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Minutemen say 'no thanks!' to white separatists
March 31, 2005, 07:12 AM CST

Minutemen: "White Separatists? No, Thanks"

This week, the Minuteman Project kicks off along Arizona's international border.

All eyes are on the border, but who's in the crowd?

There's a lot of discussion about who exactly the Minutemen are.

One of the nation's leading white separatist groups now claims some of their members will be guarding our border with the Minutemen.

"We're not going to show up as a group and say, 'Hi, we're the National Alliance,'" said National Alliance spokesman Shawn Walker, in an interview Wednesday. "But we have members of ours that will participate."

The Minutemen say that's not true.

"The Minutemen Project is in no way associated with these extremists," said Chris Simcox, one of the organizers of the project.

The National Alliance has been called racist and anti-semitic. Simcox says that's not anything that embodies his project.

"In no way do we encourage or condone such anti-American hate speech," he added.

The National Alliance argues Simcox and the other Minutemen leaders are toting a "politically correct, kosher conservative line" for the public.

The Minutemen say they carefully interview all their volunteers, but, they add, if white separatists have infiltrated the group, there would be no way to tell.

"There's no way to determine if people are members of groups, that's not available," Simcox explained. "Law enforcement doesn't even have that information."

As the weekend approaches and the Minutemen gather here in Southern Arizona, they say debates like this one are distracting from the real issue - to bring international attention to illegal immigration.