http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/85126

Minutemen to launch East Valley chapter
Sarah N. Lynch, Tribune
A drive along Mesa’s Broadway Road was all it took to convince Peter “PJ” O’Malley to join the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps.

“(You) see for miles at every corner there are people who are begging for work and causing traffic jams,” said the 64-year-old Mesa resident who joined the group as a volunteer three years ago.

O’Malley has tried to raise awareness about immigration issues through street protests and speaking at Mesa City Council meetings. But he’s now planning to intensify his efforts to lobby city officials about what he sees as their role in the fight against illegal immigration.

In the coming months, the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps plans to launch an East Valley chapter as part of a statewide reorganization that the group hopes will allow it to have more influence on local government decisions, said Don Goldwater, the group’s spokesman.

The organization already has at least one high-profile ally in Mesa —Mayor Keno Hawker.

Hawker is a member of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps. And in recent years he has pushed for the council to support deputizing local law enforcement to act as immigration agents. Hawker said he’s glad to hear the group plans to get more involved in Mesa.

“I thought the attitude in Mesa and other cities was one of complacency — that it is purely the federal government’s responsibility, so don’t get involved,” Hawker said.

Until recently, the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps only had two large chapters in Arizona, one in Phoenix and the other in Tucson.

The Phoenix chapter goes from Casa Grande to the north. It has members from Mesa, Scottsdale and Apache Junction, but its size makes it hard for the volunteers to remain active in local immigration issues, Goldwater said.

Now, members from Mesa, Gilbert, Tempe and Chandler will have their own chapter.

“The Phoenix chapter was too large,” Goldwater said. “Essentially when I took it over right after the election, it was a one-man show as far as administrative capabilities and gathering volunteers together to do issues on the border.”

The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps relies mainly on volunteer members such as Hawker to accomplish its mission: “to see the borders and coastal boundaries of the United States secured against the unlawful and unauthorized entry of all individuals, contraband, and foreign military,” according to the group’s Web site.

Goldwater hopes the formation of local chapters will result in more group members showing up at city meetings and encourage more volunteers to send letters, faxes and e-mails to elected officials.

O’Malley is one volunteer who has taken the lead in Mesa.

Last year, he organized 42 small protests on Broadway Road and Mesa Drive — a wellknown gathering site for illegal immigrants looking for work.

O’Malley also has spoken about immigration issues at City Council meetings. He said he’s disappointed that other Mesa council members have not followed the mayor’s lead.

Ultimately, he said, the organization would like to see fellow members run for local offices or convince elected officials to join their cause.

Minuteman member Stacey O’Connell, for instance, is running for Phoenix City Council District 1. Goldwater said there is another member running for the Prescott City Council.

Hawker, who has been a Minuteman member for two years, does not frequently speak about his affiliation in public, nor has he ever made a trip to the border.

But he does make his views known when it comes to illegal immigration.

In 2001, he called on Mesa police to enforce federal immigration law. At that time, no other community in Arizona had ever asked for that type of law enforcement authority. But Hawker dropped his request amid backlash from the Hispanic community.

Then, several months ago, he made a similar plea to allow local officers to be trained to enforce illegal immigration, but a majority of his council colleagues shot down the proposal.

“I joined when they had their first mobilization down at the border,” Hawker said. “I wanted to go and see what was going on. They were being criticized nationally for trying to do something to call attention to the border issue, and I thought it was done with a lot of restraint.

“They don’t engage — they just report, and it did bring some focus back to the issue. I thought everyone else was ignoring it.”

Hawker said he’s not particularly active in the group, but he joined because he wanted to make a statement.

“I did it because I believe in their cause,” he said.

Chris Simcox, founder of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, and Goldwater both said the group has become active most recently at the state level. Members are sitting in on committee meetings and following legislation that it deems important.

“Legislatively, we’re very active,” Simcox said. “We have legislative alerts that go out. We have people that show up and testify.

“You have such a variety of interests or skill sets, and there are people who necessarily don’t want to go to the border or can’t, but they want to get involved in their communities.”

Goldwater said the organization’s state-level model will be put into place in cities across the state, and his ultimate goal is to have a chapter in every city.

So far, plans are under way for chapters in the East Valley, Quartzsite, Lake Havasu City, Bullhead City, Prescott, Show Low, Flagstaff and Apache Junction, to name a few.

But not everyone is excited about a greater local presence of the controversial group.

Some local immigration activists said they fear more Minuteman members in Mesa could have a negative effect on the community, and they were surprised to learn that Hawker was a member.

“That’s a troubling development for a lot of people that the mayor would be a member and the impact this might have in the local politics,” said Jack Hannon, a former Mesa council candidate and the founder of Radio Barrio, a local radio station that teaches English to the immigrants of the Nuestro community.

“It gives the appearance of a polarization and it increases the seriousness of the problem,” he said.

Phil Austin, president of the Mesa Association of Hispanic Citizens, said he’s not surprised about the mayor’s membership in the group. In the past, he said the mayor has been unreceptive to diversityrelated issues, and he assumed the group already had a Mesa chapter.

“I think they and the KKK and all members of radical, racist-based organizations have a right to assemble in this country,” he said. “That is what makes this country great.”

But Goldwater dismisses people like Austin, who believe the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps is a racist organization. He says the group is simply calling attention to concerns that people all over the country share.

“As there are more shootings on our streets and as there’s more stress on the education system and the hospital system, people are getting angry about this,” Goldwater said. “They want the problem solved.”