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Article published Sep 26, 2005
Concord
Groups rally for curbs in immigration Gathering targets illegal aliens, welfare
By ELIZABETH WALTERS
Monitor staff


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The New Hampshire police chief who charged an illegal alien with trespassing lost that battle last month when a district court judge ruled that only the federal government could enforce immigration laws. But New Ipswich Police Chief Garrett Chamberlain told an audience in Concord last night that he's not done trying.

He won't be alone, judging by the applause from about 250 people who packed the Grappone Conference Center's ballroom for the New Hampshire Center for Constitutional Studies'annual celebration of the signing of the Constitution.

Chamberlain was among the featured speakers, along with Jim Gilchrist, the founder of the Minuteman Project, and U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, a Colorado Republican. In workshops and speeches throughout the day, many presenters focused on curbing government welfare or immigration.

Chamberlain made headlines last year when he stopped a van and found nine illegal immigrants who told him they had been working in a neighboring town for $18 a day. He contacted federal immigration enforcement, but he said officials told him they weren't interested in taking the workers into custody. Chamberlain took a photo of them and attracted the attention of media outlets and lawmakers, including New Hampshire's U.S. senators, Judd Gregg and John Sununu.

Chamberlain said last night that his concern was for national security.

"The problem is that when someone enters this country illegally, under cover of the darkness of night, they are a nonperson," he said. "They do not exist on paper."
Without documentation, such people are difficult to identify and track if they commit a crime, he said.

Chamberlain achieved further notice in April when he stopped Jorge Ramirez, a 21-year-old illegal alien from Mexico. Chamberlain said last night that immigration officials said they didn't want Ramirez, so he charged him with trespassing. The case against Ramirez was thrown out last month by Judge L. Phillips Runyon of Jaffrey District Court.

Still, Chamberlain thinks there may be other methods of discouraging illegal aliens. He is paying special attention to a state law that prohibits employing illegal workers and applies a fine of $1,000 to the employer for every day the person works there. He also plans to contact Attorney General Kelly Ayotte to suggest setting up a task force on illegal aliens.

In the standing-room-only workshop Gilchrist ran, he said he spent four years in the late 1990s writing letters to lawmakers about illegal immigration in his area of California.

"Why was my country changing?" he said. "Why were people coming here who weren't assimilating into U.S. society? Why were all these foreign countries popping up in southern California?"

Gilchrist was shaken again by the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Last fall, he was inspired to action when he heard a radio interview with Chris Simcox, a private citizen who was doing border patrols in Arizona. Gilchrist sent out e-mails inviting others to join him in a one-month citizens' patrol of the Arizona border called the Minuteman Project. He got more than 1,000 takers.

"We did, in the first 10 days, what our federal government has failed to do in 40 years," he said.

Gilchrist said he was driven by concern for the nation's safety and by the belief that if the government won't enforce its laws, the people should.

"I'm not trying to put up a fake bogeyman," he said. "It's very real. Look what they did at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. They can do something more hideous."

Gilchrist got an enthusiastic response, but it's unclear how much of it would translate into new members. Last week, Simcox, who became a co-organizer of the Minuteman Project and is trying to organize a northern border patrol, told the Associated Press, "People on the East Coast couldn't care less."

Tancredo, a possible presidential candidate who gave Chamberlain an award in February, echoed Gilchrist and Chamberlain's sentiments. He also cautioned against the "cult of multiculturalism" that he saw in such practices as printing signs in both English and Spanish, saying that it was an "attack on citizenship."

"That is a dagger pointed at our hearts," he said.

Tancredo also touched on the other major theme of the day, general welfare. Like other speakers, he said that the country's founders didn't intend for taxes taken from all citizens to be used to help some citizens, and he said that welfare had created a culture of dependence.

"Over the past 40 or 50 years, we have succeeded in making people think the federal government is their salvation," he said.

He said other groups, such as individuals and private charities, are a better option for helping people.

The event drew a wide range of attendees, including the New Hampshire Pro-Life Council, libertarian organizations and Well of Living Water Ministries. In the parking lot, bumper stickers ranged from "It takes a school to bankrupt a village" to "Abortion causes breast cancer" to "Border control, not gun control."

Kenneth Roy of Center Lovell, Maine, described himself as an environmentalist whose main interest was population control. He was impressed with Gilchrist.

"That's a true American patriot with a heart, with a heart," he said after his workshop. "He's a compassionate man."

His wife, Diane Roy, found Gilchrist and Chamberlain inspiring.

"Just one person and what they can do, it gives you hope," she said, smiling.

John LoRusso, who lives in Dracut, Mass., and has a cottage in Belmont, described the conference as "a shot in the arm" for people interested in the Constitution and its authors' intentions. He worries about the spread of socialism throughout American society via welfare and lax immigration enforcement.

"It's pervasive," he said. "It's happened ever since FDR."

Anne Baker, her husband, David Baker, of Auburn, Mass., and Joe Marino of Wolfeboro liked Ed Viera's discussion of constitutional limits on general welfare.

"It seems today they use the general welfare clause for special programs, which is not - the constitution doesn't provide for it," Marino said.

The conference didn't have much discussion of their favorite topics, taxation and currency, but they said they still enjoyed it.

"We wouldn't miss this," David Baker said. "This is the best thing since sliced bread."