http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJ ... 101906.htm

October 19, 2006

The Minutemen were colonial-era militiamen who became the nation's first rapid-deployment force during the Revolutionary War. The Minuteman is also the name of America's last remaining intercontinental ballistic missile, 500 of which are planted in silos around Montana, North Dakota and Wyoming. So it's unfortunate that references to "minuteman" these days usually go to a group of volunteer vigilantes who've appointed themselves patrolmen of the U.S-Mexico border, on the lookout for illegal immigrants.

The so-called Minuteman Project was created in 2005 to do what the group claims the U.S. Customs and Border Protection isn't doing -- stopping illegal immigrants from crossing into the United States. "The Minuteman Project is not a call to arms," the group claims -- even as it uses an armed Minuteman as its logo -- but "to bring national awareness to the decades-long careless disregard of effective U.S. immigration law enforcement" while the nation "is devoured and plundered by the menace of tens of millions of invading illegal aliens."

It may not be a call to arms. It certainly is a call to exercise bigotry. Until now, the group's reach had been limited to the U.S.-Mexico border. No longer. Local Minuteman Project "chapters" are being founded around the country. It doesn't take much more than filling out an on-line form at the Minuteman Project's Web site. John James apparently has done so in creating the Northeast Central Florida Chapter, which covers six counties, including Volusia and Flagler. His epicenter is Pierson -- where 60 percent of the population is Hispanic and where some fernery workers are undocumented.

James wants to "make it tough" for undocumented immigrants to stay here. He and his group's dozen-odd members intend to use quite legal means: They plan to videotape various businesses' ways and means of collecting workers from places allegedly known to be gathering spots for undocumented immigrants and turn over those tapes to law enforcement. Acting legally doesn't mean it can't be a form of bigotry, harassment, intimidation or all of the above.

Two obvious problems immediately arise. First, it is impossible to distinguish who is an illegal alien and who is not. The Minuteman Project's presumptions appear to be that all Hispanic-looking individuals are fair game -- or, for that matter, all foreign-looking individuals are fair game. That doesn't leave any room for that American standard -- innocent until proven guilty. The Minuteman Project, which claims to be doing its part to "save" America, is using methods better suited for a racist police state.

Second, only federal agents may arrest illegal aliens (unless the individual is breaking laws unrelated to immigration). Local agencies are neither equipped nor trained to deal with immigration matters. Nor should they be on principle: Immigration infractions are civil, not criminal, matters. They should stay that way.

Groups like the Minuteman Project play to anti-immigration sentiments that only nominally distinguish between the legal and illegal kind. As such, they inflame an issue at odds with America's historic mission. This is a country founded on the principle of harboring immigrants, not vilifying them. Illegal immigrants are an added challenge, not a deal-breaker with that historic mission.

"I wanted to ask you about your opinion about those people who are hunting migrant people along the border," a reporter asked President Bush in March 2005. Bush's reply: "I'm against vigilantes in the United States of America. I'm for enforcing law in a rational way. That's why you got a Border Patrol, and they ought to be in charge of enforcing the border." Likewise in Florida, there is no place for a group like the Minuteman Project and its bullying vigilantism.