A volunteer militia that conducts its own unofficial patrols of the US-Mexico border started building a fence on Saturday aimed at stopping illegal immigrants from entering the US.
The civilian border patrol, called the "Minutemen," which advocates a tough approach to illegal immigration, held the ground-breaking ceremony in the southwestern state of Arizona on private land adjacent to Mexico.
The fence represents a first step in the militia's plans to construct fences and barriers along the 3,000km common border which it says the US government has failed to secure.
PHOTO: AFP
"Many have talked of building a secure fence between Mexico and the United States," the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps (MCDC) said on its Web site, www.minutemanhq.com.
"Now ... MCDC is taking action again and doing the job the federal government will not do," the organization said.
"We laid ground for the foundations and we're about to raise the fence," a spokeswoman for the MCDC, Connie Hair, said.
Several hundred people, including Minutemen and local politicians, attended the ceremony, she said.
The fence, some 2m high and 16km long, is an initial step toward a more sophisticated security system for which the Minutemen are attempting to raise funds nationwide.
The grassroots group adopted the name of the Minutemen, an elite militia that played a role in the 1775-1783 US war of independence from Britain.
It has been patrolling the US-Mexico border since April last year. The volunteers help the US Border Patrol to spot illegal immigrants, but are not authorized to arrest them.
Saturday's fence action occurred at the start of the long Memorial Day holiday weekend, when the US remembers its war dead.
And it came as the US Congress debates immigration reform, an emotional issue that has divided the nation.
The Senate approved a bill this week that would create 200,000 temporary work visas for foreigners who take low-skill jobs in the US, and double the number of US Border Patrol agents on the border with Mexico.
Most controversial is a provision that would allow many of the estimated 11.5 million foreign workers who entered the US illegally, many of them Mexican, to gain legal status.
The bill also includes funding for the construction of a 600km wall along the southern US border with Mexico.
Last December, the House of Representatives approved a tougher plan that would make unapproved US entry a federal crime.
Reconciliation of the Senate and House proposed reforms was expected to be difficult, just months ahead of the November mid-term legislative elections.
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
A Croatian town has come up with a novel solution to solve the issue of working parents when there are no public childcare spaces available: pay grandparents to do it. Samobor, near the capital, Zagreb, has become the first in the country to run a “Grandmother-Grandfather Service,” which pays 360 euros (US$400) a month per child. The scheme allows grandparents to top up their pension, but the authorities also hope it will boost family ties and tackle social isolation as the population ages. “The benefits are multiple,” Samobor Mayor Petra Skrobot told reporters. “Pensions are rather low and for parents it is sometimes
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
A documentary whose main subject, 25-year-old photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza weeks before it premiered at Cannes stunned viewers into silence at the festival on Thursday. As the cinema lights came back on, filmmaker Sepideh Farsi held up an image of the young Palestinian woman killed with younger siblings on April 16, and encouraged the audience to stand up and clap to pay tribute. “To kill a child, to kill a photographer is unacceptable,” Farsi said. “There are still children to save. It must be done fast,” the exiled Iranian filmmaker added. With Israel
RSS