BISBEE - Eight months after breaking ground on a 10-mile stretch of border fencing at the Palominas ranch of John and Jack Ladd, the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps says it has completed the project.
Officials with the civilian border watch group report that a team of volunteers finished the final 7 1/2-mile length of five-strand barbed wire fencing on Sunday after working 20 consecutive days on the effort. Volunteers and a hired contractor completed the first 2 1/2 miles of fencing in July after beginning work in late May.
According to Minuteman Civil Defense Corps volunteer and Palominas resident Connie Foust, 36 people from states as far away as New York, Minnesota and Wisconsin donated a total of 1,400 hours of time to constructing the final segment of fence.Aside from cold weather and some occasional heckling from the south side of the border, Foust said, construction went relatively smoothly.
Foust, who has been active on border issues for the past three years, said she joined the fence-building effort out of a concern for national security.
"People want to make it a race issue, but it's not," she said. "I believe there's a legal way to come to the United States, and anyone is welcome legally."
Read the rest at The Daily Dispatch (Douglas, AZ)