ACLU Unable to Oust Patrolling Minutemen

The American Civil Liberties Union’s attempt to get the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps volunteers off state trust land fizzled out Tuesday.

Last week, the ACLU’s Ray Ybarra contacted the Arizona State Land Department about the group’s presence on state trust land without permits.

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Stacey O’Connell, Arizona chapter president of the Minutemen, said the issue was resolved that evening when some of the volunteers showed valid permits and those without promised to get them online.

“Nobody was escorted off state land, nobody was asked to leave,” O’Connell said.

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Ranch owner Pat King, whose ranch includes some state trust land that she leases, said she has a contract with the group for the volunteers to monitor cattle, pick up trash and fix fences on her property, King’s Anvil Ranch.

She called the ACLU members misguided, out-of-town youngsters who don’t understand what people — and drug smugglers have done to her land and the valley.

“Those American Civil Liberties Union persons up there are not concerned about me at all,” King said. “So they are not really the American Civil Liberties Union are they? Because they don’t give a darn about what has happened to my constitutional rights to property.”

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