Anti-Immigration Activists Roil the Heartland
By MIRIAM JORDAN
July 16, 2007; Page B1

An elderly woman's appointment to a local parks board doesn't normally generate controversy. But in Kansas City, Mo., Frances Semler's new position on the city's Parks and Recreation board has unexpectedly fanned the flames of the debate over illegal immigration.

The 73-year-old Mrs. Semler is an activist in the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, a controversial volunteer civilian patrol formed two years ago to secure U.S. borders and crack down on illegal immigrants. While President Bush has denounced the Minutemen as "vigilantes," and human-rights organizations express concern that a group they consider extremist and bent on taking the law into its own hands is winning over ordinary Americans, the group itself is legal -- and growing. And as the stir over Mrs. Semler's appointment shows, the Minutemen's influence has spread deep into Middle America, far from the U.S.-Mexico borders where the anti-illegal-immigrant group originated.


The controversy began on June 11, when Kansas City's new mayor, Mark Funkhouser, announced he was replacing a Parks and Recreation board that he said was rooted in a "culture of elitism and community divisiveness" with new commissioners representing a "wealth of experience, perspective and diversity." Mrs. Semler was one of five new commissioners.

The next day, her connection to the local Minutemen chapter was made public by the daily Kansas City Star. The city's National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Coalition of Hispanic Organizations, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the Jewish Community Relations Bureau held a news conference on June 14 to condemn the appointment. Later that day, the city council, voting 9 to 3, adopted a resolution calling for Mrs. Semler's removal from the parks board.

Hispanic leaders who say they rallied their community to back the mayor -- he won a narrow victory over his African-American opponent -- now say they feel betrayed by Mrs. Semler's appointment. "This is a slap in our face," said Cris Medina, a local Latino leader who is also a third-generation Mexican-American. He said the appointment generates concerns about racial profiling and discomfort among low-income immigrants for whom parks provide free diversion.

"This is about racism and divisiveness -- everything we are not supposed to be about," said council member Beth Gottstein, who voted for Mrs. Semler's removal.

Mrs. Semler, a former president of the county rose society, said in an interview that she had joined the anti-illegal immigrant group late last year because "I believe very strongly in obeying the law." She denies being a racist.

The mayor says he didn't know of Mrs. Semler's affiliation with the Minutemen but doesn't believe it will interfere with her performance. "As long as her personal behavior is good ... I don't see why I should remove her," Mr. Funkhouser said in an interview. The mayor said he chose Mrs. Semler because she is "smart, creative and caring. She is not a racist."

He noted that he had appointed a Hispanic as president of the board and two black men to be commissioners. "Diversity is also about diversity of views," he says.

The expansion of the Minutemen into America's heartland coincides with mounting frustration at the federal government's failure to adopt a national immigration policy as well as a new wave of Hispanic immigrants into the interior of the U.S.

The Center for New Community, a Chicago-based organization that tracks nationalist and neo-nativist groups, has counted 140 Minutemen branches in 34 states across the country. These chapters appear to be thriving despite the fact that the founders of two regional Minuteman factions, Chris Simcox of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, based in Arizona, and Jim Gilchrist of the Minuteman Project in California, have been plagued by scandals over their handling of funds and management style.

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