Minutemen return to Mission

MISSION - Volunteers with the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps have returned to the Rio Grande Valley.

Participating in a month-long "muster" along the Rio Grande in Mission, the group hopes to aid federal authorities in stopping immigrants, criminal aliens and others from crossing the border illegally.

The organization began patrolling the area between the Hidalgo International Bridge and the Los Ebanos International Ferry on March 29.

Using night vision goggles, camouflaged vehicles and high-tech radios the group is credited with stopping thousands of illegal border crossers over the past several years.

Although volunteers have no authority to detain illegal crossers, they have aided the U.S. Border Patrol by calling in reports of suspicious activity, according to a statement on the organization's Web site.

"We will deter illegal activity with our benign presence," said Texas' state director Clark Kirby in a statement. "We will shift our lines randomly to different areas to give the impression we are everywhere."

The group's 2008 operation runs through April 27. For more information, call (817) 385-1321.