2006年VOA标准英语-Mexicans Critical of Minutemen Border Fence Con

By Greg Flakus
Houston
30 May 2006

Dozens of volunteers with the anti-illegal immigration group known as the Minutemen spent their Memorial Day holiday in the hot sun along the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona, building a fence to stop illegal crossings. The action has drawn¹ praise from some sectors² north of the border, but it is viewed with hostility³ by many Mexicans.

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Minutemen building a border fence near Palominas, Arizona
  

While the immigration debate continues in Washington, the Minutemen are working to secure at least some small sections of the border on their own. They are constructing a fence - modeled in part on a barrier in Israel - along a 16-kilometer stretch of the border that is on private land.

The owner of the land, rancher Jack⁴ Ladd, says he invited the private volunteer group to build the barrier because of the constant flow of immigrants and drug smugglers across his property. He says the illegal entrants routinely cut cattle containment⁵ fences and that the U.S. Border Patrol has not stopped them.

A bill passed by the House of Representatives in December would provide more funding to the Border Patrol and finance the construction of a much larger fence along sections of the 3,000-kilometer border. But the Senate last week passed a bill that had less emphasis on border protection and would create a path to legalization for the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants currently in the United States. A conference committee consisting of members from each house of Congress is expected to begin work on a compromise bill in the weeks ahead.

Supporters of more security on the border, who cite fears of terrorism as well as the mounting cost of providing social services to illegal aliens, laud⁶ the Minutemen for their action, but Hispanic groups and immigrant rights organizations condemn⁷ them.

The Catholic bishop⁸ of the Mexican border city Ciudad Juarez, Renato Ascencio, told Mexico's Televisa television network that he believes the Minutemen will not succeed in stopping illegal crossings of the border.

He said the Minutemen are "xenophobic" people backed by millions of dollars whose effort to impede⁹ legalization of immigrants and block the border will ultimately fail.

In Mexico, news reports routinely refer to the Minutemen as "racists" and "xenophobes." Mexican officials have also called them anti-immigrant vigilantes, a charge the Minutemen reject. Vigilantes, by definition, are people who take the law into their own hands, while the Minutemen say they keep watch on the border and call on the Border Patrol to make arrests.

One of the volunteers on hand at the Minuteman fence construction this weekend was Quetzal Doty, a retired¹⁰ U.S. consular¹¹ officer who served in Africa, Asia and Europe. In a VOA phone interview, Doty said his concern about illegal immigration is connected to the more than 20 years he spent helping¹² people around the world enter the United States through the legal process.

"I feel that the Minutemen are like myself, we are not anti-immigrant, we are anti-illegal," said Quetzal Doty. "Most of the time the laws are fairly well represented and they should be followed. People who break the law should have to pay a penalty for it rather than being rewarded."

Doty says legalizing millions of undocumented workers would put people pursuing the legal immigration process at a disadvantage. He says it would be difficult for the United States to allow more immigrants from Africa and Asia if Congress opens the door to even greater numbers from Mexico and Latin America. More than half of the illegal aliens currently in the United States are from Mexico.

But critics of the Minutemen question the value of their occasional patrols on the border and the construction of a fence that will pose very little impediment to border crossers. The Minutemen have raised $380,000 for border fencing, but the numbers of volunteers who have shown up at such events as this past weekend's fence-building project pale by comparison to the hundreds of thousands of immigrants and their supporters who took to the streets last month to demand legalization.

Doty admits that the Minutemen actions are largely symbolic¹³, but he says they can have a real political impact.

"The president did say he thought fences were needed along the border," he said. "He did not say the entire border, but he does seem to be coming around to our way of thinking."

President Bush has called for better enforcement of the border, but he also favors a guest worker program to match immigrants with employers who cannot find enough workers here in the United States. He also wants a path to legalization for immigrants who have been living and working in the United States for several years.

Lawmakers in Washington, struggling to reconcile the House and Senate immigration bills in one comprehensive piece of legislation, will be hard pressed to please both the immigrant advocates and the groups, like the Minutemen, who favor better border enforcement and oppose what they see as an amnesty for illegal immigrants.

1 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

2 sectors   

n.部门( sector的名词复数 )；领域；防御地区；扇形

参考例句：

• Berlin was divided into four sectors after the war. 战后柏林分成了4 个区。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Industry and agriculture are the two important sectors of the national economy. 工业和农业是国民经济的两个重要部门。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

3 hostility   

n.敌对，敌意；抵制［pl.］交战，战争

参考例句：

• There is open hostility between the two leaders.两位领导人表现出公开的敌意。
• His hostility to your plan is well known.他对你的计划所持的敌意是众所周知的。

4 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

5 containment   

n.阻止，遏制；容量

参考例句：

• Your list might include such things as cost containment,quality,or customer satisfaction.你的清单上应列有诸如成本控制、产品质量、客户满意程度等内容。
• Insularity and self-containment,it is argued,go hand in hand.他们争论说，心胸狭窄和自我封闭是并存的。

6 laud   

n.颂歌；v.赞美

参考例句：

• Kathy was very pleased to have graduated cum laud in her class.凯西在班上以优等成绩毕业，她为此而非常高兴。
• We laud him a warmhearted man.我们称赞他是个热心人。

7 condemn   

vt.谴责，指责；宣判(罪犯)，判刑

参考例句：

• Some praise him,whereas others condemn him.有些人赞扬他，而有些人谴责他。
• We mustn't condemn him on mere suppositions.我们不可全凭臆测来指责他。

8 bishop   

n.主教，（国际象棋）象

参考例句：

• He was a bishop who was held in reverence by all.他是一位被大家都尊敬的主教。
• Two years after his death the bishop was canonised.主教逝世两年后被正式封为圣者。

9 impede   

v.妨碍，阻碍，阻止

参考例句：

• One shouldn't impede other's progress.一个人不应该妨碍他人进步。
• The muddy roads impede our journey.我们的旅游被泥泞的道路阻挠了。

10 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

11 consular   

a.领事的

参考例句：

• He has rounded out twenty years in the consular service. 他在领事馆工作已整整20年了。
• Consular invoices are declarations made at the consulate of the importing country. 领事发票是进口国领事馆签发的一种申报书。

12 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

13 symbolic   

adj.象征性的，符号的，象征主义的

参考例句：

• It is symbolic of the fighting spirit of modern womanhood.它象征着现代妇女的战斗精神。
• The Christian ceremony of baptism is a symbolic act.基督教的洗礼仪式是一种象征性的做法。