‘Minutemen’ gear up for mainstream

Brock N. Meeks Chief Washington correspondent • Profile • E-mail

WASHINGTON - Volunteers in the civilian-led border watch group known as the “Minuteman Project” are called vigilantes, or worse, by their critics -- patriots or heroes by their supporters. Regardless of the moniker, the Minutemen have driven the issue of illegal immigration from the margins of America’s conscience onto the national stage.

In October, the group plans to launch a coordinated border watch with its chapters located in at least eight states.

“Realistically, we’re looking at 10,000-plus volunteers being deployed Oct. 1st on the southern and northern borders,” said Chris Simcox, a chief organizer for the Arizona Minuteman Project and founder of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, Inc.  

The Arizona Minuteman Project made headlines in April for its month-long patrol along a 23-mile stretch of the Arizona-Mexico border. The activity consisted primarily of volunteers sitting in lawn chairs with binoculars and reporting unauthorized border crossing attempts or other illegal activity to the U.S. Border Patrol. 

Headlines from the Arizona event gave the group momentum, and turned what some first believed to be nothing more than a publicity stunt into a national movement.  The group has since hired lawyers, reorganized into separate corporations, filed to legally protect the name “Minuteman Project,” hired a Washington-based media consultant and started an aggressive fund raising campaign. And, representatives of the group, have been to Washington to lobby Congress and relate the lessons learned from their time on the border.

Unless the work continues “it’s going to be viewed as just a dog-and-pony show,” said James Gilchrist, one of the Minuteman leaders, when the Arizona project wrapped up. He and Simcox, unabashedly acknowledge that among their chief considerations in Arizona was getting media attention. 

That attention drove more people to the movement and the group’s organizers quickly discovered they needed a way to keep the ball rolling.  So it has split and grown arms.

One arm is run by Gilchrist, a California accountant, who decided to focus on internal immigration issues, going after employers violating immigration laws by hiring illegals, in an effort now called "Operation Spotlight."  His group is known as the Minuteman Project, Inc. which has filed with the Internal Revenue Service to gain status like that given to a trade association.

Meanwhile, Simcox, who runs the Tombstone Tumbleweed newspaper in Arizona, incorporated his group, formerly known as Civil Homeland Defense, as the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, Inc.  That group will continue to organize, train and sanction other Minuteman Project border watches, according to Connie Hair, the group’s spokesperson.

From humble beginnings
The Minuteman Project was initially cobbled together by a grassroots Internet effort and its recruits fired up by tough talking radio talk show hosts from California to Texas. What was once just a band of passionate citizens has pushed its agenda all the way to Washington. 

Last month Gilchrist and Simcox met with members of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus, adding to the the Minuteman momentum.

“I would like to thank the Minutemen on behalf of the millions of Americans who can’t be here with you today,” said Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo, chairman of the CIRC.  “You are good citizens who ask that our laws be enforced.  When did that become a radical idea?”

Border watches are scheduled or are in the planning stages for Arizona, California, Texas and New Mexico, Hair said.  “Chris is going to Michigan in a couple of weeks to do a training session there,” she said. “But they’ve also got Idaho and Washington State and Vermont interested. In all they’ve had requests from seven states in the north,”  and new requests “coming in every day. 

Simcox has even started an e-mail fundraising campaign. “Contact us immediately to learn about upcoming missions,” the fund raising letter states.  “We are expanding to California, Texas and New Mexico on the southern border. We also have requests from activated volunteers on the northern border with Canada -– Maine, Vermont, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Idaho and Washington State. With new operations… this is truly an exciting time for Patriots!” the e-mailed letter says. 

There are four groups in Texas alone, Hair said, some of them from landowners that have gotten together.  But there’s trouble brewing on the border beyond the problem of illegal immigration: misappropriation of the Minuteman name.

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