http://www.theeagle.com/stories/062406/ ... 624003.php

Updated 7:31 AM on Saturday, June 24, 2006
Minutemen leader to speak in Bryan

By CRAIG KAPITAN
Eagle Staff Writer


The leader of a controversial group that that has garnered headlines in the past year for patrolling the Texas-Mexico border has been invited to by a Republican group to speak in Bryan next week.

Texas Minutemen co-founder Shannon McGauley will speak at the Brazos County Republican Party headquarters Tuesday, according to an announcement made Friday by the Brazos County Young Republicans.

McGauley's group, based out of Arlington, is modeled after the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps - a national organization that first started attracting publicity last summer with patrols of the Arizona-Mexico border. The private investigator said he spent time in Arizona and later organized his own group to patrol private property along the border in El Paso.

The group plans to continue its patrols in Laredo and Del Rio this fall, he said Friday.

McGauley describes his group as "pro-law," protecting the border from illegal immigration. Although some members have been known to carry firearms, the group's intention is to call Border Patrol officers when someone is spotted rather than detaining people on their own, he said.

"There's never been one case where we've hurt anybody, yet they keep saying we're armed, racist vigilantes," he said. "If I was a vigilante, there wouldn't be a border problem."

McGauley said he hopes to embarrass the American government by showing how much border security is lacking.

"It's about making a political statement," he said. "We need to get out of the politically correct mode and get into the American mode. The government of Mexico is not our friend."

McGauley said he is often asked to speak at Republican functions, but he also has helped organize a march in Crawford to protest President's Bush's immigration policy. According to the Web site for the march, which took place in May, "we are being herded into a time that will be characterized by the slaughter of our nation and its culture."

Several local Hispanic leaders who were contacted by The Eagle on Friday said they did not know McGauley was coming to Bryan but were disappointed to hear so.

"We don't agree with these people," said Father Raymundo Chavez Vazquez, a Mexico native who oversees a largely Hispanic flock at Santa Teresa Catholic Church in Bryan. "We should be treated with dignity, love and compassion because we are all children of God. We are Christians."

Chavez joined dozens of his parishioners in October at the George Bush Presidential Library and Conference Center to protest a talk by Harvard professor Samuel Huntington, whose views on Mexican immigration also have caused controversy.

Hundreds of parishioners showed up to protest again in April - joining marchers across the country speaking out against a U.S. House bill that would have made it a felony to immigrate illegally to the United States.

Angelita Garcia Alonzo, who helped organize the march in Bryan, said Friday she was surprised by the "audacity" of inviting McGauley to the community. She said she suspected it was a response to the April march, which attracted thousands of people.

"This must be a tactic of intimidation," she said. "These men are bullies. I always tell the immigrants we will not be intimidated. They don't have the jurisdiction to be bullying anybody anywhere."

Young Republican member Dan Garcia, who extended the invitation to McGauley, acknowledged Friday he knew about the speaker's controversial nature.

But he is intrigued by the "humanitarian aspect of it," he said, explaining that he hopes McGauley will talk about the times Minutemen have sought medical attention for immigrants crossing the border who urgently needed it.

A former Air Force linguist who speaks fluent Spanish, Thai and Cambodian, Garcia said he grew up in a border town and has always been interested in immigration issues.

"What I'm hoping it does is bring about awareness," he said, adding that he doesn't believe McGauley's organization is racist, as some critics have claimed. "We believe all life is sacred regardless of its citizenship.

"There really needs to be a much more dignified way for coming to the U.S. I think the more we talk about it and the more perspectives we get, the better off we'll be."

&8226; Craig Kapitan's e-mail address is craig.kapitan@theeagle.com.