THE MINUTEMEN: ON THE BORDER AND IN THE NEWS

THE MINUTEMEN: ON THE BORDER AND IN THE NEWS

Keith N. Haley
Tiffin University
Tiffin, Ohio

Theodora E. Ene
University of Bucharest
Bucharest, Romania

The article is also a paper presented at the2006 Annual Meeting of theAcademy of Criminal Justice SciencesFebruary 28 – March 4, 2006, Baltimore, MD

Paper is copyrighted. All rights pertain.

THE MINUTEMEN: ON THE BORDER AND IN THE NEWS

INTRODUCTION

I suppose there are people who have not heard of the modern day Minutemen or any of their projects. Indeed you could not have been reading newspapers in 2005 or watching television and legitimately claim ignorance of the Minutemen organization and their deployment projects to stop illegal immigration from Mexico in the American Southwest.

In early April of 2005, the Minutemen volunteers deployed along a stretch of the Arizona and New Mexico border and by the end of April they had substantially reduced illegal border crossings. For their efforts they have received both accolades and ridicule from presidents, governors, state legislators, heads of federal agencies, members of Congress, national and world media, and the American people themselves. Seldom has one citizens’ volunteer organization received so much attention.

Despite the ridicule and chastisement of their mission, the Minutemen were right on all of their concerns: illegal immigration is a serious national security problem; a small percentage of the illegal immigrants commit a lot of crime in the Southwest and across the nation; and the illegal immigrants provide a substantial drain on government and other community resources adversely
affecting the quality of life for legal residents and U.S. citizens.

The huge positive reaction from some quarters to the work of the Minutemen has been a vindication for the heated and vitriolic criticism they have received
from others since they came upon the national scene.

Minutemen Accomplishments

Some of the Minutemen accomplishments over the past year are formidable:

1. The Minutemen made illegal immigration an issue of national concern. A recent Time Magazine poll found that 2/3 of Americans feel illegal immigration is “very serious” or an “extremely serious” problem (The Hindu News Update Service, 2006).

2. Two Southwest governors have declared illegal immigration an emergency in their states and two others have proclaimed the critical nature of the problem.

3. Legislation to control and stop illegal immigration is being introduced and passed at unprecedented rates throughout the nation.

4. The Minutemen stopped the influx of illegal immigrants during the weeks they deployed on the Arizona-Mexico border, demonstrating that it is possible to stop the steady flow of illegal immigrants from Mexico. They did this without any negative incident that would have tarnished their reputation. This was confirmed by the head of the ACLU who sent observers to see if the Minutemen were abusive and disrespectful toward illegal immigrants.

5. Despite the unrelenting negative and pernicious names the Minutemen were called (racists, fascists, and vigilantes to name a few), no incident was ever identified to substantiate these accusations. President Bush called the Minutemen vigilantes. Organizations even tried to bait the Minutemen into an embarrassing overreaction and were unsuccessful.

6. National Guard troops in limited numbers have now been deployed on the Southwest border.


7. More human and logistical resources have been sent to the Southwestto assist the U.S. Border Patrol.

8. In response to the continuous criticism of the U.S. Government’s lack of facilities to house illegal immigrants, a point frequently made by the Minutemen and local and state law enforcement, a $345 million dollar contract has been let to construct illegal immigrant detention centers in the United States.

9. The Minutemen’s recent monitoring of the illegal immigrant day labor pickup sites inside the United States and of employers who hire the illegals has focused on the need for interior enforcement of our nation’s immigration laws and spurred legislation in cities and states throughout the nation.

10. The Minutemen have just announced a nationwide “Secure Our Borders” operation for April of 2006 that will involve thousands of volunteers along 800 miles of international borders.

None of the above matters were serious considerations or realized prior to the deployment of the Minutemen in Arizona in April of 2005. The Minutemen, however, have failed to get the federal government and the Department of Homeland Security to acknowledge or treat seriously the blatant incursion into the United States of the Mexican Army as they assist drug smugglers. While as many as 200 of these invasions into the territory of the United States may have occurred in the past several years, the Director of Homeland Security claims says the matter is “overblown.”

The sheer unabashed patriotism of the Minutemen intrigued us the most and spurred our desire to go to Tombstone, Arizona this past July and visit the Headquarters of the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps. This gave the authors the opportunity to speak with Chris Simcox, the co-founder of the Minutemen and the owner and editor of the Tombstone Tumbleweed newspaper and Gary Cole, the Operations Manager for the Minutemen deployments. We were also able to go on an operational sweep of the area with Mr. Cole and traverse the ground where illegal immigrants cross into Arizona from Mexico and see firsthand the deplorable state of border security in this region.

First Author's Political Perspective and Personal Motivation

Let’s start with some assumptions so the reader does not have to search for the first author's latent motivations in this project, or worse yet struggle to discern the first author's political values. First, I am a conservative, socially, politically, economically, religiously, and in about every other way you can frame a person’s attitudes and values. Secondly, you can be a conservative and believe in the equality and dignity of all people no matter who or where they are. I do. Finally, I am against illegal immigration, period. I am for legal immigration, a reasonable policy in a rule of law nation. Now to the research project itself.

The Nature of the Illegal Immigration Problem

Illegal immigration is a critical issue in the United States that needs resolution immediately. On the southwest border the United States apprehends about 1 million illegal immigrants per year which sounds as if the U.S. Border Patrol and other federal agencies are doing an outstanding job until you realize that each year 2 million illegal immigrants successfully enter the United States and disappear into society to do legitimate and needed work, commit crimes, and drain already overloaded government services (Malkin, 2002).

More than 11 million illegal immigrants are now in the United States (Debussman, 2005). The question has to be asked, for the safety of the nation and the viability of our society to sustain itself, how many more illegal immigrants can we sustain? The answer from many is that the time is now to stop illegal immigration, secure our borders, and create legal and enforceable means to enter, live, and work in the United States. For those who abide by the rules, a clear path to legal U.S. citizenship should be a reachable goal.

The Minutemen and the Illegal Immigration Project

In the meantime, enter the Minutemen who have stepped up to stand in for the United States government which has woefully neglected its responsibility to protect our borders and prevent the entry of illegal immigrants. To reiterate, in April of 2005, the Minutemen citizen volunteers demonstrated on a 20 mile stretch of the border separating Arizona and Mexico that illegal immigration can be substantially reduced. In the late summer and fall of 2005, the Minutemen deployed similarly on the U.S. - Canadian borders in the Northeast and the Northwest. The Minutemen were successful enough to get the attention of the federal government and the American public, thereby bringing to the top of the national discussion agenda the problem of illegal immigration.

METHODOLOGY

Objectives

The article is intended to accomplish the following objectives:
1. Describe the leadership, structure, and functions of the Minutemen organization;

2. Describe the personal views and actions of the Minutemen's operations director on an operation sweep of key checkpoints on the Arizona-Mexico border.

3. Compare and contrast the nature, image, and activities of the Minutemen as described on their own website at MinutemanHQ.com with their portrayal in 60 U.S. major newspaper articles published from April 2005 until January 2006.

Data Acquisition

During July of 2005 the authors visited the Headquarters of the Minutemen in Tombstone, Arizona and interviewed Chris Simcox, the co-founder of the Minutemen, and Gary Cole, the Operations Commander of the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps. During the visit we was able to accompany and observe Gary Cole as he carried out a routine operational sweep, checking the locations on both sides of the Arizona-Mexico border that were known points of illegal entry and concealment for illegal immigrants. This land was approximately 20 miles south of Tombstone, Arizona and part of the same area where the Minutemen deployed in April of 2005 demonstrating that illegal immigration in this area could be stopped if forces were assigned to watch it.

In order to compare and contrast the nature, image, and activities of the Minutemen as they conduct themselves and describe themselves in articles and documents on their own Internet site with what the print news media were saying about them, the authors conducted a content analysis of 33 major U.S. newspaper articles that contained the word “Minutemen” one or more times in the headline or the body of the article. The articles appeared in major U.S. newspapers from April of 2005 to January of 2006. The articles were located by using a Lexis-Nexis newspaper article search.

The authors also conducted an in-depth, structured interview with Gary Cole, the Minutemen’s Operations Commander. We also conducted a general interview with Chris Simcox, the co-founder of the Minutemen.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

In Their Own Words

Anyone can go to the Minutemen HQ home page on the World Wide Web and read for themselves what the Minutemen are about. The website is a treasure trove of information about the Minutemen’s founding, history, membership, current civil defense projects, and volunteers’ blogs from the border, pending immigration legislation, and a myriad of news articles about the Minutemen themselves, and border security issues.

Part of our methodology for the research project was to look at three particular sections of the website content in order to help us determine who the minutemen are in their words: About US; Standard Operating Procedures; and the Training and Policy Manual.

Below are excerpts from sections of two of these three parts of the website in relation to some key questions concerning the Minutemen:

1. Who are the Minutemen?

2. What is their purpose?

3. What activities do they employ?

4. What guidance and preparation do they get before their volunteer deployment on the border?

5. What critical behaviors are desired on the part of the Minutemen and what behaviors are discouraged and forbidden?

A logical place to look in order to find out what an organization stands for is to examine its own Internet website, its standard operating procedures, and its policy manual. The Minutemen place both items of information on their web site located at MinutemanHQ.com along with a section entitled About Us.About Us. After reading this section it becomes clear that the major purpose of the Minutemen is to demonstrate the urgency of protecting the nation’s borders. Clearly stated in this section of the Minuteman web site is the notion that they are not people organized against citizens or migrants from any nation but that they believe national security requires the borders to be secure.
Chris Simcox, the President of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps pulls no punches in saying that the federal government has let us down in this regard. He also points, that letter writing, sending e-mails, and calling your congressmen have had virtually no positive results. Their intention is to demonstrate to the President, the House of Representatives, and the Senate that their excuses are no longer acceptable. The borders of the United States can be secured and orderly, legal immigration can permit needed immigrants to enter the United Sates. There is, of course, the call for volunteers in this section of the website to assist in border watching and the admonition that no biased beliefs or actions will be tolerated. At this point in time, 6,500 men and women have gone through the required background investigation, at their own expense, and interviews to become Minutemen. All people are not accepted.
Standard Operating Procedure for Minuteman Project

The Standard Operating Procedures(SOP’s) that are found below provide an excellent description of the code of conduct required of the Minutemen when not only deployed in an operation but also in the way they comport themselves in general. The SOP’s are found below.

1. Minutemen are courteous to everyone with whom they come into contact, and never discriminate against anyone for any reason.

2.Minutemen do not respond to any taunts or harassment from outside agitators, and must never be present for duty or serve in any capacity if intoxicated.

3. Minutemen Observe, Report and Direct Border Patrol or otherappropriate emergency or law enforcement agencies to suspected Illegal Aliens or Illegal Activities.

4. Minutemen do not verbally contact, physically gesture to or have any form of communications with suspected Illegal Aliens.

5. Minutemen follow the Standard Operating Procedures to the letter and spirit.

6. Minutemen follow all federal, state and local laws, understanding that we are being held to a higher standard by all.

7. Minutemen understand that, while our actions cannot stop illegal activities along the boarder, we can change world perception and national thought concerning Homeland and Border Security.

8. Minutemen monitor their behavior, the behavior of the people around them and the group as a whole to ensure compliance with the SOP and any instruction given by Minuteman Corps Leadership.

9. Minutemen leave no garbage behind and follow strict pack-in / pack-out procedures.

10. Minutemen respect the property rights of everyone, start no fires, never drive off road, and follow the directions of all law enforcement personnel.

The Minutemen Policy Manual.

While not within the purview of this research project, a 23 page manual can be found on the homepage of the Minutemen. This manual provides intricate details of how Minuteman operations are carried out. A perusal of this manual and the SOP’s will demonstrate that safety, courtesy, and the welfare of both the Minutemen and the illegal immigrants are a matter of grave concern. For those who would have no prior knowledge of field operations, a reading of the Minuteman policy manual would be worthwhile.

Interview with Chris Simcox, President of the Minutemen civil Defense Corps

As well as being a cofounder of the Minutemen, Chris Simcox is the owner and editor of the Tombstone Tumbleweed Newspaper in Tombstone Arizona. A former public school teacher, he indeed is a patriot and believes that the United States cannot sustain itself without protecting its borders. Over the years he’s watched this problem exacerbate to the point that he believes something had to be done by private citizens because the federal government was avoiding the issue of illegal immigration. His response was to found the Minutemen along with Jim Gilchrist.

He’s a quiet reserved man but certainly dedicated to his cause. He works long and late hours, devoting his life to both the publication of the Tombstone Tumbleweed newspaper and the organization and deployment of the Minutemen to secure border locations in the Southwest. In conversations with Mr. Simcox what comes through strongly is his love of the United States and a deep concern for its welfare. He believes the safety and integrity of the United States relies primarily on whether or not its borders are secure. On the southwest border the United States government is successful in catching about one million illegal immigrants each year. More than 2 million illegal immigrants successfully enter the United States. (Malkin, 2002). Illegal immigrants, of course, enter the United States from other locations, but none experience numbers anything near what happens on the borders of California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas.

The headquarters in Tombstone is in fact the newspaper office. It’s a busy place, as most newspaper offices are, but one can tell at a glance there’s more going on here than getting a newspaper out. They’re boxes of supplies and a substantial stack of various kinds of Minuteman T-shirts and bumper stickers immediately inside the door of the newspaper office. While we were there the phone would ring continuously with calls coming in from across that nation. When we were there the office was staffed with three people, two Minutemen leaders and a secretary. We are sure calls had to do with the work of the Minutemen in the Southwest and throughout the nation. We bought three T-shirt and some bumper stickers. One of the popular bumper stickers read” King George didn’t like the Minutemen project either.”

On the Border: An Operational Sweep with the Minutemen

On July 12, 2005, we traveled to Tombstone, Arizona to view firsthand the porous Arizona-Mexico border we had heard so much about in the news. At the Minutemen Headquarters in Tombstone we were able to interview Gary Cole, Operations Commander for the Minutemen Civil Defense Project and. As previously mentioned, Chris Simcox, co-founder of the Minutemen, and Gary Cole, the operations manager, were both gentlemen who could not have been more gracious in offering up their time to help us understand their organization and particularly to comprehend the Minutemen deployment on the Arizona border south of Tombstone during the month of April 2005 where the organization drastically reduced the number of illegal immigrants entering the United States across a 23- mile stretch.

After making introductions and conducting our first interview, Gary Cole invited us to join him later on what he described as an operational sweep the next evening, July 13, 2005, at 5 pm. He was going out to make some checks and was more than willing to show us what he did. We were delighted to have this opportunity to see the terrain and the strategy used by the Minutemen to stop illegal immigration on this stretch of the border,

We showed up in my Land Rover Discovery, a continuous four-wheel drive vehicle that was ideal for the driving on the dirt roads and desert in the area we were going to visit.

While the dramatic and well-published deployment was over, Cole remained in Tombstone to make schedules sweeps of the area at night to detect the amount of border penetration that was still occurring. Cole said that most of the illegal immigrants cross under the cover of darkness, making detection more difficult and dangerous for the illegal immigrants and the Minutemen who were volunteering their services to protect the border.

Here is precisely what the Minutemen do according to Gary Cole, a former real estate executive, special operations soldier in the U.S. Army, and an experienced trekker who has traversed Alaska and other locations in the world. The Minutemen are deployed in teams of two, sometimes husband and wife, in a location where they can clearly see the border between Arizona and Mexico that puts them several hundred yards next to another deployed team on each side. In April, this deployment was more than 20 miles. The watch teams are outfitted with field glasses and a cell phone, and at night with special night vision glasses. Most are not from this area and the features of the day and night desert make an impression on them indeed. They are able to see some distance into Mexico. When they see one or more of what they perceive to be illegal immigrants, they use a cell phone to call the U.S. Border Patrol. More often than not (which may be a little too high of an estimate) the Border Patrol responds to the location where the reporting Minutemen are and the watch team members show the Border Patrol where the illegals are on the U.S. side of the border. The Border Patrol descends upon the group of illegal immigrants and takes them into custody. It is that simple. The only contact the Minutemen have with the illegal immigrants is if their health and safety are in jeopardy. To assist the sick and injured the Minutemen will make contact and provide the care needed such as shelter, food, and water.

Gary Cole said that the illegal immigrants cross into Arizona either on their own or under the guidance of a paid “coyote” organizer that directs them from locations in Mexico across the border and to a safe house in Tucson where they are often supplied with multiple false sets of identification that allow them to leave Tucson and slip into American society now eligible for an array of U.S. citizen benefits. They come in very small groups or in groups of as many as 70-80.

Under the trained eye of Gary Cole the bland desert floor reveals more than what the casual observer can see. Footprints, old and new, abound. If the print in the sand is not hardened and not wind swept, it is fresh and means that illegal immigrants can be close by or were recently there. Of course, the prints also reveal the number of illegal immigrants and having that information can be important for the safety of the Minutemen that are deployed. Some Minutemen may carry side arms, which is legal in Arizona. It would seem to be a reasonable practice for protection since the illegal immigrants and the gang members and criminals who cross the border trying to avoid detection may wish harm on the Minutemen. But most Minutemen are not armed.As the sun began to set that evening the desert was beautiful with a variety of colors and shades of light becoming apparent. We parked the Land Rover and Cole took us to a number of locations on the desert floor right on the border. One of the most remarkable features of the desert floor was the concealed stacks of clothes at various locations. The illegal Mexican immigrants leave their clothes with Mexican manufacturer labels on the desert since this would help identify them as illegal immigrant by the Border Patrol.

At various locations Cole also showed us water stations that have been set up by religious and other kinds of groups that are sympathetic to the plight of the illegal immigrants. Of course, a close check of the water safety sites can also reveal how many illegal immigrants have been around to take advantage of the water and some food supplies and how recently they were there as indicated by the water left and the currency of the footprints. After we began to see the abandon clothing piles and the water stations and the footprints it was not hard to also begin seeing in our minds the tragic plight and risk that these illegal immigrants take in order to enter the U.S.

You would think that there would be an appearance of security on the border separating the Arizona and the U.S. from Mexico. Think again, since there is not much to indicate a secure border to the untrained eye. The night we accompanied Gary Cole on the operational sweep to various check points we had very little idea what kind of border security the U.S. Border Patrol was providing while we were out. The Border Patrol does have roving vehicle patrols. That night we were out for about 4 hours and we saw a U.S. Border Patrol vehicle twice in a little more than 4 hours. It was the same officer each time.

Odd as it may seem, there is also a U.S. Border Patrol check station on Highway 80 just north of Tombstone. As you approach the check station you are directed by an officer to enter a lane where you will be stopped and personal and vehicle information will be examined. The time spent with the officer was less than 5 minutes each of two times we were stopped. We suppose there are illegal immigrants that will be discovered at this and other like checkpoints, but since the checkpoint can easily be avoided it is unlikely that many would be found here. It seems even more unlikely when you realize that the check station closes at 11 pm and does not reopen until 7 am each day. Would illegal immigrants wait until morning to be discovered or would they simple wait until the station is closed to be driven right on by undetected by their coyote? After 11 pm on two occasions we saw no one waiting for the station to reopen.

The border itself was the most startling to us of all that we saw on our evening journey with Gary Cole. A three strand barbed wire fence is what separates Arizona from Mexico. The fence is knocked down in various places leaving virtually no obstruction to entering the U.S or Mexico. Even more ridiculous is the fact that the lower rung of the fence that exists on property overseen by the Bureau of Land Management (BLA) has been raised in order that none of the illegal immigrants will be injured while they break the law and enter the U.S. illegally. Cole said that the BLA looks at the daily influx of illegal immigrants across the BLA managed land as an event akin to the migration of salmon or animals. The BLA is trying to preserve the process with the least amount of injury and inconvenience possible. We are not sure how the Border Patrol looks at this, but it would seem at first glance that the agencies are working at cross purposes. Commander Cole also mentioned that you as an American citizen can be arrested for trespassing on the BLA grounds and the lands occupied by the U.S. military in the area who train troops to go to Iraq but the troops do not lift a finger to stop the illegal immigrants traversing across the base’s territory.
It is an understatement to say that the fence left an impression on me. I wanted the experience of crossing over into Mexico and coming back into the United States by going under the fence. I was able to do that, a matter that I was told consists of committing four felonies, two each way. But being a desert novice I did not insure stable footing as I went under the fence and I slipped. My arm went up against the barbed wire strand, which left about a 4 inch gash in my right forearm and ripped the outside of my favorite wallet. This occurred near dusk and I was able to see the fence clearly. I can only imagine what it would be like in the dark of night particularly if someone were chasing you. I could not help but think of the thousands that preceded me as they crossed into the United States illegally.

After spending another couple of hours surveying the landscape, examining prints, and noting the piles of clothing and water stations, we decided to retire to a large restaurant on the border in southern Arizona which had become a favorite spot of the Minutemen in April of 2005. The restaurant was called the Bright Spot and the three of us had one of the most enjoyable meals of my lifetime. It was singularly the best steak we had ever eaten. This mealtime created an opportunity for us to kick back, discuss some of the things we saw, and allow us to ask Gary Cole more about the Minutemen.

Cole is very sympathetic to the plight the illegal Mexican immigrants coming to the United States to work. He praises their work ethic and dedication to their families that cause them to engage in such a dangerous trek across the border. He is also careful to point out that perhaps 5 to 7% are dangerous criminals or part of Mexican gangs that look pretty much like the others who are coming here to provide themselves a better standard of living for their families. In southern Arizona, there is a substantial fear of the crime that’s been committed by illegal Mexican immigrants crossing the border south of Tucson.

Gary Cole also explained the trap that many of the illegal immigrants find themselves in. United States employers, including some of our more prominent fast food restaurants, take on substantial numbers of illegal immigrants to do their work. They pay them a fraction of what the required minimum wage is and essentially they get no workers rights. If they complain, the live with the fear that they will be turned in to the U.S. Border Patrol or be fired and replaced immediately by some of the hundreds or perhaps thousands of other illegal immigrants looking for work. In short, the business entrepreneurs get cheap labor, must guarantee no rights, the big Mac prices stays the same or go up, and the profit margins of the businesses continue to increase. Cole also noted the health concerns since the illegal immigrants working in restaurants do not have an authentic health book verifying that they had passed all of the checks for serious contagious diseases such as TB, malaria, and leprosy. American citizens would have to pass these tests.

I commented to Gary Cole the one I lived in the Dallas area, and never saw an Anglo with a leaf blower. The college where I worked employed dozens of Mexican workers who would come very early in the morning to police up the school’s many parking lots, some of the cleanest I had ever seen. I am sure that many of them were illegal immigrants and I never once heard a complaint about it in one of the wealthiest counties in Texas.

Cole also told us about the danger of Russian and Latino gangs that were operating out of Mexico and crossing into the United States. They can virtually come in at will here or at other locations on the southern border. Violent criminals may also avoid prosecution by fleeing back across the border in Mexico. I recent example he said was the case of the illegal Mexican immigrant that shot and killed a Denver police officer and then fled to Mexico. Although he was captured, Mexico will not extradite him to Colorado for prosecution since he would receive the death penalty if convicted. He believes that a “culture of crime” is invading the U.S. Cole’s estimate is that about 70% of the illegal immigrants crossing in this area are carrying illegal drugs.

Cole also gave us a summary of border security issues at other locations in the United States. He said that many illegal immigrants from Arab nations can fly to Canada and then apply for political asylum. Then once granted asylum can slip into the United States along the northern U.S. border at will. Some with terrorist intentions have been caught. In the Corpus Christi area as many as 5,000 illegal immigrants per night enter the U.S. illegally, many of them from North Africa, Asia, the Mideast, and South America. These are coming across the Gulf of Mexico in boats and they end up in Texas or Louisiana. Some shrimp boats are carrying illegals because they can make a better living with less expense. Those doing the transporting on land and sea often carry only 11 illegal immigrants since carrying 12 or more opens them up for prosecution charges for human trafficking.

When you hear the litany of accounts of our border being penetrated in so many places at will, it is unsettling to say the least. It is an overwhelming issue to comprehend.

At the Bright Spot restaurant in Palominas, Arizona, a couple of miles from the Mexican border, we mentioned to Gary Cole how impressed we were with the patriotism of the volunteer Minutemen who devoted from 2-3 days to 3 weeks a month to the effort of trying to reduce the flow of illegal immigrants into the United States. What was there motivation aside from the obvious? Cole said that many of them had become alienated because they felt that the politicians of the nation had marginalized them by not recognizing illegal immigration as a very serious national security problem and an issue that adversely affects the stability and retention of a common, unified culture in the United States. But he points out the success of the Minutemen in April of 2005, where the influx of illegals was cut from 3,000 per day to 300 per day in the 23 mile stretch where the Minutemen deployed. It had been one of the busiest areas prior to April of 2005.

After meeting all of the staff and the chef at the Bright Spot, a very large restaurant that had become a favorite eating and recreation location for the Minutemen, we headed back north for Tombstone. We passed some locations where Minutemen had stayed with their camp trailers and tents during their deployment in April. Gary Cole, by the way, stays in a pickup camper out in front of the office of the Tombstone Tumbleweed newspaper when he is in Tombstone doing the work of directing the Minutemen operations. When we arrived late in the evening at the Tombstone Tumbleweed office there was Chris Simcox still working on getting the next issue of the paper out. He showed no fatigue and was again willing to sit and talk with us for awhile.

One very clear conclusion can be drawn from talking with Chris Simcox and Gary Cole. They and the Minutemen hold no animosity toward the millions of illegal immigrants who enter the U.S. each year. But they both know the answer to our porous border situation and our labor supply shortage in the U.S. The answer is LEGAL IMMIGRATION.

As we passed by once again the Border Patrol checkpoint after midnight on the way to our accommodations in Tucson we could not help but smile at the sign that said the station would not be open again until 7 am that morning. We wondered how many illegal immigrants passed by, uninterrupted on their way north as we did that night.

Minutemen in the News: A Content Analysis

We conducted a content analysis of 33 newspaper articles that appeared in 19 major newspapers and one television news site in the United States and Canada between April and December of 2005. This was the period of time that Minutemen became known nationally following their deployment in Arizona in April of 2005. Table 1 below identifies those news sources.

Table 1. News Sources with Minutemen Articles 4-1 to 12-31, 2005
News

Source
_____________________________________________________________Houston Chronicle
Washington Post
Los Angeles Times
Metro West News
Washington Times
Associated Press
WOAI TV
Brietbart.com
Alamogordo News
San Francisco Chronicle
Sacramento Bee
San Antonio-Express News
San Diego Union
Boston Globe
USA Today
Toronto Star
Seattle Times
Rocky Mountain Times
Christian ScienceMonitor

_____________________________________________________________
TOTAL 19
_____________________________________________________________


A MINUTEMEN NEWS ARTICLE ANALYSIS INSTRUMENT was completed for each of the 33 articles concerning the Minutemen. A copy of this instrument can be found in Appendix 1. All of the articles were found in major news sources spanning the entire United States. A few of the articles were found in national and international news web sites such as Breitbart.com. The 33 articles averaged 2 ½ pages (250 words per page) in length and ranged from one to eight pages.

Mention of the Minutemen and Their Leaders. In the 33 articles the word Minutemen or Minuteman were mentioned 178 times, averaging 5.39 times per article. The names of the leaders of the Minutemen were merely mentioned 9 times and they were quoted only 18 times in the 33 articles.

Fifty-five percent of the comments made in the articles were negativeor disparaging in nature while 45% of the comments from citizens, politicians, law enforcement personnel, and others were favorable. Given the nature of journalism, always looking for the problems and issues, this is a favorable balance in commentary concerning the Minutemen, we think.
Sixteen comments were made in the 33 articles that indicated that the border patrol and day labor center monitoring on the part of the Minutemen was an inappropriate activity for citizens. Twenty-one (64%) of the articles provided a substantial description of what activities the Minutemen actually perform when deployed on the border or in the monitoring of day labor centers within the continental United States. It is odd that more articles did not actually report the nature of the Minutemen's work.

In the 33 articles there were only 16 instances, not even one per article, of disparaging remarks and name-calling directed at the Minutemen although there were some other criticisms of a milder tenor. Table 3 below provides a list of disparaging names directed toward the Minutemen in the articles.

Table 2. Disparaging Remarks about the Minutemen
____________________________________________________________Comment____________________________________________________________
Vigilantes (made by President George Bush)
Racist
Migrant hunters
Not trained
Controversial methods
Nazis
Bigots
Self-appointed mission
Underemployed amateurs
Lost in the past
Have problems with the new culture
Drop weapons and get a hoe
Stupid they are here
Above the law
Armed gang
Self-appointed militia
White supremacists
Flatlanders
Amateur vigilantes (made by Congressman Charles Gonzales)Divisive
_____________________________________________________________
TOTAL 19

Without even seeing the articles people could probably predict what some of the comments would be given the popular and heated perspectives our citizens have on the immigration issue today. The name-calling notwithstanding, even the ACLU had declared that it had found no incidents that were of a racist, bigoted, or abusive nature. The ACLU had sent monitors to Arizona in April of 2005, expecting to find evidence of some unethical or unauthorized behavior on the part of the Minutemen

CONCLUSIONS

The Minutemen expect to be temporary in reference to their deployments on the border. They hope and intend that the United States government will at last step up and accept its constitutional responsibility to protect the nation's borders. With the amount of legislative action now in the states and in the U.S. Congress following the dramatic April 2005 portrayal by the Minutemen of the seriousness of the illegal immigration issue in the Southwest, it looks as if the Minutemen can breath a sigh of relief. Help is on the way.

Clearly, the American public and the Minutemen are on the same page. With the 2006 Time magazine poll showing that 2/3 of the American people see illegal immigration as "very serious" or " extremely serious," can our political leaders be that far behind? Again, the draft immigration bills at the federal and state levels are significant indicators of our politicians wanting to exercise some leadership on this issue. Moreover the increases in resources to protect the border, the letting of contracts to build more detention centers, and the end of "stop and release" programs for some categories of illegal immigrants are also positive signs indicating our national government is accepting responsibility for protecting the borders.

Finally, the governors of Arizona and New Mexico have also drawn a lot of attention to the problem by their recent declarations of state emergencies in reference to illegal immigration. They are in the midst of it all and we should listen and learn from them.

The Minutemen are not the people their detractors and critics say they are. Our work in the field and interviews with Gary Cole, our examination of the Minutemen policies and standard operational procedures, our interview with Chris Simcox, and our news article analysis showed us benevolent gentlemen with thousands of patriotic followers who have the interest of our nation at heart and a concern for the safety and welfare of those illegal immigrants that are thrust into their precarious plight.

With the Congressional elections coming up in the fall of this year and the Presidential election coming within a little more than two years, immigration as it relates to border security, guest worker authorizations, and cost to the American taxpayers as a result of illegal immigration is likely to be the major issue in the minds of the American people. The matter has been thrust in our face and the Minutemen are largely responsible for bringing it to our attention.
In the meantime, Chris Simcox and Gary Cole are still looking for volunteers to serve our nation at some watch site on our nation's border. You can start the process by applying at the Minuteman website. Joining up will cost you the dollars to pay for your background investigation and a lot more in the way of dedication, time, and energy. The Minutemen will tell you it is worth all that is required.

REFERENCES

Thirty-three News Articles in the Study

“A Bad Faith Border Watch: Editorial.” The Boston Globe, October 18, 2005.
“Activists Say Texas Minutemen Causing Fear Among Day Laborers.” KVOA.com, August 28, 2005.

Aizenman, N and T. Dwyer. “In Herdon Only Feet Away but Worlds Apart.” The Washington Post, December 9, 2005.

Bacon, J. “Minutemen Border Patrol draws Protest.” USA Today, October 17, 2005.

Baker, P. “Bush Pledges Action on Borders.” The Washington Post, August 30, 2005.

Berestein, L. “Border Observers to carry GPS for Their Safety.” The San Diego Union-Tribune, October 19, 2005.

Berestein, L. “Border Watch Group Could Rent or Buy Campo Home.” The San Diego Union-Tribune, October 21, 2005.

“Border Watchers Serving Serious National Purpose: Editorial.” The San Diego Union-Tribune, October 1, 2005.

Brown, M. “Minutemen Are Coming.” Alamogorgo News, September 16, 2005.

Cooper, M. “Minutemen Grab Your Hoes and March North.” Los Angeles Times, October 16, 2005.

Dwyer, Y. “Where Herdon day Laborers Go, The Dogged Minutemen Will Follow.” The Washington Post, December 13, 2005.

Fabrenhold, D. “On Patrol in Vermont; Minutemen Are the Outsiders.” The Washington Post, October 31, 2005.

“Federally Funded Border Militia Propose.” WOAI.com, October 5, 2005.

Freedman, I. “America’s Future Depends on Border Security.” MetroWest Daily News, August 26, 2005.

Gaouette, N. “Border Activists Draw Line in Suburbs.” Los Angeles Times, November 28, 2005.

Gonzales, C. “Border Problems Made Worse by Minutemen.” The San Antonio Express-News, October 27, 2005.

Hegstrom, E. “Texans Back Police Help on Immigration Law.” The Houston Chronicle, December 11, 2005.

Hendricks, T. “On the Border.” San Francisco Chronicle, December 5, 2005.

“Minutemen Go Home: Editorial.” The Washington Post, November 13, 2005.

“Minutemen Step Up Mexican Border Patrol.” Breitbart.com, September 30, 2005.

“New Mexico, Arizona Governors Score with Border Emergency Declarations.” Associated Press, August 30, 2005.

Nicolas, P and R. Salladay. “Governor Praises Minutemen.” Los Angeles Times, April 29, 2005.

“No Way to Handle Immigration: Editorial.” Rocky Mountain News, October 7, 2005.

Partiquin, M. “Minutemen Border in Invisible.” The Toronto Star, October 16, 2005.

Rozemberg, H. “After a Week, Border Militia Saw Its Efforts Paying Off.” San Antonio Express-News, October 11, 2005.

Rozemberg, H. “Concern that Borders on Fear.” San Antonio Express-News, September 28, 2005.

Seper, J. “Grannies on Patrol.” The Washington Times, November 8, 2005.

Seper, J. “Minutemen Pronounce Border Vigil a Success.” The Washington Times, April 19, 2005.

“The Cost of Virginia’s Illegal Immigrants: Editorial.” The Washington Post, December 14, 2005.

Turnbull, L. “Minutemen Meet Resistance.” The Seattle Times, October 14, 2005.

Turnbull, L. and J. Tu. “Minutemen Watch Canada Border.” The Seattle Times, October 4, 2005.

Weisen, M. “Immigration Clash at Capital.” Sacramento Bee, November 30, 2005.

Wood, D. “Private Volunteers Patrol a Porous Border.” Christian Science Monitor, April 4, 2005.


Other References

"Americans Feel Illegal Immigration Is Serious: Poll." Hindu News Update Service, January 30, 2006.

Debussman, B. "U.S. to End Catch and Release at Mexican Border." Reuters.com, November 23, 2005

Malkin, M. Invasion: How Americans Still Welcome Terrorists, Criminals, and Other Foreign Menaces to Our Shores. Regnery Publishing, Inc., 2002.