Free Republic

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...

A Texas firm that manages hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations to the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps says it has not been authorized to divulge a detailed accounting of the funds, despite assurances by the MCDC's top official that it would do so. Maureen E. Otis -- president of American Caging Inc. in Stafford, Texas, an agency hired to collect, deposit and disburse donations to the civilian border-patrol group -- told The Washington Times that neither MCDC President Chris Simcox nor the group's board of directors had given her permission to "disclose any numbers." Mr. Simcox, who has been...

Border barrier moving forward 9 August 2006By Jonathan Clark Sierra Vista Herald/Review BISBEE — Plans by the Minuteman Civilian Defense Corps to build a border barrier on the Bisbee-area ranch of Richard Hodges are moving forward, with groundbreaking on the project likely to begin later this month, a spokeswoman said Tuesday. “We’re getting ready to survey, we’ve got bulldozers and materials ready to go, and we’ve got the camera company ready to test camera systems down there,” said Minuteman spokeswoman Connie Hair. “Everything is pressing forward.” The civilian anti-illegal-immigration group had initially hoped to break ground on the fence in...

August 03, 2006, 9:03 a.m. A Compromised Plan By The Editors Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, both Republicans, are making a last-ditch effort to bridge their party’s divide on immigration and pass a bill this year. We agree that the country, and the Republican party, would benefit if a sensible immigration plan were passed soon. The Pence-Hutchison plan isn’t one. The pro-amnesty Republicans have responded more favorably to the plan than the enforcement-first Republicans, and both sides are reading the plan correctly. Its central component is to allow illegal immigrants to continue...

Recently, the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, Inc. (MCDC), and our fiduciary accountability has been called into question in reports in the Washington Times newspaper. Its editors continue to misrepresent the facts and have purposely based their reports and editorials on information that is inaccurate. They continue in their attempt to hold us to a different and improperly applied fiduciary standard than any other non-profit in the country. Jerry Seper and Wes Pruden seem not to understand the first, most basic matters of non-profit accounting and regulatory obligation. Further, Pruden absurdly describes Seper’s reporting as “careful, rigorous” when Seper has not...

The first thing a Minuteman has to learn is to keep his powder dry. The bigger the powder magazine, the bigger the risk of getting it all wet. This is the lesson that Chris Simcox, the president of the volunteers on the border, who have almost single-handedly aroused the nation's conscience about the tide of illegal immigration, seems to have missed in basic training. The "powder" is the hundreds of thousands of dollars that Americans have contributed to the Minutemen, who have been exceedingly helpful to the U.S. Border Patrol. The careful, rigorous reporting of Jerry Seper in The Washington...

Press Releases :: July 26, 2006 Will Adams, 202.226.6997 Tancredo Introduces Bill to Halt Illegal Alien Voting WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-CO), Chairman of the 104-Member House Immigration Reform Caucus, introduced a bill that would penalize states which refuse to require proof of U.S. citizenship for voting. Under the Voter Integrity Protection Act (VIP Act), states would need to see a valid photo ID proving U.S. Citizenship for voting or those states would have their federal highway funding cut by as much as 40 percent. “In some parts of our country, all residents are granted a de facto...

Pence-Hutchison “Compromise” Induces Illegal Aliens to Leave By Letting Them All Stay Plan Compromises the Security of the Middle Class by Putting Business in Charge of Immigration Policy Washington, DC—In a desperate effort to “get something done” on immigration before the end of the congressional session, two normally sober members of Congress have hatched a plan that is vague on details when it comes to securing America’s borders and protecting American workers, while containing specific promises to millions of illegal aliens. The plan offered by Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Tex.) would require that the...

Compromise would allow unlimited immigrants By Charles Hurt THE WASHINGTON TIMES July 26, 2006 The latest proposal in Congress for a "guest"-worker program would allow unlimited immigration of eligible workers during the first three years and allow them and their families to remain here indefinitely. Offered by two Republicans, the plan is criticized by proponents of stricter immigration laws. They say the program would tilt the nation's immigration system toward millions of uneducated, unskilled workers. [...Snip] Detractors are skeptical that President Bush would provide an honest assessment of border security and questioned the commitment of Mr. Pence and Mrs. Hutchison...

Hutchison-Pence Immigration Proposal is Discriminatory Amnesty 7/26/2006 7:11:00 PM Contact: Caroline Espinosa of NumbersUSA, 202-543-1341, Caroline@NumbersUSA.com WASHINGTON, July 26 /U.S. Newswire/ -- NumbersUSA today condemned the Hutchison-Pence plan for amnesty based on national origin, virtually unlimited foreign workers, and a path to citizenship for those who have broken our laws. "The Hutchison-Pence proposal caters primarily to the big business and cheap-labor lobbies as it would allow importing unlimited workers under indentured servitude-like conditions," said NumbersUSA Executive Director Roy Beck. "This bill should be called the 'Chamber of Commerce Bill' since its members and cheap-labor allies are the real beneficiaries of...

Gilchrist is on with Mark right now and Davis is taking him to task for his defense of Corsi's NAU theories. "Kook nonsense" is what Davis called it, and Gilchrist backed off, saying he would take Mark's words under advisement. Now, Gilchrist is saying that he split with Simcox because he did not want to use the same consultants Simcox was using, but refused to tell Davis why. He said there is a lack of accountability in Simcox's organization and many are there to see how much money they can earn. "Country before mood swings" is what Gilchrist said.

Things don't look good down at the southern border where the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps has supposedly been using gobs of citizen donations to build a fence to keep out illegal aliens. The Washington Times, which has supported the project (as have I), editorializes today: As supporters of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, we were disheartened to read Jerry Seper's front-page article Thursday about questions and criticisms of President Chris Simcox's management of the organization. According to the article, the volunteer group has not made any financial statements or fundraising records public since April 2005 -- circumstances that have strained...

As supporters of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, we were disheartened to read Jerry Seper's front-page article Thursday about questions and criticisms of President Chris Simcox's management of the organization. According to the article, the volunteer group has not made any financial statements or fundraising records public since April 2005 -- circumstances that have strained relations between Mr. Simcox and several of his top employees, some of whom have resigned in protest. Mr. Simcox must resolve these problems quickly. Failure to do so would only encourage the organization's critics -- who have made no secret of their desire to see...

PALOMINAS — Back in the 1970s, it was a major event when a Mexican cow would wander on to Jack and John Ladd’s borderfront ranch in Palominas. But after tightened border security in San Diego and El Paso began to funnel illegal immigration though Arizona in the early 1990s, holes began to appear more regularly along the 10 miles of barbed-wire fence separating the ranch from Mexico. The holes, cut by individual migrants or blasted out by fence-crashing vehicles, also created an easy passageway for cattle. So, in an effort to keep Mexican cows out and their own cows in,...

Minutemen put trust in their finance firms By Jerry Seper THE WASHINGTON TIMES July 21, 2006 The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps' top leaders signed a letter yesterday saying they have "complete confidence in the professional firms" hired by MCDC President Chris Simcox to oversee the organization's finances, citing criticism from within and outside the group as "utterly without merit." The letter, posted on the Minuteman Web page (www.minutemanhq.com) applauded Mr. Simcox's decision to employ "accredited and experienced professionals to assist the organization in management of our finances." "There are those both within the border security movement and actively opposed to...

The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps' top leaders signed a letter yesterday saying they have "complete confidence in the professional firms" hired by MCDC President Chris Simcox to oversee the organization's finances, citing criticism from within and outside the group as "utterly without merit."     The letter, posted on the Minuteman Web page (www.minutemanhq.com) applauded Mr. Simcox's decision to employ "accredited and experienced professionals to assist the organization in management of our finances."     "There are those both within the border security movement and actively opposed to it who, for ideological reasons or in advancement of personal ambition, wish the Minuteman Civil Defense...

WASHINGTON, July 20 (AP) — The leadership of a civilian border patrol group is facing questions about how it has spent donations collected over the past 15 months. Some members of the group, the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, say they have no idea how much money has been collected since the group was created in April 2005. They are also questioning what the money has been spent on and why it has been funneled through a charity based in Northern Virginia and headed by Alan Keyes, the conservative commentator. The members say money promised for supplies like food, fuel, radios,...

HERNDON, Va., July 20 (UPI) -- Some members of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, the controversial U.S. border-security group, have raised questions about its finances. Gary Cole, the group's former director of operations, told the Washington Times he collected thousands of dollars and does not know where the money went or how it was spent. Cole said Chris Simcox, the president, has refused to provide an accounting......."

The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps calls itself a "project of the Declaration Alliance," although few MCDC volunteers know what the alliance does or why Minuteman donations are routed through the charity founded and headed by conservative activist Alan Keyes. Several Minuteman leaders and members questioned the wisdom of ceding control over fundraising to the Herndon-based Declaration Alliance, part of an intricate weave of conservative organizations founded and chaired by Mr. Keyes or tied to longtime Keyes associates working with MCDC. MCDC President Chris Simcox told The Washington Times that the alliance offers "an experienced organization for mass mailings, advertising and...

A growing number of Minuteman Civil Defense Corps leaders and volunteers are questioning the whereabouts of hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of dollars in donations collected in the past 15 months, challenging the organization's leadership over financial accountability. Many of the group's most active members say they have no idea how much money has been collected as part of its effort to stop illegal entry -- primarily along the U.S.-Mexico border, what it has been spent on or why it has been funneled through a Virginia-based charity headed by conservative Alan Keyes. Several of the group's top lieutenants have either...