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The Minuteman Project is an activist organization started in April 2005 by a group of private individuals in the United States to monitor the United States–Mexico border's flow of illegal immigrants, although it has expanded to include the United States-Canada border as well..^{[citation needed]} The name comes from the minutemen who fought in the American Revolution. The group was cofounded by Jim Gilchrist and Chris Simcox.

The Minuteman Project describes itself as "a citizens' Neighborhood Watch on our border", and has attracted media attention to illegal immigration. Border Patrol officials have expressed concern over the accidental tripping of border sensors^[1].

The Minuteman Project's board of directors removed Gilchrist as head of the Minuteman Project amid allegations of fraud and financial mismanagement.^[2] 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."^[3] These claims by Gilchrist, though, do not appear to match the judge's ruling. Judge "Wilkinson issued an interim ruling barring the board members from spending Minuteman Project donations until Gilchrist’s lawsuit is resolved. Wilkinson also rejected Gilchrist’s request for a temporary restraining order that would have restored Gilchrist to power until the case is decided."^[4] In April of 2007, Gilchrist announced the formation of a new non-profit corporation, named Jim Gilchrist’s Minuteman Project, Inc.

Actions

On April 2, 2005, Minuteman Project volunteers, near Naco, reported the illegal immigration of eighteen people, resulting in the would-be migrants being arrested by authorities. As of April 6, 2005, 531 volunteers had been positioned in the patrolled region.^[5]^[6]

On April 20, 2006, Jim 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 (and begin building a border security fence) by the 25th of May".

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 who had arrived at the event, drove through a crowd of protesters who had surrounded his van. Netkin alleged that protesters were hitting and pushing his vehicle, while protesters alleged that Netkin drove through the crowd unprovoked and struck two people. The Garden Grove police agreed with Netkin, and officer Mike Handfield claimed that some of the estimated 300 demonstrators were there "not to protest but to commit criminal acts". The two attended local hospitals for minor injuries, while Netkin was temporarily held and released without being cited. Five protesters were arrested for unruly action.^[7] After reviewing a partial videotape by Minutemen supporters, the Garden Grove Police said that Netkin's actions were justified. Several cases opened up against the arrested protesters. Charges ranged from misdemeanors to felonies. After over a year of prosecution, the defendants were able to escape longer sentences and each case concluded that the Garden Grove Police Department acted unlawfully; similar to the departments involved in the MacArthur Park The Los Angeles May Day mêlée of 2007.

Laguna Beach incident

The Minutemen also held a protest at a day laborer center, located within the city of Laguna Beach, upon hearing that the city was leasing the land from the State of California. The protest took place on July 15, 2006. Previously, the city had refused to offer them a permit.^{[citation needed]}

Support for the Minuteman Project

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". ^[8]

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".^[9] He reiterated his supportive comments the following day, noting that the Minutemen would be welcome to patrol the border between California and Mexico.

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 and Spanish. 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.^[10] 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." ^[11] 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.

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 appeared to harass and blow 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.^{[citation needed]} 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.

Renunciation by Minuteman leader James Chase

James Chase and James Gilchrist served in the same Marine Corps unit, 2nd Battalion 9th Marines, in Vietnam (the battalion website shows photos of James "Jim" Chase). James Chase was one of James Gilchrist's first recruits for the MMP. As directors of Minuteman Project operations in Arizona James Gilchrist and Chris Simcox pulled James "Jim" Chase into upper management. After leaving MMP-AZ James Chase returned to California and started his own group vowing to never work with Chris Simcox, again. Eventually he asked James Gilchrist to refrain from using his group as a photo opportunity since Gilchrist refused to publicly denounce Chris Simcox and the false rumors generated by Chris Simcox (specifically, that Chase had been fired for breaking the SOP), Also, Chase had proof that racists, Nazis and other anti-semites were linked to and had infiltrated the MMP. He posted a message on the Internet which read, "I cannot continue in any way, shape or form in a relationship with Minuteman Civil Defense Corps or even Minuteman Project...James Gilchrist wanted to skin Chris Simcox alive but then they went to Washington and picked up the two DC crooks, Mary Parker Lewis, [Gilchrist's congressional campaign manager] and Connie Hair and the corruption machine was off and running. Now Mary is even allowing the Nazi party into the campaign and they refuse to remove Ranch Rescue, Andy Ramirez and Cliff Linquist from their links. So you have an absolute CON man Andy in your ranks sucking many thousands of dollars away from the cause. I have standards of right...sending email and letter requests for money to all of our people, even to my grandchildren, sister-in-law, and distant English ex-step mother is just without all class or civility. I am sad that some of you are so desperate, so gah gah, over what was a super lightning rod for the anti-illegal immigration movement, that you refuse to see that ethics and honesty must come above all else. May the Lord open your eyes to see and your nostrils to smell the manure before us."

Gilchrist finally did admit Chase was a good Marine and a good Minuteman and was never fired, and furthermore James Gilchrist removed links to questionable websites. Prior to this Chase targeted Gilchrist and Simcox to force them back to the straight and narrow.

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^[12] 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.

In January 2006, Chase's California Minutemen stopped a program sponsored by Humane Borders and the government of Mexico to supply over 70,000 maps to migrants to aid their safe entry into the United States.^[13] Faced with the knowledge of several Title 8 United States Code section 1324 prosecutions in the United States, including from similar groups such as No More Deaths along with the fact that thousands of Minutemen now openly roamed the American border lands 24/7, the volunteers 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".^[14]

The California Minutemen continued to patrol several miles of the US/Mexico border until May 2006 when they disbanded in favor of more localized groups with different target agendas. Campo Minutemen volunteers (former CMM members) still patrol in the areas left by CMM in Campo, California which is located 40 miles east of San Diego, California USA.

The Campo Minutemen are a California non profit organization,under the directorship of Vietnam Veteran, Britt Craig. Britt Craig's life and border work were featured in A New York Times Article by Charlie LeDuff.

The Campo Minutemen have been watching the US/Mexico border 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and what was once a high traffic area for drug and human smuggling is now been slowed to a trickle due to the constant vigil of dedicated Minutemen. Website: http://www.campominutemen.com/

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.^[15] Additionally, the Minuteman Project and its chapters have been identified as a extreme nativist group by the Southern Poverty Law Center,^[16] 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.^[17]

Counterprotests at Minuteman events

Counterprotestors against the Minutemen have included 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 activists.

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.^[18] 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.^[19]

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.^[20] 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.^[21] 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.

Watchdog groups

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. The Human Rights Coalition of California (HRCC) announced its establishment and campaign against the Minuteman Project. President of the Human Rights Coalition of California, Ed Herrera stated: "We do not believe that we must put human rights 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 deeprooted concern for an evershifting ethnocultural shift in the American population." The HRCC has been present along the California U.S.-Mexico border since the arrival of the California Minutemen. In November 2006, ACLU released a report detailing the Minuteman Campaign^[22] 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.^[23]

References

^ [1]
^ 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)
^ 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)
^ Minute Mess: A struggle over money, power and fame threatens to destroy the Minuteman Project
^ [2]
^ [3]
^ [4]
^ http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=43910
^ [5]
^ [6]
^ [7]
^ [8]
^ Associated Press (2006-01-26) Mexico Halts Border Maps Hand-Out
^ Washington Times (2006-01-27): Mexico nixes border maps for migrants
^ [9]
^ [10]
^ [11]
^ [12]
^ [13]
^ [14]
^ [15]
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^ [17]

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 {{POV|date=December 2007}}
-The '''Minuteman Project''' is an [[activism|activist]] organization started in April 2005 by a group of private individuals to monitor the [[United States–Mexico border]]'s flow of [[illegal immigrant]]s, although it has expanded to include the [[United States-Canada border]] as well..{{Fact|date=November 2007}} The name comes from the [[Minutemen (militia)|minutemen]] who fought in the [[American Revolution]]. The group was cofounded by [[Jim Gilchrist]] and [[Chris Simcox]].
+The '''Minuteman Project''' is an [[activism|activist]] organization started in April 2005 by a group of private individuals in the [[United States]] to monitor the [[United States–Mexico border]]'s flow of [[illegal immigrant]]s, although it has expanded to include the [[United States-Canada border]] as well..{{Fact|date=November 2007}} The name comes from the [[Minutemen (militia)|minutemen]] who fought in the [[American Revolution]]. The group was cofounded by [[Jim Gilchrist]] and [[Chris Simcox]].
 The Minuteman Project describes itself as "a citizens' Neighborhood Watch on our border", and has attracted media attention to [[illegal immigration]]. [[Border Patrol]] officials have expressed concern over the accidental tripping of border sensors<ref>[http://us.oneworld.net/article/view/108971/1/]</ref>.