Thread: CA: Minutemen want to adopt another road

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REGION: Minutemen want to adopt another road
By CRAIG TENBROECK
Friday, May 16, 2008 5:35 PM PDT ∞

Jeff Schwilk, founder of the San Diego Minutemen, said Friday he had faxed an application to Caltrans for a permit to clean another stretch of road under the state's Adopt-A-Highway program.

The area the anti-illegal immigration group is targeting, Schwilk said, is just four to six miles south of its last piece of "adopted" freeway, which is now the subject of a federal lawsuit.

The Minutemen's interest in the cleanup program, which recognizes participants through roadside signs, has made national headlines in recent months.

Immigrant rights groups have said the Minutemen, which is perhaps best known for protesting day-labor sites, fosters discrimination so it shouldn't qualify for the state program.

Schwilk calls that nonsense, and says his members just want to clean up the highways.

The dust-up started in November when Caltrans gave the Minutemen permission to clean a busy, two-mile stretch of Interstate 5, near the San Clemente Border Patrol checkpoint.

That decision thrust the state Department of Transportation into the heart of the heated immigration debate.

In January, Caltrans officials, citing safety concerns, removed the Minutemen's stretch of road from the cleanup program entirely. They offered to shift the group away from the checkpoint, to a less-visible stretch of Highway 52.

The Minutemen rejected the offer and sued Caltrans to get the original site back. The lawsuit is still working its way through federal court.

Schwilk said Friday that his group still wants its signs back up at the original location, but the plan has always been to adopt more than one piece of road. He said the new stretch of road on southbound I-5 would be convenient for group members because it's so close to the first area they adopted.

"We look forward to cleaning both of them," Schwilk said.

Steve Saville, a Caltrans spokesman, confirmed in an e-mail Friday that an application from the Minutemen had been received. However, he said, because the application was faxed and lacked an ink signature, it wasn't valid.

"We will be working with the group to validate the information provided, submit the information on the new program application form and finalize it with a proper signature," he said.

By applying Thursday for a new stretch of road so near the first, the Minutemen appear to be testing Caltrans.

In a recent court hearing, the Minutemen's attorney accused the transportation agency of caving to political pressure from the state legislative Latino caucus and infringing on the group's right to free speech.

But the Caltrans attorney argued that the Adopt-A-Highway signs aren't a public forum, and because the Minutemen could still apply to clean any other stretch of road in the program, they "have been denied nothing."

One member of the Latino caucus, California Assemblywoman Lori Saldana, D-San Diego, said through her press secretary Friday that she is exploring a way to make Caltrans refine its application procedures.

Adopt-A-Highway participants should have to meet several membership standards, such as a membership roster, a board of directors and bylaws, she said.

www.nctimes.com

Immigrant rights groups have said the Minutemen, which is perhaps best known for protesting day-labor sites, fosters discrimination so it shouldn't qualify for the state program

Thats right . If i where "Illegal" i'ld be worried also . Illegals are law breakers . leave or we'll escort you out . Right down the Minutemens highways . The Hero's in the Minutemen do not "Foster" discrimination . They only enforce the laws of our country which you brown skin people do not care about . So you whine and cry and use words right or wrong like Racist and bigots . When truth be known those words stand for you and your cause . We studied Lenin and Marxist , which is the style ya'll use . Like the Berlin wall , you to will crash

One member of the Latino caucus, California Assemblywoman Lori Saldana, D-San Diego, said through her press secretary Friday that she is exploring a way to make Caltrans refine its application procedures.

Adopt-A-Highway participants should have to meet several membership standards, such as a membership roster, a board of directors and bylaws, she said.

a membership roster
a board of directors
bylaws

to pick up litter..................

and police can't ask immigration status?

Before the ADOPTION perhaps California Assemblywoman Lori Saldana, D-San Diego should have child care services interview the applicants?