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Immigration rally brings Minuteman issue to head

By Oscar Avila
Tribune staff reporter
Published July 1, 2005

The Minuteman Project gained notoriety in April when volunteers policed the Arizona desert against illegal immigrants crossing from Mexico.

Nearly 2,000 miles north of that first effort, a small number of Chicagoans who volunteered in Arizona are bringing the fight to Chicago. Organizers plan to confront Illinois politicians who condone illegal immigration and employers who hire undocumented immigrants.

With only about 50 Illinois volunteers, the initiative has been mainly about public relations, so far. Nationwide, spinoffs of the Minuteman Project have formed in 14 states.

Local Minuteman organizers have not been shy about raising their voices, mixing sober arguments about illegal immigration with incendiary rhetoric against some immigrant advocates, whom they call communists and anti-American.

"I'm the least likely guy to be doing this because I'm introverted by nature," said Rick Biesada of Lindenhurst, co-founder of the Chicago project. "But nobody is speaking out loudly on this issue."

Biesada, an ex-Marine who runs a trucking company, said he could relate to the original Minutemen, colonists who said they were ready to fight at a minute's notice during the Revolutionary War.

He considers many current politicians to be committing treason.

"In the old days, they used to hang these suckers," Biesada said on a recent radio show.

Biesada said the dangers of illegal immigration hit home after the 2001 terrorist attacks.

"I'm doing this for my grandchildren," he said.

He is even more outraged now because the U.S.-Mexico border remains porous, Biesada said.

"Even the lowliest private knows that the first thing you do in a dangerous situation is secure your perimeter," he said.

Other side on alert

Despite its small numbers, the Chicago Minuteman Project's entry into the heated immigration debate has the other side taking notice.

Organizers of a pro-immigrant rally scheduled for Friday in McKinley Park on the South Side said one of their main goals would be to take on the fledgling Minuteman project.

Emma Lozano, executive director of Centro Sin Fronteras, said she helped organize Friday's rally, in part to speak out against the Minutemen, not to force a physical confrontation.

"The Minutemen have been putting out an image of immigrants, trying to drum up hatred and stir up the most negative fears," Lozano said. "We don't want them to feel welcome in Illinois."

The Minutemen have caused such a flap that a popular local Spanish radio personality devoted much of his show this week to interviewing a group leader.

On Tuesday, co-founder Rosanna Pulido made her case with El Chokolate, a popular disc jockey on WLEY-FM 107.9.

On the one hand, Pulido and the disc jockey thoughtfully probed the subject, examining causes of immigration, such as U.S. demand for cheap labor. Afterward, Pulido thanked the host for allowing an "adult discussion" on the topic.

Polarized positions

But the interview also showed how the Minutemen's presence can lead to polarized positions and personal attacks.

El Chokolate also asked Pulido, a Mexican-American, whether her ancestors entered the country legally or illegally. She said she didn't know.

Pulido accused El Chokolate, who said he was a naturalized U.S. citizen, of betraying his oath by maintaining his allegiance to a foreign state. The disc jockey described the Minutemen's national security efforts but wondered aloud if a more accurate mission statement involved "national prejudice."

The original Minuteman project drew international attention in April when volunteers assembled near Tombstone, Ariz., to police the border. President Bush denounced the volunteers as vigilantes.

Although organizers predicted about 1,000 participants, independent observers counted far fewer than that, raising criticism that the whole operation was merely a stunt to generate publicity.

Their first protest, which drew only 10 participants to a local restaurant where a GOP strategy meeting was taking place, targeted Illinois lawmakers who voted for a bill to require state agencies to accept the matricula consular, a Mexican ID card primarily used by undocumented immigrants.

Biesada said the next campaign probably will be against banks, such as Wells Fargo, that accept the matricula. The group also is planning a summit against illegal immigration in the late summer.

Backed by national founder

Jim Gilchrist, founder of the national Minuteman Project, supports the Chicago effort, even though it doesn't fall under his umbrella or receive money from the national organization.

Unlike in other states such as California and Georgia, any kind of public protest against illegal immigration has been a rarity in Illinois, even though the state is home to 400,000 illegal immigrants.

The main local voice against illegal immigration, the Midwest Coalition to Reduce Immigration in Lombard, has concentrated on letters to the editor, e-mails to supporters and media interviews. It is essentially a one-man operation, and executive director Dave Gorak has not organized mass rallies of support.

But the coalition shares a common theme with the Minutemen: that ordinary citizens must get involved in immigration enforcement. The group's Web site urges Illinois residents to report illegal immigrants to a tip line operated by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, 866-347-2423.

Calls double 2004's

Agency officials report that they have already received 68,536 calls to the tip line in fiscal 2005, more than double the number received in all of fiscal 2004. Tipsters can report everything from immigrant smuggling to sex offenders.

For now, the Chicago Minuteman Project is slowly trying to expand from a few diehards exchanging e-mails to a player in the immigration debate.

The Southern Poverty Law Center reports that concerns go beyond rhetoric. The center, a watchdog against hate groups, said white supremacists have been drawn to the Minutemen's cause.

Minuteman organizers say those reports are unfair because they should not be judged by a few extremists who are unwelcome.

In any event, battle lines are being drawn even more intensely.

In Garden Grove, Calif., about 300 activists protested a speech by Gilchrist and even began pounding on his van with placards. The van's driver accelerated and struck several protesters, injuring three, according to media accounts. Dozens of police, some in SWAT uniforms, arrived to restore order.

oavila@tribune.com