Angels Scale Back Patrol Along Border : Group Is Robbed by Band of Armed Bandits in Mexican Canyons

Only one month ago the Guardian Angels, the controversial citizens patrol, announced bold plans to protect illegal aliens from border bandits. Now, authorities say, the Angels have disappeared from the border after bandits robbed them in the canyons they intended to make safer.

Law enforcement officials say they are glad they have not seen any of the young crime fighters recently. They say the Guardian Angels interrupted police actions on at least five occasions and were a danger to themselves and to others because they lacked the training to confront the armed bandits.

Mexican and American officials have maintained that the Angels were breaking immigration laws by entering Mexico while patrolling the canyons.

Robbed by Bandits

On the night of May 31, Guardian Angels encountered four or five bandits in the canyons just east of the San Ysidro border crossing, San Diego Police Sgt. Art Palmer said. One armed bandit pointed his gun at an Angel, hit him with a flashlight and took his handcuffs and keys, Palmer said.

Curtis Sliwa of New York, founder of the Guardian Angels, said he was present when the robbery occurred. The Guardian Angels were stopped by six or seven bandits, each armed with a gun, he said. “I look at the incident as a positive event,” Sliwa said last week. “We didn’t get killed, we didn’t get shot.

“To say we are not patrolling the canyons is wrong. To say we are not patrolling Colonia Libertad is wrong. To say we are not patrolling so extensively is correct,” Sliwa said in a phone interview from San Antonio, Tex., where he is trying to start other Guardian Angel border patrols.

Patrol Canyons

In May, Sliwa announced that a group of 50 Guardian Angels from throughout Southern California would begin to patrol the canyons for six hours on weeknights and ten hours on Saturday and Sunday nights.

Gary Guzman, president of the San Diego chapter of the Guardian Angels, said eight to 10 Angels now patrol the canyons on Saturday nights for three to five hours.

Sgt. Chuck Woodruff, a San Diego police officer who heads the Border Crime Prevention Unit, said no member of the 12-man unit has seen a Guardian Angel “since they got robbed and decided to leave.”

“We work out there five nights a week. We fluctuate our nights off. So far we’ve worked every Saturday night for the last few weeks and we haven’t seen them,” Woodruff said.

“If they wanted to escort the elderly downtown that would be OK. They operate in good conscience, but they are playing with people who are extremely violent criminals,” he said.