IS IT WORKING?

While it is too early to tell, the Minuteman Project, made up of volunteers, who will (formally) begin extensive patrols along the Mexican border is off to a good start as they "rescue ill alien", according to an article by Jerry Seper of the THE WASHINGTON TIMES.

From the Nation/Politics section

PALOMINAS, Ariz. -- Minuteman Project volunteers, during limited weekend patrols along the U.S.-Mexico border here, rescued a tired and thirsty Mexican who had become separated from a group trying to illegally enter the United States.

Was he beaten, incarcerated, held captive, shot, murdered, or had his civil rights violated in any way by the Minutemen? No..........

The unidentified man was described as dehydrated and emaciated. He was turned over by volunteers to U.S. Border Patrol officials and later was returned to Mexico.

Was this the only encounter over the past weekend with illegal aliens? Was there any violent confrontations that critics (such as the ACLU and human rights organizations) of the project predicted would happen? No.............

It was one of two weekend encounters by Minuteman volunteers with illegal aliens, neither of which resulted in the violent confrontation predicted by some civil liberties and human rights organizations.

In the second encounter, the volunteers caught sight of 18 illegal aliens entering the United States and called the Border Patrol, which acted quickly and took the aliens into custody.

Ray Ybarra, spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in Arizona, said there had been no incidents of violence or suspected abuse of the aliens during limited patrols by the volunteers Saturday and yesterday.

Mr. Ybarra, who manned a seven-person ACLU observation site on the border south of Bisbee -- within shouting distance of two Minuteman patrol posts -- said "everything was going very well."

"We're here to protect the civil rights of everyone involved and, so far, everything has gone very nicely," he told The Washington Times.

According to the story, several people had been seen crouching together south of the U.S. border presumably stymied by the presence of the Minuteman volunteers.

Volunteers from the Minutemen Project confirmed that they saw two separate groups, totaling approximately 2 dozen people, turning back when they saw the Minuteman patrols.