http://www.sbsun.com/news/ci_3777962

Minutemen to strike back
Cross-country caravan hopes to foster support
Jason Newell and Megan Blaney, Staff Writers
San Bernardino County Sun

On the heels of Monday's massive immigrant boycott, members of one high-profile group will fire up their RVs, cars and trucks today to build momentum for the other side.
The Minuteman Project will launch a cross-country caravan tour today in Los Angeles, hoping to stir national support for a crackdown at the border and spotlight the harmful effects of illegal immigration.

From the time the caravan speeds through the Inland Empire to when it rolls into Washington, D.C., on May 12, participants say they hope to have energized voters and enlisted more members to their cause.

The Minuteman Project represents the "people in America who are tired of excuses and stalling and political issues getting in the way of our sealing the borders and enforcing the law," said Lyman Stucky, a San Bernardino man who will be leading the caravan in his 1970 Mercury Cougar. "We are demanding that our hired employees our public servants enforce the law and do what they were sworn to do."

Organizers expect about 100 staff members and supporters to set off from Los Angeles, with some expected to complete the entire trip, some cutting their journeys short and others joining for stretches along the way.

The tour will wind through several Southern states en route to Capitol Hill, making stops in 12 cities along the way. Participants will join a rally Saturday near President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, where anti-illegal-immigration forces from across the nation plan to assemble for a protest against the president's border policy.

The caravan also plans stops in Phoenix; Albuquerque, N.M.; Abilene, Texas; Little Rock, Ark.; Memphis and Nashville, Tenn.; Birmingham, Ala.; Atlanta; Greensboro, N.C.; and Richmond, Va.

Stucky, who will be leading the way in his flashy red-white-and-blue Cougar, dubbed "The Spirit of Allegiance," said he's taking the 3,000-mile trip because he strongly believes in the Minuteman mantra that the law should be upheld by elected officials.

The 48-year-old business consultant said he takes no issue with people who migrate to America and obtain citizenship through the appropriate channels.

"But when people come over the border and choose to retain all the ties to their original country, including a fierce loyalty and sending all the resources there, I'm wondering if they're really Americans at heart and why they're here," he said.

Minuteman Project officials have no illusions that they will be able to match the kind of turnout seen in Monday's rallies, when more than 1 million illegal immigrants and their supporters flooded streets across the country.

"Our power is not putting a million people on the street. Our power is putting 10 million people at the voting box," said Stephen Eichler, the group's executive director. "Their voice is accompanied by a lot of bodies, but our voice is accompanied by even more bodies who aren't going to go out in the street."

One supporter, Penny Magnotto of Upland, said she and a friend were planning to follow the caravan in their RV and visit seven additional states during their return to recruit members.

"We'll never get a million Americans out on the streets. You couldn't," said Magnotto, founder of the Minuteman spinoff Minutewomen on the Road. "But if one in 100 people that we meet up with kind of gets it and sees that we're nice family people, I will be thrilled."

Other local anti-illegal-immigration groups said they have no immediate plans for public demonstrations in the wake of Monday's boycott.

Andy Ramirez, chairman of the Chino-based nonprofit Friends of the Border Patrol, said the types of rallies organized by leaders of the Minuteman Project and other groups accomplish little more than stirring emotions.

"They're great publicity stunts, great fund-raising opportunities, but now it's time to start engaging in substance," Ramirez said. "The movement has to stop for a moment and think, `What is actually going to accomplish something?' "

His group, for example, has installed "freedom cameras" at the border, enabling volunteers and Border Patrol agents to monitor suspicious activity, he said.

Joseph Turner, executive director of the San Bernardino-based Save Our State, said he's focusing his energy on the success of a citywide initiative he wrote to crack down on illegal immigrants in San Bernardino.

The measure would ban the city from using tax dollars to set up day-labor centers, require officials to deny business permits to companies that hire illegal immigrants, and impose $1,000 fines on landlords who rent to illegal immigrants, among other things.

Turner submitted more than 3,100 signatures to the City Clerk's office last week, of which 2,216 must be valid. A ruling on the validity of the signatures is expected by Thursday.

As for protests, Turner said the million demonstrators who flooded the nation's cities on Monday hurt their own cause more than anything he could have come up with.

"The greatest thing that could ever happen is for them to start rallying like they have," he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.