There is concern on the Ninth Floor about reported plans by a large group of civilians to patrol the Arizona-Mexico border for illegal immigration next month.

Nearly 500 volunteers have already joined the Minuteman Project, anointing themselves as civilian border agents, The Associated Press reports. They plan to patrol a 40-mile stretch of the southeast Arizona border throughout April when the tide of immigrants crossing the border with Mexico peaks.

“I have concerns about untrained persons coming to do a law enforcement function,” Governor Napolitano told reporters March 8. “People have a right to assemble, but they don’t have a right to take the law into their own hands.”

She said her office has been discussing the Minuteman Project with the Attorney General Terry Goddard and the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office, and the situation is being “heavily monitored.”

Group’s Leader: Not Vigilantes

Jim Gilchrist of Aliso, Calif., who has been recruiting Minutemen across the country, said the group is not a vigilante organization.

“We’ve been repeatedly accused of being people who are taking the law into our own hands,” he said. “That is an outright bogus statement. We are going down there to assist law enforcement,” he told AP.

Ms. Napolitano said the civilian patrols are “not going to solve our border problem. It requires the federal government to have a much more prominent role, and it requires the government of Mexico to be taking steps to curtail illegal immigration. None of those things are happening at the appropriate level, in my view.”

The ACLU said on March 9 it would have representatives at the border next month to keep an eye on Minutemen activities.

Mexico’s unwillingness to deal with human trafficking of illegal immigrants and other immigration issues, the governor said, was the reason she would not meet with seven Mexican senators, who visited Phoenix the week of March 7 to discuss the effects of Prop. 200, which Arizona voters passed last November.

The law requires all Arizonans to prove U.S. citizenship and state residency when registering to vote or applying for certain government benefits that are not mandated by the federal government.

The governor was asked why she would not meet with the Mexican senators.

“’Cause I don’t want to,” she replied. “I would love to have a discussion with them about steps that can be taken by Mexico as well as Arizona to stop the flow of illegal immigration, but Proposition 200 is the law.”

Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, who with Attorney General Terry Goddard was scheduled to meet with the Mexican officials, followed the governor’s lead and declined to see them. Mr. Goddard has agreed to meet with them March 11.

Of the 1.1 million illegal immigrants apprehended by the U.S. Border Patrol last year, 51 per cent crossed into the country at the Arizona border, the patrol said. The agency increased the number of agents in the Tucson sector to 2,100 from 1,700 over the past 18 months.

Human Trafficking Bill

In a related development, the Legislature has passed S1372, which writes human trafficking into the criminal code.

Under the bill, which now goes to the governor, it would be a class 4 felony to unlawfully obtain labor or services through coercion, and trafficking of persons for forced labor would be a class 2 felony.

The bill passed the Senate 29-0 and the House, 48-10.

“We have accomplished our goal to get a bill passed in the Legislature that hits hard at the criminal activities of ‘coyotes’ [Mexican human smugglers], said Sen. Tim Bee, R-30.

Sen. Marilyn Jarrett, R-18, 19, sponsor of the bill said human trafficking takes many forms. “A majority of these victims are women and underage girls who are exploited through sex trade, pornography and bride trafficking. For the sake of victims of these awful crimes, I cannot urge the governor strongly enough to sign this bill into law.” —