TUCSON, April 21 (UPI) -- An Arizona militia says it wants to form a paramilitary squad with permission to go after smugglers and other suspected criminals along the border with Mexico.
The Arizona Daily Star in Tucson reported Wednesday that Cochise County Militia founder Bill Davis said the private military unit would be comprised of volunteers who would patrol private property and, if permitted, public lands.
Davis told the newspaper via e-mail the armed civilians would patrol at the behest of landowners, "providing security & trespasser interdiction."
"We comply with any law possible and then some," the Daily Star quoted Davis as saying. "But we're not about to step aside anymore and let them through. We're going to turn them around and send them back scared."
The issue of illegal immigration and criminal enterprises along southern Arizona's border with Mexico has been a hot-button issue for years. It got even hotter recently with the March 27 slaying of rancher Robert Krentz. Investigators think his killer fled into Mexico.
A bill has been introduced in the state Legislature that would pay the Cochise County Sheriff's Department $200,000 to form and equip a volunteer border-security force.
Immigrant-rights activist Jennifer Allen of the Border Action Network in Tucson expressed concern about the qualifications of militia members to carry out their task.
"People would run the risk, on the lighter end, of being illegally detained," she said. "On a more extreme end, what's to stop and prevent these individuals from using violence and force unnecessarily?"
Davis said his group would be mostly combat veterans.
"They all have confirmed kills, from Vietnam or later on," he said. "They're not wannabes who go out and buy a set of camos (camouflage clothing) and go out in the woods with a rifle."
