"We Can't Man, Those F***ers are Everywhere!"

The Minuteman Project, a large-scale volunteer neighborhood watch program along 22-23 miles of the U.S./Mexican border, has completed over two full weeks in operation.

The results so far have been disappointing... at least to the bulk of the MSM/DNC and the ACLU, along with illegal immigration advocacy groups such as the White House and Congress.

All of these groups claimed there would be widespread vigilantism by overzealous volunteers, which has not occurred. These groups also claimed there would be potentially violent confrontations with both law enforcement and illegals, none of which has happened since the project started March 30 (one claim was made, and dismissed by local law enforcement).

In fact, the arrest of illegals along the section of border patrolled by the MMP has dropped from approximately 1,000 a day to less than 20 in the past week according to front line border control officers, and the MMP is claiming 268 arrests as the result of watchful volunteers calling the border patrol. CNN is reporting potentially higher numbers, citing the Border Patrol as responding to 317 calls from the Naco and Douglas area netting 846 arrests, though they will not say which of these calls and arrests were made as a result of volunteer activity.

The drop in attempted illegal border crossings and number of volunteer-related apprehensions speaks volumes of the success of the MinuteMan Project, but perhaps the best testimony so far was this two-way radio conversation in Spanish overheard by MMP volunteers between drug dealers in the mountains near Sierra Vista, AZ:

"We've got to get down, to get our loads down!" [Meaning drug loads]
Reply: "We can't, man - those f***ers are everywhere!".

Obviously, Minuteman Project volunteers are not only succeeding in helping an underappreciated and underfunded Border Patrol, but a besieged Drug Enforcement Agency as well.

The tone of media coverage as shifted markedly since the project began, as well. In the days leading up to the start of the volunteer effort, much of the media coverage resembled this two weeks out-of date article crying out against vigilante justice, interference, and potential racism. This view, once dominate in the media, is increasingly giving way to comments such as these:

"Hundreds of Minuteman Project volunteers have done what the president has refused to do: They have helped to effectively halt illegal crossings in a 23-mile section of the Arizona-Mexico border. Volunteers have shown how easy it would be for the U.S. government to do the same." --USA Today

"The chairman of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus yesterday declared the 'Minuteman Project' border vigil a success and invited its organizers to Washington next week to meet with members of Congress." --Washington Times

"The controversy surrounding the Minuteman Project is a poorly crafted red herring.

"The simple, empirical reality is the Minuteman Project has been hugely successful. Illegal border crossings along the stretch of Arizona/Mexico border have virtually been stopped." --American Daily

The Minuteman Project has been so successful in fact, that the Minuteman Project has been swamped with applications by more volunteers than they can handle, forcing them for the time being to encourage volunteers toward similar organizations while the volunteers consider expanding to other areas in border states.

A clueless President Bush, instead of taking steps to strengthen the Border Patrol, instead has ordered a review of a simple requirement to require passports that might impede legal travel across out nation's borders.

Amazingly, he and most other politicians can't seem to be bothered to address illegal travel.

That is certain to change, as illegal immigration is rapidly turning into a major campaign issue for the 2006 mid-term elections. Illegal immigration and the unwarranted amnesty of illegal aliens are emerging, defining issues where voters may very well be willing to cross party lines to regain control of the border and their nation. Members of the House and Senate would be wise to heed their constituents if they hope to remain in office.