Updated September 08. 2007 10:35PM
Minutemen making roads in Iowa

Updated September 08. 2007 10:35PM

Minutemen making roads in Iowa
Anti-immigration group has chapters in 11 counties

By Jennifer Hemmingsen
The Gazette
jennifer.hemmingsen@gazettecommunications.com


J. Michael Haskins stood in the lobby of the U.S. Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids before Lance Armstrong's cancer forum for Republican presidential candidates nearly two weeks ago. He held two fliers -- a fluorescent yellow Minuteman volunteer registration form and a white news release talking about the plight of
veterans.

"American veterans reform? Anyone for helping the veterans? Minutemen?" he asked as people trickled into the arena.

Haskins, director of the Johnson County chapter of the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps, was recruiting.

Although organizers say most Iowans have never heard of them, the controversial anti-immigration group has been active in the state for more than a year. Members say they are developing chapters in Iowa because the state and country have reached a crisis point in immigration enforcement.

The group alarms many who call it extremist.

"We would put the Minuteman movement as a potentially violent fringe of the nativist movement in this country," said Devin Burghart, who tracks anti-immigrant groups as director of the Chicago-based Center for New Community's Building Democracy Initiative.

Haskins said he handed out some 300 fliers about veterans' issues and a handful of Minuteman volunteer registrations by 9:30 a.m. at Armstrong's Aug. 28 Cedar Rapids appearance.

He said he uses the veterans fliers to approach people who don't know, or are suspicious of his group. The flyers have photocopies of his Minuteman card and contact information at the bottom.

"Do you have any veterans in your family?" he asks a middle-aged woman. He asks if she has any relatives who might want to join the Minutemen.

"What's that?" the woman asks.

It's a question he's heard a lot in the few months he's been recruiting for the Minutemen at Eastern Iowa gun shows, political events and protests.

Many complaints
The Minutemen Civil Defense Corps, founded by Chris Simcox in Arizona in 2005, became active in Iowa just more than a year ago and claims members in 49 counties, and 10 chapters in 11 counties to date.

Haskins' Johnson County chapter is an Eastern Iowa outpost -- the closest others are in Marshall, Jasper and Polk counties. The rest hug Iowa's western border.

Minutemen think officials vastly underestimate the number of undocumented people in the United States. They think millions of people have crossed the country's border with Mexico in the last two years, many to run drugs, spread gang activity or run from the law. They think immigrants take jobs and drive down wages, and burden hospitals and schools. They worry about OTMs -- people Other Than Mexicans -- who might breach the border to carry out acts of terrorism.

Besides organizing border watches, they lobby legislators and push local anti-immigration ordinances.

The group's opponents say they grossly exaggerate the negatives of immigration and ignore the benefits, stereotyping and scapegoating immigrants who are just trying to build better lives for their families.

"The impact they've had, in terms of sending a chill throughout immigrant communities around the state, has been very strong," Burghart said.

But Haskins, of Iowa City, said people are living in a fairy tale if they don't think this country is in grave danger. "We are patriots," he said. "The Paul Reveres of the 2000s. We're sounding the alarm."

Tactics to promote message
At the Cedar Rapids cancer forum Haskins attended, he eventually put on a blazer to partially cover a black T-shirt with the Minuteman logo emblazoned in bright yellow: a Revolutionary War soldier holding a two-way radio in one hand and a pair of binoculars in the other. He picked up his spare handouts and a black leather portfolio and went to bluff his way into the media room so he could meet with Republican presidential candidates Sam Brownback and Mike Huckabee. The strategy had worked for him at Armstrong's Democratic forum the day before, he said: "You can't be an idiot and do what I do."

At the door, he flashed a set of homemade and self-designated credentials he had slung around his neck and the young women at the registration table let him through. Inside, reporters hunched over laptop computers sat at rows of tables facing a big-screen projection of the floor. Haskins found a chair, opened his portfolio and started to take notes.

Craig Halverson, named Iowa's first Minuteman Civil Defense Corps state director last summer, has organized Iowa's chapters and has led recruitment of the other members. Minutemen picket diversity festivals, immigration roundtables and political events. They've demonstrated against the North American Transportation Corridor in Des Moines.

"Sometimes we picket for confrontation," Halverson said. "Sometimes we picket because we think people are going to be receptive. Sometimes we picket so we can get in the news."

Halverson, of Griswold, said growth is his group's top priority. He wants a Minuteman in every county. He wants to persuade Iowa towns to train their police to enforce federal immigration laws. He wants Minutemen recruiting political candidates at all levels of government and lobbying the Iowa legislature.

"The more your numbers, the better they'll listen to you," he said.

Establishing a network
Minutemen volunteers have to fill out an information sheet and attach proof of a concealed weapons permit, military clearance or $50 registration fee. Halverson, who said it was against the group's rules to disclose the number of volunteers in its ranks, said the fee covers the cost of a background check -- he won't let in anyone who has a felony conviction. He said a lot of his volunteers are retired military and law enforcement.

Haskins met Halverson at a Cedar Rapids gun show in June. Tired of what he calls America's "don't ask, don't tell" immigration policies, Haskins joined. In late July, Halverson made him chapter director.

Now Haskins gets daily e-mail messages from Minuteman founder Simcox with talking points and news to share at monthly membership meetings. He gets more information from Web sites like www.congressandimmigration.com

He tacks his business card to bulletin boards wherever he goes. He said it's hard to find a friendly ear in Iowa City, but people in other parts of the Corridor are receptive to the message.

"But you've got to travel," he said. "You've got to drive. You've got to knock on doors ... And you also have to be able to withstand the punishment doled out by people that are deadly against this."

He said Americans don't want to think about how tenuous social order is, and how vulnerable they are if the United States doesn't secure the borders, starting with the south.

"People want to live their fairy tale," he said. "They want to get up and go to work, put their money in the bank and wait for a vacation every summer. They think this is going to go on forever, but let me tell you, it's not."

Meeting the candidates
At the back of the media room in Cedar Rapids, a man announced Sen. Sam Brownback was on his way for interviews. Haskins pulled a veterans handout from his accordion folder. "Let's go ask the senator some questions," he said.

He walked outside to stand at the front of the staging area, holding the flier in both hands as television photographers set up their cameras. Brownback arrived and, as he started to make a statement, his campaign's state communication director took a flier from Haskins. He asked Haskins if he would limit his question to veterans' affairs.

Haskins asked Brownback how he'd fix the Veterans Affairs hospital system if he were president, thanked him for his support, then shook the senator's hand and headed back into the press room. On the screen, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee was talking about diet and chronic disease. When the forum was over, Haskins pulled another veterans flier, made his way to Huckabee and asked about veterans' health care. The former governor said the nation has an obligation to injured and disabled vets.

"Thank you," Haskins said. "What's your stance on health care for illegal aliens?"

More Latino Iowans
According to the Iowa Center for Immigrant Leadership and Integration at the University of Northern Iowa, Latinos are the state's largest minority population, estimated at as many as 125,000 people, and the state's fastest-growing population -- accounting for two-thirds of its population growth.

About 75 percent of Iowa's Hispanic immigrants are from Mexico. Thousands are undocumented -- accurate numbers are impossible to guess -- who have been coming to the state to work mainly in meatpacking facilities since the late 1980s.

"The vast majority of immigrants that I've met over the last 20 years are not here to make trouble," said Mark Grey, the center's director and UNI faculty member. "They're not here to break the law. They're here because we employ them."

Still, in recent years, immigration has become a hot-button topic and membership has skyrocketed in anti-immigrant groups like the Minutemen, said Devin Burghart, who has been watching the Iowa chapters for the Center for New Community. "It has spread like wildfire across the country," Burghart said.

Critics say the Minutemen oversimplify a complex situation, blurring distinctions between Hispanic people, Mexicans and people who came to the country without permission. They say the group's theories about crime and job loss are unfounded, that their rhetoric is racist and that the Minutemen don't recognize the vital role that immigrants play in the future of the state.

Economic impacts
A recent government report found that immigration stimulates the economy. But outdated and convoluted immigration policies make it virtually impossible for foreign workers without advanced degrees to get work visas, immigration proponents say.

"As long as there are jobs here, they're going to figure out a way to get here without permission," Iowa City immigration lawyer Dan Vondra said.

Haskins said he knows people think the Minutemen are racist, but they're not, and that he certainly isn't. "We're not picking on Mexicans here -- we're picking on illegal aliens," he said. "Deep in my heart I have respect for anybody who will come to a country to work legally."

He said he knows how hard it is to get a visa. He spent more than three years and $20,000 to get one for his wife, who is from Iran.

And he said he'll continue to recruit new members, no matter what opponents say.

"When I get into something, I get into it," he said. "I will not let up."

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