Photo: Philip Meeks

In a dramatic turnabout, the Department of Homeland Security reversed a positon by Robert C. Bonner, commissioner of the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, that would have lent support to the notion that civilian vigilante groups are welcome and indeed needed along the border.

Bonner, who had just been quoted in the media a couple of days before the reversal, had indicated that "civilian" groups might have a place along the border.

Bonner said that his agency is exploring ways to get volunteers to become involved in creating ''something akin to a Border Patrol auxiliary''. This is a dramitic shift in perception that may have been influenced by the Minuteman campaign this spring along the Arizona-Mexico border.

However, in an announcement from the Homeland Security spokesman, it was made clear that there would be no support for militia or vigilantes. "There are currently no plans by the Department of Homeland Security to use civilian volunteers to patrol the border," said the spokesman, Brian J. Roehrkasse. "That job should continue to be done by the highly trained, professional law enforcement officials."

El Paso Sheriff's Department officials had met with a group of "Minutemen" members in a private meeting. According to the Sheriff's Department the members were told to observe all laws and to call 911 if there was any chance of a violent exchange occuring. It was not certain if this group of volunteers wee affiliated with any othe group or the main group in Arizona, the Minutement Civil Defense Corp, as they call themselves.

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Editor, Upper Valley Beacon

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