http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonia ... xml&coll=7

New front in illegal immigration fight
Oregon - A state worker forms a Minuteman chapter to watch day laborers and people who hire them
Saturday, September 02, 2006
JANIE HAR
The Oregonian
The driving force behind the Oregon chapter of the national Minuteman Civil Defense Corps is a state employee frustrated by what he sees as government selling out its citizens in favor of illegals.

Mike Forest, a 49-year-old Salem accountant, isn't ready to spill details of his baby branch. But the national group is launching state chapters across the country -- and Oregon is among the latest batch, joining offshoots in roughly two dozen states. Their mission: to report illegal employment, housing and other practices that draw undocumented immigrants.

In Oregon, that means the Minuteman group will monitor day labor sites and approach people who come to hire workers -- primarily Latinos -- for temporary jobs, Forest said. He uses video and still cameras to record the license plates of prospective employers, then sends that information to federal immigration and tax officials. The group's goal is to shut down such sites, including those in Portland.

"We go right to the vehicle," Forest said, "and we inform them of the law."

It's too soon to say whether the group will fizzle or flower in Oregon, where as many as 175,000 undocumented immigrants live. Forest declined to say how many members are in the state branch, which he formed two months ago. The Minuteman corps is distinct from the Minuteman Project, another national anti-illegal immigration group.

So far, the Oregon chapter of the corps appears to be a bare-bones operation.

Forest said he collaborates closely with Rick Hickey, vice president of Oregonians for Immigration Reform, a 6-year-old group that Hickey said boasts 1,200 members, up from 800 in May. Hickey said pro-immigration rallies earlier this year prompted a surge in membership.

The Minuteman chapter has limited its monitoring to a day labor pickup site in Cornelius, though it plans to move to other locations. Eventually, Forest said he would like branches throughout Oregon. If they gain enough volunteer members, they will monitor housing and other areas.

National audience

Nationally, the network has trained more than 7,000 people to help in border patrol, said Connie Hair, spokeswoman for the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based group. Nearly 200,000 people have donated money and time and the organization's e-mails go out to roughly half a million people, she said.

The Washington state chapter, operating since October, has about 120 members, said Hal Washburn, a 63-year-old retired financial adviser in the Gig Harbor area who coordinates new volunteers. Oregonians have long helped patrol the Canadian border, he said.

"We don't ever apprehend," he said. "Whatever we see, we report . . . to the border patrol, and let them do their job."

Oregon Rep. Jeff Kropf, R-Lebanon, said he's not sure whether he belongs to the state Minuteman chapter, although he was certified by national headquarters to help patrol the Arizona border in April. He plans to fly down again in October but said he is too busy to help monitor local day labor sites.

Aspiring Minutemen -- a name that dates to colonial times -- must undergo strict background checks. The group does not want felons or people with ties to white supremacist groups, Kropf said, and members follow a code of conduct when it comes to undocumented immigrants.

"You don't detain them or shoot at them or anything of that nature," Kropf said. "We're only allowed to carry personal sidearms; we're not allowed to carry rifles."

"Minuteman Camera"

On Friday morning, Forest, the Minuteman founder, stood with a half-dozen men and women across the street from Centro Cultural, where day laborers clustered on the sidewalk. Bearded, with a friendly grin, he held a sign that read "Smile You're on Minuteman Camera," as drivers zipped by, honking in support.

By 10 a.m., they had shooed away at least one prospective employer, he said.

Forest, married and father of five grown children, said he joined Oregonians for Immigration Reform several years ago after a friend's mother had a lien placed on her home because she could not pay medical bills to treat her cancer, he said. That seemed unfair, given that undocumented people can sometimes get free medical care.

"That's what got me involved," he said. "They're selling Americans down the road."

He'd like to see all Oregonians join him.

Peggy Harris won't be one of them. The 63-year-old retired teacher stumbled across the small demonstration Friday by Forest's group. She decided to get out of her vehicle to tell them they were not welcome in her town.

"Do you ever eat strawberries?" she asked.

Of course, said Hickey of Oregonians for Immigration Reform. "Do you know they have machines that do that work?" he asked. "Machines that don't have babies, machines that don't get hurt or sick, that don't need to go to school? Don't you think that's a smarter way to deal with it?"

Umatilla County Sheriff John Trumbo, who sent a bill for $318,000 to Mexican President Vicente Fox for the expense of housing undocumented people in his jail, hadn't heard about a Minuteman chapter in Oregon. But he has mixed feelings about members going after employers.

"We depend on immigrant labor to harvest a lot of our crops," he said, "and that could absolutely just kick us in the fanny if they go in there and start pulling illegals out."