http://www.longislandpress.com/?cp=162& ... &a_id=5711

Holding The Line
Protesters Clash At Minuteman Event
Tim Bolger 09/14/2005 12:02 pm


A loosely organized, unofficial border-patrol watchdog group estimated to have anywhere from 1,000 to 7,000 members, mostly in the Southwest U.S., the Minuteman group's main focus is halting the flow of illegal immigrants. Members sometimes park in lawn chairs near the United States-Mexico border, armed with binoculars and cell phones that have the local U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau on speed dial, so the watchers can call in what they believe to be illegal border crossings.

Babylon might seem far removed from the border of Mexico, but the group is expanding its focus to include the United States-Canadian border as well. The meeting at the Legion Hall featured Chris Simcox, who co-founded the Minuteman Project and was on Long Island to recruit new members to patrol the Canadian front.

"I'm tired of talking about this problem; it's time for action," said John Ryan, one of the founding members of the Pennsylvania Minutemen, a new chapter of the organization. The 57-year-old says he got involved with Simcox after finding out about the movement online. Ryan said that after traveling to Arizona to volunteer for two weeks earlier this year, "I saw that what I heard was not half of what was going on down there."

But outside the legion hall, where the Minutemen were dubbed neo-Nazis, passions ran just as high. Fresh graffitiâ€â€