Group gets ACLU training for Minuteman activities
 
 
(Note: Language Deception rules the day in this. Those simply reporting on illegal border activities continue to be falsely dubbed vigilantes and the insinuation that these patriots are violent is also FALSE.)
 

September 20, 2005 
 

By Sara Ines Calderon sicalderon@brownsvilleherald.com
 
The Brownsville Herald
 
Brownsville, Texas
 
 
 
 
 
Ray Ybarra and a half-dozen volunteers gathered Monday evening to take part in a legal observer training in wake of the introduction of the Minuteman in South Texas.
 
The training was given by Ybarra, of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in anticipation of the arrival of the Minuteman citizen border patrol group. The organization trained 150 legal observers in April to watch over the Minuteman operation in Arizona.
 
Today, they were in Cameron Park, one of Texas’ poorest and largest colonias. 
 
“We are non-confrontational, non-violent because we want to send the message that the problem is bigger than individual vigilantes,” Ybarra said, referring to the Minuteman and other such groups.
 
The training was held in Cameron Park and consisted of a 30-minute video and an overview of the legal observer guidelines set up by the ACLU.
 
Elizabeth Garcнa, one of the organizers of the White Ribbon Campaign for Prayer and Dialogue against the Minuteman project out of Cameron Park’s San Felipe de Jesus Church, helped organize the legal observer training.
 
“We need to educate the community about the minutemen,” she said, “I think it’s important to have a little bit of background because a lot of people don't understand what they are all about.”
 
The video shown was done by Ybarra, and titled “Undocumented: The Other Side of the Minuteman Project.”
 
The video addressed the core issues of the current surge in immigration -- including the North American Free Trade Agreement and the militarization of the border -- and also interviewed Minuteman participants, local politicians, ACLU representatives and residents of Douglas, Arizona, where the Minuteman first operated.
 
The video footage showed immigrants being detained by Minuteman volunteers, donning Confederate flags and guns. The video also has interviews with one of the group’s founders, Chris Simcox.
 
Legal observers will, ideally, meticulously document the Minuteman group and everything they do with the aim to prevent violence against and violation of civil rights of any immigrants the patrol group may encounter.
 
“Our presence will keep them from beating on anybody or from doing anything stupid,” Ybarra said.
 
 
Copyright 2005, The Brownsville Herald.