Minutemen Play on Fears and Fantasies

"The irony is The Minutemen have encountered very few migrants over the last several days mostly because the Mexican army has been deployed on the southern part of the border, in the Naco area—one of the areas The Minutemen are hellbent on getting closed—and telling migrants ‘Don’t cross here. You’re about to encounter a bunch of crazy redneck vigilantes,’ and apparently have been very successful in temporarily stemming the flow.

"The political reality is most of the Republican Party makes its capital on immigrant bashing and that goes far back in Republican history. There’s a vested interest in just about everybody in this country in keeping things the way they are because it keeps prices of produce down, keeps service sector prices down. So much of our economy, in terms of goods and services, is based on undocumented labor and the minute we do the right thing and legalize people and make sure employers are paying a living wage and medical insurance, all those prices start to rise.