This time, the British aren't the ones coming; it's the illegal Mexicans.
The end of April wrapped up the Minuteman Project, an endeavor where more than 800 civilians turned out to watch for illegal migrants crossing the border into the United States from Mexico.
But the Minutemen certainly aren't through. Next, they plan on expanding their project to the Canadian-American border and directing their fight against the illegal workers who are already here.
To all this I say: It's about time.
The fact that the Minutemen are looking toward the Canadian-American border shows that this isn't about racism: It's about breaking the law. The Americans patrolling the border aren't the xenophobic, hillbilly rednecks the media and public paint them to be.
When comedian Bill Maher -- host of HBO's "Real Time" -- brought up the Minutemen, he made them out to be crazy, hillbilly loons.
Hmm ... aren't liberals supposed to be accepting of all views and people -- especially minorities? The Minutemen are certainly a minority group simply exercising their right to assemble to bring a point across to the government.
Maher (the man who also called religion a "neurological disorder") picks and chooses who should have respect and be accepted into society.
Accept minorities unless they are Christians. Love all people, unless you disagree with them. Then call them crazy.
All of the media hoopla over vigilantes with guns at the border actually made me a little nervous to go down there. After all, I'm not your typical white, hillbilly American. If it weren't for recent (legal) immigration, I certainly wouldn't be here.
But since this was happening in my home state, I had to check it out.
And what did I find? Not a bunch of gun-bearing, angry hillbillies with teeth missing, that's for sure.
They were regular people (like you and me) who strongly believed in a cause. They carried guns for protection purposes only.
One man, Paul Johnson, is a retired 60-year-old Army veteran who devoted about 100 hours a week to patrolling the Sierra Vista-Nogales border. When I met him, he was sitting in his white Chevrolet Suburban, listening to National Public Radio with his dog on the passenger seat.
He told me he had a rifle in his car, but he assured me that he wasn't going to need it or use it. And he said the fact that he had Army training might come in handy, but he doubted that the training was even necessary to watch the border.
"I've heard we've been making waves in Washington," Johnson said to me. "Somebody has to do it, and it starts at home."
Chris Lambert, 26, sat less than a half a mile away from Johnson. He is an electrical engineer from Tucson who, like Johnson, didn't want to spend his time at the border, but believed it was the only way to get the message across to the federal government that there was an immigration problem.
"Do you think we want to be here?" he said. "No, it's not like we're trying to get a message across to Mexico, saying we don't like them.
"We're trying to get a message to Washington."
Though at its end, the project has largely been a success at drawing attention from the Capitol, with Bush branding them as "vigilantes" and the media finally devoting public attention to the lawbreaking trend of illegal immigration.
Well done, Minutemen. Keep up the good work in Canada.
Lily Yan is a journalism and political science junior. Reach her at lily7174@msn.com.
