Minutemen join ‘Adopt-A-Highway’ in Calif.

Anti-illegal immigration group ‘desperate to get attention,’ critic says

Video: Life

Acrobat survives death-defying fall
Nov. 30: Cell phone video shows an aerialist plunging three stories during a performance at a crowded Los Angeles shopping center. TODAY’s Ann Curry reports.

Warren on Obama, abortion

One-on-one with Rick Warren

Bill Gates: ‘Health is the first step’

One-on-one with Bill & Melinda Gates

NBC Field Notes

NBC News correspondents and producers across the U.S. shed light on the news of the day.

Photo features

Reuters	The Week in Pictures A starry night, cat’s mouth, a lighthouse stands tall, bear attack, a sea of balloons, H1N1 reaction and more news and feature photos from around the globe.
Reuters	PhotoBlog View and discuss the pictures and issues that caught our eyes.

updated 5:48 p.m. ET Jan. 12, 2008

SAN DIEGO - The Minutemen anti-illegal immigration group is going from picketing to trash-picking on a strip of Southern California freeway.

State transit officials granted the group's San Diego chapter an Adopt-A-Highway stretch of Interstate 5 that includes the Border Patrol's traffic checkpoint near San Clemente, about 70 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border. The designation makes the chapter responsible for keeping the 2-mile strip of freeway clean.

"We'll be out there in dorky-looking vests, hard hats and goggles, picking up trash," San Diego chapter founder Jeff Schwilk said Friday.

Story continues below ↓

advertisement | your ad here

Like other volunteer groups in the program around the country, the Minutemen have one sign identifying them on each side of the freeway.

'Desperate to get attention'
Some critics of the Minutemen, whose activities include patrolling in search of illegal border crossers, said the designation ignores rules barring groups that advocate discrimination from participating in the Adopt-A-Highway program.

California Transportation Department spokesman Edward Cartagena said the Minutemen got the stretch of I-5 near the Border Patrol checkpoint purely by chance and that the group's application did not violate any rules.

Enrique Morones, president of the immigrant-rights group Border Angels, called the Minutemen's move a publicity ploy.

"They're desperate to get attention, even if it means sweeping the freeway," he said.