Wednesday, May 31, 2006 

Maryland Minuteklan to shift focus toward monitoring employers

Minutemen to shift focus
Immigration reform group to monitor employers; opponents decry effort

Wednesday, May 31, 2006
by Sebastian Montes
Staff Writer
Stephen Schreiman, director of the state chapter of Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, in his Gaithersburg home.

In the four months since its creation, the Maryland chapter of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps has been laying low and largely out of sight, running a handful of what it calls ‘‘operations” at spots throughout the state where day laborers gather to wait for work.

‘‘It was not being productive to try to do anything during the winter months,” said Stephen Schreiman, the state chapter’s director. ‘‘We did some initial surveillance and realized that with 4 percent employment levels, what’s there to photograph?”

But with the summer weather sure to boost hiring activity at the sites, Maryland’s Minutemen are ratcheting up preparations for a concerted push against illegal immigrants.

In the next few weeks, Schreiman said, the group will host its first public event, an ‘‘open community forum,” most likely in Gaithersburg.

Meanwhile, the focus of their surveillance at the worker sites will be more on the businesses and homeowners, not the day laborers themselves.

He says he does not blame those among the day laborers who came into the country illegally. Rather, he focuses his ire particularly on Montgomery County government, and the politicians he says have ‘‘hijacked” the values of its citizenry.

‘‘You’ve got a group of people that are ideologues. Many of them have been in politics for so long that they’ve lost touch with reality. What we have are just politicians that have run amok,” he said.

And through the summer, as this year’s elections near, Schreiman says the Minutemen will add a political dimension to their strategy.

But while Schreiman deems ‘‘delusional” those who believe that the majority of the county supports illegal immigrants, County Councilman Tom Perez finds the claims of the Minutemen and their ilk ‘‘laughable.”

‘‘We’ve had day laborer centers in Montgomery County for 15 years and it’s been a win-win-win: a win for the adjacent communities, a win for businesses and a win for the laborers themselves,” he said. ‘‘I get a real kick out of people... telling us what this community thinks.”

The county last year allocated $125,000 for a day laborer center in Gaithersburg and has set the money aside again this year.

Mayor Sidney A. Katz and the City Council have discussed the center publicly three times since a task force of residents made its recommendations on what course the city should follow. Progress has so far been slowed by the difficulty of finding a site that conforms to what the task force recommended.

Perez, who is running for state attorney general, is nonetheless optimistic that a Gaithersburg center will be up and running by July.

Schreiman insists that the Minutemen do not oppose a day laborer center in Gaithersburg outright, only if it serves illegal immigrants.

And while the Minutemen are vowing a stronger public presence in the coming months, they are a group that remains shrouded in secrecy.

Schreiman, a biomedical engineer for a ‘‘national company” somewhere ‘‘in the metropolitan area,” spoke at two of the city council meetings since the task force wrapped up their work, but did not identify himself as the chapter’s director.

A membership that started out at around 20 has now swelled to what he insists are more than 100, he said, more than half from Montgomery County. He would not, however, show The Gazette a list of members.

No other members of the state chapter have come forward, in part because of threats, Schreiman said, but also because many of the members have not been allowed by their employers to come out as Minutemen.

‘‘We’ve got people in local government,” he said. ‘‘Obviously, they keep a low profile.”

Nonetheless, the mood in Montgomery County is drastically more accepting of opposition to illegal immigrants than in years — even months — past, says Chuck Floyd of Kensington, a Republican running for county executive.

‘‘I talk to people every day, I talk to thousands of people, and they’re very upset about it,” he said. ‘‘Is that the No. 1 issue in Montgomery County? No, it’s probably number five. But it’s on the radar screen.”

Perez counters Floyd’s ‘‘message of division and pessimism.”

‘‘There’s a regrettably long history of xenophobes who oppose immigration,” he said. ‘‘The good news is that they have always remained a small fringe group, and they will continue to be.”

The state chapter is one of 23 branches of the national organization, with five more soon to come, said Connie Hair, spokeswoman for the Minutemen’s national headquarters in Phoenix.

More than 7,000 volunteers have had background checks, received training, and have been cleared by the national headquarters to patrol the U.S.-Mexico border, she said.

But as an organization, the Minutemen are still going through ‘‘growing pains,” having incorporated itself as a 501(c)4 nonprofit only in April 2005.

Which is why, said Hair, there have yet to be financial records showing how much money the group has raised. Nor did she reveal details of its budget.

‘‘We will release those just like everybody else does,” she said. ‘‘I don’t even have those numbers to give out yet.”

Meanwhile, Casa of Maryland, which runs the county’s two existing day laborer centers, holds that if anything, the presence of the Minutemen ‘‘has attracted a lot of sympathy and new employers coming in to support the workers,” said Kim Propeack, Casa’s director of community outreach.

And if the Minutemen do in fact up their presence at the worker sites, Casa remains at the ready, she said.

‘‘We have a very strong core of volunteers ready to fly into action if the Minutemen ever get aggressive. But luckily, they’ve been largely irrelevant.”

5/31/2006 05:41:00 AM | |

Tuesday, May 30, 2006 

Schwarzenegger tries new script - changing strategy to garner support

Schwarzenegger tries new script

The once very Republican chief of California now changing strategy to garner support

By JOHN POMFRET and SONYA GEIS
Washington Post

SACRAMENTO, CALIF. - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is attempting a political comeback as he faces re-election this year, courting Democrats and independent voters by distancing himself from President Bush and pushing an expensive bond proposal to rebuild California's levees, schools and highways.

Schwarzenegger, one of the nation's most prominent Republicans, has criticized Bush's plan to dispatch the National Guard to the Mexican border. He has appointed Democrats to key state jobs. In recent weeks he helped engineer a bipartisan compromise to get the $37 billion bond proposal on the November ballot, traveling the state with Democratic legislative leaders to promote it.

"If last November I told you just give it a few months, that he'd be running around the state with Democrat leaders by his side, you wouldn't have believed me and I would have felt like a fool telling you," said Allan Hoffenblum, a Republican strategist. "But he's doing it. All of the sudden, he has a record of accomplishment."

The governor is hoping to build support in a state where Democrats and independents account for nearly two-thirds of registered voters. His strategy is having some effect: In April, a Los Angeles Times poll showed his approval rating at 44 percent, up from 37 percent in October.

But he still has a way to go. A poll last week by the Public Policy Institute of California said a race now between Schwarzenegger and either of his likely Democratic opponents — State Treasurer Phil Angelides or State Controller Steve Westly — would be a toss-up.

Last November, Schwarzenegger's fortunes looked grim. California's voters handed him a stunning loss in a special election that would have changed several state laws and given him more political power.

That election night, Schwarzenegger vowed to change and to show voters that "I am not to the right or left, that I just see things best for California."

Since then he has courted the public-service unions that exert enormous influence on California politics and that had spent millions to try to defeat his plans. Schwarzenegger has tried to smooth relations with the California Nurses Association by dropping his quest to overturn state nurse-patient ratios.

Buoyed by an additional $5 billion in tax revenue, he has pledged to increase education spending by billions of dollars, hoping to patch strained ties with the California Teachers Association. And he has put off a significant overhaul of California's troubled prison system, leading the California Correctional Peace Officers Association to delay plans to open a $10 million war chest for attack ads against him.

Karen Hanretty, a former state GOP spokeswoman, said Schwarzenegger can no longer count on Republicans to support him at the polls. She contended that he had become overly influenced by his wife, Maria Shriver, a lifelong Democrat and a member of the Kennedy clan.

Schwarzenegger's recent change of heart on immigration is a case in point, Hanretty said. Last year, the governor, himself an immigrant, spoke in favor of the Minutemen and other vigilante groups patrolling the Mexican border. This year he has distanced himself from the Minutemen and recently criticized a Senate plan to build more walls along the border.

5/30/2006 04:07:00 PM | |

 

Immigration issues get hateful

Immigration issues get hateful

Tuesday, May 30, 2006
KENT FAULK
News staff writer
The Birmingham News

The day after May 1 rallies by Hispanics seeking amnesty for illegal immigrants, someone sprayed black paint over the window panes at the La Casa Del Pueblo de Dios church in Decatur, blocking the view of a welcome sign written in Spanish.

"It was a hate-filled act," said the Rev. Gene Lankford, coordinator of Hispanic ministries for the northern conference of the United Methodist Church.

Lankford, whose wife, Aida Lea Barrera-Segura, pastors the Decatur church, is among those who see evidence that the debate over immigration reform is taking a hateful twist.

The Southern Poverty Law Center is reporting a rise in the past year in the number of groups it categorizes as hate groups. A Ku Klux Klan imperial wizard said a recent rally was the first he could remember that drew more supporters than protesters. And one candidate for Alabama attorney general is openly calling for martial law and the shooting of illegal immigrants who resist imprisonment and deportation.

Many of those who attend anti-immigration rallies say they aren't hateful or racist and don't have a problem with immigrants coming to the United States as long as they do it legally.

"I would guess that the more mainstream anti-immigration groups are trying to distance themselves from groups like the Klan because ... (such a group) de-legitimizes their message," said Allen Kohlhepp, a staff member with the Anti-Defamation League.

SPLC has documented a nationwide increase in the groups it classifies as hate groups, from 762 in 2004 to 803 last year, according to the report The Year in Hate for 2005. The increase caps a 33 percent rise in the number of such groups formed since 2000, according to the report.

"Hispanic immigration, in particular, may have been the single most important factor in recent years, fueling a national debate and giving hate groups an issue with real resonance," the report says.

Klan gets support:

The KKK recently held an anti-immigration rally in Russellville during which it had 20 or so people apply for membership, said Ray Larsen, imperial wizard for the National Knights of the KKK from South Bend Ind. The rally drew a crowd of more than 300 that included a mix of supporters, on-lookers, and a few dozen counter protesters.

It was the first time Larsen could remember supporters outnumbering the people who came out to protest their presence. The Klan initiated several new members at a cross lighting ceremony later that night in Franklin County.

Hispanic advocates say the recent rise in hateful rhetoric has alarmed some illegal immigrants.

"They're a little fearful that they may get hurt in the process," said Veronica Ramos, a Hispanic interpreter from Shelby County whose father was an immigrant.

Attacks by white supremacists and other extremists also are increasing against legal and illegal immigrants, according to a report released last month by the Anti-Defamation League.

"While most hate crimes targeting Hispanics have not been the work of the extremist groups themselves, the groups' virulent anti-Hispanic rhetoric has contributed to a broader climate of hate," the league said in a statement.

League and SPLC officials cite several attacks or threats made against Hispanics around the country since late March, including an attack by two white teens on an Hispanic youth in Texas whom they thought had kissed a white girl.

Don Black, a former KKK grand wizard who now runs the white nationalist Web site forum Stormfront, said the immigration issue has increased visits to his Web site to about 25,000 visitors a day, up by about 5,000 a day in the past couple of months.

"A lot of people are going to be attracted to our movement because of it and get a greater understanding of what we're all about because of that one issue," said Black, who runs the site from his West Palm Beach, Fla., home.

`Social strain':

It isn't surprising that the KKK and similar groups are taking on the immigration issue as a way to expand membership, said SPLC spokesman Mark Potok. "In times of social strain these groups tend to do well, and this is a time of real strain," he said. "Many of these groups feel the immigration issue is going to put them in the mainstream."

At least one candidate, Larry Darby, who is running for Alabama attorney general, has picked up the issue. Darby proposes to declare martial law and mobilize national guardsmen to seal the state's borders for a period to stop the flow of illegal immigrants. Then what Darby calls "Mexican invaders" would be rounded up by sheriff's deputies, constables, and others who would be deputized. The illegal immigrants should be treated like prisoners of war and put in tent cities until they could be taken back to Mexico, he said. If they try to resist or escape, Darby said, "then they should be shot. This is war."

The Alabama Democratic Party investigated what action it could take against Darby because of his remarks, which party executive director Joe Turnham said were unacceptable. The party announced Friday it was too late to take him off the ballot.

"I am a little concerned. I have seen some escalation that is a little unnerving," Turnham said. "When people make hateful remarks, it can incite people to violence, and that's not the way we solve our problems."

Whoever the message is coming from, it sounds the same to many Hispanics, Lankford said.

"All they hear out of it is a message we don't want you here," he said.

5/30/2006 04:01:00 PM | |

Sunday, May 28, 2006 

Anti-illegal immigration advocates deny that they are motivated by racism and hatred

Race sparks border debate
Anti-illegal immigration advocates deny that they are motivated by racism and hatred

By HOLLY EDWARDS
Staff Writer
Published: Sunday,
05/28/06

Despite sharply different views, activists on both sides of the immigration debate have reached the same conclusion: America is being poisoned.

One side believes Hispanics streaming into the country illegally will destroy American culture, while the other fears rising racism and bigotry will desecrate American ideals.

"There's an inherent contradiction between the racist rhetoric I hear about Hispanics and the
Christian values that are supposed to be leading the hearts of Americans," said Yuri Cunza, president of the Nashville Area Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. "It's time to learn from the past dramatic and terrible consequences of racist thinking and move ahead."

But activists fighting for tougher immigration laws dismiss accusations of racism and say their primary aim is to reclaim their country.

"I don't care what race you are, no one should be rewarded for breaking the law," said Gene Rutledge, a retired Border Patrol agent who lives in Clarksville.

On Web sites, talk radio shows and in interviews, anti-illegal immigration activists describe Hispanic migrants as lawless, disease-ridden "invaders" waging an undeclared war against the United States.

But anti-illegal immigration activists insist race has nothing to do with their views. Some point to Rutledge's wife, Delfina Espinoza, whose father emigrated from Mexico legally in the 1950s.

"The illegals coming to this country are turning the nation into a Third World country," said Espinoza, who met her husband, when he stopped her near the Mexican border, incorrectly suspecting she might be an illegal immigrant. "They take no pride in America and have no respect for anyone."


Destroys 'our way of life'

Beyond concerns about unemployment, declining wages and over-tapped public services, many activists say their primary fear is that the sheer number of Hispanic migrants will drown American culture.

Theresa Harmon, a founder of Tennesseans for Responsible Immigration Policies, said there is nothing wrong with viewing the American way of life as superior and trying to preserve it.

In her opinion, Harmon said, illegal Hispanic immigrants don't share the American values of education, home ownership and respect for the law and are destroying middle class neighborhoods throughout Nashville.

For the most part, she said, they want to impose their culture on America rather than learn English or assimilate into American society.

"I feel like my forefathers fought and bled and died to give us this country, so no one should come here and try to shove something down my throat," she said. "You can't fault people for being patriotic and loving their country."

Throughout history, Harmon said, countries that have accepted large numbers of immigrants have seen bloodshed.

Many books and articles touted by the anti-illegal immigration movement carry dire warnings of impending race wars as hordes of Hispanics bent on re-conquering America convert middle-class suburbs into Mexican barrios.

"What you are seeing happen is the destruction of our way of life," she said. "Anytime you see a nation go over to an entirely different culture and different nationality, you're going to see a fight."

She said she was brought to tears by the changes illegal Hispanic immigrants have brought to her childhood neighborhood in the Thompson Lane area.

"The area is starting to look like a Mexican barrio," she said. "The upscale restaurants are closed, all the signs are in Spanish, and all you see going in and out are Mexicans."

There is also a growing sense of outrage among some African-Americans who blame illegal immigrants for rising job loss and crime in the black community.

A poll by the Pew Center for Hispanic Studies found that while African-Americans tend to be more sympathetic to the plight of Hispanic immigrants, they also tend to feel more threatened by job loss and declining wages.

Many blacks also bristle at comparisons between the civil rights and pro-immigration movements. And like others in the anti-illegal immigration camp, some see the recent immigrant rights rallies as an aggressive demand for privileges illegal immigrants don't deserve.

"Slaves helped build this country, and what you have here are invaders who come here with arrogance and demand to get all the things we worked for," said Michael Holt, 51, a Bordeaux native who retired from an aircraft part manufacturing plant in Nashville.

As Holt sees it, the swelling anti-immigrant sentiment in the country is an encouraging sign of new unity between whites and blacks.

"For once in this country's history, we have black and white people joining forces against a common enemy," he said.


Accusations of extremism

On the other side of the debate, some civil rights groups point to parallels between anti-immigration propaganda and arguments long made by white supremacist groups.

While most anti-illegal immigration activists aren't extremists, there are disturbing signs that white supremacists have infiltrated the movement, said Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization that tracks hate groups.

Anti-illegal immigration leaders insist they have no connection to white supremacist hate groups and take vigilant measures to make sure they never do. Harmon said she threatened to take legal action when the National Vanguard, a white supremacist group, posted an article and pictures on its Web site of Tennesseans for Responsible Immigration Policies event.

She said her views on illegal immigration have nothing to do with racial bias or negative stereotypes.

"My grandmother is a Cherokee Indian, and the Cherokee people are an example of what happens when you don't secure your borders," she said, adding that two of her best friends are black.

Many leaders of the movement view the charges of racism as an effort by politically correct liberals, aided by left-wing media, to shut them up and close down the debate.

Others embrace the term. A message posted on an anti-immigration Web site called Our Way of Life defines racism as "a reasoned response to the perceived harm done to one's own race by an alien race" that is "generally speaking, a good thing."

For Potok and others who gauge racist sentiment in the country, the combination of racial intolerance, conspiracy theories and a growing group of armed citizens guarding the border could quickly lead to violence.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation reported nine hate crimes targeting Hispanics in 2004, the most recent year for which such information is available.

According to the law center, Hispanic immigration has been the driving force behind the rising number of hate groups across the country, which have grown from 602 in 2000 to 803 last year.

A recently released report by the Anti-Defamation League cited more than 2,500 hate crimes against Hispanics from 2000 to 2004. Two of the hate crimes the report described occurred in Tennessee.

In Blount County last year, two men were sentenced to four and a half years in prison for vandalizing and painting Nazi symbols on a Mexican food store in Maryville. Also last year, a federal judge sentenced former correction officer and KKK member Daniel James Schertz of South Pittsburg, Tenn., to 14 years in prison after he pled guilty to making five pipe bombs to blow up a bus carrying Mexican workers from Tennessee to Florida.

The ADL report blamed extremist Web sites and talk radio shows for fanning the flames of violence. Among those quoted in the report is a New Jersey radio host who told his listeners how "terrific" it would be to trap illegal immigrants in steel cages and beat them to death.

While immigrant rights activists say the rabid tone of some talk radio shows is inciting racial tension, others say the belligerent attitude of some Hispanics is sparking the animosity.

Local radio host Steve Gill, a fervent proponent of tougher border security measures, said many people were outraged when they saw Hispanics carrying signs that said "This is our country" at some of the immigrant right rallies.

In his view, Hispanics are guilty of racism when they demand an exemption from federal law that would apply only to them.

"They would never say we should bring cruise ships full of undereducated, disease-ridden, impoverished Haitians to this country to undercut the wages of the Hispanic community," Gill said.

The anger reflected on the Internet and the radio stems from the sense many feel that the country is being invaded, he said. While Gill said he's never told his listeners to use violence against Hispanics, he understands why some feel there should be a military response.

"If 100,000 Mexicans rushed the border at the same time and if people looked at the situation the way it really is, no one would call it anything other than an invasion, and we would send in the military and shoot people," Gill said.

Local radio host Phil Valentine has also been active in the anti-illegal immigration movement. More than 1,500 people turned out for a "De-Magnetize America" rally hosted by Valentine in April.


'Not what this country is supposed to be about'

Jose Gonzalez, executive director of Conexion Americas, a nonprofit organization in Nashville designed to help Hispanics integrate into the community, said he is saddened by the increasingly violent anti-Hispanic sentiment he encounters.

Gonzalez said immigrant rights advocates are fighting for new laws to protect immigrants and allow them to move here legally to work, not an exemption from the law.

"One of the things this whole debate has done is bring out some emotions a lot of people didn't know this country had," he said.

"This is how sad it is. I heard a radio talk show host say the solution to immigration is to put the alligators attacking people in Florida in the Rio Grande River."

He also said he discovered a video game on the Internet called "Border Patrol" in which shooting the most vulnerable Hispanic people — pregnant women and children — earns the highest number of points.

"All we're doing is building fear and racism, and that's not what this country is supposed to be about," he said. "The thing is, Tennessee values and Southern values are the same as Hispanic values. They're church, family and hard work."


Hispanics are latest to face anti-immigrant sentiment

Potok, of the Southern Poverty Law Center, said the negative stereotypes applied to Hispanic immigrants were also placed on other groups that entered the country in large numbers.

The Irish, Germans, Protestants, Catholics and Jews were all accused of spreading diseases, being disloyal to America and not speaking English correctly, he said.

"What these anti-immigration groups have in common with white supremacist groups is the belief that white people are the most endangered species on the planet," he said.


Tough talk in Washington

Fears of America's destruction are also being stoked at the highest levels of government, according to civil rights groups.

U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, a Colorado Republican who chairs the 92-member bipartisan House Immigration Reform Caucus, told a group of activists last year that illegal immigration is part of a global plot to destroy America.

Some have labeled Tancredo a racist, but he insists he's simply opposed to anyone of any color entering the country illegally. Tancredo is considered a hero by some anti-illegal immigration activists and frequently shows up at local events and rallies.

Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee has won new favor in the movement with his support of a measure to make English the national language. He also introduced legislation requiring that the national anthem, Pledge of Allegiance and all other symbols of national unity be recited in English. Alexander voted against Senate legislation Thursday that would overhaul U.S. immigration law. Alexander said it did not do enough to make the border more secure. (Tennessee's other senator, Bill Frist, the Republican Senate majority leader, voted in favor of the bill, which passed.)

One point of agreement between the two sides is that government policies allowing businesses to hire vast numbers of illegal immigrants are primarily responsible for the situation.

Both sides also blame the outsourcing of jobs and international trade agreements for damaging some Latin American economies and driving more Hispanics to America.

"No one I know is for illegal immigration, but there are economic realities, economic forces that are pushing people into the country," said Gonzalez, of Conexion Americas. "It's basic supply and demand. Jobs are available here, and demand for jobs is over there."

Published: Sunday, 05/28/06

5/28/2006 04:53:00 PM | |

Saturday, May 27, 2006 

Minuteklan to start border fence

Minutemen to start border fence

By Jerry Seper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published May 27, 2006

The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps (MCDC) will begin construction of new fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border in Palominas, Ariz., today in the wake of the Senate's passage of an immigration reform bill the Minutemen have criticized as amnesty.

"The vote to give amnesty to millions of illegal aliens by the U.S. Senate, should it pass into law, would ensure that the status quo is maintained. The borders would remain wide open and the attractive nuisance of endless welfare and social programs at the expense of the American taxpayer would remain," said MCDC President Chris Simcox.

"Those climbing over the backs of those waiting patiently to abide by our laws and instead breaking the law, illegally entering this country, and committing document fraud, those not paying taxes and those hiring illegally would be granted full amnesty," Mr. Simcox said. "This sends the message that if you play by the rules, you suffer; if you enter the United States illegally, you are not subject to the rule of law."

More than 1.15 million illegal aliens were apprehended last year by the Border Patrol, more than half of whom were caught in Arizona.

The MCDC, working with WeNeedAFence.com, a grass-roots group that began a campaign last year to construct a secure barrier along the Southwest border, has partnered with six landowners for construction of fencing on their properties and has raised more than $200,000 in donations so far to pay for the project.

Surveillance cameras on the fencing will be monitored via computer by registered Minutemen volunteers across the country, Mr. Simcox said.

"No fence can be a 100 percent impenetrable barrier -- but a good design will be time-consuming enough to get through that Border Patrol agents can be alerted to get to a point of attempted intrusion before the intrusion can be completed," he said.

The fence's design was the work of WeNeedAFence.com, whose founder, Colin Hanna, described the Arizona project as a "bold and creative private-sector initiative" to bring a secure physical barrier along the nation's southern border.

"We are thankful that 259 members of Congress and 83 senators have voted for a border security fence," he said. "It is time for the House and Senate to work together to ensure that every high-traffic border region is protected with a secure physical barrier so that America can remain a nation of legal immigrants."

Mr. Simcox and Mr. Hanna will attend today's ground-breaking ceremonies. Two construction companies have offered to begin building the fence, coordinate volunteer construction crews and donate the use of heavy construction equipment, Mr. Simcox said.

In December, the Pennsylvania-based WeNeedAFence.com first proposed that a privately built fence be erected on the southern border, delivering 20,000 petitions to members of Congress asking that a fence provision be included in any immigration bill.

The organization wants separate fences on both sides of the border, each 12- to 15-feet high, separated by a roadway to allow the passage of Border Patrol vehicles. Motion sensors would be buried in the road as part of the project. The structure would be 40 to 50 yards wide, with coiled barbed wire 8 feet high on each perimeter. The cost has been estimated at $4 billion to $8 billion.

5/27/2006 04:33:00 PM | |

Friday, May 26, 2006 

Minuteklan, walkers plan Memorial Day activities

Minutemen, walkers plan Memorial Day activities


CLAUDINE LoMONACO
Tucson Citizen
05.26.2006


Groups from opposite sides of the immigration divide are gearing up for Memorial Day weekend activities to bring attention to what both call a failed border policy.

Seventy-six people have registered for a seven-day walk through the desert from the Sasabe Port of Entry to Tucson to commemorate the hundreds of illegal immigrants who have died.
Another 70 or so will join the group for least part of the "Migrant Trail," which begins Monday, organizers said.

Members of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps will kick off a three-day fence-building project Saturday to fortify a 10-mile stretch of border along a private ranch in Palominas. Organizers expect about 350 volunteers.

Jim Campbell, a 63-year-old Phoenix retiree, donated $100,000 to the Minuteman effort.
At one time, he relied on illegal immigrants, he admitted.

"There was nobody else to do the work," Campbell said. "But that was six years ago. They were nowhere near the burden they are right now."

Campbell said he hoped the fence would help stop illegal immigrants who overburden schools, hospitals and law enforcement agencies.

Project organizers wanted to build an Israeli-style military fence, but rancher Jack Ladd objected to the design, said Minuteman spokesperson Connie Hair. The new design will consist of a vehicle barrier and barbed-wire fence.

Maria Padilla Jim, a patient care technician, was inspired to join the "Migrant Trail" last year after treating seriously injured migrants in University Medical Center's emergency room.

"They would come in with Kotex pads in their shoes to soak up all the blood," she said.

Others survived but suffered permanent kidney failure and require dialysis for the rest of their lives.

"There's women and children and old people dying for jobs," Padilla Jim said. "I don't think they should be forgotten."

The 75-mile walk winds through the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge and Altar Valley, where dozens of people died last year.

5/26/2006 03:53:00 PM | |

Thursday, May 25, 2006 

Fremont, CA- group forms 'There's nothing about the Minutemen that we don't like'

5/25/2006 02:33 AM


Anti-amnesty group forms in Fremont
'There's nothing about the Minutemen that we don't like'

By Chris De Benedetti, STAFF WRITER
Inside Bay Area

FREMONT — Their name may be new, but their goals remain the same.

Or so say leaders of a Fremont group opposing illegal immigration that has considered becoming a local chapter of the Minutemen, the national civilian border watch group.

But after about 60 people met Monday night in Fremont, the Minutemen affiliation temporarily was put on hold, and instead a local group calling itself the East Bay Coalition for Border Security was formed.

"It's an important first step if we're going to turn this into a campaign," said Charles Dirkman of Fremont, a co-founder of the group.

The meeting grew somewhat chaotic when librarians asked the overflow crowd to leave the Fremont Main Library's meeting room because the number of attendees exceeded capacity, Dirkman said. Those at the impromptu offshoot meeting, held in the library parking lot, took only the initial step of signing up to express interest in creating a Fremont-based Minutemen chapter — but at a later date.

Meanwhile, inside the library another group formed a board of officers that will serve as a decision-making body for the East Bay Coalition for Border Security's membership, which shares the Minutemen philosophy if not its official affiliation.

"We didn't formally start the Minutemen chapter, but we may become a chapter in the future," Dirkman said of the new coalition. "Ideologically, we're the same (as the Minutemen). There's nothing about the Minutemen that we don't like."

Dirkman, a 25-year-old college student, will serve as secretary and co-spokesman for the newly formed anti-illegal immigration group. Casey Fargo, a Livermore resident who works in Fremont, was chosen as group president.

Administrative rather than philosophical reasons likely contributed to the delay in creating a local Minutemen chapter. Chapters may be formed only by a collection of individuals who already have joined the controversial group. Thus, many nonmembers who attended the meeting Monday first must join the national Minutemen organization, Dirkman said.

Individuals applying for membership to become Minutemen must undergo a background check, which takes a couple of days, said Tim Bueler, a Minuteman Project spokesman based in Orange County. Also, any member who participates in border-watch activities first is given a psychological evaluation, he added.

The Minutemen nationwide have 200 chapters and 200,000 individual members, Bueler said. Turnaround for chapter applications normally takes a week or two, he said.

"They just need to go online, print out our pledge, sign it and mail it tous," he said.

Meanwhile, some leaders of the Fremont anti-illegal immigration group said they are trying different methods to galvanize support. Last week, Dirkman led a Bible meeting attended by a handful of people to put the immigration issue in "biblical terms," he said. Dirkman added that he intends to keep separate the East Bay Coalition for Border Security and the smaller Christian gatherings unless the group's officers decide otherwise.

The Fremont organization's next rally — its first since taking its new name — will be from 5 to 7 p.m. June 2 at Fremont Boulevard and Mowry Avenue.

The group has held several rallies at that same location in the past month in response to pro-amnesty marches held state- and nationwide. The debate continued Wednesday when the U.S. Senate voted 73-25 to advance a bill that would tighten border security, stiffen penalties for employers hiring illegal immigrants and give immigrants a chance to become citizens after illegally entering the country.

Grass-roots organizations say they hope to influence the imminent debate on the Senate and House's harsher bill, which would charge illegal immigrants with a felony.

"It seems like it's all growing so fast, and there are all kinds of little groups (opposed to illegal immigration) forming across the country," Dirkman said. "As long as there's this momentum, they're going to find a way to relate with each other."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

5/25/2006 09:07:00 AM | |

 

Minuteklan heed rancher, scale back fence plans

05.25.2006

Minutemen heed rancher, scale back fence plans

350 volunteers expected for weekend work

By Arthur H. Rotstein

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

A border-watch group will alter its plans for an elaborate border security fence southeast of Tucson to accommodate the needs of the host rancher, a spokeswoman said Wednesday.

The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps will be building two parallel 14-foot high, 150-feet-long steel mesh fences over the Memorial Day weekend to serve as a model on Jack Ladd's ranch in Palominas, but its design will be changed at his request, spokeswoman Connie Hair said.

Minuteman volunteers also will build about 10 miles of fortified range fencing for Ladd, including five-strand barbed wire fortified with vertical steel rail posts, backed by coiled concertina wire and behind that, angled and crisscrossed steel rails embedded in concrete to act as vehicle barriers. The rails also will be designed to keep Ladd's cattle from reaching the concertina wire, Hair said.

In all, 350 volunteers will construct the fencing, she said. Several hundred more will set up stationary observation posts along the Mexican border near Naco over the holiday period, notifying the U.S. Border Patrol if they spot any illegal immigrants trying to cross.

Drug smugglers in heavy-duty pickup trucks routinely crash through Ladd's current barbed-wire fencing. The wire fencing also is frequently cut by coyotes — smugglers leading illegal immigrants about three miles north across his property from the border to Arizona 92.

The original heavy-gauge mesh fencing complex was to have included a 6-foot deep trench to the south, facing Mexico.

Based on an Israeli security design, the trench was intended to keep vehicles from crashing through, with coiled and razor-edged concertina wire between the trench and the mesh fencing.

A graded dirt road initially was planned between the two mesh fences, with more concertina wire and another trench planned for the north side of the interior fence.

But Ladd told the Sierra Vista Herald that he didn't want a fence of that design. "What we want is a barbed-wire fence with metal railings that will keep the drive-throughs from occurring and keep Mexican cattle out."

In the model, concertina wire will be placed between the parallel mesh fences, Hair said.

"The trench and the concertina wire (on the outside) are not going to work because he has cattle," Hair said.

"He wanted to change and modify the design. This was what he wanted. And so we are always happy to defer to the rancher."

The work also calls for mounting inexpensive video cameras on posts. The cameras can be monitored from home computers.

Hair said some materials and equipment and all the labor have been donated. A Phoenix home builder, Jim Campbell, has donated $100,000, bringing total donations to $380,000 since the group first put plans for building a border fence on its Web site about three weeks ago, Hair said.

There are plans to install the mesh-style fencing on a neighboring ranch within the next month, she said.

5/25/2006 06:07:00 AM | |

Wednesday, May 24, 2006 

Utah Minuteklan protests Vicente Fox's visit to Salt Lake City

Demonstrators on Tuesday protest against Mexican President Vicente Fox
and illegal immigration in front of the Governor's Mansion while Fox and
Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. dine inside. Brandt Barker, left, 20, of West Jordan,
recites the Pledge of allegiance Tuesday in front of the Governor's Mansion
during a Utah Minutemen rally. (Jim Urquhart / The Salt Lake Tribune)

Utah Minutemen protest Vicente Fox's visit to SLC

'Go back to Mexico': Some demonstrators blame the president for Mexicans coming across the U.S. border illegally

By Lisa Rosetta

The Salt Lake Tribune

5/24/2006 09:47 AM

Toting American flags and waving large banners, about 100 people assembled in front of the Governor's Mansion on Tuesday night, yelling and chanting at Mexican President Vicente Fox's motorcade as he arrived for the State Dinner.

"Go back to Mexico, Fox, we don't want you here!" one man yelled. "Take care of your own people, Fox! Take care of your own citizens so they don't have to come here!"

Standing behind yellow police tape near the edge of the sidewalk, the demonstrators, most of them Utah Minutemen, cheered as drivers on South Temple honked their horns and waved, signaling their support.

Other drivers crept along, their windows rolled down, and waved - with one finger.

Upset by the Utah Minuteman Project's protest, Troy C. Gottfredson showed up with a flattened Corona beer box with his own message scrawled on it: "Welcome President Fox."

"They [the Minutemen] want them [undocumented workers] lynched. They want them dragged out," said Gottfredson, who saw the Minutemen protest on TV and rushed to the Governor's Mansion to stage his own protest - against the Minutemen.

"There's just no positive; it's angry," he said. "It's unfortunate. It's just too angry for me."

Utah Minutemen, however, said their message is not imbued with racism or hatred. Securing the borders, and deporting undocumented workers here, is a matter of national security.

Wally McCormick, a Utah Minuteman who visited the U.S.-Mexico border in April 2005, said American families there carry guns on their hips and live in constant fear. Mexicans knock on their doors in the middle of the night, demanding food, water and liquor.

McCormick and Darrel Wood, another Minuteman who visited the border, said they're angry Fox is in Utah, dining with Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and initiating political dialogue.

"He's a socialist dictator oppressing the lower class, so much so that they [Mexicans] are forced to leave their country," Wood said. "I think he is responsible for a lot of deaths on the border."

Close to Wood, Salt Lake City police officers ushered some Minutemen off the sidewalk and toward the street for security reasons, a move that raised the ire of Land Reay, a Taylorsville man who showed up to support the Minutemen's cause.

"He [the police officer] should have that much spine at the Rio Grande!" Reay yelled through cupped hands.

Vicki Smith, who is not a Minuteman but supports the group's cause, said her family is fighting wars in two countries.

While her son is disassembling explosives in Ramadi, Iraq, Smith says she is battling illegal immigration on her home soil. Undocumented workers, she said, are a drain on social services and American taxpayers.

"When my ancestors immigrated here they didn't do it on the backs of other Americans. There was no welfare or bilingual education," she said. "We need to be defending the border, and we need to be doing it faster, harder and long before now."

5/24/2006 01:27:00 PM | |

Tuesday, May 23, 2006 

Ranch owner wants Minutemen to scale back fence

A rancher whose land is to be used for a border security group's elaborate fence may ask that it be scaled back.

Palominas rancher Jack Ladd, who owns the property where the fence is to be built, is also uneasy with the barrier design.

"(The Minutemen) had a diagram of what they wanted to build, and we did not want something like that," he said. "What we want is a barbed-wire fence with metal railings that will keep the drive-throughs from occurring and keep Mexican cattle out."

The proposed Minuteman Civil Defense Corps fence, two parallel 12-to-15-foot fences with anti-vehicle ditches and eight feet of coiled barbed wire on either side, also has caught the eye of county officials.

"I do agree that people should be able to build fences, and I don't think the government should inhibit that," said Cochise County Supervisor Paul Newman. "But seeing the diagram (posted on the Minuteman web site), it concerns me that it really is a military-like structure-- in fact it's designed after an Israeli military barrier."

Minuteman President Chris Simcox said in April his group would start building fencing because the government has failed to secure the nation's southern border. The group chose a design similar to one used by Israel in Gaza and the West Bank that has proven effective in curtailing terrorist attacks.

The group's national executive director, Al Garza, said the Minutemen are willing to alter the design to suit the ranch owner, but not the county government.

"It's going to be (Ladd's) preference, obviously, so if he wants to change it, he certainly will have the option," he said.

But Garza said they're not obligated to clear plans with local officials.

"How do illegal immigrants get into our country? Do they ask permission? They do not," he said.

The group plans to kick off its fence-building this weekend.

Organizers said they have signed up 1,000 people to help with construction and have collected $225,000 in donations to pay for materials.

The group hopes to raise another $10 million to build more fencing along the border.

5/23/2006 10:56:00 PM | |

 

Minuteklan Camps Out in Bay Area

Minutemen Camp Out in Bay Area

(KCBS) -- A controversial group of civilian border watchers, dubbed the "Minutemen" may be opening their first chapter here in the Bay Area, in a move that is already being denounced by immigration supporters.

Instead of watching the border, KCBS' Matt Bigler reported these men will be watching street corners where day laborers gather, hoping to catch employers hiring illegal immigrants.

"We're looking at going after particularly abusive and gross violators of our employment laws. That is, businesses that are hiring in a very blatant manner, illegal immigrants," said Charles Birkman with Golden Gate Minutemen.

Birkman said he formed the Fremont group in response to the recent wave of pro-immigration rallies in the Bay Area.

However, wherever the Minutemen go, controversy seems to follow.

"I think the Minutemen are misguided individuals," said Richard Konda with the Asian Law Alliance.

Konda told CBS Five there are other ways to solve the current immigration system without using vigilante tactics.

Last night the first meeting of the Golden Gate Minutemen attracted about fifteen people.

5/23/2006 08:08:00 PM | |

Monday, May 22, 2006 

Sunday's Protestors May Face Misdemeanor Charges

Sunday's Protestors May Face Misdemeanor Charges

(CBS) LOS ANGELES The three counter-demonstrators that were arrested during Sunday’s downtown rally that was held by the Minutemen and other groups opposed to illegal immigration may face misdemeanor charges of interfering with a march.

About 100 people -- including homeless activist Ted Hayes, who has sided with the Minutemen -- participated in a march from Broadway and Olympic Boulevard to City Hall yesterday, outnumbered at least two to one by pro-immigrant demonstrators.

Helmeted police officers, who tried to keep the groups separated, reported that the counter-demonstrators threw eggs and a glass bottle at them.

The three suspects were booked at Parker Center on suspicion of interfering with a march or disobeying an officer's orders, said Los Angeles police Sgt. R.L. Johnson of the Central Station.

Prosecutors with the City Attorney's Office will decide whether to charge the three, whose names were not immediately released.

Hayes said illegal immigrants drive down wages and create intolerable working conditions by working for "emploslavers."

"We're saying, as blacks, we will not work slave wage jobs, and we will not allow our companeros to be slaves either," Hayes said.

Simon Blanco, 25, denounced the marchers as fascists.

"What is more criminal, to work to help your family and lift the economy of this country or to sow hate and attack ethnic groups?" he asked in Spanish.

P acted as a barrier between the marchers and the counter-protesters on the sidewalks.

"The people are very angry, the tensions are flying," said immigration amnesty supporter John Osmand, 36, of Ventura, who charged that the Minutemen sought to trigger a riot while pro-immigrant activists demonstrated "a great deal of self-restraint."

5/22/2006 05:45:00 PM | |

 

Minuteklan offshoot pickets day-labor site


Encinitas group targets illegal-immigrant hiring

By Elena Gaona

UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

May 21, 2006

ENCINITAS – In its first official action, the Encinitas Citizens Brigade protested the hiring of illegal immigrants at a popular day-labor site on Encinitas Boulevard yesterday.

Some two dozen residents from Encinitas and around Southern California had just formed the Minuteman offshoot group over coffee and eggs at 7 a.m.

“Glad to see you all here,” group founder Saul Lisauskas, 62, a mechanical engineer in Encinitas, told the group over breakfast. “Welcome. This is the start of this group.”

As tensions rise over illegal immigration, the Encinitas Citizens Brigade joins the Vista Citizens Brigade and the San Diego Minutemen out of Oceanside as the third Minuteman Project offshoot group of citizens organized against illegal immigration in North County. Armed with signs, flags and cameras, the new group then headed to a day-labor spot just west of Interstate 5 where about two dozen laborers and about a dozen immigrant supporters waited with their own flags, signs and video cameras.

A rotating group of about four sheriff's deputies kept watch over the generally peaceful protest, which escalated no further than tense, face-to-face discussions between the two camps and a few heated shouts.

“We're just U.S. citizens protecting our country,” said Minuteman and retired lab technician Larry Culbertson of San Juan Capistrano, who helped the local group get started.

“No trabajo hoy!” –no work today – he shouted to day laborers and in the direction of their would-be employers.

“Only Traitors Hire Illegals,” one sign read.

A handful of hirings still took place across the street and behind the crowd, but roofers, landscapers and painters drove their trucks past the site and drove away without workers.

Lisauskas said the Minuteman groups are accomplishing their purpose – to remove the work incentive for immigrants to come to places such as North County.

The Encinitas Citizens Brigade members were given yellow fliers to hand out to potential employers, warning them: “Hiring Illegal Aliens is a Federal Crime! . . . DO NOT pick up workers from day labor sites. The majority of the workers are in this country illegally.”

Day laborers saw few jobs and instead held up flags and signs, saying they are glad to be in America and just want to work.

“They are racists,” undocumented immigrant Erik Lopez, 17, of Guatemala said as he stood looking at the crowd. “They treat us like dirt, when we are the ones who keep their homes in order.”

Lopez, who has been coming to the pickup site for about a year, said Minuteman groups have visited the site about seven times and that it is decreasing the number of jobs he gets.

Claudia Smith, an attorney with California Rural Legal Assistance, was at the demonstration and says such rallies are bullying tactics that infringe upon the rights of permanent U.S. residents who may seek work at day-labor sites.

The Minutemen have a policy of not asking for the documents of any workers, said San Diego Minutemen founder and retired Marine Jeff Schwilk of Oceanside. Schwilk says the groups aren't racist, and that it is Latino activists who appear to be racist by not assimilating.

Though the Encinitas protest was peaceful, similar gatherings in Vista have gotten ugly, immigrant supporters said.

Minutemen in Vista recently harassed day laborers and Latino store owners at a popular day-labor site at a Vista shopping center, said Sylvia Ramos with Vista's Coalition of Justice, Peace and Dignity, a human-rights group.

Self-employed furniture finisher Mike Spencer of Vista, who helped start the Vista Citizens Brigade, said the group's actions are peaceful.

Patrols of day-labor sites and monitoring of camps where immigrant workers live in crude shanty homes will continue in Vista, Fallbrook, Ramona, Poway, Carlsbad, Oceanside and Escondido, the groups' members said.

“We need to get on with the job the president will not do,” Lisauskas said.

5/22/2006 04:09:00 PM | |

Sunday, May 21, 2006 

Fremont group considers joining the Minuteklan

Fremont group considers joining the Minutemen

Activist says Bushs guest worker program is slap in face to Americans

By Chris De Benedetti, STAFF WRITER
Inside Bay Area
05/21/2006 02:39:08 AM

FREMONT — A grass-roots group opposed to granting amnesty to illegal immigrants will meet Monday to consider organizing formally as a Fremont-based chapter of the national civilian border watch group known as the Minutemen.

Casey Fargo, a local foe of illegal immigration, said he and other anti-amnesty protesters will discuss if they want a local chapter, possibly called the Golden Gate Minutemen, to represent just the Tri-City area or the entire Bay Area.

Were trying to move ahead while weve got quite a bit of momentum, said Fargo, a Livermore resident who works in Fremont.

National leaders of the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps garnered attention recently when they announced that next week the group will begin building a fence on private U.S. land near the Mexico border.

Critics have charged that the Minutemen are vigilantes whose border-watch activities are racist and hinder the Border Patrols enforcement as much as they help.

But Minutemen members strongly deny those accusations. They point to their membership pledge, which states there is no tolerance of racism among Minutemen, and they assert that legal immigrants who have respected the law are being unfairly hurt by the presence of an estimated 12 million illegals nationwide.

However, amnesty advocates argue that illegal immigrants labor provides several benefits to Americans, including keeping prices down for U.S. consumers.

In Fremont, organizers Fargo and Charles Dirkman say they have made contact with Minutemen members and protesters in Santa Clara and Napa in hopes of expanding their network of anti-amnesty activists.

Fargo and Dirkman also held a rally Friday at the intersection of Mowry Avenue and Fremont Boulevard, the location of several other protests they have planned in response to the pro-amnesty demonstrations held statewide since March.

Some leaders in both the Democratic and Republican parties responded positively to President Bushs speech Monday on the immigration issue. But like the Minutemen, local opponents of undocumented immigrants strongly disagree with many of the new proposals Bush outlined in his speech.

Bushs temporary guest worker program proposal, for example, is a slap in the face to every American worker out there, said Fargo, 25. Its not that were not doing the jobs, its that we cant do the jobs at those wages. Its real degrading to the American worker.

The gathering, which planners have termed the Minuteman/Patriots Organizational, Planning and Covenant Meeting, will begin at 6:30 p.m. Monday in the Fukaya Room at Fremont Main Library, 2400 Stevenson Blvd.

5/21/2006 11:50:00 AM | |

Friday, May 19, 2006 

Minuteklan speaks at Republican Women's Club in Texas

By Stephen Webster
Investigative Reporter
For: The Lone Star Iconoclast,

Photo by Stephen Webster
Brian Burns, a member of the Texas Minuteman Project, spoke at the Republican Women's Club of Denton County on Wednesday, May 17, 2006.

“We should get some of them crazy Florida ‘gaters’ an’ put ‘em in the river,” said an old, wrinkled woman. She reached up to her overlaid, curly, gray bowl-cut and goosed it with the base of her right palm. “That way, when them Mexicans come runnin’ across the border, they’ll git eat’n up. And it’ll be good ‘cause our boys in the patrol’ll be able to see ‘em an’ hear ‘em. Heh-heh. They’ll just run up on ‘em and put one b’tween they eyes real easy.”

“Yeaap,” said the old woman’s equally old and wrinkled husband, his mostly-hairless chrome dome dotted with liver spots and cancers. “Gett’um,” he concluded in a guttural tone. The crowd laughed and clapped and rolled their heads. Women with makeup so thick their faces looked like mannequins hee-hawed and stomped their feet; elder, burly-looking husbands sitting in the corners of the Republicans Women’s Club, snickered and held their heads down slightly, keeping at eye-level with each other. The day’s speaker, Brian Burns – a member of the Texas Minuteman Project – smiled and looked down. A much more cordial and well-spoken man, he seemed uneasy with this type of speak, but joined in the chorus of laughter nonetheless.

On Wednesday, May 17, the Denton County Republican Women’s Club met at Golden Corral in Denton to hear a guest speaker from the Texas Minuteman Project. Burns, who owns a home inspection company in Dallas, is a member of this group of vigilantes who have taken it upon themselves to patrol the Texas/Mexico border in search of Mexican citizens attempting to cross illegally.

“However, everyone,” said Burns. “You should know that Golden Corral is one of the top employers in the U.S. for hiring illegal aliens and Mexicans.” Several of the organizers frowned and glanced around the room nervously. “And you can find out the others by going to ‘www.wehirealiens.com.’ Okay? Everyone get that address?”

Roughly 25 party faithful were in attendance, including Denton County’s new District Attorney Paul Johnson. Diane Edmondson, the party’s chairwoman for the region, introduced Burns to the group, calling him ‘a hero’ and ‘a brave and honorable man.’

“The President and our Senators are ignoring us, ladies and gentlemen!” said Edmondson. “Bush is a phony and a liar if he thinks he can just send a few National Guard people down there for a year. He’s in bed with Vicente Fox. Now look, I don’t really think you came to hear me speak, so take a listen to our guest today. He’s a Texas Minuteman and has spent lots of time on the border. Please welcome Brian Burns.”

The audience applauded. One man whistled.

Burns introduced himself by giving the audience a brief history of his professional career. Though presently the owner of Burns Home Inspections, LLC, he spent six years prior as an Air Medic pilot for Children’s Medical Center. “I first got interested in this problem with the Mexicans when I was making flights over El Paso,” said Burns. “We started picking up pregnant illegals who had just crossed the border that day and wanted to have their children in the county hospital – which is paid for, for free.”

Several present gasped, shaking their heads and covering their mouths in disbelief.

“One trip costs us about five-grand in the aircraft I flew. Five thousand going there and five thousand going back. So, about ten grand. But that is just for the flight. Then, it is about seven to ten thousand for the birth. So, we’re talking anywhere between ten, fifteen, twenty thousand dollars … ah, every time they come across. Yeah. Got my interest.”

On the tables in the banquet room, the group had laid pamphlets and business cards with contact names and phone numbers for various Texas Minutemen “officers.” There were several pamphlets lying around. One, titled “Common Sense on Mass Immigration,” depicts the New York City skyline shrouded in clouds, three bright rays of light shining down. Under the rays of light, the clouds are burned away, revealing where the twin towers once stood, remembered in this image draped in American flags.

A single-sheet flyer the group was circulating reads, “Don’t give up the fight against guest worker/amnesty legislation!” It lists eight bullet points, most one sentence or less, that it calls “strong evidence,” but provides no substantiation or reference. Evidence such as, “In a shocking [revelation], the Senate’s ‘immigration reform plan’ would: Let an estimated 103 million immigrants into the U.S. over the next 20 years – that’s over one-third of the current population of the United States. Grant immediate amnesty for 10 million illegal aliens … Open the door for nearly four times as many permanent worker visas as are now issued” … and “[p]rovide for the largest expansion of the welfare state ever and cost the American taxpayer $46 billion per year. … [H]alf of all adult illegal immigrants in the U.S. have less than a high-school education. In addition, recent immigrants have high levels of our-of-wedlock childbearing, which increases welfare costs and poverty.”

“You know what,” said Burns. “Every single time Bush opens his mouth about immigration, I swear to you, border traffic, people coming in illegally, it increases by about 25 percent.” Again, the audience seemed shocked. Riveted, even. Several men stood together, shaking their heads and holding their plates. They walked out and headed back for the buffet. They returned with apple pie and ice cream.

“I am very upset with the fact that he said … He, he wants to please everybody,” continued Burns. “He wants to look at Vicente Fox and say, ‘I’m not being bad!’ But then he wants to turn to the American people and say, ‘Oh, ah, I’m being tough on illegal immigration. Bush can’t have it both ways. His plan is completely watered down. If you talk to any military man and you tell him, ‘You can’t carry any weapons, and you can’t enforce the law,’ they’re gonna be extremely frustrated.”

Burns’ conclusions? “We need military intervention. They need to go in there and do what they do. They need to be keeping our laws. These are foreign nationals coming in our country … This has no conflict with Posse Commitatus. Everyone knows that Posse Commitatus says the military cannot act in a role of law enforcement. And they’re not. They’re not turning around and arresting American citizens. They would be turned around, facing Mexico. Faxing the national border. There should be no excuses for this!”

“What we need is a bio-metric social security card,” concluded Burns. “We need a national database and a new type of social security card with a finger print, the number, your photograph and a smart chip inside.”

This reporter raised his hand, as other had prior, to ask a question.

“Yes sir?” said Burns.

“You’re talking about a National I.D. card? That is exactly what Tom Ridge proposed a few years ago. A new type of ‘social security.’”

“Ah, no. No it isn’t,” said Burns. “That’s … That’s something totally different. I’m not even gonna touch that one.”

I shrugged and Burns continued on.

“Some say we have to deport all of them and raid the workplaces and punish the employers. I don’t know that is possible. There are others that actually want to give American citizenship to these people for free. Well … I don’t think so. But nobody ever mentions the other solution: attrition. Ya see, if you just cut off our social services to them over night, that would do the trick. If you stopped educating their kids, stopped providing free health care of any kind, if you stopped letting them go to work … You’d just about solve the problem overnight. If they can’t work they can’t eat. And if they can’t eat, they’ll probably just leave.”

“Here here!” shouted the old woman with the bowl-cut. “Burns for president!” Several in the audience chuckled.

Walking out of the meeting, a woman named Cindy Lou flagged this reporter down and asked to go on the record. “Hey, you with media? I wanna talk to you. I’m Cindy. Hi. I live in Denton County,” she said. “Sort of between Sanger and Denton. So it’s the county. Just say Denton County, okay?”

Cindy Lou boasted that she is one of “the original Minutemen,” and explained that she had quit two jobs to join the Arizona Minutemen on the border for 97 days. “I only saw a few of them commin’ across, you know? They’re sneaky. But I called I.C.E. [Immigrations and Customs Enforcement] on ‘em. I love taking credit for that. I call I.C.E. on every illegal ‘Messy-can’ I can.” She laughed, apparently amused by her rhyme.

“I think these Mexicans should be considered felons and deported,” she insisted. “I think the best way to get the wall built and secure our nation better is to make the deportees, prior to being deported … they should make them prisoners for a while, and put them in prison labor camps. Put the prisoners in tents, like Sheriff [inaudible] does in, um … um … Arizona. Like he does. Put the prisoners in tents, in the desert, and make them work for their food. I think all them Mexicans should be deported, but prior to being deported, they should be put in prison camps in the desert so they can build the wall for us. That way they can pay for their food and their way … their crimes against OUR Homeland.”

A brown-skinned man wearing a Golden Corral apron and torn, dirty, white baseball cap took a seat about five feet behind her, leaning over a plate of food. He glanced up at her several times, paying special attention when she said the words “Mexican” or “illegal.” He said nothing, choosing to continue eating instead.

“Yeah, and once we deport them, if they come back they need to be held a lot longer so they get it,” continued Cindy Lou. “We’ll make ‘em clean up the landscape. We have hundreds and hundreds of miles of beautiful desert that has nothing but dirty clothing, trash, toiletries … I’ve seen big piles of plastic bottles full of urine. It is disgusting. Make the ‘Messy-cans’ clean up their piss!”

I chuckled and said, “You know, truckers … American truckers … they do that thing with the urine in the bottle, too. They call ‘em ‘Trucker Bombs.’ Ever see that?”

She laughed uncomfortably. “Yeah. It’s gross. These Mexicans are everywhere. I can’t believe it.” She seemed to miss the point.

“It’s like a dog that shits on the carpet,” she said with a snort. “Before you pick up the shit, you take the dog and put his nose in it and give ‘em a few swats on the behind. You gotta tell ‘em ‘NO!’ and stick they nose in it. Look, if they are coming over to love America and be Americans, why would they trash our land? Would I come in to your country and shit on your back porch? No. Why would you do that to us?”

The Golden Corral employee was drinking from a translucent red cup. When Cindy Lou said this he slammed it down on the table, soda splashing out onto his hand and plate. He collected his things hurriedly and stood up. As he walked away, he turned and cast a dagger gaze at her over his right shoulder. She didn’t notice.

“You mean an illegal immigrant did that on your back porch?” I asked.

“Well … no, but you know what I mean,” she replied, again laughing. She reached out and touched my right arm with two fingers, as though she had known me for more than a few moments.

“They should be jailed,” she said. “They should be kep’ in tents, under guard with automatic rifles, they should be used to build the wall and if they come back again, then they need to get out there and clean up their trash. I couldn’t be happier that Halliburton is building these camps already. But I don’t think they’ll enforce it. Bush is strong on talk. He loves to talk like he’s a big, strong man and tough on crime, when he’s not. He is obviously in bed … with … you know, ah, their president. Fox. He’s just trying to make Fox happy. He’s in bed with Mexico. Bush is selling out America.”

Before walking away, she made sure to plug her blog, leaning into this reporter’s recorder. “I do the blog regularly,” she said. “All the time, actually. There’s lots of good information there. I blog at h-t-t-p, um … forward-slash. Or is it backward? I don’t know about these things, uh … Anyway, its ‘goonface.blogspot.com’ right? Check it out. I think you’ll like it.”

On Cindy Lou’s blog, titled “Un-American ‘Goonage,’” one can find a host of photographs of demonstrators from the last couple months of civil action among the Latino community. Some shots depict protesters, most of them white-skinned Americans, as “people [that] SUPPORT ILLEGAL ALIENS!” Others show convicted criminals of Latino descent. One such post shows a man who killed a police officer. The caption reads, “That’s right! Illegals doing the job Americans won’t do!” The blog’s introductory paragraph claims, “the faces you see on this page, only a mother could love,” and goes on to assert that the Mexicans plan to “take over America” and that “using violence isn’t a problem with their agendas.”

In spite of Cindy Lou’s claims, no arrests were made in Dallas on April 9, when over 500,000 people marched. No arrests were made at Dallas city hall on May 1, when 15,000 showed up for the May Day Boycott. And no arrests were made in Washington D.C., when over a million men, women and children of all colors marched in solidarity with the new civil rights movement.

“You better believe I call I.C.E. every time I see one of them. Every time,” said Cindy Lou.

“But how can you tell who is a citizen and who isn’t?” I asked.

“Well … I …” She paused, seemingly frustrated by the question. “I, uh, I have video footage of their arrests from the border and at the Home Depot, you know, where they like, go and get together and look for illegal work. And I’ve seen it happen when I didn’t call I.C.E., but I recorded the arrests anyway. I got it on tape and sent it to Congressman Burgess. At least he says stuff and stands up for us against the ‘Messy-cans,’ but he sure doesn’t do much about it. It’s almost like they’re just gonna let ‘em overrun us. We should just surrender Texas to Mexico today and be done with it. Hell, I won’t be here when it happens. Fuck that.”

5/19/2006 04:12:00 PM | |

Thursday, May 18, 2006 

San Diego Minuteklan increase political activities

John Monti of Save Our State walked through a migrant worker camp in Peñasquitos Canyon after a news conference in which the San Diego Minutemen endorsed Escondido City Councilwoman Marie Waldron for Assembly.



Minutemen increase political activities

Group backs candidate, enters migrant camp
By Leslie Berestein
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

May 18, 2006

Day-labor pickup sites in North County have been getting some additional visitors lately, and not the kind who are there to hire anyone.

An anti-illegal immigrant activist group called the San Diego Minutemen and an offshoot group called the Vista Citizens Brigade have been going to day-labor sites in Vista and Carmel Valley to try to block the hiring of day laborers, many of whom are in the country illegally.

They have stepped up their efforts after the pro-immigrant national boycott May 1, an organizer said.

Since that time, San Diego police twice have responded to the Carmel Valley area, most recently yesterday after the San Diego Minutemen attended a news conference on Carmel Valley Road near state Route 56 to endorse Escondido City Councilwoman Marie Waldron for state Assembly. Members of other anti-illegal immigration activist groups, including Save Our State, also attended.

While no one has been arrested, police said, there have been some unpleasant incidents, including a minor verbal confrontation between an activist and a police officer yesterday. After the news conference, which also was attended by Bruce Ruff, a candidate for sheriff, several of the activists entered the adjacent McGonigle Canyon to scout around the homeless migrant worker camps there, police said.



Nicholas Melchor from Guerrero, Mexico, was in his makeshift house when the Minutemen arrived. Normally, Melchor works in the fields picking tomatoes.


Many of the homeless were hiding in the bushes by the time the activists came, because some day laborers who were outside the camp used cell phones to call those in the canyon.

“We hid in the hills, because they were going in there with their cameras, filming,” Aniceto Lopez Millán, 25, a homeless farmworker and day laborer, said in the canyon after the activists had gone.

Lopez said he had previously observed activists approaching the day-labor site above the encampment, getting out of their cars and “asking for papeles (papers), very angrily, very aggressive.”

Jeff Schwilk, who started the San Diego Minutemen last fall, said that his group has not harassed anyone for papers. Schwilk said the activists have been harassed by “hostile” police but that they are not breaking any laws.

“My people are told not to do anything like this,” he said. “They are told not to have any contact with the laborers.”

Instead, Schwilk said, the activists who have gone to the day-labor sites are focused on stopping employers from hiring laborers without checking legal status.

“We're there to inform and keep people from hiring from there,” said Schwilk, 42, a retired Marine. “To inform them they are violating federal law.”

He said the group has been out to the Carmel Valley site twice, once May 2, after visiting the homeless encampments, and again yesterday.

Police have responded on both occasions. The first time, they were there for at least a half-hour, said Florencio Pineda Benitez, a Latino catering-truck owner and longtime legal resident. Pineda said he was harassed and he was asked in Spanish for his papers, as were several day laborers.

“I told them they aren't cops or immigration (agents) to be asking for papers,” said Pineda, who said he has lived in the United States about 30 years. “He yelled in my face, 'I'm American.' I said back, 'I am a resident.' And he said back, 'Go back to Mexico.' ”

Schwilk said he recalled the yelling match, but denied any activists asked Pineda or anyone else there for papers.

Yesterday, a campaign manager for Waldron said the candidate was glad to have the endorsement of the San Diego Minutemen group. Waldron, who is running for the 74th District seat to be vacated by Assemblyman Mark Wyland – who is forced out by term limits – is making illegal immigration a major part of her campaign platform.

Waldron was not specifically aware of any of the group's operations, campaign manager Cynthia Determan said. Determan said the candidate did not go into the canyon with the group after her news conference.

5/18/2006 08:50:00 AM | |

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