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Of Bradley County Tn.


JUNE  2006

                            The People News, a free newspaper serving Cleveland and Bradley County Tn.

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Pettus Read

US Border Patrol Spying For Mexico

by Pete Edwards
Compiled from a report by Sara Carter of the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin in Ontario, California.


While the Minutemen civilian patrols are keeping an eye out for illegal border crossers, one of our own government agencies, the U.S. Border Patrol, is keeping an eye on the Minutemen and telling the Mexican government where they are.

There are three documents appearing on the Web site of the Mexican Secretary of Foreign Relations, which say that the U.S. Border Patrol is notifying the Mexican government as to the location of Minutemen and other civilian border patrol groups.

At first the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency refuted the Daily Bulletin. The agency stated, "Today's

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report by the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin that the U.S. is tipping Mexico to Minutemen patrols is inaccurate." Then a U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman confirmed the notification process, describing it as a standard procedure meant to reassure the Mexican government that migrants' rights are being observed. Later they once again denied any cooperation.

James Gilchrist and Chris Simcox, founders of the Minutemen, along with T.J. Bonner President of the National Border Patrol Council) and Andy Ramirez (Friends of the Border Patrol) say that the Carter story is only the tip of the iceberg.

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Simcox said, "It is simply unbelievable that our own government agency is sending intelligence to another country - a nation where corruption runs rampant and the information could be getting into the hands of criminal cartels. They are basically endangering the lives of American people. It is the equivalent of giving the enemy your battle plan in the midst of a war."

Ramirez says that for safety reasons he does "not disclose vital information and yet there it is! Right on the Mexican government's Web site and our government gave it to them!"

"Last year an internal memo notified all agents not to give credit to Minuteman volunteers or others who call in sightings of illegal aliens," said one agent, who spoke on the condition he not be identified. "We were told to list it as a citizen call and leave it at that. Many times, we were told not to go out to Minuteman calls."

Connie Hair of the Media Minutemen Headquarters reports that Scott James, a former Tucson Border Patrol agent, resigned after eight years of service, citing a lack of support by the Department of Homeland Security. He said, "U.S. Border Patrol officials provided office space inside their headquarters to Mexican consulate officials, allowed the consulate to dictate the agent's activities and gave the consulate information as to ongoing investigations."

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman said "This [the sharing of

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Would you support an inquiry into why details of U.S. Border Patrol operations are being supplied to the Mexican government.

information] simply makes two basic statements -- that we will not allow any lawlessness of any type, and that if an alien is encountered by a Minuteman or arrested by the Minuteman, then we will allow that government to interview the person."

Minuteman members were not so sanguine about the arrangement, however, saying that reporting their location to Mexican officials nullifies their effectiveness along the border and could endanger their lives.

"Now we know why it seemed like Mexican officials knew where we were all the time," said Chris Simcox, founder of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps. "It's unbelievable that our own government agency is sending intelligence to another country.

It is reported that officials with the Mexican consulate in Washington, D.C., could not be reached for comment.

Information obtained include an August 2005 document titled "Third Report on the Activities of Vigilantes," posted on Mexico's Secretary of Foreign Relations Web site, suggesting U.S. officials were giving out more details than required by the Vienna Convention. Part of the information included reports on activities in the interior of the U.S. in Illinois, Nevada, Utah, Massachusetts and Tennessee.

Meanwhile, with all this evidence, the new statement by the Border Patrol officially denies any such cooperative activity with the Mexican government, giving no explanation as to why the U.S. Border Patrol initially confirmed its actions in the earlier report as a "cooperative agreement" with Mexico. Mexico's official perception of our civilian groups is that they are vigilantes a term the Border Patrol has used.

TJ Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, a union representing more than 10,000 Border Patrol agents, said agents have complained for years about the Mexican consulate's influence over the agency.

"It worries me (that the Mexican government) seems to be unduly influencing our enforcement policies. That's not a legitimate role for any foreign nation," Bonner said, though he added, "It doesn't surprise me."

Border Patrol agents interviewed by the Daily Bulletin said they have been asked to report to sector headquarters the location of all civilian volunteer groups, but to not file the groups' names in reports if they spot illegal immigrants.

An internal memo also mentions locations of field operations of Friends of the Border Patrol, which patrolled the San Diego sector from June to November 2005. Mexican officials had access to the exact location of the group founded by Andy Ramirez, which ran its patrols from the Rough Acre Ranch, a private property in McCain Valley.

Ramirez said that for safety reasons, he disclosed the location of his ranch patrol only to San Diego Border Patrol and law enforcement officials. The group did not apprehend or spot any undocumented migrants in that area.

"We did not release this information ... to the media or anyone else," Ramirez said. "We didn't want to publicize that information. But there it is, right on the Mexican government's Web site, and our government gave it to them."

Chris Simcox said "It now appears the U.S. government has taken steps to ensure that the open border status quo is maintained. Even if we take the latest statement from the Border Patrol denying involvement as truth, at best the report on the Mexican Consulate Web site exposes widespread espionage and systematic spying against free, law-abiding American citizens on the part of the Mexican government - with or without U.S. government assistance."
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