By Michael Marizco
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
PALOMINAS - As a Black Hawk helicopter flew along the border, five members of the Civil Homeland Defense gathered east of the San Pedro River Saturday evening prepared to spend the night apprehending illegal entrants.
During the next six hours, the members of the Tombstone militia made no arrests or contacts while patrolling the hills of Bureau of Land Management ranch land near Naco.
The citizens group has been patrolling the border area looking for illegal entrants. When it comes across crossers, it holds them for the U.S. Border Patrol. The presence of armed civilians in Southern Arizona has concerned some government officials and immigrant-rights groups.
The BLM land is separated from Mexico by a fence of falling and twisted barbed wire and is notorious for illegal crossings, the militia says. But numerous gullies covered with tall grass make it nearly impossible for five people to find anything at night, even with a partial moon.
Using night-vision goggles, radios and flashlights, some members wore camouflage while others wore bulletproof vests. All carried knives and handguns.
Militia volunteer Craig Howard carries two pistols in holsters. They're only for defense, he says, and neither he nor any of the others has drawn a weapon on illegal border crossers yet, though "killing one or two Mexicans would sure stop immigration around here," he said with a laugh.
Howard dismissed the Black Hawk, usually flown along the border by the U.S. Customs Service, as it disappeared in the fading light. "What good are they? What can you see from 1,000 feet up at 120 miles an hour?"
His feelings on the helicopter sum up his irritation with border enforcement. He says the Border Patrol will take an hour to respond to apprehensions the militia makes. "Then they spend more time telling us how the moment these illegals come across, they have the rights of any Americans."
The group split into two teams, with one man on the hill serving as a scout. When they have more people on patrol, two or three will watch from the hills while six others set themselves up in ravines and washes, waiting to "ambush" illegal entrants, said militia volunteer Ed Kolb. They surprise crossers with a flood of lights, tell them to sit and offer them water while radioing the Border Patrol, Kolb said.
"Their normal procedure is to drive to Naco, then make their way across to areas like these," Kolb said, referring to illegal entries east of the San Pedro River. "Then they either hide in the washes overnight or they walk the trails north to the highway."
Walking through a gully, he stopped to slash open a half-full water bottle that has been left. He said he does this to make a crosser's trip as difficult as possible and because a used bottle of water sitting in the heat might be dangerous for someone to drink.
He's aware of views that groups of armed civilians carrying on patrols will lead to problems. But it's only the people in cities who hold that attitude, he said.
Pointing at the plastic bottles, socks, paper and other trash caught in the grass, Kolb said: "The people who live here have to live with it. How would people living in Tucson like putting up with that?"
The militia's patrols sometimes end like this one, with no entrants detained, Howard said. Kolb estimates he's captured 50 illegal entrants this year. "It's gotten to be a sick hobby," he said. "But it's just gotten to me."
* Contact reporter Michael Marizco at 573-4213 or at mmarizco@azstarnet.com.