Thread: Minutemen denied another Adopt-A-Highway stretch

OCEANSIDE: Minutemen denied another Adopt-A-Highway stretch

By CRAIG TENBROECK - Staff Writer | Thursday, June 12, 2008 5:03 PM


In a letter to Jeff Schwilk, founder of the controversial anti-illegal immigration group, Caltrans spokesman Steve Saville said Tuesday that another group had already adopted the requested stretch of road.

Saville offered to put the Minutemen on a waiting list.

Schwilk said he's sceptical about what's really going on. His group is embroiled in a federal lawsuit with the state agency over its decision in January to take away the Minutemen's last adopted stretch of freeway.

"I believe they are continually trying to find ways to keep us off the freeway," Schwilk said Tuesday.

The Minutemen's interest in the cleanup program, which recognizes participants through roadside signs, has made national headlines.

The dust-up started in November when Caltrans granted the Minutemen, a group known for protesting day-labor hiring sites, permission to clean a busy, 2-mile stretch of Interstate 5, near the San Clemente Border Patrol checkpoint.

When a sign went up with the Minutemen's name, Caltrans was thrust into the heart of the heated immigration debate. Critics of the Minutemen complained loudly, stating that the group fosters discrimination and shouldn't qualify for the state program.

In January, Caltrans officials, citing safety concerns, removed the Minutemen's stretch of road from the cleanup program altogether. They offered to shift the group away from the checkpoint, to a less-visible stretch of Highway 52.

The Minutemen rejected the offer. The group accused Caltrans of caving to political pressure, sued to get the original site back and requested a different stretch of I-5, just a few miles south.

The lawsuit is still working its way through federal court.

During a hearing in May, Caltrans attorney Jeffrey Benowitz said the Minutemen had "been denied nothing" when its segment was pulled, because the group could still apply to clean any other stretch of road in the program.

He declined Thursday to comment further.

Schwilk disputes critics' negative characterization of his group and says it simply wants to clean the highway. He said he faxed his last application to Caltrans on May 15, requesting the new segment on southbound Interstate 5, north of Oceanside.

Caltrans did not immediately accept the application because it was on an old form and lacked a signature. A valid application wasn't submitted until May 20, Saville said last week.

By then it was too late.

Caltrans gave the road segment to Jobing.com on May 17, Caltrans spokesman Ed Cartagena said Thursday.

Contact staff writer Craig TenBroeck at (760) 901-4062 or ctenbroeck@nctimes.com.

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