Behind the movement: Groups step up efforts to tighten the borders

Jean Lindsay believes illegal immigration is the No. 1 issue facing this country.

"It affects our whole way of life, our culture, our education system . . . It's breaking our laws . . . they won't speak our language . . . the construction industry has been taken over by illegal aliens," she said.

The retired Salt Lake decorator isn't alone in her concerns. She was one of about 150 people who attended a summer Orem forum featuring Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., a vocal opponent of immigration reform that includes amnesty.

Three Utah groups want to halt illegal immigration — Utahns for Immigration Reform and Enforcement, the Utah Minuteman Project, and the Citizens Council on Illegal Immigration in St. George. Together, they claim about 300 to 500 active members.

Those involved in efforts to curb the tide of illegal immigrants point out that they have no problem with immigration. A few are immigrants themselves, or have relatives who are. They are against "illegal" immigration.

When volunteers from across the country traveled in April to guard a 25-mile section of the Arizona-Mexico border as part of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, many civil rights activists called them armed and dangerous vigilantes, with racial motives.

But Utahns who participated compare it to neighborhood watch without racial motivation. They say they brought attention to porous borders and called the border patrol to report illegal crossers.

Organizers said the watch was a success. Smaller-scale border watches have continued, and another large effort to include all four southern border states is happening this month. About 11 Utahns plan to participate.

To the anti-immigrant movement, the solution to the nation's immigration woes is simple: Seal the border and enforce laws that prohibit hiring illegal immigrants. That would prompt most illegal immigrants to go home, they say.

Another step: Empower local law officers to become proactive in enforcing immigration laws.

After April's patrol, electrical engineer Alex Segura, Wally McCormick, a grandfather of four, and others created the Utah Minuteman Project.

Since then, local Minutemen have protested at banks for accepting the driving privilege card issued to illegal immigrants and at the state Capitol construction site for suspected use of illegal labor.

Utahns' attitudes on the Minutemen and their politics seem mixed, according to a recent Deseret Morning News/KSL-TV poll of 413 Utah households conducted by Dan Jones & Associates.