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ALOMINAS, Ariz. -- Minuteman Project organizers yesterday declared victory after shutting down a 20-mile stretch of the Arizona border to illegal aliens, but promised to rally "tens of thousands" of new volunteers for a blockade this fall on the U.S.-Mexico border from California to Texas.
"We did in our first 10 days what the federal government and Congress couldn't do over the past 10 years," Minuteman founder James T. Gilchrist told a cheering crowd of 100 volunteers gathered at a meeting in the organization's guarded base camp mess hall.
"This has been a successful and bloodless effort, proving without a doubt that the physical presence of additional bodies along the border deters illegal immigration," he said.
Mr. Gilchrist noted that fewer than 5,000 illegal aliens will be apprehended this month by the U.S. Border Patrol in the Minuteman Project's 20-mile patrol area compared with 64,000 in April 2004 and 73,000 in April 2003.
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