Meetings & Speakers

May 2008 Speaker:

Muriel Watson – Founder of “Light Up the Border”

On November 4, 1989, Muriel Watson, the widow of Border Patrol Chief, George Watson, led the first “Light Up the Border” demonstration on Dairy Mart Road – a road that is located very close to the border with Mexico. In this demonstration – and many others to follow - hundreds of people parked their cars along the road and turned on their headlights, shedding light on the lack of border security and the failure of the United States government to bring this often lawless border under control.

Initially, in order to publicize this effort, Muriel called the Roger Hedgecock Show and told Roger about her plan to go to Dairy Mart Road on a Friday night with friends in order to shine their vehicles’ headlights toward the border to “shine light” on the border lawlessness that the media was ignoring. Muriel invited Roger and his listeners to join her, and over 1,500 people did. Because of Muriel’s diligent efforts, elected officials became involved in addressing border issues.

Muriel was born and raised in Newton, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. She received her teaching degree from San Diego State and met and married a Navy pilot who later joined the U.S. Border Patrol. Muriel is the mother of three grown daughters and the proud grandmother of six grandchildren. For over ten years, she served as the official Public Information Officer for the Border Patrolmen’s Union and lobbied Congress to give attention to our nation’s borders. Muriel’s husband was the Border Patrol’s Officer-in-Charge in San Diego from the late seventies until his untimely passing in 1981. According to Muriel, her “Light Up the Border” demonstrations were conducted in memory of her husband.