VOLUNTEERS ON THE RIO GRANDE: IT'S DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN

By Juan Montoya
The news reports that one so-called volunteer militia member had been jailed for lying to Cameron County Sheriff Department investigators about a 9mm handgun forgotten in a convenience store bathroom Sept. 9 on Southmost and another with carrying a handgun into a place where alcohol is sold strikes an odd historical chord.

Sheriff Omar Lucio said Richard Coonie Smith, 22,tried to claim ownership of the weapon. Videotape from the store indicated it had not been him who entered the bathroom when the gun was left there. He said he had a gun license from Indiana. Instead, the tape showed one Kurt Brooks, 44, address unknown, and who did not have a license to carry weapons, was the individual who left the weapon. Smith later admitted he had lied to protect Brooks.
This comes on the heels of an incident now under investigation by the FBI of an armed encounter by agents of the Border Patrol with an armed militia member who appeared in his path carrying a weapon.
In late August, a U.S. Border Patrol agent pursuing a group of immigrants in a wooded area fired four shots at an armed man who later identified himself as a militia member.

According to news reports, the Border Patrol agent had lost the group of immigrants when he turned around and saw the armed man holding the weapon. Bullets fired by the federal agent did not hit the man, who dropped his weapon and “identified himself as a member of a militia,” Border Patrol spokesman Omar Zamora told a wire service at the time.
The man, whose identity and hometown weren’t released, was wearing camouflage and carrying either a rifle or shotgun, Lucio said.
The private property is none other's than that of Rusty Monsees, who lives along the Rio Grande River past Esperanza Road. Rumors abound in the neighboring barrios that immigrants in the past may  have been shot at and even killed passing through his ranch. Monsees, an outspoken property rights advocate, is housing a number of militia members on his ranch.
At least one local resident – Larry Smith, candidate for  Congress – said the incident had been distorted to smear the militiamen and said that he was not only displeased with the way the media had covered the encounter, but that "I am also highly disgruntled over the handling of the situation by both the Border Patrol and the Cameron County Sherriff’s Department whose actions resulted in attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, and civil rights violations."
Smith wrote that the militia members had been working in conjunction with the Border Patrol to apprehend a "tattooed" suspect who had crossed the river and was carryign a handgun instead of a rifle
The presence of these "volunteer' militia members along the river has brought back memories of other volunteers who flocked to the river in the past saying they want to help to secure the new border.
After Zachary Taylor defeated the Mexican forces at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma in May 8 and 9, 1846, thousands of "volunteers" streamed into northern Mexico to join him and fight against the Mexicans who had "shed American blood on American soil."
Taylor had to wait until May 18 for boats to move his army across the Rio Grande.
When Taylor and his army  moved into Matamoros, they found that the Mexican force had disappeared into the interior. It wasn't until August that the U.S. army could move upriver to Camargo on the Mexican side on steamboats which finally arrived then.
 Meanwhile thousands of volunteers had poured into Matamoros. Historians are unanimous in documenting that "the conduct of the U.S. volunteers left much to be desired. After an area was occupied, and there was little left to do, they often resorted to theft and treated the Mexicans abusively. This was plain from the outset of the war, when Texas volunteers preyed on the ranches in northern Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon."
Although Jerry D. Thompson has documented the atrocities committed against civilians by these "volunteers" in Matamoros in numerous books, more current students of the times such as Randy L.Yoder, in his 2006  Master's thesis for the faculty of the Graduate College of Oklahoma State University, summed it up succinctly.
"The presence of volunteer units had a significantly adverse effect on the inhabitants of northern Mexico throughout the conflict. American volunteers serving in the United States Army during the Mexican War – many of them motivated by a thirst for adventure, and at times, personal vengeance – committed numerous atrocities against the civilians and non-combatants of northern Mexico."
Lucio has stated publicly that the presence of these "volunteers" pose a threat to pubic safety and local law enforcement.
He told the Brownsville Herald that: "We don't know who is here or where they come from. But they were on private property and have a right to be there."
As Yogi Berra said: "It's deja vu all over again."