Volunteer Border Patrols Broaden Reach

Volunteer Border Patrols Broaden Reach: "Urban dwellers, young women, some Hispanics have joined. Their gripes are often the same as those of the gun-toting veterans, though their backgrounds are different.

'It shows that the problem reaches all of America, not just a specific group,' said Gayle Nyberg, 57, of Murietta, Calif., who slept in the back of a 1976 Chevrolet Suburban while on patrol duty.

More than 200 people signed up with the California Minutemen, who spent three weeks at the border over the summer.

Civilian patrols are opposed by 56 percent of Californians but supported by a majority of Republicans and people age 65 and older, according to a recent Field Poll. Support was weak in Los Angeles and San Francisco and among Hispanics and people younger than 40. The telephone survey of 426 registered voters Aug. 19-29 had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.

Two dozen or so recruits gathered one August evening in Campo, 40 miles east of San Diego, where many had been camped for nearly three weeks. Small groups were assigned along a mountainous 16-mile stretch of the border."