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By CHRISTINA ALMEIDA
The Associated Press
Sunday, May 29, 2005; 9:25 AM

LAS VEGAS -- The monthlong Minuteman Project that monitored illegal immigration in Arizona is planning similar watches in California and along the Canadian border, a group organizer said.

Chris Simcox spoke Saturday to hundreds of people gathered for a two-day summit of several anti-illegal immigration groups, hosted by the Las Vegas-based Wake Up America Foundation, whose motto is "It's your country, take it back."

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Outside, about 200 Hispanic protesters denounced the meeting as racist.

Simcox said his group has 15,000 members and will continue monitoring the borders until the federal government begins military patrols.

"It's not just about poor immigrants coming to work," Simcox said. "It's about the world knowledge that our government can't stop drug dealers. It doesn't give me a whole lot of confidence that they can stop resourceful terrorists."

Barbara Coe with the California Coalition for Immigration Reform blamed President Bush for refusing "to protect us from these foreign invaders."

"He encourages more illegal immigrants to come here and take over, take our money and our jobs," Coe said, drawing huge applause when she derided him as "Senor Bush."

Outside, about 200 Hispanic protesters chanted "racists go home" and waved American and Mexican flags. A small child carried a sign that read "Racism is a deadly plague."

"We all came to this country from other places in the world," said Martha Moreno, 38, who carried a sign saying "Proud to be Mexican-American. "We're all immigrants."

Simcox dismissed claims his group was racist, saying the border issue is one of national security and public safety. He defended his philosophy as pro-immigrant, mentioning recent deaths along the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona.

"There is no reason human beings, regardless of where they come from, should die horrible deaths," Simcox said.

Nearly 900 volunteers, some of them armed, patrolled the Arizona border in April for the Minuteman Project. Organizers said volunteers' calls to the Border Patrol resulted in the arrests of 335 illegal immigrants.

Critics of the program, including Border Patrol officials, have said the group was little more than a nuisance. Bush expressed his opposition to "vigilantes," and many people on the Mexican side of the border referred to the Minutemen as "migrant hunters."

The conference was scheduled to conclude Sunday with speeches by Minuteman Project founder Jim Gilchrist and Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado, a leading congressional voice against illegal immigration.

Last week, a protest against Gilchrist in California turned violent when demonstrators hurled rocks and unopened soda cans at police and people attending his speech.

Also on
http://www.kesq.com/Global/story.asp?S=3405322
AS VEGAS Several anti-illegal immigration groups met in Las Vegas today to discuss efforts to tighten U-S borders and to praise recent action by the Minuteman Project.
Outside large group of Hispanic protesters denounced the conference as racist.

The summit was hosted by the Las Vegas-based Wake Up America Foundation, whose motto is "It's your country, take it back." Between five-hundred and a thousand people were expected to attend the two-day meeting.

Barbara Coe with the California Coalition for Immigration Reform called the border situation a to U-S sovereignty and to U-S lives.

Coe blamed President Bush for refusing to protect Americans from QUOTE _ "foreign invaders."

Minuteman Project organizers said they are planning actions in California and in states along the Canadian border until the federal government begins military patrols.

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