Troops called to Northern border

The Minuteman Project, which a group of citizens launched last April in Arizona to protect the border against the infiltration of illegal aliens from Mexico, is expanding on Oct. 1. Minuteman volunteers will add the rest of the Mexican border and eight states along the Canadian border to their patrolling responsibilities. The group not only hopes to spot and report illegal immigrants trying to sneak into the U.S. It will ratchet up the pressure on politicians to take action against illegal immigration and picket/advertise against businesses who hire illegal immigrants.

Leaders of the Minuteman Project reportedly want to patrol the Canadian border in order to guard against terrorists, drug smugglers, and other criminal elements that they fear might try to slip across. The group claims it was formed as a result of "our government failing to do its most basic duty: protecting each state in the Union against invasion."

T J Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, credited the Minutemen with raising awareness of a problem that he said too many people overlook. "The key help that the Minuteman movement gives us is focusing public attention on the security of our borders and the difficult job that we have in maintaining it," Bonner said. "It's not necessarily doing the Border Patrol's job or even spotting illegals for them."

He also blamed illegal aliens for eventually causing lower wages for unskilled labor jobs. "There are plenty of Americans who want their jobs. Its just most people can't afford those jobs anymore. When the jobs paid 18 dollars an hour, there was no shortage of people willing to take those jobs," Bonner said.

The Minuteman Project has won some support in Washington; D.C. U.S. Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas) introduced a bill in the House last month to train civilian volunteers to help patrol the borders. They would resemble current Minuteman volunteer outfits, but would have the added benefit of federal training and certification.