Editorial: We’ll take all the help we can get

The Minutemen have arrived in the Green Valley area, unofficially backing up the Border Patrol in the search for illegal border crossers.

While we wish the Border Patrol had the resources and manpower to seal the border, we welcome the Minutemen to the region. We think they can be part of the solution, with their presence serving as a wake-up call to politicians who continue to delay border reform.

Few newspapers have written editorials in support of the Minutemen. They are seen as untrained vigilantes bent on frontier justice. Nothing could be further from the truth. They are well-intentioned men and women who abide by the law. They want illegals to stop disrupting your life.

Since their founding in 2005, Minutemen have provided assistance, operating under the slogan of “Doing the jobs our government won’t.” The mantra sounds self important and egotistical, and the group’s founder is facing questions about where financial contributions have gone.

But the fact is, the rank-and-file Minutemen are not half cocked, ready to fire weapons at the first opportunity. They are not allowed to pull guns except for self defense. If they do, they are thrown out of the group.

As we have said repeatedly, the wave of drug runners and illegal workers streaming into our backyards has to stop. Attempts at immigration reform have come too late to ease the minds of residents dealing with this problem on a daily basis.

The Minutemen launched their first patrol in the Elephant Head Road area Saturday, responding to calls from residents who say they’re being overrun on their property. Thirteen border crossers were spotted, and the Border Patrol made nine apprehensions.

The problem with illegals has turned frightening. Many residents have talked to us about being afraid to ride horses, hike or enjoy the outdoors with family.

In the late 1990s, the average border crosser probably was an impoverished Mexican hoping to make it to Tucson or Phoenix for work. In 2007, there’s a good chance the alien is a drug runner or criminal.

The war for control of the drug trade in northern Sonora, just south of the Arizona-Mexico border, is more violent than ever. Gang minions are shooting up one another so their bosses can supply illicit drugs to the black market in Arizona and beyond.

The solution for Green Valley lies in strict control of the border. We editorialized last week against building a permanent Border Patrol station north of Amado. It will not stop the wave of illegals, in our opinion, only fanning them around the station into local neighborhoods.

Illegal immigration has created a short-term crisis in Arizona and this country. It does not foreshadow gloom and doom, and it will not destroy the American way of life, as naysayers predict. We are more concerned about the human toll, the crimes committed against ordinary citizens and the deaths in the desert from dehydration.

Unless politicians and Phoenix and Washington, D.C., find ways to stem the tide, we hope to see more citizens rising to the challenge. State legislators are considering sanctions for employers who hire illegals. If the bill does not pass, look for a 2008 ballot referendum from concerned Arizonans that will address the problem.

Four more illegal border crossers died in the desert over the weekend. One body was found in the Organ Pipe National Monument, and three others were discovered on the Tohono O’odham Reservation. We wish the Border Patrol or Minutemen had seen them before they perished.

“Ninety-eight percent of the people we encountered gave us the thumb’s up,” Minuteman volunteer Tim Trosper said of Saturday’s patrol.

We hope the Minutemen will not be needed in the near future. Until then, we can sure use their help.