jen lawhorne (photos by aymara) | 19.09.2005 23:51

Popular resistance thwarts Friends of the Border Patrol's agenda.

marching down the streets of calexico

anarchists at the border

a community divided

messages on the wall

anti-cazamigrante puppy

meeting at the border was the best part of the day

climbing this pinche border

"knock down the borders"

walls are not forever

and we have to start somewhere

hope and this temporary reality

into the eyes of my other self

aztlan presente

and we might as well play while we're here

rally in the park

police making their own borders after an arrest

undercover cops from the crowd... they blended in so well...

protester face off with cops and a sketchy journalist

preparing for the midnight cazamigrante run

but all remained quiet and peaceful in the light of the full moon

The latest wave of border vigilantism didn’t find any friends in the border town of Calexico. Hundreds of people turned out Saturday in a planned rally and march to unleash a resounding unwelcome to Friends of the Border Patrol, which had planned to set up post to harass border crossers near the town this past weekend.

Choosing to place themselves in this majority Latino community might not have been the best strategy for FBP. The Calexico Chamber of Commerce lined the streets with signs announcing, ”Minuto Men, Your Minute’s Up, Go Home” referring to FBP’s kin, the Minutemen.

“The people of Calexico are really upset with the vigilantes, so we organized this march to reject them.” said march organizer Marcos Ramirez. He added that he believed 98 percent of the people in Calexico were against the FBP. People became aware of the FBP’s plans after a month of outreach and an anti-FBP media campaign.

After a late afternoon rally, three hundred people marched along Calexico’s main business thoroughfare that parallels the U.S.-Mexico border to the 30-foot steel fence erected to divide the land. Hailing people from San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Oregon and even Virginia, the demonstration’s diversity showed signs of a burgeoning movement against the border.

Chanting, “Queremos un mundo sin fronteras, (We want a world without borders) Ya basta, aplasta la frontera (Enough already, smash the border) and Vigilantes jamas, que crucen miles mas (Vigilantes no more, may thousands more cross),” the protest encountered approval from the dozens of people who lined the streets as the march passed.

Upon its arrival to the border fence, the march was met on the other side of the fence by a group of 75 Mexicans gathered in solidarity with the protest. Together the protesters banged on the fence, chanting in unison while lobbing a volleyball back and forth over the high barricade. A lone anarco-punk climbed atop the fence from the Mexico side to unfurl an anarchist banner to the cheers from people below. Following his cue, another protested straddled the fence, hanging a white-hooded effigy of a border vigilante.

Maria Velasquez from Los Angeles said it was not her first time protesting border vigilantes. “We came to support our Mexican countrypeople who are targeted by these racists (the Friends of the Border Patrol),” she said. “We are going to keep on fighting until they are off the border.”

“We want a free border for everyone,” said Carmen Lua from Calexico. “Mexico doesn’t have any work so people come here to find work, what’s wrong with that?”


The protest wrapped up at a Calexico park with a rally and traditional Aztec dance.

“These migrant hunters have declared a war against our community, but before there were migrant hunters there was the Border Patrol and before that there was the terrorist government that to this day is robbing from us and spitting in the faces of the workers and poor of the world,” said Ruth Vela, a San Diego student organizer, during the rally.

The mood of the protest intensified after a march participant was arrested for allegedly writing graffiti in a park bathroom. A stand-off ensued between militant elements of the march that demanded the freedom of the detainee and two rows of assembled cops. The arrested individual was eventually charged and released.

The protest then moved to the Calexico Armory, where a camp was set up to monitor the FBP’s activities. Different affinity groups set out in the late night to discover any FBP participants. Little activity was found, however, with the exception of two individuals sitting in lawn chairs near a truck who fired a rifle into the air when approached by vigilante monitors. Other FBP monitors were subsequently surrounded by Border Patrol agents and harassed. Scant other activity was reported for that and the following night.

Andy Ramirez, founder of the FBP, was later quoted in mainstream media outlets for having to postpone FBP activities. In the San Diego Gate, he said police advised him to hold off because of a confrontation with protesters during an FBP registration period at the Scottish Rite Temple early Saturday morning. He stated that the FBP had only managed to register 25 participants and that because of interaction with protesters that FBP’s activities might have to go underground.

Ramirez’s change of plans was counted as a victory. “Our resistance has made it much more difficult for racist vigilantes to operate above ground,” said Rich Macgurn of the O.R.G.A.N.I.C. collective, part of the Gente Unida coalition against the border vigilantes. “They’ve been relegated to obscurity.”