The Minuteman Project is an activist organization started in August 2004 by a group of individuals in the United States to legally monitor the United States - the flow of Mexican immigrants. Founded by Jim Gilchrist and Chris Simcox, the name comes from Minutemen, a militia fought in the American Revolution. The Minuteman project describes itself as a "Neighboring Observer of citizens on our border", and has attracted media attention to illegal immigration.
In addition to border controls, the project created a political action committee that lobbied representatives who supported proactive immigration law enforcement and border security issues. Members believe government officials have failed to protect the country from the invasion of foreign enemies. They strongly supported the construction of the wall and placed additional border patrol agents or involved the military to curb free movement across the Mexican-American border. About half of the members strongly opposed amnesty and the program of guest workers, and a large number opposed the transfer of funds to Mexico to improve infrastructure.
Video Minuteman Project
History
First line care
In early 2005, Gilchrist and Simcox gathered more than 1,200 volunteers for the first border control. For a month, the activists guarded the 23-mile Arizona-Mexico border, counted the number of incoming migrants, reported their presence, and frightened them not to cross through this stretch. Many activists came from Utah, and soon after joining local groups to form the Utah Minuteman Project (UMP), which focused on raising public awareness of "immigration threats" through local media and public debate.
T-shirt incident
On April 6, 2005, three Minuteman Project volunteers convinced a 25-year-old man to hold a T-shirt and pose for a photo and video with one of the volunteers. The T-shirt, also worn by volunteer Bryan Barton, read "Bryan Barton caught me across the border and all I got was this ugly T-shirt."
The volunteer approached the young man near the main highway while not on patrol duty. He then contacts the Border Patrol. He gave $ 20 to the man because the US Border Patrol arrived and took the man into custody. Critics of the MMP raised questions about the incident, but an investigation by the Cochise County Sheriff's office cleared the volunteers of every mistake. Mexican Border and Consul Patrol agrees that no crime is committed.
The ACLU issued a press release about this incident. Bryan Barton has since run for the San Diego congressional district, the video of the incident is actually available on his campaign site.
Garden Grove incident
On May 25, 2005, James Gilchrist spoke in Garden Grove, California, to the California Coalition for Immigration Reform at the Garden Grove Women's Club. Hal Netkin, a Minuteman collaborator, came to the event. The Netkin car was besieged when he arrived at the scene and the protesters allegedly swung the vehicle and banged on it. Grove Garden Police Lieutenant Mike Handfield stated that some of the 300 demonstrators were there "not protesting but committing criminal acts" and that "A small group of troublemakers had their backpacks loaded with soda cans they threw as well as cans filled with marbles that they throw. "Lt.Ã, Handfield claims that," We decided that he deserves to move forward "through the crowd that surrounds his car. Two people standing in front of the Netkin car crashed as he moved forward. Both went to the hospital. Police announced the illegal trial. "It's out of control in terms of increasingly malignant protesters," said Lt. Handfield. Jan Tucker, who accompanied the country and local leaders of the Latin American League to speak, stated that the crowd outside the building was peaceful.
Stopping help to illegal immigrants on the border
In January 2006, the actions of California Minutemen helped to effect the cancellation of a program sponsored by Humane Borders and the Mexican government to supply more than 70,000 maps to migrants to assist their unauthorized entry into the United States. The maps were not designed to encourage illegal entry into the country, but the maps were intended to reduce deaths and injuries by mapping the positions of water stations, rescue flares, and recorded deaths. However, Miguel Angel Paredes, spokesman for Mexico's National Human Rights Commission said "it would be practical like telling Minutemen where the migrants would be" and thus, they should "rethink this, so we will not nearly hand them over groups attacking migrants ".
Incident at Columbia University
On October 4, 2006, about forty students and protesters allegedly stormed Alfred Lerner Hall during a Minuteman presentation at Columbia University in New York City, where House Members Marvin Stewart and Gilchrist were invited to speak. Student protesters rushed onto the stage with yellow banners at Stewart and should have disturbed the presentation by dragging the crowd, who cheered the demonstrators and denounced the speaker. The protesters then gathered outside the gates of Columbia University and continued the singing. The protest was quickly resolved by security guards. The event spawned a public discussion in Columbia about freedom of speech and transparency regarding the process in which controversial speakers are invited to speak. Columbia University President Lee Bollinger states in an email across campus that "No one... will have the right or power to use the protest cover to silence the speaker". This event is monitored by several media organizations. Neil Cavuto of Fox News interviewed Stewart, an African American, to announce a hate crime suit against Columbia University for the racial insults Stewart stated he experienced during his 55-minute speech. Although no racial epithets can be heard in the videotapes of the event, the rebels can be clearly heard calling the speakers "racists", "murderers", and, later, chanting "racists, fascists go!"
August 2007 fake killing videos
In August 2007, the South Poverty Law Center reported the emergence of two videos depicting the murder of a suspected illegal immigrant along the Mexican/California border by two Minutes. These videos appeared briefly on YouTube but were removed. In this video, an image is recorded in night vision when shot while two narrators exchanging obscene comments expressing satisfaction about it.
A few days later, Minuteman representatives accused the San Diego TV station that the video was made by members of the Mountain Minutemen group and that they were fake. Robert "Little Dog" Crooks, who claims to make a video, says "we're parents and we're bored" and said he's making a video to express a political opinion about the contested immigration bill. Minuteman Project Leader Jim Gilchrist will then ban cooperation with his group members with Mount Minutemen in response to the video incident.
Maps Minuteman Project
Support
On April 28, 2005, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger praised the Minuteman Project during an interview on The John and Ken Show at Los Angeles KFI radio station, saying the group had done a "great job". He repeated his supportive comments the following day, noting that Minutemen would be welcome for a border patrol between California and Mexico.
Other supporters include the Conservative Ruling Council, national radio, hosts Sean Hannity and Michael Savage, Tennessee radio host James Edwards and Virginia activist Mark Hopkins.
Discussions during the 2016 presidential election on building walls and mass deportations were directly aligned with project missions. Gilchrist states that he feels that his goal has been reaffirmed and resolved after observing the widespread consciousness spread around the issue of immigration. He initially supported Ted Cruz for the president, who publicly criticized Barack Obama's amnesty policy and was a consistent opponent of Obama's push for immigration reform.
Criticism
The project has sparked controversy, drawing criticism from former Mexican President Vicente Fox and former US President George W. Bush, who expressed dislike of the "vigilante" border project. In 2005, James Gilchrist said he had been told that the criminal organization Latino MS13 had "issued an order to teach 'lessons'" to Minutemen. The Minuteman project and its chapters have been called extreme nativist groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center, and the Anti-Pollution League has observed that Neo-Nazis and white supremacists have campaigned with them. ADL reports formal connections between these groups have been established. In December 2005 James Chase handed over leadership from California Minutemen (CMM) & amp; National Border Watch Federation (BWF) to his son, Mike Chase. Recruitment, operations and influence of the California Minutemen continue to grow, and the North County Times complains about the appointment of Mike Chase to the Senator California political campaign steering committee Bill Morrow for the 50th District Congress seat vacated by Randy "Duke" Cunningham.
In a June 2008 interview with OC Register , Jim Gilchrist stated, "Am I happy with the results of this whole movement? I am very, very sad, very disappointed". He also added, "There are different types of organizations that have spawned from Project Minuteman and I must say, some people who have entered into this movement have malicious intentions.... I have found, after four years in this movement... I may have fought for people with less character and less integrity than the 'open border fanatics' I have been fighting against, "Gilchrist concluded." And that is a phenomenal indictment of something I have created. "
Internal disputes
Advisory Board Member for Project Minuteman, Inc. took control of the organization's bank account and, at least temporarily, took over the Minuteman Project's main website, Jim Gilchrist filed suit in Orange County, California, against three of the group members claiming to be members of the board of directors: Marvin Stewart, Deborah Courtney, and Barbara Coe.
Stewart, Courtney and Coe allege that they are the Board of Directors of the Minuteman, Inc. Project. and sacked Gilchrist for various reasons. Gilchrist fired Stewart and Courtney. Rather than accept their termination, Stewart and Courtney filed a paper with the Delaware State Secretary saying that they are the Board of Directors and Corporate Officers.
Stewart and Courtney were the defendants in another action brought by the Minuteman Project. The former volunteers at one point run out of money to pay legal counsel and are forced to represent themselves in court. The trial began on January 4, 2010. On February 5, 2010, Judge Wilkinson issued a Discovery Statement Decision that Stewart and Courtney were legally dismissed from Minuteman Project, Inc. on February 2, 2007. The February meeting was well-attended, the purpose of the special meeting of Courtney, Coe and Stewart) was noted, and Courtney, Coe and Stewart were present at the meeting. The court ruled the previous meeting that the couple held to dismiss the other council members was less - because they did not give notice, nor did they have a quorum and the director had no authority. At the meeting Barbara Coe resigned from her post (giving her resignation from MMP, Inc. to Jim Gilchrist, her president) and Stewart and Courtney were fired. Judge Wilkinson ruled that the two defendants were legally dismissed from the MMP board on 2 February 2007 and "under any circumstances" they became councilors after 2 February 2007. He issued a permanent order against their claims that they were board members, officers, members or interpreters talk to the Minuteman Project, asking them to remove any website that made the false claim, and finally ordered them to return to the MMP, one of the properties they own.
The ruling confirms Gilchrist's position as head of the Minuteman Project, Inc. and his successor project Jim Gilchrist's Minuteman Project, Inc.
Spy
Media representatives, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and observers from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) are also in the patrol zone trying to observe Minutemen volunteers in the workplace. In November 2006, the ACLU released a report detailing the Minuteman Campaign and stated that a large number of daily newspapers "greatly exaggerated" the number of volunteers actually participating in group operations in southeastern Arizona in April 2005.
People claiming to be directors of the Minuteman Project claimed they removed Gilchrist as head of the Minuteman Project amid allegations of fraud and financial mismanagement, but representatives from the Delaware Secretary of State told the Los Angeles Times that only Gilchrist could make that change. In a May 2007 interview, Gilchrist stated: "I am President and always there, I get the company back I have the right to the website, bank account, everything We are back in the same position as we were before the hijacking." Judge Wilkinson issued a temporary verdict prohibits board members from disbursing the donations of the Minuteman Project until the Gilchrist lawsuit is resolved. In April 2007, Gilchrist announced the formation of a new non-profit company, named Minuteman Project Jim Gilchrist, Inc.
In popular culture
- Minuteman is depicted in the West Wing episode "Messages of the Week"
- Doug Wilson plays Minuteman to help Andy Botwin's coyote service for Mexican immigrants without documents in Season 4 of Weeds
- In the movie The Heartbreak Kid , Minutemen is portrayed stopping Ben Stiller's illegal "re-entry" character to the United States
- Minutemen is depicted as a villain in the movie Robert Rodriguez 2010 Machete .
- The Minutemen (2011) is a Verite Documentary that tells the story of seven Minutemen living along the US-Mexico Border
- In Grand Theft Auto V , a group of activists called "Civil Border Patrol" monitored the towns of Los Santos and Blaine County for illegal immigrants. When missions involving CBP appear on the map, they are sometimes labeled as "minutemen".
See also
- The Border Film Project
- Jim Gilchrist
References
External links
- Minuteman Project official website
- The Minutemen documentary
- Anti-Defendant 5 Defendants
- Minuteman Party
- US. Customs and Border Protection
- Article on Minuteman Project
- Wolves hunt in the Kingdom: Minutes of Rain and Protesters to the Derby Line , by David Van Deusen, Catamount Tavern News Service, 2006.
- What Happens to Minutes in Arizona?
Related videos
- "High Pointer", from Border Stories, founder profile of Campo Minutemen
- The 'Border Film Project' examines issues from both sides of the border, CBC News: The Hour, November 7, 2005. Retrieved December 28, 2005.
- July 2005 CNN coverage of California Minutemen operations on the US/Mexico border near Campo, CA
- [2], Feature Length Documentary on Posse Minutemen Mountain
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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