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Minuteman Project

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Not to be confused with Minuteman Civil Defense Corps.

The Minuteman Project is an activist organization started in April 2005 [1] by a group of private individuals in the United States to monitor the United States–Mexico border's flow of illegal immigrants. Co-founded by Jim Gilchrist, the name derives from the Minutemen, militiamen who fought in the American Revolution. The Minuteman Project describes itself as "a citizens' Neighborhood Watch on our border", and has attracted media attention to illegal immigration.

Actions

Garden Grove incident

On May 25, 2005 James Gilchrist spoke in Garden Grove, California to the California Coalition for Immigration Reform at the Garden Grove Women's Club. Hal Netkin, a Minuteman supporter, came to the event. Netkin's car was surrounded as he arrived at the Garden Grove Women's Club, 9501 Chapman Ave., and demonstrators rocked the vehicle and banged on it, Garden Grove Police Lt. Mike Handfield said some of the 300 demonstrators were there "not to protest but to commit criminal acts" and "A small contingent of people that were troublemakers had backpacks filled with full cans of soda that they were throwing and also cans filled with marbles that they threw." Lt. Handfield said, ""We determined it was reasonable for him to move forward" through the crowd surrounding his car. Two people who were standing in front of Netkin's car fell down when he moved forward. Both went to the hospital. The police declared an illegal assembly. "It got out of control in terms of protesters getting violent," Lt. Handfield said. On the other hand, Jan Tucker, who accompanied state and local leaders of the League of United Latin American Citizens to the talk, stated that the crowd outside the building was peaceful.[2]

Columbia University incident

On October 4, 2006, approximately forty students and demonstrators stormed the stage of Alfred Lerner Hall during a Minuteman presentation at Columbia University in New York City, where Board Members Marvin Stewart and Gilchrist had been invited to speak. The student protesters rushed onto the stage with a yellow banner stating "No one is Illegal" in English, Spanish, and Arabic. The protesters then gathered outside the Columbia University gates and continued chanting. The protest was quickly broken up by security. The event spawned a public discussion at Columbia over freedom of speech and transparency regarding the process through which controversial speakers are invited to speak.[3] Columbia University president Lee Bollinger stated in a campus-wide email that "No one ... shall have the right or the power to use the cover of protest to silence speakers."[4] The event was monitored by several media organizations. Neil Cavuto of Fox News interviewed Stewart, an African American, to announce a "Hate Crime" lawsuit against Columbia University for the racial insults that Stewart endured during his 55 minute speech.

T-shirt incident

On April 6 2005, three Minuteman Project volunteers convinced a 25-year-old illegal immigrant to hold a T-shirt and pose for a photograph and a video with one of the volunteers. The T-shirt, which was also worn by volunteer Bryan Barton, read "Bryan Barton caught me crossing the border and all I got was this lousy T-shirt".

The volunteer encountered the suspect near a main highway while off duty from patrolling. He then contacted the Border Patrol. The volunteer shook the suspect's hand, held up a lettered T-shirt to commemorate the event, and gave the man $20 as the U.S. Border Patrol arrived and took the suspect into custody. Critics of the MMP raised questions about the incident, but an investigation by the Cochise County Sheriff's office cleared the volunteer of any wrongdoing. The Border Patrol and the Mexican consul agreed that no crime had been committed.

The ACLU issued a press release concerning this incident.[5] Bryan Barton since has launched a political campaign for a San Diego congressional district, and video of the actual incident can be viewed and downloaded at his campaign site.[6]

August 2007 fake murder video

In August 2007 the Southern Poverty Law Center reported the surfacing of two videos which appeared to depict the murder of an illegal immigrant along the Mexico/California border by two Minuteman vigilantes.[7] These videos appeared briefly on Youtube but were removed. In this video, a figure is videotaped in night vision being shot while two narrators exchange obscene comments expressing satisfaction about doing so.

A few days later, Minuteman representatives confirmed to a San Diego TV station that the videos were made by members and that they were fake.[8] Robert "Little Dog" Crooks, who admitted making the video, said "we're old men and we're bored" and said he made the video to express a political opinion about an immigration bill being debated.

Stopping aid to illegal border crossers

In January 2006, the California Minutemen (founded by Jim Chase, led by Mike Chase) stopped a program sponsored by Humane Borders and the government of Mexico to supply over 70,000 maps to migrants to aid their illegal entry into the United States.[9] Faced with the knowledge of several Title 8 United States Code section 1324 prosecutions in the United States against such illegal alien support groups as No More Deaths and the fact that thousands of California Minutemen patrolled vast sections of the American border lands 24/7, Humane Borders and the Mexican government decided to suspend the program. Miguel Angel Paredes, a spokesman for Mexico's National Human Rights Commission said "This would be practically like telling the Minutemen where the migrants are going to be" and as such, they'd have to "rethink this".[10]

Relations with the US Border Patrol

Jon Dougherty, author of "Illegals: The Imminent Threat Posed by Our Unsecured U.S.-Mexico Border," writes that the U.S. Border Patrol Union Local 2544, which covers the Tucson sector of the border, endorses the Minuteman Project. "We want to make it clear – because we've had a lot of questions about this – we have not had one single complaint from a rank-and-file agent in this sector about the Minutemen... Every report we've received indicates these people are very supportive of the rank-and-file agents; they're courteous. Many of them are retired firefighters, cops, and other professionals, and they're not causing us any problems whatsoever".[11]

Abid Aslam of OneWorld US, an internet news journal, writes that Border Patrol officials have expressed concern over the accidental tripping of border sensors[12].

Support for the Minute Men

On April 28, 2005, California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger praised the Minuteman Project during an interview on "The John and Ken Show" on Los Angeles radio station KFI, saying that the group had been doing "a terrific job".[13] He reiterated his supportive comments the following day, noting that the Minutemen would be welcome to patrol the border between California and Mexico.

Criticism of the Minuteman Project

The project has generated controversy, drawing criticism from former Mexican President Vicente Fox and United States President George W. Bush, who expressed dislike for "vigilante" border projects.[14] Additionally, the Minuteman Project and its chapters have been identified as an extreme nativist group by the Southern Poverty Law Center,[15] and the Anti-Defamation League has observed that Neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups have campaigned alongside them, although no official connection between these groups has been established.[16] In December, 2005 James Chase turned over leadership of the California Minutemen (CMM) & the national Border Watch Federation (BWF) to his son, Mike Chase. Recruits, operations and the influence of the California Minutemen continued to grow, and the N. County Times[17] complained of Mike Chase's appointment to the political steering committee of California Senator Bill Morrow's campaign for the 50th District Congressional seat vacated by Randy "Duke" Cunningham.

Counter Protesters

Counterprotestors against the Minutemen have included Mexica Movement, Anti-Racist Action, International ANSWER, the Revolutionary Communist Party, the Progressive Labor Party, the International Socialist Organization, the AntiMinutemen Defendants, the Free People's Movement, the Bay Area Coalition to Fight the Minutemen, Coalicion Deporten a la Migra, the Brown Berets, the American Indian Movement, the Zapatista Solidarity Coalition, the Philadelphia Revolutionary Marxist Collective, the Sacramento Mexican American Political Association, the Brown Syndicate, the Brass Liberation Orchestra, the Chicano Consortium, Sacramento Food Not Bombs, anarchists, and other anti-conservative and anti-border enforcement activists.

Monitors

Various media representatives, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and observers from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) are also in the patrol zone attempting to observe Minutemen volunteers at work. In November 2006, ACLU released a report detailing the Minuteman Campaign[18] and stated that a large number of daily newspapers "wildly exaggerated" the number of volunteers who actually participated in the group’s operation in southeastern Arizona in April 2005.[19]

Individuals who claimed to be Minuteman Project's board of directors claimed they removed Gilchrist as head of the Minuteman Project amid allegations of fraud and financial mismanagement, but a representative of the Delaware Secretary of State told the Los Angeles Times that only Gilchrist could make those changes.[20] In a May 2007 interview, Gilchrist claimed: "I’m the President and always was. I got the corporation back. I have the right to the web site, the bank account, everything. We are back in the same position as we were prior to the hijacking."[21] Judge "Wilkinson issued an interim ruling barring the board members from spending Minuteman Project donations until Gilchrist’s lawsuit is resolved. In April of 2007, Gilchrist announced the formation of a new non-profit corporation, named Jim Gilchrist’s Minuteman Project, Inc.

See also

References

  1. ^ CTV.ca | Armed Americans patrol B.C.-Washington border
  2. ^ Man Freed After Driving Into Minuteman Protesters - News Story - KNBC | Los Angeles
  3. ^ http://www.columbia.edu/cu/law/sirr/SIRR_Statement.pdf
  4. ^ [1]
  5. ^ American Civil Liberties Union: ACLU of Arizona Denounces Unlawful Imprisonment of Immigrant by Minuteman Volunteer
  6. ^ http://www.votebarton.com/videos/bryan_barton_border_crossing.WMV
  7. ^ New Video Appears to Show Vigilante Border Murder | Hatewatch
  8. ^ Authorities: Minuteman Video Showing Immigrant Being Shot Is Fake - San Diego News Story - KGTV San Diego
  9. ^ Associated Press (2006-01-26) Mexico Halts Border Maps Hand-Out
  10. ^ Washington Times (2006-01-27): Mexico nixes border maps for migrants
  11. ^ Border agents approve of 'Minutemen'
  12. ^ OneWorld U.S. Home / Today's News - Abuses Feared as Citizens Begin Patrol of U.S.-Mexico Border
  13. ^ Governor endorses Minutemen on border / He parts with Bush on armed volunteers stopping illegal immigrants in Arizona
  14. ^ [2]
  15. ^ SPLCenter.org: The Groups: A Listing
  16. ^ http://www.adl.org/learn/extremism_in_the_news/White_Supremacy/arizona_vigilantes_40705.htm
  17. ^ Roses & raspberries - North County Times / The Californian - Editorials
  18. ^ http://www.acluaz.org/News/PressReleases/PDFs/minutemen6view.pdf
  19. ^ ACLU of AZ - press releases
  20. ^ Jennifer Delson (11 March 2007). "A Minuteman meets his hour of crisis: Jim Gilchrist, co-founder of the anti-illegal immigrant group, battles three board members for the organization's control" (html). Los Angeles Times. In early February, papers were filed with the state of Delaware showing that Stewart was the organization's new president and Courtney was the new treasurer. An official with the Delaware secretary of state's office said no one but Gilchrist could legally make those changes. Less than three weeks later, Gilchrist sued Coe, Courtney and Stewart, alleging they illegally voted him out of his organization, misallocated organization funds and commandeered his website. A ruling is expected March 21 on his application for a restraining order against the three. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  21. ^ David Storobin, interviewer (30 May 2007). "Exclusive interview: Jim Gilchrist of Minuteman Project on Immigration, Terror, Elections" (html). Global Politician. Q: How do you answer charges of racism against you and the MMP? A: My son-in-law is Mexican and so are 2 of my 3 grandchildren. Ray Herrera is a Mexican, he's the MMP national rally spokesman. Many of the people affiliated with MMP are Mexican. The racism card is the last resort of a scoundrel who has lost his argument. {{cite news}}: |author= has generic name (help); Check date values in: |date= (help)
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