Case sounds vigilante alarm

A lone Army reservist accused of holding seven Mexican nationals at gunpoint this week at a desolate Arizona rest stop has renewed concerns about vigilante justice and violence along the Arizona-Mexico border.

The arrest of Sgt. Patrick Haab, 24, comes as various civilian groups embark on self-described border-patrol missions to target undocumented workers and help stop the flow of illegal immigration along the busiest illegal crossing on the Southwest border.

Haab, an Iraq war veteran, was apparently acting on his own when sheriff's deputies say he saw seven men pile into a sport utility vehicle on Interstate 8 and ordered them to lie on the ground or be shot. But Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said his actions were dangerous and illegal, underscoring the risks posed by citizens patrolling the border and taking the law into their own hands.

"Even law enforcement has to have probable cause before taking people out of their cars and telling them to lie on the ground. ... He threatened to kill them," Arpaio said. "He did not have the right to do what he did. How did he know they were illegal aliens?"

Haab declined requests to be interviewed Tuesday at a Maricopa County jail where he was being held on a $10,000 cash bond.

A civilian border patrol, dubbed the Minuteman Project, started a media frenzy this month in southern Arizona by announcing that more than 1,000 volunteers planned to conduct a monthlong stakeout of the U.S.-Mexican border. Organizers were quick to denounce Haab's actions.

"What the man did certainly was wrong," said Jim Gilchrist, Minuteman Project organizer. "He should have called the Border Patrol. His weapon should have been his cellphone."

Gilchrist, a Vietnam veteran, added that although he did not know Haab personally, he hoped the government would consider the circumstances related to his military service.

"He didn't shoot anybody, but he did feel he had to protect his country. I hope the charges will get dropped. I think he's probably learned his lesson," Gilchrist said.

Eleanor Eisenberg, executive director of the ACLU of Arizona, said she is concerned about private citizens acting as border agents.

"Groups that are down along the border don't have a right to act as if they are the Border Patrol, and they don't have the right to detain migrants," she said. "We understand that people feel that the government isn't doing its job, but that really means you have to use the political process."

Arpaio said he did not believe Haab's actions were coincidental to the Minuteman Project. "You don't go around pulling guns on people," Arpaio said. "Being illegal is not a serious crime. You can't go to jail for being an illegal alien. ... You can only be deported."

Deputies who arrested Haab on Sunday reported that he used his car to block the suspected immigrants from leaving the rest stop and ordered them to exit the vehicle and get onto the ground. Deputies said Haab "ordered" another driver to help him and gave the driver a second gun to hold on the immigrants while he called police. Before sheriff's deputies and officials with the Border Patrol arrived on the scene, the second driver returned the gun to Haab and left the rest stop. Authorities are trying to locate him.

The immigrants, all undocumented workers, said they were afraid for their lives and asked to press charges against Haab, who is being held on seven counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

Deputies who arrested Haab indicated on jail forms that he was "mentally disturbed." But Haab's longtime friend said he sounded rational and collected when they talked by phone after his arrest.

"He sounded like he normally does," said Mike Cline, 23, of Mesa. "He sounded like he does when he is dealing with a problem, like, this is a situation and we have to deal with it."

Cline, who runs a software development company, said he grew up with Haab in Indiana. He is worried that his friend could become a victim of politics and that law-enforcement officials will make an example of him because of the border situation.

"I don't want to see him put in jail," Cline said. "He didn't go off and kill anybody."

He said his friend acted like a soldier, assessing the decision and taking quick action, just like he was trained to do.

Cline said Haab was driving back from San Diego, where he sold a rare dog to a breeder, when he pulled over to help a motorist at the Sentinel rest stop 30 miles west of Gila Bend.

Cline said Haab is a "very typical and normal guy" who liked to carry handguns and often wore a Glock pistol in a holster.

"He pretty much carried the Glock all of the time when he had it," Cline said, adding that the gun, which he recently sold, seemed to be a throwback to Haab's military service.

Although Haab returned from Iraq in October and moved to Arizona four months ago, he was already planning a return to active duty and was working as an Army reservist in Deer Valley while preparing for a tour in Afghanistan.

Haab's parents arrived in Phoenix on Tuesday for a planned farewell gathering that has now turned into something else as they try to deal with lawyers and the criminal charges against their son.

Joe Brigman, a Border Patrol spokesman in Yuma, where the seven undocumented immigrants were being held Tuesday afternoon, said the situation with Haab could have been avoided with "a simple phone call."

Brigman echoed comments of top Border Patrol officials when he discouraged civilian patrols, which have sparked criticism from the highest levels of government, including President Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox.

Mexican authorities are still worried about violence, and on Sunday the National Commission on Human Rights urged Fox to pressure the United States to stop the Minuteman Project.

Such groups "go against the principles of an authentic, democratic state of laws," said Jose Luis Soberanes Fernandez, director of the human rights commission.

The Mexican press calls the Minutemen cazamigrantes, or "migrant hunters."

A fledgling group called the Yuma Patriots this weekend is planning its first patrols in the open desert and sand dunes of Yuma County.

Flash Sharrar, 50, who owns a transmission repair shop in Yuma, formed the group after his son, who also served in Iraq, reported that a group of border bandits assaulted him Easter Sunday at a recreation area along the border.

Still, Sharrar condemned what Haab did.

"Even though they're illegal, you can't hold anybody at gunpoint," he said. "It's against the law."

Staff reporters Chris Hawley and Emily Bittner contributed to this article.