the Herndon-based Declaration Alliance, part of an intricate weave of conservative organizations founded and chaired by Mr. Keyes or tied to longtime Keyes associates working with MCDC…

According to its Web page (www.declarationalliance.org), the alliance seeks to influence policy and legislation, including initiatives to protect constitutional rights. Its 2006 political goals, through DAPAC, include overturning Roe v. Wade, replacing the income tax with a national sales tax, protecting the right to keep and bear arms, prosecuting the war on terrorism, and securing America’s borders “against foreign invasion.”

Chris Simcox has said that neither the MinuteMenCivilDefenseCorps, nor the Declaration Alliance, have done anything underhanded, and both are squeaky clean in terms of IRS audits. However, it looks to me that there are some unexplained gaps in expenditures. There’s a button on the DeclarationAlliance website, where you can donate to the MinuteMen — but it’s not clear that the donations go to the Chris Simcox MinuteMen, or the Jim Gilchrist MinuteMen, or both — or how much of the donation goes to the generic MinuteMan group.

It’s also possible that the MMCDC might be trying to position themselves to become a national political party with the connections to the Keyes group — and this is not necessarily a bad thing. However, the MinuteMan Project, headed by Jim Gilchrist, seems to be the political wing of the party. He’s already met with the ConstitutionParty, which is well intentioned, I think, but looks a little flakey to me. While I’d love to see a third party emerge for 2008 — we need a sane one.

Unfortunately, folks that donate to the fence expect their money to go to build the fence — not to support national conservative political issues, however worthy they may be. There needs to be a full accounting … and in the meantime, I wouldn’t advise donating money to build the fence unless I were sure the money would actually go to building the fence; at this point, there’s a big, legitimate question.

Incidentally, per the SierraTimes, one of the critical groups is the Texas MinuteMen:

One of the groups lending their voice to the criticism is the Texas Minutemen, an organization Simcox says has been bitter toward him since it was expelled by the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps in April 2005 for carrying rifles and using racist language. Last week, the Texas group posted a bulletin to its Web site supporting the American Patrol report and deriding a call by Simcox for $55 million in donations to build 70 additional miles of border fencing in Arizona.

There’s a TexasMinuteMen website. Here’s a link to one homepage, and here’s a link to a Texas MinuteMen forum, with the same web root: www.txminutemen.org. (Oy!)

TexasFred withdrew his support for the MinuteMen months ago. I believe he had his reasons.

I’ll be following this one.

StetsonTip Robert A. Hahn, commenter to yesterday’s article at RedState.com.

**This was a production of The Coalition Against Illegal Immigration (CAII). If you would like to participate, please go to the above link to learn more. Afterwards, email the coalition and let Brian know at what level you would like to participate.**

MinuteMen More Enthusiastic About Guarding Border Than Bookkeeping … ?

Cross posted from Red Hot Cuppa Politics

Once in a while, there’s news I don’t really want to blog about, but in fairness needs to be presented. I saw an an article yesterday in the WashingtonTimes, which questioned whether or not the MinuteMen had been handling donations responsibly.

From the WashingtonTimes, this morning:

The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps’ top leaders signed a letter yesterday saying they have “complete confidence in the professional firms” hired by MCDC President Chris Simcox to oversee the organization’s finances, citing criticism from within and outside the group as “utterly without merit.”

The letter, posted on the Minuteman Web page (http://www.minutemanhq.com) applauded Mr. Simcox’s decision to employ “accredited and experienced professionals to assist the organization in management of our finances.”

“There are those both within the border security movement and actively opposed to it who, for ideological reasons or in advancement of personal ambition, wish the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps to fail,” Minuteman Civil Defense Corps (MCDC) said in a statement.

“Critics are obtaining false information from known racialists, anti-Semites and a small handful of disgruntled people who have been terminated from staff or from leadership involvement with the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps over a year ago because they could not meet MCDC standards or adhere to our strict field standard operational procedures,” the group said.

The letter came in response to a report yesterday in The Washington Times that a growing number of MCDC leaders and volunteers had questions concerning the whereabouts of money contributed to the organization over the past 15 months and its ties to Declaration Alliance, a Virginia-based charity headed by conservative Alan Keyes.

They said they had no idea how much money had been collected as part of its effort to stop illegal entry along the U.S.-Mexico border or on what it had been spent. Several top officials have quit or are threatening to do so. Others questioned whether MCDC volunteers received the equipment they needed for their border vigils

MCDC has not made any financial records public despite concern within the organization and requests by The Times dating back to October…

Heh. Imagine not feeling the need to cooperate with a national media outlet! Here’s the link to the NYT’s story — and dollars to donuts, the hoary NYT’s will devote the loving detail to this story that they ignored with Hillary’s campaign funding hijinks a year or so ago.

Red Hunter, over at RedState.Com also expressed some concerns, but a commenter pointed out: When the IRS can adequately explain where all of their budget goes then I’ll worry about the Minutemen.

Well. It’s a volunteer organization that has probably grown faster, and raised more money than its organizers ever dreamed of. Most folks involved with the MinuteMen want to build a fence along the border, or spot illegal aliens sneaking across. My guess is that very few actually are fired up to do double column bookkeeping.

My guess is that while there has likely been some sloppy accounting, I doubt there’s been much out and out swindling, but we’ll see how it shakes down. The LoneStarTimes has also noted the story.

Meanwhile, while Congress has refused to fund a border fence — the MinuteMen have gotten an okay to continue their fence along the Arizona border.

And incidentally, the new fence will help out a rancher:

Rancher Richard Hodges said the primary purpose of the barrier, which will have two parallel fences and razor wire, is to keep cattle from walking onto a Border Patrol access road that runs along his property in that area.

Hodges doesn’t own any cattle, but he said he does lease land to someone who owns 18 cows and 18 calves.

But he said the fence could also be used to keep illegal immigrants from crossing his property. There are two trails that cross his ranch, which covers 300 acres, he said.

“This is going to be a substantial barrier,” Hodges said.

So, let’s see. The MinuteMen are doing the job along the border which our government refuses to do … and in a few months, their bookkeeping is likely to be better than the feds as well.
Click to the CoalitionBlog for the latest and freshest on illegal immigration reform. Debbie’s back from Canada, and has an interesting and instructive article about crossing the northern border. BorderPundit writes about an Hispanic organization who’s motto is “You Don’t Speak For Me!”
MorningC0ffee presents a beat-your-head-against-the-wall coverage of the Senate fence “debate.”

**This was a production of The Coalition Against Illegal Immigration (CAII). If you would like to participate, please go to the above link to learn more. Afterwards, email the coalition and let Brian know at what level you would like to participate.**

Caught on video - illegals try to kill Texas law enforcement officer

Cross posted from Border Pundit

They are peaceful people. They just come here to work. All they want to do is earn money to support their families. That’s what the open borders folks will try to tell you if you let them. The truth is that many illegals come here to sell drugs, rape women and little girls, and kill law enforcement officers. Look at this dashcam video and watch the two illegals try to kill Trooper Steven Stone, just because Stone found an open container of alcohol and a bag of marijuana. You can read the story here. Here’s an excerpt:

At about 9 p.m. March 22, Stone was patrolling Texas Highway 31 East when he attempted to pull over the pickup for speeding. He told dispatch that the vehicle “didn’t want to stop,” but the video showed it eventually pulled over to the side of the road. Stone asked the driver, Ramos, who was wearing a long black jacket, to exit the truck and to stand behind it.

When asked if he had any weapons, Ramos said he had a knife. Ramos also told Stone that the passenger, Francisco Saucedo, was a friend of his. Ramos handed him identification.

When Ramos said he was on painkillers, Stone began looking inside Ramos’ jacket. He asked what was in his pocket and as Ramos reached for it, a bag fell to the ground. He told Stone it was “weed” and the trooper laid it on top of his car and said, “I got a bag full of drugs here.”

Stone told him to take off his jacket and he laid it on the truck. Stone told Ramos he was under arrest, and as the trooper grabbed his hands to handcuff him, the passenger door flew open. Stone yelled at the passenger to get back in the vehicle, but at that time, Ramos pulled a handgun and shot Stone, who was only a few feet away. The passenger, Saucedo, also shot at Stone.

Stone fell into a ditch and was out of sight of the camera. Ramos and Saucedo kept firing at him until their guns were empty, then got back in the truck and sped away. Meanwhile, Stone was screaming in pain and yelling for help. He crawled back to his car and radioed for assistance - “I’ve been shot.”

Stone’s breathing and speech were labored as he told a dispatcher his location. “My shoulder is killing me,” he said.

There is a long and harrowing account of the pursuit of the pickup, with the two illegals inside firing back at officers and deputies. I’m sure these two were chanting “Si se puede” as they reloaded and prepared to shoot again. Aren’t we proud to have them as guests in our country? Aren’t we happy to promote “multiculturalism” and try to embrace their unique way of life?

I think the story about this was on Fox News, but I don’t see a transcript. Trooper Stone’s statement at the end was powerful and moving. He believes that the two illegals have brought the community together and made it stronger. Next time an illegal tries to commit a crime he will face some determined opposition.

During victim impact statements, Stone said Ramos’ actions only strengthened Stone’s convictions of who he is and what he does, as well as made heroes out of a citizen and the officers. He said he didn’t know what Ramos’ intentions were and he prayed that God would forgive him.

We should definitely open our borders and allow the illegals to swarm into our country so they can commit horrific crimes like these guys did. /sarcasm

**This was a production of The Coalition Against Illegal Immigration (CAII). If you would like to participate, please go to the above link to learn more. Afterwards, email the coalition and let me know at what level you would like to participate.