Posted on 08/17/2006 1:18:46 AM PDT by Anti-Bubba182
PHOENIX (Reuters) - More than a year after their first stakeouts on the U.S.-Mexico border, Minuteman civilian patrol volunteers are divided and questions are being raised about whether their movement's influence is on the wane.
The Minutemen leaped into the media spotlight in April 2005 when its force of housewives, office workers and veterans camped out in lawn chairs in southern Arizona to spot illegal immigrants crossing from Mexico.
Sixteen months later, the founders of the movement have split acrimoniously, and questions swirl over how a breakaway group spent a reported $1.6 million in donations.
Dubbed vigilantes by President Bush and migrant hunters by Mexico, the activists seek to highlight what they say is the federal government's failure to provide security along the 2,000-mile (3,200-km) border and end illegal immigration.
The founder of the original Minuteman Project, Jim Gilchrist, 57, a retired accountant from California, is no longer speaking to his former ally Chris Simcox, with whom he planned the first patrols in Arizona.
Meanwhile, Simcox, an ex-teacher and newspaper publisher who leads the separate, Arizona-based Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, faces calls from some former members for a full audit of all donations made to his group.
They complained last month that the corps, a private corporation, had not published financial statements setting out how donations intended to buy equipment were spent, although Simcox vigorously denied any impropriety.
"These are just disgruntled individuals who are no longer with our organization who for some personal reason would like to tarnish our image," Simcox, 45, told Reuters in a telephone interview.
"We have hired accountants and auditors ... to handle all the money, and we're in fine shape," he said.
Simcox added that all questions about the use of donations would be settled in November, when the group posts its tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service.
IS MESSAGE WEARING THIN?
The movement has never counted more than a few thousand volunteers, but analysts say it has proved influential in setting a national agenda on border security and immigration enforcement.
Since the patrols began, Bush has sent 6,200 National Guard troops to help secure the border, and Congress has approved funds to recruit thousands more Border Patrol agents.
But in recent weeks, media attention has focused more on the group's woes than on the pro-enforcement message it seeks to push.
In July the Washington Times questioned their financial accounts. Then last week the Arizona Republic newspaper weighed in, publishing details of their feud and declaring that the "honeymoon is over for the Minutemen."
While the two leaders are pushing on with separate activities -- Simcox is building a border wall on private ranchland in Arizona, and Gilchrist plans a stakeout near Laredo, Texas, starting next month -- critics warn that their trusted formula for grabbing headlines may be wearing thin.
"They have been very good at maintaining the media's attention, but I think things are starting to turn for them," said Ray Borane, the mayor of Douglas, Arizona, near where they held their first patrols. "They are running out of tricks in their bag."
And since you both believe this slur to be true, then one can only assume that the both of are addicts.
Um.
Well ...
Um.
Someone needs to educate Mr. Garza on what it means (or should mean) to be a board member and executive director. It damn sure is his job to know where the money comes from and where it goes. If you're not prepared to stand behind the papers you sign, don't take the gig.
Typically, boards of directors have been split into two categories -- buddies of Management or famous names who get a few bucks for doing nothing but lending their names. BS. If you want my name on the letterhead, if you want to call me a director, I'm gonna direct -- and if you lie or withhold information, be prepared to find my boot in your ass.
WRONG! But keep on thinking that. LOL
Thanks. :-)
Simcox called the MCDC a non-profit when it isn't and not, when he wants to hide the figures.
Fact check please - where's the wall? And no, 2.5 miles of barbed wire cattle fence isn't an "Israeli style border fence" which is how they advertise for donations. A 2.5 mile barbed wire cattle fence also doesn't cost $1.6 million which Simcox himself claims they have raised. Who knows how much they've really taken in.
You wouldn't know the truth if it hit ya between the eyes.
When you finally return from your dazed and benumbed fantasy life, you'll be in for quite a shock. LOL
BTW...what you keep posting IS considered to be FLAMING here and against posting rules.
And hiring a lawyer from Pa., to takes over building an "Israeli style fence", yet to be built, is something akin to hiring a plumber to plead one's case to the Supreme Court.
Flame and bait away.......I'm not going to play your games. This information is far too important and I won't allow you to bury it. But many thanks for keeping the thread bumped.
Simcox hasn't done a single thing to "close" our borders or keep any illegals out. All he's managed to do, is to make the MMs ( which he is NOT a part of ) look bad, by association. And that is something that should not be allowed to stand.
LaRaza has even less to do with open borders, than MCDC/Simcox does. They want to take over land which they have no rights to and form a separate country.
America has FOUR borders, three of which are the ones used by terrorist, as well as many thousands of nonterrorist illegal immigrants, to get into this nation; yet you and your ilk only care about our Southern border.
You couldn't care less if Simcox ever gets anything he has claimed he will do, done. Just as a 2.2 mile long cattle fence is good enough for him, because it's the SYMBOLISM that "counts", you neither care about results nor the flim flam that he is engaged in, just as long as he says what you want to hear. How telling....................
You obviously are deficient in your knowledge of English usage and saying. Pity that.........................
I know that you are an attention whore, but as long as this thread keeps getting bumped, that's okay; I'll play that little game. The more people know that Simcox and the MCDEC are NOT a part of the MM, that's a good thing. :-)
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