Minuteman opposition organizes resistance

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

SAN DIEGO - The Minuteman Project, and other volunteer border patrol groups, are expected to face their toughest opposition yet when they move to California this summer for a series of events along the Mexican border.

A growing resistance movement made up largely of Hispanic activists, some of whom accuse the Minutemen of practicing vigilante-style justice, say they will hold a series of protests to coincide with the border patrol operations.

The rising opposition comes at a time when the anti-illegal immigrant passions, fueled by the Minuteman Project movement, are gaining momentum across the country. The Minuteman Project came to prominence in April when it organized a month-long patrol along the Arizona-Mexico border.

Law enforcement officials, members of Latino activist groups and the Minutemen themselves fear that a kind of perfect storm is brewing in California that could spill over into violent confrontation.

Texas and New Mexico have several official and unofficial Minuteman style groups slated to hold border watch events this summer as well.  Both states have already seen activist groups and political leaders publicly oppose the coming of the Minutemen.  But no state has seen the opposition rise as fast as in California, which is targeted by at least three different Minuteman-style border watch groups this summer.

Those organizing against the Minutemen all say they are dedicated to maintaining a non-violent atmosphere. Those organizers also say they won’t be intimidated by the Minuteman presence.  However, due to the sheer number of groups involved in the California Minuteman resistance and their diverse political and ideological natures, Latino organizers privately note that they cannot ride herd on every agenda nor give assurances that any violence won’t occur.

Groups of activists from up and down California are answering the call to organize, said Armando Navarro, a University of California-Riverside political science professor and coordinator of the National Alliance for Human Rights.  Navarro, a veteran organizer and activist, led a group of about 40 to Arizona in April to oppose the Minuteman Project’s month long border watch.

“We have to be prepared much better and with a capacity to create a critical mass when these events take place,” Navarro said.  “It’s not enough to take 30-40 individuals like we did to Arizona, that’s not going to create power.  Now [the Minutemen] are in California, now they are in our turf, this is a different situation.”

An organizing meeting among several key Latino leaders from throughout southern California is slated for Saturday on the border, Navarro said.  “We have a number of strategic scenarios that we can implement very quickly depending upon the circumstances," he said. "Believe me, they will be very assertive, very aggressive,” he added, declining to elaborate. 

Bad moon rising
The rhetoric on all sides is heating up and there have been isolated cases of violence.

In May, two people were hurt and six arrested when violence broke out during a speech in California by Minuteman founder James Gilchrist.  A man rolled his car into a group of protestors, injuring two of them.  No charges were pressed; the police said it was “reasonable for [the driver] to be afraid,” when protestors surrounded his car and pounded on it and that’s why he didn’t stop his car.

“All hell broke loose,” after the man drove his car into the protestors, Eric Garcia, 22, of Anaheim, told the Associated Press.  “People started throwing rocks and bricks and stuff.”

The incident, and the publicity leading up to the summer's border watches has sparked a volley of accusations.

“It’s heating up.  I’ve got a feeling you’re going to see some violent civil unrest,” said Chris Simcox, founder of the Arizona-based Minuteman Civil Defense Corps.

For his part, Navarro calls Simcox and his ilk nothing more than “domestic terrorists that represent a danger to the country and could promote a major border conflict that will have serious ramifications and consequences.”

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