CAMPO, Calif.—About 150 progressive protesters confronted a small group of 'Border Watch' vigilantes July 16 as the 'minutemen' made their first appearance in California.
Like their cohorts in Arizona, the California minutemen believe the U.S. Border Patrol is ineffective in preventing illegal crossings of the Mexico/U.S. border.
They promise to monitor the fence and help the Border Patrol catch more undocumented crossers. Their current campaign runs until Aug. 7.
The progressive demonstrators marched throughout the small town located in the desert 50 miles east of San Diego and stopped at the Veterans of Foreign Wars hall to hurl invectives at the people present there for allegedly supporting the minutemen.
'Racists go home,' the group chanted. 'We're not going to tolerate this kind of racist behavior from these vigilante groups,' said one marcher.
The protesters set up a campsite at the end of a dirt road 50 yards from the border fence and said they planned to remain there until July 19.
'We came here, we rallied, we showed them we're serious, we showed them they can't get away with this kind of bullshit,' said a group spokesmen.
Campo is less than a mile from the border and home to a large Border Patrol headquarters.
www.borderwatch.us/camp.htm
deletetheborder.org/