Residents in Mexican towns such as Agua Prieta just across the border from Douglas and Naco, which straddles the frontier, do not hide their resentment of the "Minuteman Project," calling it racist and saying that it will do little to diminish illegal immigration.

But for now, the publicity surrounding the arrival of the selfstyled Minutemen, albeit in smaller numbers than expected, does seem to be discouraging people from trying to sneak into the United States across this particular stretch of the border.

ALL?S QUIET IN NACO

A visitor to the Mexican side of Naco sees empty shops and lodging establishments, indicating that the "coyotes" who specialize in smuggling migrants into the United States are staying away.

Vacancy signs hang from the Hotel California, La Loncherita Feliz and other inns up and down Naco's Avenida Francisco Madero, while a number of local businesses and eateries display posters warning potential emigrants of the dangers posed by "hundreds of U.S. vigilantes" in Arizona.

Yet according to some, the Minutemen are succeeding only in steering the lucrative migrantsmuggling business away from the usual routes to more remote regions. As a man identifying himself only as Benito told EFE, "the need to work is great, and for work they leave their homes, they leave everything."

Amid uncertainty about the true number of the Minutemen, their intentions and the scope of their mission, most people on the Mexican side of the border agree that what the vigilantes are up to is an "immigrant hunt."

"They come as volunteers, but they're collaborating with the leadership of groups, militias, vigilante ranchers ... who have spent years hunting Mexicans and other immigrants," said Armando Navarro, the California college professor who heads the National Alliance for Human Rights, a coalition of mainly Latino and immigrant rights's activists.

He contends that the Minuteman Project has made immigrants into scapegoats, "without recognizing that the U.S. economy depends on their labor."

Ray Borane, the mayor of Douglas, Arizona, predicted that the coyotes and other smugglers will return to the area once the vigilantes leave.

"Even though they militarize the border, people are going to find a way to get across. The problem of illegal immigration is something that must be solved on the diplomatic and political levels," he told EFE during a rally south of the border in Agua Prieta.

But the Minutemen, furious with their own government for its failure to stop the northward flow, say they are only trying to boost border security.

The would-be sentinels also trot out a familiar list of complaints about illegal immigrants, whom they label as lawbreakers and blame for stealing Americans's jobs, placing extra burdens on public services and failing to assimilate.

ABANDONMENT ISSUES

Taking their name from the Massachusetts militiamen of the Revolutionary War era, the volunteers contend they have to defend U.S. sovereignty because their government has abandoned that obligation.

The vigilantes plan to spend the entire month of April patrolling a 23-mile stretch of the boundary between Arizona and Mexico with video cameras, night-vision goggles and even aerial drones in search of illegal immigrants.

Most of the volunteers who began gathering last Friday in southern Arizona are white males professing to be motivated by patriotism, a profile consistent with that of members of militant whitesupremacist groups. But that's where the similarity ends, as the Minutemen are mostly middleaged and older and look like they might not be up to the physical demands of the task.

The U.S. Border Patrol, the ostensible beneficiary of the volunteers's efforts, says that it neither wants nor needs help from the Minuteman Project.