The foregoing images were originally posted, along with a somewhat different version of the text, on the website of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, a volunteer organization whose stated mission is to "assist law enforcement authorities in identifying and apprehending those who violate our borders," on June 28, 2007. The location was described as a "layup area" for illegal immigrants near the Mexican border, south of Tucson.
Similar sites have been documented by other sources, including Life magazine and Associated Press, the latter reporting in June 2006 that trails, campfires, and "piles of trash" left behind by human and drug traffickers crossing into the U.S. were damaging the fragile ecosystem of Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument further east along the Arizona-Mexico border. According to a Bureau of Land Management estimate cited in High Country News in 2009, roughly eight pounds of debris per person are left at these sites every day.
An earlier version of the text copied verbatim from the MCDC website circulated heavily via email in late 2007, when illegal immigration was an especially hot topic in the United States. The current version, first sighted in in May 2010, began making the rounds in response to public criticism of a new Arizona law requiring police to check the identification of anyone suspected of crossing into the state illegally.
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Sources and further reading:
Another Monster Layup Discovered by MCDC AZ SEARCH & RESCUE
Minuteman Civil Defense Corps website, 28 June 2007Garbage Grows Well on the Border
High Country News, 30 April 2009Volunteers Help Clean Up Trash on Trail Frequented by Migrants
AZCentral.com, 19 February 2008Illegal Border Traffic Is Wearing Out Preserve
Associated Press, 19 June 2006Illegal Immigration Imperils Arizona Wilderness
Life, 28 March 2006
Last updated 05/21/10
