The ACLU of Arizona will be training individuals as legal observers to document the activities of Minutemen volunteers as they visit Cochise County, Arizona in April. Legal Observers will be following these private citizens as they attempt to enforce federal immigration law.

'The purpose of legal observes is to deter abuses, document the actions of these individuals, and highlight the real tragedies that occur along the border," said Ira Glasser Racial Justice Fellow Ray Ybarra. 'Perhaps someday we will live in a society where no human being will have to face death and hatred in pursuit of work that this country requires, but until that day comes the experiences of undocumented immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico Border needs to be highlighted in order to demonstrate the fact that this is one of the grossest human rights violations in the history of the United States. Hundreds of people die annually in the desert and the American public chooses to turn a blind-eye."

The activities of the current vigilantes and these new volunteers constitutes unlawful imprisonment, but unfortunately, the Cochise County Sheriff chooses to attend the meetings of these groups to pat them on the back. (see attached letter to County Sheriff) To this date he has yet to arrest any private citizens for unlawfully detaining or abusing migrants despite a vast amount of evidence that these incidents have occurred.

It is for this reason that the ACLU of Arizona will have lawyers on stand-by ready to file civil cases against these vigilantes. 'The vigilantes are symbolic of the fear and misunderstanding that exists in our society. While overcoming this attitude is the ultimate challenge that we as a society must strive for, we can not sit idly be while those who are motivated by fear and misunderstanding attempt to take out their frustrations on a group of individuals who are simply in search of a better life," said Ybarra. 'These individuals may very well likely come to our state as 'vigilantes' and end up leaving as a 'defendant'."

Relates Links:
3/7: Letter from ACLU of Arizona
http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/Documents/AZ/SheriffDeverLetter.pdf

3/4: Civil suits against Barnetts
http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/Documents/AZ/ImmRights-AZ-BarnettSuit-03-04-05%5B1%5D.wpd.pdf

March 8, 2005 % 9% 9% 9
Contact: Ray Ybarra, 520-364-1188