The Minuteman Project Inc.

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For the Arizona group with similar aims see Minuteman Civil Defense Corps.

The Minuteman Project Logo

The Minuteman Project Inc is an American self-described "citizens' vigilance operation" devoted to reducing illegal immigration by deterring illegal crossings of the United States–Mexico border through a variety of methods. The group has raised controversy through its actions of actively monitoring sections of the border and alerting the United States Border Patrol to the presence of individuals illegally attempting to enter the country. It has said it has plans to construct double-layered fencing on private property along the Mexico border. In addition, the group engages in political protest and other forms of activism to raise awareness of their cause. It describes itself as "a citizens' Neighborhood Watch on our border". President George W. Bush has referred to The Minuteman Project as vigilantes.^[1]

The group's name is a reference to the Minutemen who fought in the American Revolution. The Project has expanded to include the United States-Canada border as well.^[2] The group's founder and principal director is Jim Gilchrist of Aliso Viejo, California.

1 Actions
2 Support for the Minuteman Project
3 Opposition to the Minuteman Project
4 References
5 External links
- 5.1 Related videos

[edit] Actions

The group was founded on October 1, 2004.

On April 2, 2005, Minuteman Project volunteers near Naco reported 18 people as illegal immigrants, resulting in the border crossers being arrested by authorities. As of April 6, 2005, 531 volunteers had been positioned in the patrolled region. ^[3] ^[4]

On April 20, 2006, Gilchrist and The Minuteman Project issued a public ultimatum to President Bush to "declare a state of emergency and deploy the National Guard and military reserves by the 25th of May." If the President refused to do so, Gilchrist threatened that "on Memorial Day weekend, we're going to break ground and we're going to start helping landowners [along the U.S.-Mexico border] to build a double layer security fence along their properties, because the federal government refuses to protect them" ^[5].

[edit] Support for the Minuteman Project

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".^[6] He reiterated his supportive comments the following day, noting that the Minutemen would be welcome to patrol the border between California and Mexico.^[7]

In an exchange during an interview on FOX News between host Alan Colmes and Minutemen member Ted Hayes, Colmes suggested that "critics of the Minutemen have often labeled their efforts to secure the U.S. border with Mexico as discriminatory against people of color." Hayes, an African-American, countered that illegal immigration harms all American citizens, particularly those of the lower end of the socio-economic scale, and claims many African-Americans support the Minuteman Project and that they have many African-American members.^[8]

[edit] Opposition to the Minuteman Project

The project has generated controversy and Mexican President Vicente Fox has criticized the group. President Bush, meanwhile, criticized the group's "vigilante" border projects. ^[9]

Hector Carreon of the separatist Mexican Indio organization Nation of Aztlán, writes, "The Minutemen have proven to be nothing less than a gang of anti-Mexican racists and their actions have the potential of alienating Mexico, its government and the millions of Americans of Mexican background." ^[10]

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a civil rights watchdog group, claimed that the Minuteman Project harbors members of the National Alliance despite assurances that they would screen out white supremacists. The report interviewed a former volunteer in Gilchrist's campaign who said that "they were basically allowing Nazi-Skinheads and white nationalists to work the phone banks and do IT and distribute National Alliance fliers targeting non-whites," and that "[when I told them] that didn't want to work for a campaign that was tainted by white supremacy in any way, they told me not to cause a stir."^[11] Gilchrist has stated that the claims by the SPLC are unproven, and has repeatedly chastised the SPLC for engaging in "an earnest effort to libel and slander any person or group that the SPLC does not like". "The SPLC is little more than a modern day lynch mob", Gilchrist said.^[12] He further stated that his group runs background checks on all individuals who apply to patrol the border. Gilchrist acknowledged that background checks may not reveal every aspect of an applicant's ideology, but countered that sometimes even law enforcement doesn't have that information.

[edit] Counterprotests at Minuteman events

Counterprotests against the Minutemen have included Anti-Racist Action, International ANSWER, the Revolutionary Communist Party, the Progressive Labor Party, the International Socialist Organization, Food Not Bombs, 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 Zapatista Solidarity Coalition, the Philadelphia Revolutionary Marxist Collective, the Sacramento Mexican American Political Association, the Brown Syndicate, the Brass Liberation Orchestra, the Chicano Consortium, anarchists and other left wing, immigrant rights, civil rights and anti-border activists.^{[citation needed]}

On October 29, 2005, a number of Minuteman supporters held a rally outside the State Capitol in Sacramento. A coalition of groups opposed to the Minutemen's agenda held a counter-protest. ^[13] Some of the counter-demonstrators attempted to break through the police lines to disrupt the rally, but were unsuccessful. A few arrests were made during the protest. Anarchist groups involved in this incident have made allegations of police brutality.^[14] Former vice-presidential candidate Peter Camejo was also present.

Another notable counterprotest of the Minutemen occurred at the U.S. Capitol on February 8, 2006. With several lawmakers present including Tom Tancredo, an immigration reduction advocate and an outspoken critic of President Bush's guest worker program, three National Socialist Movement members showed up wearing brown shirts and swastika armbands. The group arrived hoping to voice their displeasure at the Minuteman Project's policy not to align with racist groups, but also clashed with local police and pro-amnesty counterdemonstrators.^[15] This counterdemonstration received international media attention. Gilchrist took the podium and shouted "go to hell" to the Natonal Socialists and told them to leave.^[16] Minutemen spokespeople have denounced white supremacist groups and claim they do not knowingly allow supremacist activists into their ranks. ^{[citation needed]} NSM spokesman Bill White called the Minutemen "sellouts."

[edit] Columbia University incident

On October 4, 2006 more than 40 students and demonstrators stormed the stage of Alfred Lerner Hall during a Minuteman presentation at Columbia University in New York City, where Gilchrist had been invited to speak. The student protesters rushed onto stage with a yellow banner stating "No one is Illegal" in English, Spanish, and Arabic. During the ensuing scuffle between the protesters and Gilchrist supporters, the podium and some tables were knocked over. One supporter of the Minutemen appeared to be caught on tape repeatedly kicking a protester in the head. 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 .^[17]^[18] 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."^[19] The event was monitored by several media organizations, and notably commentator Bill O'Reilly, stated that the protesters had crossed the line by infringing on Gilchrist's Constitutional right to freedom of speech. Spanish-language television stations such as Univision aired the entire protest with minimal edits.

On October 11, 2006, Gilchrist appeared on Democracy Now to debate Karina Garcia of the Columbia University Chicano Caucus. Shortly after being pressed by Garcia about allegations of immigrant abuse, Gilchrist withdrew from the discussion, claiming that he was advised to do so by legal counsel. On the same day, hundreds of videos directed by Minuteman volunteers and Gilchrist-affiliated Save Our State members, in which participants stalked, harassed and blew portable air horns in the ears of unsuspecting day laborers, were removed from the video sharing site YouTube after complaints about the videos were lodged. Many of the videos appeared to show Minuteman volunteers actively violating the group's stated procedures."BorderWatch Operations Manual". The ban came on the same day that Gilchrist prematurely withdrew from a radio debate on Democracy Now; no evidence has been presented that the ban and withdrawal were connected.

[edit] T-shirt incident

On April 6, 2005, three Minuteman Project members were involved in taking a photograph and video footage of a 25-year-old alleged illegal immigrant posing with a T-shirt, also worn by Minuteman Project volunteer Bryan Barton, which read "Bryan Barton caught me crossing the border and all I got was this lousy T-shirt."

Barton claims to have encountered a man named Jose who had been near a main highway while Barton was off duty from patrolling the border. The man said he had been walking for two days in the Mexican desert. Believing the man to be in distress from exposure and lack of fluids and food, Barton gave him a bowl of Wheaties and milk. He then contacted the U.S. Border Patrol. Barton shook Jose's hand several times, translated Jose's Spanish for the camera, and held up a lettered T-shirt which he made to commemorate the event. He gave the man 20 US dollars as the Border Patrol arrived and took Jose into custody. Critics of the MMP raised questions about the incident, but an investigation by the Cochise County Sheriff's office cleared Barton of any wrongdoing.

The man claimed that he had been detained against his will by Barton and other Minutemen Project members. Although he did not press criminal charges, Barton's actions were declaimed in the press at best as "mocking" ^[20], and by some as a hate crime, ^[21] Barton, who is running for a position in the U.S. House of Representatives in California's 53rd district, posted the video on his campaign website.^[22]

Project organizers stated they maintain a restrictive policy wherein no contact whatsoever can be made with suspected illegal immigrants.^[23] Project volunteers are only allowed to observe suspected aliens and then report those observations to the Border Patrol. Concerning the incident, Gilchrist stated that "the volunteer's actions were admirable, justified and undeniably humane, but unfortunately they jeopardized our established procedures and overall purpose of passively monitoring the border. It's unfortunate, but we had to dismiss him from further participation". The ACLU issued a press release concerning this incident. ^[24]

[edit] Watchdog groups

Various media representatives and ACLU observers have monitored the patrol zone to observe Minutemen volunteers at work. In California, the state with the largest Mexican indio immigrant population, the Human Rights Coalition of California (HRCC) announced its establishment and campaign against the Minuteman Project and the Friends of the Border Patrol. President Ed Hererra of the Human Rights Coalition of California stated: "We do not believe that we must put human right and human worth aside simply because they are undocumented immigrants; first and foremost they are human beings... The Minuteman Project is not simply about national security and terrorism it is about a deep-rooted concern for an ever-shifting ethnocultural shift in the American population."^[25] The HRCC has been present along the California/Mexico border since the arrival of the Minutemen-associated Friends of the Border Patrol.

[edit] Garden Grove incident

On May 25, 2005, Gilchrist spoke in Garden Grove, California to the California Coalition for Immigration Reform at the Garden Grove Women's Club. According to reports approximately 300 protesters attended to protest Gilchrist's appearance. Hal Netkin, a Minuteman supporter who was leaving the speech, drove through a crowd of protesters who had surrounded his van. Protesters alleged that Netkin drove through the crowd unprovoked and struck two people. Minuteman supporters and the Garden Grove Police said that protesters rocked and banged the vehicle, and that the two protesters fell as the van approached them. The two attended local hospitals for minor injuries, while Netkin was temporarily held and released without being cited. ^[26] After reviewing videotape of the incident, the Garden Grove Police said that Netkin's actions were justified. According to Garden Grove police Lt. Mike Hanfield, "It was reasonable for him to be afraid."^[27] Critics have accused the police of partiality and of not carrying out justice for releasing Netkin so quickly. Supporters have said that Netkin had no other choice due to the violent and threatening actions of the protesters. Five protesters were arrested. ^[28]

Of the five protesters who were arrested, two were released with no charges filed. The remaining three were charged with numerous misdemeanors, ranging from resisting arrest to abusing police horses. The remaining three were also charged with felonies of assaulting police officers with deadly weapons, other than firearms; the alleged weapons being soda cans. Several months later, one of the three defendants accepted a plea bargain. The remaining two defendants have yet to resolve their cases.