This is illegal friendly southern CA, keep that in mind. The Minutemen aren't perfect but I applaud them, especially in this state. Actually I think they are mainly responsible for making the issue of illegal immigration a major topic by erecting fences on the border financed by donations from citizens. They just want our laws enforced, is that so bad?


http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/12 ... _23_06.txt

Jeff Schwilk leads San Diego Minutemen

Dec 23, 2006

By: EDWARD SIFUENTES - Staff Writer

NORTH COUNTY ---- Depending on which side of the immigration debate one stands, Jeff Schwilk and his group, the San Diego Minutemen, are either patriots defending the country from a mass illegal immigration invasion or a vigilante group victimizing vulnerable working people.

The North County-based San Diego Minutemen are part of a vast network of groups calling themselves "minutemen," but who are linked more by ideology than formal organizational structures. Members say they believe illegal immigration is literally ruining the country through crime, cultural degradation and an ever-widening welfare state.

Their prescription calls for sealing the border and deporting as many illegal immigrants as possible. In North County this year, they have protested day-labor sites, pressed law enforcement to raze migrant camps at McGonigle Canyon and cheered city councils proposing ordinances targeting illegal immigrants.

"Little do the people of these communities realize that Mr. Schwilk made your community much safer by bringing the issue of illegal alien lawlessness to the public attention," Ray Carney, a Fallbrook anti-illegal immigration activist who is not a member of the group, wrote in a recent e-mail to the North County Times. "Everyone should be grateful to Mr. Schwilk for his efforts."

Law enforcement officials declined to comment directly about the group. Immigration enforcement and sheriff's spokespeople said the group has a right to protest, but declined to say whether it helps or hurts law enforcement.

"Immigration law is very complex for people to understand," said Lauren Mack, spokeswoman for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in San Diego. "How it's applied is even more complex."

Critics argue that the minutemen's tactics and their sentiments amount to a dangerous brand of persecution aimed primarily at Latinos. Some go further, calling the group racist.

"My view is that the minutemen are the 21st century's Ku Klux Klan," said Bill Flores, an Escondido activist and retired San Diego County assistant sheriff. "They will dress up their racist attitudes as an immigration issue and act as if they are the victims and not the day laborers."

Schwilk, who founded the local group last year, adamantly rejects the accusation that his group is racist. He said the group includes many Latinos and people of varying backgrounds.

"It's rhetoric from people that have an agenda that doesn't fit America's agenda and that's OK," Schwilk said of the criticisms. "We'll continue to battle their lies and rhetoric with truth and results."

He added: "We are not appealing to racist groups (or) Aryan groups. There's nothing in it for them; we don't do anything that would appeal to them."

Group targets labor sites

Formed in late 2005, the San Diego Minutemen rose to prominence earlier this year by targeting day-labor sites around North County. Their protests in Vista drew loud counterprotests from immigrant and civil rights groups, including the Vista-based Coalition for Justice, Peace and Dignity.

Activists on both sides filmed one another with video cameras, as minutemen and civil rights groups and taunted one another with chants and picket signs.

The anti-illegal immigration minuteman movement was born last year when Jim Gilchrist, an Orange County accountant, launched his Minuteman Project, a civilian border-watch group that traveled to Arizona in April, 2005, for a monthlong stakeout along the border.

Schwilk, a retired Marine from Oceanside, joined the California Minuteman Project, a group founded by and Oceanside resident Jim Chase, for a similar vigil along the California border in eastern San Diego County. But Schwilk left the group in October to form his own and focus his efforts closer to his community, he said.

The group has a list of about 350 members, Schwilk said. But membership is loosely defined: There are no formal membership rules, no fees or an application. They communicate largely through e-mail alerting each other about rallies and other events.

"We're more of a loose-knit network of concerned citizens," he said. "If you come out and work with us and help us out, then you can call yourself a San Diego Minuteman if you want."

Schwilk likened the group to a "Neighborhood Watch." The group accepts occasional donations from people, but it is not an organized nonprofit, he said.

He often wears jeans, a T-shirt and baseball cap giving him the look of an ordinary, middle-age man, while directing members of his group at rallies through cell phones and walkie talkies. A 21-year veteran of the Marines, Schwilk said he lives primarily off his military pension. He is in the process of a divorce and has no children.

Volunteer observers with the minuteman movement drive to traditional day-labor sites, where large groups of predominantly Latino men are hired for odd jobs. A group of about a dozen or more minutemen target the sites, filming and deterring would-be employers, telling them that most of the men are illegal immigrants.

Some success, leader says

Schwilk claims the group has had some success in reducing attendance at some of the sites his group has targeted. He also scored some political victories earlier this year, pressing the Vista City Council to adopt its day-labor ordinance that prohibits employers from hiring the workers without registering at City Hall first.

That law is being challenged in court by the American Civil Liberties Union.

In their protests, Schwilk said the group has some basic rules of conduct for volunteers. The rules, posted on the group's Web site, include "no alcohol or drugs," "never engage in conversation" with counterprotesters, and tell potential employers "it is illegal to hire illegals."

Most recently, the group helped organize protest attended by nearly 200 flag-carrying demonstrators at McGonigle Canyon near Rancho Penasquitos, where migrant workers have traditionally built makeshift shacks in which to live. Newly elected state Sen. Mark Wyland, R-Carlsbad, was among those who participated.

Flores and other critics say the fact that several prominent elected officials have participated in similar demonstrations is troubling. Former state Sen. Bill Morrow, R-Oceanside, last year attended California Minuteman vigils at the border and Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Escondido, recently shared the stage with Schwilk at a rally organized by another group in Escondido.

"What's disturbing is that certain elected officials would give their ear to extremists and give these groups an air of legitimacy," said Flores, spokesman for El Grupo, a coalition of civil rights and Latino activist groups from around the county. "I think it's very shortsighted of politicians to align themselves with these groups."

Bilbray could not be reached for comment. His spokesman said he was unsure if the congressman knew Schwilk.

Escondido Councilwoman Marie Waldron was among a slate of candidates endorsed by the group in this year's primary elections. At a news conference accepting their endorsement, Waldron called the minutemen "fine Americans and patriots who are working to secure our borders because our government has failed to do so."

Waldron later proposed an ordinance passed by the Escondido council to punish landlords who rent to illegal immigrants. Civil rights activists successfully sued to block the city from enforcing the law.

Privately, racial references fly

While Schwilk and the minutemen publicly say they reject potential members who are motivated by racism, critics say e-mails and other communications show that he is an extremist.

In several e-mails obtained by the North County Times and verified by Schwilk, the minuteman leader has used people's ethnicity and nationality to refer to immigrant rights activists and politicians.

Longtime North County immigrant-rights activist Claudia Smith also created a Web site, www.minutemenunvarnished.com, that includes video clips showing minutemen volunteers bumping into day laborers, shouting obscenities and questioning people's immigration status and patriotism.

Schwilk and others in his group say video clips on the site are carefully edited to mislead the viewers. But Schwilk, who uses e-mail to rally and organize the group's members, has sent e-mails containing derogatory racial and sexual references about people who oppose and observe his group.

In an e-mail dated Sept. 7, 2006, Schwilk referred to a civil rights observer who has watched the minutemen at day-labor sites as "the Korean anorexic ACLU slut." The subject line reads "Lying Commie Bitch (...) Exposed!"

He also refers to immigrant-rights activists as the "Klan with a Tan."

And speaking in the same note about an activist who disturbed cones placed on a Carlsbad sidewalk by the minutemen, he writes: "If I catch her kicking our personal property again, I will personally put her in the dirt."

When asked about the e-mail, Schwilk said the note was intended for a close circle of people and not for the public.

Sitting in a conference room in the Vista office of the North County Times within view of the shopping center where his group has held many of its protests, Schwilk paused to read the message, cleared his throat and said those were his words and he stood by them.

"She works for the ACLU. She is Korean. She looks anorexic, and she dresses and looks like a slut," he said.

Schwilk said he is sometimes frustrated by tactics used by immigrant rights activists, such as distributing fliers with his picture doctored to look like he is speaking at a KKK rally and falsely accusing the minutemen of beating migrants. He said the e-mail may have been a result of his frustration with activists.

"If I occasionally let my language slip to a small group of people, that's my frustration with these people," he said. "I consider them less than human in the way that they conduct themselves as human beings, absolutely."

Law enforcement officers have issued citations to both minutemen and immigrant rights activists on incidents involving pushing and shoving. Minutemen say they have been assaulted by both activists and migrant workers. But immigrant rights activist say they worry about increasing tensions.

"I've never seen it this bad," said Tina Jillings, who founded the Coalition for Justice, Peace and Dignity and frequently counterprotests minutemen rallies in Vista. "It's a campaign of hate and bigotry and racism."

One comment so far:
American Vet wrote on December 23, 2006 10:32 PM:"I and my fellow Marines salute Jeff and his fine group of patriots. They have brought great awareness to this illegal alien crisis in San Diego. They seem to have done it in a very civil and effective way. The ACLU and their supporters are being exposed for the commies that they are. Bill Flores is a retired sheriff? What a dishonor to LE. He should be fighting the illegal crisis instead of throwing false allegations at good Americans. He is obviously La Raza and against the rule of law."