American Border Patrol

LEADER: Glenn Spencer

YEAR ESTABLISHED OR BECAME ACTIVE: 1992

ESTIMATED SIZE: Unknown, though some reports suggest the number to be less than 50

USUAL AREA OF OPERATION: California, Arizona (border counties)

OVERVIEW

Many Americans are concerned about the flow of illegal immigrants across the border with Mexico into the southwestern United States, especially those who live in that region of the country. American Border Patrol (ABP) is one of a number of groups that believe private citizens are justified in taking the law into their own hands and capturing illegal immigrants themselves. The focus of ABP's efforts appears to be on propaganda and supporting the efforts of other vigilante groups that patrol regions near Mexico rather than engaging in its own patrols. It maintains a website, broadcasts radio programs, and engages in border surveillance.

The ABP was officially founded by Glenn Spencer after he moved from California to Arizona in 2000. However, Spencer already had a history as a leader of anti-immigration groups with essentially the same goals as American Border Patrol. Although Spencer maintains that these groups—American Patrol and Voices of Citizens Together—are separate organizations, they can also be seen as the same organization operating under different names, and indeed they are often used interchangeably by the media.

HISTORY

Glen Spencer claims to have formed the anti-immigration extremist group Voices of Citizens Together (VCT), the group that would become ABP, in California in 1992. The VCT and its associated radio programs and newletters (called American Patrol) first came to the attention of the media with its promotion of California's controversial Proposition 187. Proposition 187 was designed to enhance the powers of California law enforcement agents to capture illegal immmigrants and to deny public benefits, such as education and medical care, to people who could not prove they were legal residents of the United States. The proposition targeted students of Latin American descent in particular.

A number of individuals of Latin American ethnicity raised an objection to Proposition 187 and carried out rallies on the streets of California contesting the proposition. According to media reports, they were joined in their cause by prominent activists of Latin American heritage, parents as well as teachers, who thought that the proposition was unjust. The VCT and other groups concerned about the growing population of ethnically Latin American illegal immigrants in California supported the proposition. They were successful, in that Proposition 187 was passed by the people and became law in 1994. However it was immediately challenged in court, where it was found to be unconstitutional. The appeals process dragged on for years, ending in 1998 when Gray Davis, and opponent of Proposition 187 was elected governor. Spencer and his supporters believe that Proposition 187 was constitutional and that Davis betrayed the will of the people of California by not appealing the case to the Supreme Court.

KEY EVENTS

1992:

Voices of Citizens Together is founded in California by Glenn Spencer.

1994:

VCT supports the passage of the controversial Proposition 187.

2000:

Glenn Spencer moves to Arizona and renames his group American Border Patrol.

Angered by the fate of Proposition 187, VCT stepped up its efforts and campaign against Mexican immigrants. In 1998, VCT claimed that it was growing faster than ever. According to VCT proclamations, the organization, as of the early 2000s, received the patronage of a huge number of citizens. The group also claimed that, at the time, more than 3,000 people subscribed to the American Patrol newsletter. Other analysts, such as the Southern Poverty Law Center, believe that the group was in decline and that this is why Spencer decided to relocate to Cochise County, Arizona in 2002 and establish a "new" group with much the same goals as the VCT, the American Border Patrol. Arizona experienced a rise in illegal immigration in the early 2000s and many other anti-immigration groups were active in the area. Since Spencer's arrival in Arizona the ABP has continued to lobby for stronger enforcement of anti-immigration laws and to warn those who will listen about the perils of illegal immigration. It also operates drone aircraft that it uses to document illegal border crossings.

PHILOSOPHY AND TACTICS

The self-proclaimed leader of the VCT/American Patrol, Glenn Spencer has often expressed his strong sentiments against the existing anti-immigration laws in the United States, as well as against the government's stance on this issue. Glenn Spencer and other members of the ABP and its related groups have allegedly organized a number of operations—some of them violent in nature—to stop illegal immigration.

The ABP maintains a web site in which anti-immigration (and more specifically, anti-Mexican) views are expressed. The organization's radio program, American Patrol, routinely airs interviews of anti-immigrant individuals with racist mindsets. The organization, allegedly, strongly supports the viewpoints and philosophies of several extremist organizations with similar ideologies, including members of the racially prejudiced Council of Conservative Citizens. Glenn Spencer claims that he supports (and is supported by) the Jewish extremist organization, Jewish Defense League.

PRIMARY SOURCE
Anti-Immigrant Extremism: Immigration Activist Shoots Up Woman's Garage

"We're not kooks," Glenn Spencer assured Southeast Arizona residents last fall after he moved the headquarters of his anti-immigration hate group, American Patrol, from Southern California to the troubled Arizona border county of Cochise.

But in early August, Spencer became the third anti-immigration activist on the border to land in legal trouble this year.

After a neighbor reported hearing two shots fired and a weapon cocked outside her home, local officers drove out and found that bullets had been fired into the woman's garage door. Spencer, claiming that he opened fire after hearing suspicious noises outside, was arrested on three felony counts of disorderly conduct with a weapon, one felony count of endangerment and one count of misdemeanor criminal damage. A few days earlier, following a series of death threats against Spencer, his home headquarters had been burglarized, Spencer claimed.

Though it's been highly controversial in Cochise County, American Border Patrol, the spinoff group Spencer founded, continues its work of "lighting up" the border, videotaping illegal immigrants and broadcasting the images of what Spencer has called a "Mexican invasion" over its Web site.

Meanwhile, Jack Foote, a Texan who leads the paramilitary outfit Ranch Rescue, is battling a lawsuit filed by six migrants who say members of Foote's group held them at gunpoint and beat one of them with the butt-end of a gun. "These two trespassers were treated with the utmost of kindness and respect," Foote has insisted.

Chris Simcox, the rabble-rousing newspaper publisher who organized the Civil Homeland Defense militia last fall in Arizona, pleaded not guilty on Aug. 21 to three misdemeanor weapons charges. Simcox, whose trial date has not been set, was nabbed while carrying a firearm on National Park Service land, and he also is charged with lying to a ranger about the gun.

Simcox, who issues calls to arms in his tiny local paper, the Tombstone Tumbleweed, said he had innocently stumbled into an area of the park that was not marked as federal land.

Source: Southern Poverty Law Center, 2003

The ABP encourages fellow anti-immigration extremists to report illegal Mexican immigrants and take photographs (or video) of illegal trespassing they witness. In 2000, the American Patrol allegedly sent leaflets to various anti-immigration organizations throughout United States to join the group to deter illegal Mexican immigration on the Arizona border with Mexico. Glenn Spencer has also written letters to Congressmen and to various publications defending his stance and his organization. At one point Spencer sent every member of the United States Congress a copy of his videotape, "Bonds of Our Nation," that allegedly supports his claim that the Mexican government and Mexican Americans are planning a takeover of the Southwest region of the United States.

American Border Patrol (ABP) allegedly receives a major portion of its funding through donations made to the organization by like-minded anti-immigration proponents. ABP is a tax-exempt organization.

OTHER PERSPECTIVES

According to published reports from the U.S. government and other organizations, as of 2005, "organized hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan have historically terrorized blacks and Jews in the Southeast. But the recent influx of Latin American immigrants to the region has given hate groups 'such as the VCT' a new target, and officials say new immigrants (especially illegal immigrants) are increasingly targets of hate crimes." Additionally, these reports mention that it is difficult to find actual statistical information on the hate crimes perpetrated on illegal immigrants, as most of them prefer not to go to the law authorities because of their undocumented status in the United States.

SUMMARY

American Border Patrol, the latest in a series of anti-immigration groups headed by Glenn Spencer, continues to advocate tougher border enforcement, if necessary by private citizens. It documents and publicizes the illegal immigration from Latin America that, in its view, constitutes a grave and deliberate threat to the United States. While it has not publicly engaged in such patrols itself, the group calls for the support of those who do and works to document illegal obrder crossings. ABP supports reportedly assert that they are nationalistic and have a pro-American attitude, rather than an anti-immigrant attitude. However, human rights organizations believe that the American Patrol is not tolerant of individuals belonging to Latin American ethnicity and is highly racist in its approach.

LEADERSHIP

GLEN SPENCER

Glen Spencer is the self-proclaimed leader of American Border Patrol and the related organizations American Patrol and Voices of Citizens Together. Based on his writings and public statements, Spencer believes that illegal immigration across the southern border of the United States is part of a concerted effort by the Mexican government to undermine law and order in preparation for a reconquista (reconquest) of the southwestern United States.

SOURCES

Web sites

Southern Poverty Law Center. "Intelligence Report: Anti-Immigration Groups." 〈http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?sid=175〉 (accessed September 24, 2005).

The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto (OISE/UT). "History of Education: Selected Moments of the 20th Century." 〈http://fcis.oise.utoronto.ca/∼daniel_schugurensky/assignment1/1994stretz.html〉 (accessed September 24, 2005).

La Voz de Aztlan Communications Network. "Information on Jewish Defense League Terrorist Glenn Spencer of American Border Patrol." 〈http://www.aztlan.net/spencerterror.htm〉 (accessed September 24, 2005).

Journal of American History. "Migration, Emergent Ethnicity, and the 'Third Space': The Shifting Politics of Nationalism in Greater Mexico." 〈http://www.indiana.edu/∼jah/mexico/dgutierrez.html〉 (accessed September 24, 2005).