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Activists plan border protests

By Brenda Gazzar, Staff Writer

SAN BERNARDINO - A largely Latino network of activists is preparing to protest on both sides of the border a partially armed civilian border-patrol operation that aims to deter illegal immigration.
Protest activities next month, spearheaded by the National Alliance for Human Rights, will include rallies and vigils in border cities like Douglas, Ariz., and in Agua Prieta, Mexico, to counter the Minuteman Project, which is expected to draw about 1,000 people from across the country to monitor and report illegal crossings during April.

Latino activists plan to protest today in the Aliso Viejo neighborhood of Minuteman Project founder James Gilchrist, activists announced at a San Bernardino news conference Friday. They also plan to form a patrol of their own at the Arizona-Mexican border to monitor the situation and warn border crossers of the Minuteman Project operation.

All protests will be nonviolent, organizers said.

The network's activists say they will also ask federal and state agencies to put a stop to the Minuteman Project.

"We are going to be doing this mobilization on the border because we think these domestic terrorists are very dangerous and are trying to privatize the actions of the Border Patrol,' said Felipe Aguirre, state chairman of the Partido de la Revolucion Democratica in California.

Minuteman Project volunteers will assemble peacefully, as is their First Amendment right, said Gilchrist, a retired Orange County accountant.

"We are using something similar to the Martin Luther King philosophy where you bring your case to the public peacefully,' Gilchrist said. "You don't go around wrecking people's property. ... You do it peacefully and consistently.'

While the project's Web site formerly stated that volunteers would verbally confront border crossers, that statement was removed and is no longer the policy, Gilchrist said.

"The policy is this: No confrontation, No contact, No intimidation. You observe. You report and you let Border Patrol do the interception and the confrontation. That's their job' he said.

The Minuteman Project's mission is to show that a significant presence can effectively seal the border and reduce unauthorized border crossings, Gilchrist said.

About 10percent of volunteers have said they will be armed, but participants have been told not to initiate contact with border crossers or remove weapons from holsters, said David Heppler, safety and security coordinator of the Minuteman Project.

The American Friends Service in San Diego plans to send three people to Arizona to support local groups monitoring the situation, to make sure that any potential violations of law or abuse are documented, said Christian Ramirez, the organization's director.

Ramirez and Armando Navarro, of the National Alliance, say the Minuteman Project is a dangerous, vigilante operation that could result in human rights abuses.

"They have every right to protest on the issue of immigration, but when you start entering the equation the use of weapons, and paramilitary tactics and the kind of harassment and intimidation that's part of their modus operandi, it becomes a question of legality,' Navarro said this week.

Minuteman Project organizers say they will abuse no one's rights, and simply want to send a message about the country's national security and the risk of terrorism from the nation's porous southern border.

"We have already accomplished bringing national awareness to the illegal alien invasion crisis,' Gilchrist said. "We have done it 100 fold more than we thought we would ever do.'