STUMP CANYON - The San Pedro Valley looks peaceful when seen from 5,500 feet up in the Huachuca Mountains.
But looking at the ground can make the sight turn from beautiful to ugly.
Trash left by untold numbers of illegal immigrants who use the paths in the mountains and canyons as their way north into the United States is spread around.
Piles of plastic water and soda bottles, backpacks, clothing, airline tickets, toothbrushes, tubes of toothpaste and food containers litter areas.
Alan Coffey has spent more than a week in Stump Canyon area as a Minuteman Project volunteer, where he combines looking for illegal immigrants with cleaning up the environment.
A retired Army lieutenant colonel who served most of his career as a military intelligence officer, he said the location's height gives the illegal immigrants a commanding view of the valley below and the roads they use to continue on their treks. They also can watch for Border Patrol agents who may want to intercept them.
Coffey lived in this part of the state when he was assigned to Fort Huachuca in 1971 and again in 1983. He retired in 1988 and now calls Phoenix home. His last assignment was as a commander of an intelligence training unit in California.
While the majority of the trash is being left behind by Mexicans, Coffey said Border Patrol agents have told him and other volunteers that they have found backpacks with Muslim prayer rugs and other Arabian materials.
Agents are open with the volunteers, saying things they don't dare to talk about officially, he said.
Like many of the volunteers, Coffey is concerned that terrorists may be entering the United States, especially from Arabian countries.
How many have already made it through and where are they now?
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