A handful of Republican lawmakers who traveled to Tombstone on April 1 to lend their support to the Minuteman Project volunteers said the experience was a positive one.

It was important, one legislator said, to encourage the volunteers personally.

“We can’t just give them lip service,” said Rep. Russell Pearce, R-18. “I felt we needed to make that trip down there and show our undying support for these patriots. They are the heroes.”

A pair of Democrats opposing the project, in which citizens from across the country volunteered to patrol the Arizona-Mexico border in search of people trying to illegally enter the state, also made the trek to back large groups of protesters.

Rep. Ted Downing, D-28, who described himself as a descendant of a soldier in the American Revolutionary War, said it is laughable that the volunteers co-opted the name this country’s first fighters gave themselves.

“Believe me, these are not the Minutemen,” he said. “They were thinner, younger and probably had a better purpose.”

Rep. Chuck Gray, R-19, said witnessing the project firsthand bolstered his support for the Minuteman Project and what the volunteers were doing.

“I came to understand the sincerity of those Minutemen, just trying to do the right thing and protect our borders in a way that’s not violent but yet encourages the federal government through this kind of pressure to actually come down and do their responsibility,” he said.

Project Draws Onlookers, Tourists

For Rep. Andy Biggs, R-22, Tombstone was the ideal place to people watch: in addition to the 400 or 500 Minutemen — many who were carrying side arms — there were hundreds of protesters, costumed performers who work in Tombstone as Wild West re-enactors, motorcycle clubs and tourists.

Despite the eclectic groups of people, many who were passionate about being there and/or armed, no violence was reported by local law enforcement agencies. Mr. Biggs said the Minuteman orientation, which he attended, emphasized the negative effects a violent incident would have.

“They all stressed, ‘Look, we don’t want any confrontations, we want to make sure we’re doing this peacefully since we’re trying to bring attention to the border problem, we’re not trying to solve the border problem,’” he said.

Rep. Ben Miranda, D-16, said he initially feared the possibility of violence, but after seeing the Minuteman Project in person, he believes there is little chance of such an incident.

“I think there’s more possibility of one vigilante stepping on a cactus and injuring himself,” he said, laughing.

Lawmaker Sees Silver Lining

Although he was opposed to the effort, Mr. Miranda said there was a silver lining to the project, namely that it has drawn international attention to the border problems plaguing Arizona. He was also pleased at the resistance the business community has expressed toward the project.

“What I was pleasantly surprised with is that businesses down there heed the value of a constant, capable, accessible workforce and businesses were complaining as much about the problems associated with limiting access to this labor source and also about the tragedy along the border,” Mr. Miranda said.

Sen. Jack Harper, R-4, another of the Republicans who made the drive south to the border area, said bringing the problem to the national forefront was exactly the point.

“The feds are watching the Minutemen more than the illegals,” he said. “My hope is we’ll do a better job of sealing off our border in Arizona. The feds are on the verge of stepping up.”

Although the federal government recently authorized the transfer of nearly 500 border patrol officers and 23 surveillance aircraft to the Arizona border, some say that will not have much of a dent.

“Frankly, it’s going to take an exorbitant amount of new agents to close that border effectively,” Mr. Miranda said. “That number is way over 1,000.”

Mr. Pearce, who has sponsored several measures to limit the social services available to those in the country illegally, including Proposition 200 last November, said the federal government’s claims that there is not enough money to properly secure the border is hogwash.

“For them to sit there and tell us that they don’t have the resources is just a bold-faced lie,” he said. “We have the ability, we have the resources, we have the technology — what we don’t have is the political courage or the dignity to keep our oath of office to protect America from this invasion.”

In addition to Mr. Biggs, Mr. Gray, Mr. Harper and Mr. Pearce, Rep. Trish Groe, R-3, Sen. Karen Johnson, R-18, and Sen. Thayer Verschoor, R-22, also traveled to Tombstone, as did former GOP legislators Rusty Bowers and Randy Graf.

Capping off the weekend, as the Republicans drove back to the Valley — all except Mr. Graf traveled to southern Arizona together — a car accident caused traffic to come to a halt about a dozen miles outside of Tombstone. As the lawmakers waited for traffic to clear, they saw a group of what appeared to be immigrants emerge from the desert, preparing to cross the highway.

“We should have stopped,” Ms. Johnson said. —