Free Republic

Caltrans moved them from I-5 checkpointFEDERAL COURT A federal judge has ordered Caltrans to repost the San Diego Minutemen road sign on a two-mile stretch of Interstate 5, a victory for the anti-illegal immigration group. The Minutemen were granted a northbound stretch of the highway near the Border Patrol's checkpoint south of San Clemente in November as part of the Adopt-a-Highway litter cleanup program. They were reassigned to state Route 52 near Santee in January after complaints to the agency about the group's controversial nature and the location near the checkpoint. The group, alleging free-speech discrimination, sued Caltrans in February...

As if our military didn't have its hands full in Iraq and Afghanistan, the head of the Minuteman Project border security group seems to think Minutemen might make good narcotics cops. Minuteman co-founder Jim Gilchrist suggested in recent radio interviews that the U.S. give Mexico 12 months to corral its criminal drug cartels and rising violence, particularly in border towns such as Juarez and Tijuana—or deploy the U.S. Army to do the job. That's the Minutemen. Their remedies for the drug war next door sound simplistic, but at least they're paying attention. While most of us north of the border...

OCEANSIDE ---- A federal judge on Friday ordered the state Transportation Department to let a controversial group of anti-illegal immigration activists pick up litter near a Border Patrol checkpoint. In a 34-page order, Judge William Q. Hayes granted the San Diego Minutemen's request for a preliminary injunction that gives Caltrans 30 days to reinstate the group's Adopt-A-Highway permit for a 2-mile stretch of Interstate 5 near San Clemente. The state also must restore the courtesy sign bearing the Minutemen's name, the judge ruled. The judge's decision enables the North County group to once again pick up trash alongside the busy...

Border control will be the theme Saturday during the "Honor America" rally at the Santa Clarita Valley Civic Center from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The Honor America/Secure Our Border event is being hosted by the Santa Clarita Valley and Antelope Valley Independent Minutemen. Among the speakers scheduled to attend are Monica Ramos and Joe Loya, wife and father-in-law, respectively, of Ignacio Ramos, who is in prison after shooting an allegedly unarmed illegal immigrant and drug smuggler on the U.S. and Mexico border. The Civic Center is located at the corner of Valencia Boulevard and Magic Mountain Parkway.

About 50 protesters marched in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday to decry violence by illegal immigrants and to demand that the Los Angeles Police Department change its controversial policy limiting when someone can be questioned about their immigration status. The marchers, including anti-illegal-immigration Minutemen and local community activists, also called for justice for Jamiel Shaw II, 17, a black athlete who was shot and killed in March by an alleged gang member who was in the country illegally.

Azteca Televsion Visits The Campo Minutemen TV Azteca is the second largest Mexican Television Network. The network also operates Azteca 13 Internacional, reaching 13 countries in Central and South America. Journalism is a dangerous business in Mexico, second only to Iraqi in violence toward the profession.The crew from Azteca was interested in the concerns of American Citizens and the situation in their country which is causing so many of their countrymen to flee. They were amazed at the absence of any physical barrier at the border. The Following Pictures feature Campo Minutemen Ray and Robin and Juan Rocha of Azteca...

Report from G - Man - 337 apprehended this year It has been very busy over here ,at least two groups every 24 hrs and sometimes three to four with six to 18 per group. I'm not getting much sleep because they are coming through at all hours. In the last 24 hours alone we have apprehended 47. My year to date is now 337, yet the news says apprehensions are down. Who are you going to believe? ----------------------------------------- Campo Minutemen Cleaned up Buckman Springs Road, removing 200 gallons of trash. They had a BBQ dinner at 141 and lit...

Since Arizona’s local law enforcement began enforcing illegal immigration laws and an employer sanctions law went into effect, illegal immigrants have been fleeing the state in large numbers. The effects have been far-ranging. Commuters are reporting fewer vehicles on the freeways, shortening their rush-hour commutes. What had become a serious transportation problem in Arizona is losing its urgency. English Learner Language (ELL) students started dropping out of school. This helped end a confrontation between the state legislature and a liberal federal judge who had ordered the state to spend more money on ELL classes. Fewer illegal immigrants are using hospital...

COPYING (not linking, it uses my bandwidth) and circulation is encouraged. http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php?messageDate=2004-04-14 is the reference for the Michael Moore quote.

SAN DIEGO When members of an anti-illegal immigration group offered to sponsor litter cleanup on local roads, they never imagined California officials would offer them an Adopt-a-Highway stretch near a Border Patrol checkpoint on Interstate 5, the main artery carrying illegal migrants north from the U.S.-Mexico border. On Friday, lawyers for the San Diego Minutemen told a federal judge that the state had no right to rescind the offer after state legislators complained to the California Department of Transportation. The group asked that its blue Adopt-a-Highway sign be put back where it stood without incident for about six weeks until...

Build the U.S. Border Fence Now! Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff and the Bush administration are deservedly under assault for not keeping their promises. After a long public outcry over promises broken, the government says they have agreed to construct a border fence. But this is Washington, promises aren't meant to actually be honored. Chertoff and the Bush administration are creating needless public controversy about the fence over what must be done to and with the land, and they are exploiting a backdoor Democrat Party and Open Borders Lobby effort that provides a smoke screen for the feds to...

Several Oklahoma legislators are concerned that individuals and organizations are quietly working on plans to create a privately-operated tollway in Oklahoma. Many referred to Spain-based Cintra, which has been involved in the development of a proposed Trans-Texas Corridor. Cintra also took over the operation of the Indiana East-West Toll Road from the Indiana Department of Transportation in 2006. Oklahoma State Sen. Randy Brogdon and state representatives Eric Proctor, Richard Morrisette, Scott Inman and Charles Key all expressed concern that efforts to open up Oklahoma to a privately operated tollway system were being kept out of the view of the general...

TUCSON, Ariz. – Volunteers who intermittently stake out portions of the southern Arizona desert hoping to spot and report suspected illegal immigrants will begin another monthlong operation this weekend. Members of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps will stage their annual spring border watch operation for the fourth year southwest of Tucson, near Arivaca and the port of entry at Sasabe – an area popular with smugglers bringing illegal immigrants across the Mexican border. Other group members plan border watches in Texas, California and Washington. It actually will be the fifth year for a number of volunteers who began with the...

Very busy and successful weekend at Campo. Friday Night, G-man reported a group of 17, ALL of whom where appended. Kingfish spotted and reported a group of about seven and Viking, Max and Chicago were all up until 3:30 am, spotting and reporting various illegal border crossers, from the Oaks to 147. Saturday Morning we were joined by a media group. They spent previous evening with Jim Gilchrist and the day with the Campo Minutemen. They asked the border patrol's opinion of the Campo Minutemen and the Border Patrol described as "the most effective group out there." Trash clean up...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HSgbeTegko There are other videos regarding this incident as well.

Jim Gilchrist and Sky Television came to view the border and interview the Campo Minutemen today. They were taken on a tour of the old fence, and showed the vast space where there are no barriers at all. They interviewed the Minutemen regarding their continued commitment to the border long after the Original Minuteman Project. Journalism was the topic of the day, as Jim Gilchrist studied journalism and Campo Minuteman Kingfish (Britt Craig) is the nephew and namesake of famed reporter Britt Craig, known for his coverage of the Otto Frank trial. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parade_%28musical%29 At one point a reporter asked Kingfish...

http://www.campominutemen.com/ 5+5 = 82!! G-Man, from his top secret post, reported two groups of five, over the weekend, all of whom who were later apprehended. This brings his total since January 1, 2008 to 82. An Iraqi War Veteran and his younger brother, traveling the 48 contiguous United States, spent some time on the Border with The Campo Minutemen. We are not sure what Chinook Helicopter was doing at the border. It makes a couple of runs a day.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- The nation's largest Hispanic advocacy group on Thursday announced plans to hold its 2009 national convention in Chicago. The National Council of La Raza voted Oct. 20 to pull the conference from Kansas City because a woman on the Kansas City Parks and Recreation Board was also a member the anti-illegal immigrant Minuteman Civil Defense Corps. The member, Frances Semler, resigned from the parks board last month. La Raza believes the Minuteman organization is hostile to Hispanics. The group is known for its citizen patrols on the Mexican border and for picketing construction sites where...

THIS TEXT FROM AN EMAIL, not CNN site: -------------------------------------------------- LOU DOBBS MAKES HISTORY AGAIN! Jim Gilchrist the Founder and President of the Minuteman Project along with Dan Stein, President of FAIR and the President of NumbersUSA Roy Beck will appear together as honored guests on the Lou Dobbs show Wednesday February 6. The three top leaders of the immigration law enforcement advocacy movement will discuss the outrageous statements made by La Raza. La Raza, translated as “The Race” has repeatedly made accusations charging that the immigration law enforcement advocacy movement is nothing less than racists, bigots, and hate-mongers. This inflammatory...

NORTH COUNTY ---- The regional chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union is backing the San Diego Minutemen in their battle to pick up trash near a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint. The civil rights group said it supports the Minutemen's efforts to win back permits to pick up freeway trash near the Interstate 5 checkpoint along Camp Pendleton and may join in the coming legal battle. "If people are surprised, they shouldn't be," David Blair-Loy, legal director of the ACLU Foundation of San Diego & Imperial Counties, said Friday. "The ACLU defends the Constitution and the Bill of Rights for...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Members of an anti-illegal immigration group say they will use their regional conference this weekend to teach more people "the truth" about the organization. The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps caused a stir four months ago when it announced it would bring the conference to Kansas City, where several minority groups were upset about the mayor's appointment of a Minuteman member to the city's parks board. Frances Semler resigned from the parks board last week over her Minuteman involvement, but opposition to the group remains high as Minuteman members gear up for their conference. Missouri and Kansas...

An anti-immigration group says it will fight the state transportation department's decision to relocate their Adopt-A-Highway site away from a busy Border Patrol checkpoint to a less-traveled stretch of roadway. Early Wednesday, the San Diego Minutemen's Web site said the group was soliciting donations for a legal fund so they can sue the state over Monday's order to move their highway cleanup site from a two-mile stretch of Interstate 5, California's major north-south highway, to an area on State Road 52. The group's leader, Jeff Schwilk, said that they were "dumbfounded" by the decision. "There is absolutely no reason to...

An anti-illegal immigration group's adopted stretch of highway near a Border Patrol checkpoint is being orphaned. The California Department of Transportation said the San Diego Minutemen's participation in an Adopt-A-Highway stretch of Interstate 5 poses "a significant safety risk." "The risk is in the potential for disruption to the operation of the state highway as well as public safety concerns for the traveling public and volunteers in the program," Caltrans district director Pedro Orso-Delgado said Monday. He did not elaborate. The Minutemen will get another stretch on State Route 52 in San Diego - far from the Border Patrol checkpoint...

COLUMBIA, S.C. --"I'm sad for my Dad," Tony Thompson was saying after plopping down in a booth at the bar of the downtown Hilton. I had been sitting there with Howie Morgan, a sometime campaign hand in Tennessee Republican campaigns and a supporter this time around of Mike Huckabee, who had just finished second to the now fully resurgent John McCain in the South Carolina Republican primary. Having spotted Thompson earlier on a cell phone outside the hotel, I had asked him to join us. It was only about 10 o'clock on Saturday night, but Tony's party was clearly over....

A self-appointed Minuteman-watcher says he had some video of a police traffic stop—but not for long Santa Ana resident and warehouse worker Naui Huitzilopochtli has been pepper-sprayed, kicked, threatened and insulted for recording with his digital camera. But on Dec. 28, his citizen journalism got him another unexpected treat: being shaken down and probably added to a gang database by Garden Grove police, he says. Huitzilopochtli, whose documentation of rallies involving anti-immigration group the Minutemen has sometimes ended in near-violence at the hands of angry protesters, says he pulled out his camera after noticing a police stop in Garden Grove...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - A national civil rights group has decided to pull its 2008 convention out of Kansas City because of actions by the city's mayor. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference was expected to announce the decision Tuesday morning, The Kansas City Star reported in its Tuesday editions. The group says Mayor Mark Funkhouser showed racial insensitivity in June when he appointed to the park board someone who is a member of an organization that opposes illegal immigration. The SCLC also was upset that Funkhouser tried to oust City Manager Wayne Cauthen, who is black, without first consulting...

This arrived in the mail Monday:Larger image here.Larger image here. While Minuteman Founder Gilchrist has endorsed Huckabee, the Minutemen who are actually building the border fence and manning border outposts has NOT! Confused? Via Marc Ambinder, here's the press release from the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps: (Excerpt) Read more at Flopping Aces ...

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. Like other volunteer groups in the program around the country, the...

Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee and Minuteman Co-Founder Jim Gilchrist have been documented lying to America by the Washington Times after false headlines ran on Tuesday proclaiming Mike Huckabee would try to remove birthright citizenship from the Constitution. The article confirms that Huckabee lied on CNN about his campaign being contacted about Gilchrist's false statements and Gilchrist lied in a release about Huckabee's immigration stances. Gilchrist put out a press release on Iowa's election eve, under the fake name of "Perry Emerson" that contained several false statements and embellishments of Huckabee's immigration stances. The release claimed Huckabee would try to reverse...

I'll admit it. I underestimated Tom Tancredo. I underestimated the impact he could make as a presidential candidate, particularly as a candidate who was polling, as many of us had predicted, around 2 percent. And yet, I had no idea he could take one issue and, with it, help make the Republican presidential race - and the country itself - an uglier, nastier and more mean-spirited place to be. He didn't do it by himself, of course. He wasn't even the lead player. You have to give that role to Lou Dobbs and the huge audience on his team. Still,...

The anti-illegal immigration Minuteman Civil Defense Corps and its political action committee have made it clear that they have not endorsed a presidential candidate, and if they do it will not be former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R). Minuteman Project co-founder Jim Gilchrist created a stir in the anti-illegal immigration community on Tuesday by endorsing Huckabee, who has surged to the lead in the polls in Iowa but has concerned some illegal immigration hard-liners with his past stances on the issue. Chris Simcox, the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps head who originally founded the Minuteman Project with Gilchrist, said in a...

Minuteman co-founder James Gilchrist's endorsement of presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has spurred a backlash among illegal-immigration opponents who say the former Arkansas governor is soft on immigration enforcement. "Mike Huckabee is pro-amnesty and favors a path to citizenship for illegal aliens currently in the U.S. that would require a lifting of current penalties," said William Gheen, whose 25,000-member Americans for Legal Immigration sent mass mailings yesterday to more than 300 pro-enforcement groups.

No National Minuteman Group has endorsed Mike Huckabee. One individual Minuteman has personally endorsed him. For the sake of clarity, it is important to note that the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps (MCDC), the nation's largest Minuteman organization, is a 501(C)4 non-profit organization and cannot and does not endorse any candidate for public office. MCDC is not associated with Mr. Jim Gilchrist, who today endorsed Mike Huckabee for president. Jim Gilchrist’s erstwhile Minuteman Project is itself an organization which by its own representations as a non-profit civic group cannot legally endorse candidates. It does not have any volunteers who observe illegal...

Jim Gilchrist Gives Major Endorsement to Mike Huckabee Tuesday, December 11, 2007 LITTLE ROCK , AR - In Iowa today, former Arkansas Governor and Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee received a major endorsement from Jim Gilchrist, founder of the multi-ethnic Minuteman Project. Huckabee said he was honored to receive the endorsement. "No one can question Jim's commitment to this country and the immigration problem. He has mobilized a group of volunteers to go to the border and draw attention to the issue of immigration. All of us want a policy where people come to this country through the front door,...

PHOENIX — Talk about strange bedfellows. Consider Barry Goldwater Jr.; Minutemen founder Chris Simcox; Democratic State Rep. Pete Rios; and Carlos Flores, head of the Mexican General Consulate, together at a table to talk immigration over sandwiches. And earlier in the day, Simcox, a controversial figure who is credited and criticized for being the first to organize a citizen border patrol, made what some found to be stunning statements: He supports public education for the children of illegal immigrants and sees the fix as not just an issue of enforcement, but of reforming Mexico's economy and basing the number of...

Every Democrat running for president thinks anti-illegal immigration activists are all racists and xenophobes. Do we really need a Republican nominee for president who thinks the same way? Breakout GOP candidate Mike Huckabee, the soft-on-border control former governor of Arkansas, scored a jaw-dropping endorsement Tuesday from Jim Gilchrist, founder of the Minuteman Project. Despite a long gubernatorial record opposing employer sanctions and pushing tax-subsidized illegal alien education benefits, Huckabee won Gilchrist's support by unveiling a last-minute, tough-sounding homeland security plan. Trouble is, Huckabee has downright and longstanding contempt for his new bedfellows of convenience. Just two years ago, Huckabee appeared...

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa -- Huckabee announced this morning the endorsement of Jim Gilchrist, the founder of the anti-illegal immigration and border security group the Minutemen. More to come. Huckabee also responded on Romney's ad, outlining differences on immigration. “I'm somewhat flattered as I seem to be the recipient of the first negative attack ad in the Republican Primary," Huckabee said. "That's usually a sign of desperation on the part of an opponent who feels that his only way of winning is to attack and to destroy."

Noting that he might not agree 100 percent on immigration with Huckabee, the firebrand illegal immigration opponent said Huckabee's recently released immigration plan won him over. "The governor has a plan and I appreciate his plan. That's why I'm supporting him. He's one of the few who's actually brought forth a plan and gone public with it. It shows to me that he's willing to engage in the tough love necessary to fix this problem," Gilchrist said. Gilchrist, whose organization is separate from the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, has drawn protests in appearances at college campuses in recent months for...

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa -- Mike Huckabee, under fire for some of his immigration stands while governor of Arkansas, picked up an endorsement in Council Bluffs, Iowa, from the ultimate illegal immigration opponent: Jim Gilchrist, founder of the Minuteman Project, the group that has roamed the border for the last several years operating effectively as an independent border patrol. President Bush called the group "vigilantes" two years ago. But Huckabee seemed eager to announce the endorsement, as it came on a day when former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney started running an ad that slams Huckabee for backing a provision that would...

Update: Here’s the official Huckabee campaign post on the endorsement. A commenter there also notes: Another positive sign is the fact that Roy Beck of NumbersUSA has changed several of his ratings for Governor Huckabee from “red” to “green” in response to his new immigration plan. This is a big turnaround from just a few days before, when Beck characterized the Governor as a “disaster” in the area of immigration. Here’s the new Numbers USA grid: We are entering Alice in Wonderland territory. *** Yeah, you read it right–the founder of the border control group, the Minuteman Project, is endorsing...

Legal Challenge to Immigration Law Enforcement Dismissed!Rule of Law Prevails in VirginiaA federal judge dismissed a lawsuit Friday that challenged a suburban Washington county's (Virginia) recent effort to clamp down on illegal immigrants, one of the toughest such crackdowns in the country.U.S. District Judge James Cacheris said the plaintiffs (pro-illegal alien invasion supporters) lacked legal standing to challenge measures passed earlier this year by the Prince William County Board of Supervisors.One of the resolutions requires police to check the immigration status of people they detain if they have reason to suspect the person is an illegal immigrant. A second resolution...

Jim Gilchrist was scheduled to speak at my school, Long Beach City College (LBCC) this afternoon today, 26 Nov but the president of the school supposedly could not get security into the building to ensure his safety, citing that he was too "controversial". If he is too controversial, why was he invited in the first place? I told him that it's too bad some people don't have first amendment rights on college campuses. He just told me "whatever". Next to us and next to the podium where he was going to speak was a display case promoting Aztlan. For some...

It was supposed to be 14 feet high and topped with razor wire. It was also supposed to send a message to Washington that if the government wouldn't seal off the southern border, volunteers could. Almost two years later, the reality is a five-strand barbed-wire barrier that ranchers dismiss as a mere cattle fence.

57. Have you, your spouse, any members of your family, or any members of your spouse’s family ever been associated with gangs or subversive groups (Minutemen, Aryan Brotherhood, etc.) “ YES “ NO IF YES, EXPLAIN IN SEPARATE STATEMENT.

Mayor-elect Jack Wilson deserves kudos for convening his ex-officio task force on immigration this past week even before he takes office. At least it's a recognition of how serious the problem is. All of the usual suspects showed up with all of the usual comments, to wit: • City Attorney Gary Kidd said anything the city does to fight illegal immigration likely will elicit a federal or civil libertarian legal challenge. He's right, but that's exactly why the city should push. For the past 50 years, the Washington establishment has done nothing about the problem while zealously claiming exclusive jurisdiction....

McHenry County Blog is trying to give a full picture of what Allen County, Ohio, Sheriff Daniel Beck told his Illinois Minuteman Project audience at Crystal Lake’s McHenry County College last Friday night. So far, we have covered how he fought GOP courthouse corruption and his motivation for entering the illegal alien fray. Standing on the MCC auditorium stage in front of a big screen Beck sometimes looked a bit like the movie’s George Patton talking to his troops while standing in front of a huge American flag. Beck used the written word, instead of a flag. He had a...

BISBEE — Richard Hodges was driving his Jeep along International Road after 8 p.m. one night this past summer when he noticed an opening in the barbed wire fence along one side of his property. He owns 372 acres near Bisbee Junction. The edge of his land is located on the border with Mexico. Fearing his cows might escape and cross the border, he stopped to close the hole in the fence. He parked his vehicle so the headlights were shining on the fence. As he was mending the section of barbed wire, he was struck in the chest by...

Retired Kansas policeman Ed Hayes lives a quiet life with his wife and pet poodles in a spacious suburban home near Kansas City, far from the main front line over illegal immigration along the U.S. border with Mexico. But over the last 18 months the 66-year-old grandfather has been drawn into the battle nonetheless, becoming active on a second front. He has joined many individuals, who, with state and municipal leaders, have given up waiting for federal action and are working to control illegal immigration themselves. The issue has become a priority not only for activists like Hayes but also...

Three years ago, a retired, Orange County account and Vietnam War Veteran, could not get an answer to what seemed like a simple question, “Why has American stopped enforcing it’s immigration laws?” Unable to get the political establishment to take notice, he organized a protest at the local illegal labor site, in Laguna Beach, which in turn lead to the founding of the Minuteman Project. Even though we were told Gilchrist was a racist nut, that Simcox was a criminal; even though MS 13 was going kill us, the ACLU was going to sue us, the border patrol hated us;...

Local Hispanic advocates and a national labor leader said Sunday they will continue to seek the removal of Frances Semler from Kansas City’s park board. The latest development in the ongoing battle over Semler’s appointment by Mayor Mark Funkhouser came at a news conference local leaders called to launch new efforts to educate the public about their position. They have sought Semler’s dismissal or resignation from the Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners because of her membership in the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, a national anti-illegal immigration group. Funkhouser has said that although his views often differ from Semler’s, he...