A father whose son was killed by a drug smuggler crossing the border illegally has come to Arizona to support the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps

Paul Cicala:

The border watch group intensified its patrols over the weekend.

In August of 2002, 28-year-old Park Ranger Kris Eggle was killed as he pursued a Mexican national who illegally entered the U.S. through the border town of Sonoita, Sonora, Mexico.

Kris Eggle’s father, Bob Eggle, says a more secure border could have prevented the death, and has returned to the desert where his son died to voice support for the Minutemen.

“(My son) was ambushed and murdered,” says Eggle as he gathered alongside some members of the Minutemen as they stood watch along the border.

Kris Eggle was killed in a hail of gunfire traded between a suspected Mexican drug smuggler and Mexican police at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument.

The suspected drug smuggler fled into Arizona by driving his car through an open area of the U.S./Mexico border.

Eggle says, “Where my son was murdered was not a fence, but (only) a line in the sand."

For that rason, Bob Eggle is in Southern Ariziona to voice his opinions on strengthening security along the border.

“He sacrificed his life in defense of our border,” says Eggle, “and, I'm here in his memory to offer support to these Minutemen who will try to guard our border.”

Officials from the U.S. Border Patrol say they neither support nor endorse Minuteman actions.

A spokesman for INS says law enforcement along the border should be done by federal agents, not private citizens.

However, Eggle says it goes beyond that: “If the border was under control, my son would still be here today. He'd be with me."

So, Eggle is also taking the opportunity to voice his support for a more secured fence along the U.S./Mexico line.

“Our borders are non-existent so that people come across in droves."

A compromise on immigration is a surrender on immigration