Civilians to watch border

A Holladay grandfather believes illegal immigration is an imminent threat to national security, and he's ready to do his part to close the nation's border.

He's one of 13 people from Utah who have signed up to travel nearly 850 miles to Tombstone, Ariz., next month to join about 1,000 Minuteman Project volunteers from around the country. The idea is to create a civilian border patrol, which is scheduled all month, beginning Friday, and prove to Washington policymakers that securing the nation's border is possible.

Their mission: Watch from a distance and call the Border Patrol to report illegal immigrants.

"We're putting our lives on the line to go down there," said Wally, who asked to be identified only by his first name because of threats against the Minuteman Project.

Wally and others in the group believe they're not just on the lookout for migrant workers. They believe many border crossers are drug dealers, violent criminals or terrorists.

However, immigrant rights groups say the project is simply a way to scapegoat people who are looking for work or reunification with their families.

"The intent is really to make it more dangerous, more deadly," said Arnoldo Garcia of the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. Immigrants "are crossing a desert region, compared to climbing Mount Everest."

More than 200 people died crossing the Arizona border last year, according to an online database created by the Tucson-based Arizona Daily Star newspaper.

Civil rights groups, leery of violence, will be monitoring the project; Mexican officials have called the Minuteman Project a sign of a rising extreme anti-immigrant attitude.

But Wally, a retired window washer, and the other Utah minutemen don't think of themselves as extremists or vigilantes.

"We're not warriors," Wally said, adding that each group of volunteers is encouraged to carry a first-aid kit and extra water to help illegal immigrants in need.

"It's about national security," said Alex Segura, another minuteman and board member of Utahns for Immigration Reform and Enforcement (UFIRE).

"The government is failing to do its job," Segura said. "The citizens need to come out."

The group praises efforts by Border Patrol agents but believes Washington has done little to help them. Segura believes it's ironic that President George W. Bush has dedicated so many troops and funds to the Iraq war but has left the nation's borders open.

Last year, the Tucson Border Patrol office, with a staff of 2,000, apprehended 491,771 people along the 261 miles of Arizona's border with Mexico, said Salvador Zamora, national Border Patrol spokesman.