Minuteman Project Activity

Border patrols planned for this weekend in New Mexico:

Members of the recently formed New Mexico Minutemen say they will be in Doña Ana and Luna counties this weekend.

"We will have people driving up and down Highway 9, between Santa Teresa and Columbus," said Clifford N. Alford of Organ, leader of the New Mexico group.

Meanwhile, the Minuteman Project is gaining steam across the country:

"Realistically, we're looking at 10,000-plus volunteers being deployed Oct. 1st on the southern and northern borders," said Chris Simcox, a chief organizer for the Arizona Minuteman Project and founder of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, Inc.

The Arizona Minuteman Project made headlines in April for its month-long patrol along a 23-mile stretch of the Arizona-Mexico border. The activity consisted primarily of volunteers sitting in lawn chairs with binoculars and reporting unauthorized border crossing attempts or other illegal activity to the U.S. Border Patrol.

Headlines from the Arizona event gave the group momentum, and turned what some first believed to be nothing more than a publicity stunt into a national movement. The group has since hired lawyers, reorganized into separate corporations, filed to legally protect the name "Minuteman Project," hired a Washington-based media consultant and started an aggressive fund raising campaign. And, representatives of the group, have been to Washington to lobby Congress and relate the lessons learned from their time on the border.

UPDATE: Forgot to provide the link for the last quote. Fixed now.