Thread: Minutemen make stop in Nashville

http://www.nashvillecitypaper.com/index ... s_id=49693

Minutemen make stop in Nashville
By Christine Buttorff, News Correspondent
May 09, 2006

Midway through a two-week tour of 13 cities in the South and Southwest, the Minutemen Caravan Project stopped at Nashville’s War Memorial Plaza Monday night. The group aims to stop illegal immigration, and has been patrolling the Arizona/Mexico border periodically for over a year.

Nearly 200 people attended Monday’s rally.

“I bought my house 16 years ago and never thought I’d buy into the third world,” said Tim Williams, an auto mechanic from Madison. He expressed frustration at the number of immigrants in Madison, who, he said, have their own “cash economy.”

The construction industry was fingered as a primary culprit by many attendees of the rally, because they accuse the industry of continuing to hire illegal immigrants. “Businesses should stop hiring them,” said another Madison resident, David Meister.

Raymond Herrera is one of the Minutemen who was on the border patrol and is now traveling with the tour. He was a carpenter until he lost his job 15 years ago, and his two sons are now carpenters in California. Herrera said neither of them could find jobs because the contractors would rather hire cheap, illegal immigrant workers.

“They’ve destroyed my life and now they’re destroying my sons’,” Herrera said. He said the federal congressional proposals to give amnesty to illegal immigrants is a “smokescreen,” and that the laws on the books need to be enforced.

While most of the crowd was sympathetic to the cause of the Minutemen, a few hovering in the background were not. Raymond Casares, a spokesman for the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, agreed that particular industries seem to be feeding the cash or underground economies: “Construction trades have been rife with that practice.”

But Casares said that America needs to “bring [illegal immigrants] out of the shadows so they can contribute.”

The Minuteman Caravan Project began May 3 in Los Angeles and will end May 12 at a rally in Washington, D.C.

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll ... /1006/NEWS

Tuesday, 05/09/06

Minuteman rally seeks support for stricter immigration laws
Cross-country caravan makes stop at Capitol

By AILENE TORRES
and KATE HOWARD
Staff Writers


Waving American flags and signs denouncing illegal immigration, members and supporters of The Minuteman Project rallied at the state Capitol on Monday night to show their support for stricter immigration legislation.

Founder Jim Gilchrist encouraged about 150 people in attendance to stop supporting politicians without a record opposing illegal immigration as a step toward solving the influx of undocumented workers.

Politicians have failed for decades to stop the incremental "invasion" of illegal residents, Gilchrist said.

"We don't know what their intentions are," he said. "All we know is their intentions are not to assimilate into the United States."

The Minuteman Project caravan began in Los Angeles on May 3 and came through Nashville on Monday for the rally favoring stricter immigration laws. The group planned to move on to rallies in Birmingham, Ala. and Atlanta next.

Last month's immigration rights rally in the same location shocked Jim Thomas of Ridgetop, who came to both rallies with a sign reading: "What part of 'illegal' don't you understand?"

"I was frightened that many illegals can march in the streets unopposed," Thomas said. "They'll hurt our economy on the back end and they jeopardize our job security."

The Minuteman Project is a coalition of Americans from different racial backgrounds working to secure the nation's borders, said Tim Bueler, the organization's spokesman. The Minutemen are known for the armed vigilante troops they have posted along the U.S. border with Mexico.

David Lubell, director of the Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition, did not protest Monday's rally, but said his group is concerned about the "real message."

"While cloaked in the red, white and blue of American history, today's Minutemen, in reality, represent the most recent of many waves of (native) vigilantes in America, inciting fears of a new 'cultural invasion,' " Lubell said. "The minutemen need to learn that immigrants today … are learning English, fueling job growth in the Tennessee economy and proudly becoming Americans." •

http://www.wavy.com/Global/story.asp?S=4879887&nav=23ii


Minuteman tour stops in Nashville, Memphis; heads to D.C.


NASHVILLE, Tenn. The Minuteman Project's cross-country tour is heading to Washington, and they've gotten a mostly friendly reception in Nashville.

Minutemen Project founder James Gilchrist drew cheers when he urged the crowd to influence immigration policy with their pocketbooks.

A Minutemen member from Frederick, Maryland says the convoy includes about nine vehicles since it started in California last week. Organizers say their trip is a response to the marches staged across the nation by more than a (m) million people demanding amnesty for illegal immigrants.

The caravan is expected to stop in Richmond on Thursday and then head to D-C.