http://www.connectionnewspapers.com






Minutemen Bring in Big Guns
National Minutemen founders, other speakers address residents at Herndon Minutemen meeting.
By Brynn Grimley
February 15, 2006


National Minutemen founders Jim Gilchrist and Chris Simcox addressed more than 100 area residents and media representatives last week during a Herndon Minutemen meeting held at Herndon Middle School. Joined by a diverse panel of Minutemen guest speakers on Feb. 8, the two commended Herndon residents for protesting the creation of the Herndon Official Workers Center. Residents were also encouraged to vote and campaign for elected officials at the local, state and national levels that held their beliefs about immigration reform.

"It's okay to complain about this problem, and if you do, you're not a racist, you're not a bigot," said Gilchrist about negative stereotypes directed at Minutemen volunteers.

"You have to get organized, you have to get charged and you have to single out these troublemakers and take them out of office," he said.

Simcox and Gilchrist were joined by civil defense corps vice president Carmen Mercer, Las Vegas radio personality Mark Edwards, who is also chairman of the Wake Up America Foundation, Los Angeles radio host Terry Anderson, newly formed Maryland Minutemen Civil Defense Corps founders Chuck Floyd and Stephen Schreiman, Raymond Herrera, a California contractor, and George Taplin, a Herndon resident who also serves as president of the Herndon Minutemen chapter.

Staffed with armed professional security guards hired by Taplin, during the two-hour event, each speaker highlighted their efforts to bring attention to securing the nation's borders. The speakers stopped in Herndon after a Feb. 8 rally for national immigration reform on Capitol Hill.

BEFORE INTRODUCING the first speaker, Taplin highlighted what the Herndon Minutemen had done in town since their October 2005 formation. He also denounced recent claims of success at the new site by Reston Interfaith and Project Hope & Harmony volunteers.

"All these things you're hearing from Reston Interfaith, there's no way to prove what they're saying," Taplin said a day after the meeting. "Their numbers [of hires] are different from ours."

After the Town Council's approval last August to create a regulated day-labor hiring site at the former Herndon Police Station, Taplin formed a local chapter of the national Minutemen organization. The local group's intent is to monitor the regulated site by recording vehicle license plates and photographing and videotaping employers hiring workers. While there are no accurate counts of how many of the workers are not legal citizens, Taplin and other Minutemen volunteers believe a majority of the workers are in the country illegally.

Employers break the law when they hire them, Taplin said. The intent of the Minutemen in Herndon is to shut down the regulated site and ultimately relieve the town of its long-standing day-worker population. The group also plans to help with campaign efforts for like-minded residents running for a seat on the Town Council in the upcoming May 2 election, Taplin said.

Nationally, the Minutemen organization is divided into two areas, the Minutemen Project and the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps. The Minutemen Project, headed by Gilchrist, takes a legislative approach to addressing the country's illegal immigration problems, while the defense corps, headed by Simcox, monitors the nation's borders.

During the meeting Simcox and Gilchrist presented two differing points of view that followed the same premise — securing the border from people illegally attempting to enter the United States.

"I WANTED PEOPLE to understand the Minutemen are not about violence," Taplin said about one reason to hold the meeting. "If you are really trying to find a solution, dialogue is where you need to go."

Before his speech, Simcox awarded Taplin with the group's Eagle Award, recognizing his "significant contribution to saving the republic." Simcox then emphasized the importance of Minutemen volunteers conducting peaceful demonstrations, similar to ones organized by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during the Civil Rights movement.

"The people outside are the ones causing the hate," he said of a group that followed the speakers from Capitol Hill to Herndon. Before the meeting the demonstrators circled the front middle school parking lot chanting "immigration reform now," and holding signs that read "we celebrate diversity."

"My goal, my number one focus, is to secure that border," Simcox said. "If our government won't secure the border, we the people will help them."

Initially, before the Feb. 8 rally was finalized and before the key speakers were announced, Taplin had scheduled for Simcox to attend a Herndon Minutemen meeting to help energize volunteers and to offer directional advice for the group. But, with the increase of prominent Minutemen advocates attending the Washington, D.C. event, more guest speakers made the list for the Herndon meeting, Taplin said.

WHILE THE LOCAL Minutemen volunteers plan to continue their monitoring in Herndon — soon through Web cameras placed around the site — Taplin would like to see more community member involvement, he said.

"I think we need to reach out to the legal Hispanic community first," he said about reducing the number of undocumented workers in town. "I don't think money is a solution, I think reaching out to the Spanish community is the solution."

While he has no immediate plans to begin a campaign to engage Herndon's Hispanic community in a dialogue to find a solution, Taplin does hope to hold additional community meetings. During these meetings, residents with varying opinions are encouraged to attend so a constructive dialogue will be held, Taplin said.

"We need to continue to do things at the local level, we need to engage the community," he said. "We want to see a very vibrant and successful community in Herndon."

Within the next month to six weeks, Taplin plans to bring U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) to speak in Herndon. Like last week, this meeting will also be open to the public.

"If you go through and get the facts and then have a dialogue around the facts — not the rhetoric but the facts — a solution can be found," he said.