They are keeping their plans "less public" to make it more difficult for illegal supporters to harass them
I don't know if "militia" is an accurate name for them......if you read their website rules, none of them
are even allowed to cuss at an illegal, if they do they will be immediately kicked out of the organization
They should hire off-duty LEOs to arrest any illegals that threaten\assault them, since NO ON-duty LEOs will

Minutemen step up Mexican border patrol
Sep 30, 2005
By Tim Gaynor
www.breitbart.com/news/2005/09/30/MTFH55477_2005-09-30_17-24-24_SPI062631.html
BROWNSVILLE, Texas (Reuters) - A U.S. militia group will launch a month-long sweep for illegal immigrants along the border with Mexico this weekend, stepping up a campaign that has raised fears of violence.

Volunteers plan to gather at seven sites between San Diego, California, and Brownsville, Texas, throughout October to scour the deserts for illegal immigrants and report them to the U.S. Border Patrol so they can be arrested.

The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps began their controversial patrols in Arizona in April and spin-off groups later held similar operations in California.

Now, for the first time, the Minutemen are taking their protest to all four U.S. states along the porous 2,000-mile (3,200-km) border with Mexico beginning on Saturday.

The Minutemen, who take their name from an American Revolution militia, are keeping the specific locations secret for fear they might attract protesters, who clashed with breakaway militia patrols in California.

"It is being very tightly controlled this time because the opposition has blatantly said that they are going to direct violence at our volunteers," Minuteman founder Chris Simcox told Reuters in a telephone interview.

"Our patrols will be held on private ranch land ... Our volunteers have been well-trained and know how to deal with protesters if they do get near us and will report them to local law enforcement," he added.

In July, protesters scuffled with breakaway California Minutemen volunteers in Campo, a border town southeast of San Diego.

Some of the Minutemen were armed. U.S. President George W. Bush has called them "vigilantes" and Mexico's government dubbed the group "migrant hunters."

The Minutemen insist they are simply filling a gap in U.S. law enforcement and drawing attention to the government's failure to secure U.S. land borders.

"We will be going home when the government sends troops or the National Guard to secure the border," Simcox said. "Until then, the patrols will continue."

While most of their attention is focused on the frontier with Mexico, which millions of immigrants cross illegally every year, they also plan vigils in areas on the Canadian border.

GROWING OPPOSITION

The growth of the Minuteman patrols has stirred stiff opposition among Latino activists and many residents in towns and cities along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The California-based Brown Berets, a Mexican-American group that was allied with the revolutionary U.S. Black Panther Party in the 1960s, has vowed to confront the Minuteman volunteers during their October vigil.

An Arizona rights group, the Border Action Network, distributed posters to stores in Naco, Douglas and Nogales on the Mexican border this week, declaring the communities "hate-free zones" and saying "racist vigilantes" are unwelcome.

In Texas earlier this year, 11 state senators urged Gov. Rick Perry to oppose the Minuteman patrols, saying they could "negatively affect tourism and trade along the border" and make law enforcement "more dangerous and difficult."

In the sweltering border city of Brownsville, a court this month passed a resolution opposing the presence of "Minutemen or other vigilante groups" along a stretch of the Rio Grande in Cameron County.

The volunteers range from retired servicemen and off-duty law enforcement officers to businessmen and office workers.

Its a good start.

The slant in this article overwhelming

Seems pretty fact based to me...........

October is supposed to be a very active month for the Minutemen
please, feel free to post any other articles about them in this thread
(I'll go look for some more)

Any day now I expect Brownsville to change its name to "JuanCortinaville..."

One day Im gonna run with them or maybe ranch rescue

Quoted: One day Im gonna run with them or maybe ranch rescue

Ranch Rescue has had some problems. You may want to stick with the Minutemen for now.

Now HERE'S a slanted, emotionally charged article

Civilian patrols target wider circle, though poll finds opposition
Posted 10/1/2005
www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-10-01-civilian-patrol_x.htm?csp=34
CAMPO, Calif. (AP) — As the sun set, Roy Wood looked out of place patrolling a dirt road a few steps north of a rusty fence that separates the United States from Mexico. The clean-shaven English-as-a-second-language instructor wore a T-shirt tucked in clean blue jeans, a pistol strapped to a belt.

Many of the hundreds who make up the self-appointed civilian patrols monitoring the border to deter smuggling of people and drugs are unemployed or underemployed ex-military men who have long resented Mexicans who come to the United States illegally and, in their view, compete for jobs, crowd hospitals and schools and threaten English as the nation's dominant language.

The civilian patrols of recent months have failed to stem the tide of illegal crossings, but they have ratcheted up pressure on Washington to better police U.S. borders and fueled tension in border towns about potential violence. And as the patrols continue, they are targeting a wider circle of volunteers.

There are urban dwellers, young women, even some Hispanics. Their gripes about illegal immigration are often the same as those of the gun-toting veterans, though their backgrounds are different.

"It shows that the problem reaches all of America, not just a specific group," said Gayle Nyberg, 57, a Murietta, Calif., woman who slept in the back of a 1976 Chevrolet Suburban painted in camouflage while on patrol.

More than 200 people signed up with the California Minutemen, who spent three weeks at the border this summer.

Civilian patrols are opposed by 56% of Californians but supported by a majority of Republicans and people at least 65 years old, according to a recent Field Poll. Support was weak in Los Angeles and San Francisco and among Hispanics and people under 40. The telephone survey of 426 registered voters Aug. 19-29 had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.

Wood, who battled two hours of rush-hour traffic to get here, has taught immigrants English for two years. Most of his students have been Asian.

Returning home to Southern California in 2002 after spending 11 years teaching in Japan, he found his opposition to illegal immigration hardening. He concluded that Mexican immigrants have failed to assimilate in the United States, unlike the Vietnamese star students at his high school in Huntington Beach or the students he teaches English.

"Suddenly, they make American friends, they learn the language, they buy a car, they start to acclimatize themselves to the American way of life, just as I did in Japan," he said.

Heather Evans, a 25-year-old Los Angeles microbiologist, was initially uneasy about joining the patrols which she'd seen on a television news report. But when she drove three hours to the border one July weekend, her fears quickly evaporated.

"I told my family it was like an armed picnic on the border," said Evans, who is considering whether to buy a gun for future visits.

She said traces her opposition to illegal immigration to the time, a few years back, when she noticed that men who whistled and hooted at her often looked Mexican to her.

Rogelio Cabrera said he felt harassed in a different way. A 30-year-old who loads port containers in Long Beach, he said illegal immigration began troubling him when day laborers who he said appeared Mexican began gathering outside a neighborhood Home Depot store.

"They see I'm Latino, coming out with bags of cement, and they huddle around me saying, 'What can I do for you?'" said Cabrera, who joined the patrols despite the fears of his Mexican-born wife.

Two dozen or so recruits gathered one August evening in Campo, 40 miles east of San Diego, where many had been camped for nearly three weeks. Small groups were assigned along a mountainous 16-mile stretch of the border blanketed with mesquite, cedar and manzanita trees.

Wood was dispatched to "base camp" — a metal-roofed canopy with an electrical generator that powered a 28-foot radio communications tower. Volunteers sat on the canopy's roof and scanned the landscape with night-vision binoculars.

Britt Craig had spent three weeks at base camp living on canned food out of the back of a yellow van. Craig, a former Marine paratrooper, wore a patch over his left eye from what he said was a shrapnel wound in Vietnam. "I'm kind of a solitaire," he said.

Craig, 56, was never been terribly troubled by illegal immigration but left his home in Florida when he learned about the citizen patrols, which he saw as a question of people exercising their right to bear arms.

"I grew up with guns, I believe in guns, I believe in an armed citizenry," he said. "These folks are answering to a national defense need."

Nothing prevented people from carrying licensed weapons in most of the areas where the Minutemen patrolled, authorities said. Still, the San Diego County Sheriff's Department extended the nighttime hours of its tiny Campo substation and paid overtime to reinforcements.

A small group of protesters, who camped in tents, closely followed and frequently taunted the patrollers.

"When we have two very diverse groups, very polarized and highly emotional, running around, many of them carrying guns, obviously we're going to have to be there," said San Diego Sheriff's Lt. Bill Hogue.

He added: "I don't know how you'd feel about a bunch of people running around your neighborhood with guns but it makes some people uneasy."

No one spotted illegal crossers this night, which is typical. The Border Patrol credits the California Minutemen for reporting crossings that resulted in three arrests during a three-week patrol. The agency has made about 1.1 million arrests over the last year — or an average of 20,000-plus a week

It was a quiet evening of friendly conversation and rock-music playing on the radio, except for a tense, 20-minute argument with four men who approached in a Nissan Maxima. They belonged to a small group of protesters camped about a mile away over a dirt road. The protesters followed the patrollers at every step, banging pans, shouting through bullhorns and shining flood lamps on them.

"What's happening here is unacceptable!" shouted the driver, a portly man who stepped outside the car. "We have to tear (the border fence) down. You want to build it up."

T.S. McMullen, a former Marine toting an M-14 rifle, responded calmly that the protesters were "communists."

The driver compared the civilian patroller to Nazis. "I hope your children get harassed by bigots, like you are!" the driver shouted.

"We are not racists," McMullen said. "You're the only racists."

"Unfortunately, this is a war," the protester said as he returned to his car. "I despise everything you represent but I respect you as a soldier."

There was plenty of verbal jousting between patrollers and protesters but no arrests during the three weeks the Minutemen spent on the border. The patrollers have drawn criticism from Mexican President Vicente Fox, who accuses them of practicing vigilante justice.

Wood didn't see any illegal crossers during his three nights on the border, though he likes to think his presence may have scared them away.

The son of a California Highway Patrol officer and an elementary schoolteacher, Wood never followed illegal immigration when growing up. He said he rarely mingled with Mexicans in high school.

While teaching English at a high school in Yokkaichi, Japan, he said he noticed American staffers were given lighter workloads, special treatment he said he didn't deserve or want. When he returned home one summer and sought to bring his Brazilian girlfriend, he said he had to haggle with an official at a crowded U.S. consulate to get her a tourist visa.

"Seeing that situation, all these (visa applicants) waiting to get into the United States and then coming back and hearing how illegal aliens just jump over fences," he said, shaking his head at the dining-room table of his rented one-bedroom apartment in Oceanside. "It's like being at an amusement park and waiting for two hours in line, then someone just cuts right in front of you. That isn't fair."

When Wood brought his current girlfriend, who is Japanese, with him to the Minuteman patrol, he said she was terror-stricken during the night and feared being kidnapped or killed.

Wood acknowledged a lack of economic opportunity back home often drives illegal immigrants, but he was unsympathetic. "They're really poor, they have no skills, it's almost like Mexico just wants to unload its undesirables," he said.

Wood said he felt right at home with the Minutemen and plans to return when his schedule permits.

"I'll do it as long as it takes — until it's just as hard to get across the border as it is to get in through an airport," he said.

[MEDIA LINGO DETECTOR]


Minutemen step up Mexican border patrol
Sep 30, 2005
By Tim Gaynor
www.breitbart.com/news/2005/09/30/MTFH55477_2005-09-30_17-24-24_SPI062631.html
BROWNSVILLE, Texas (Reuters) - A U.S. militia group will launch a month-long sweep for illegal immigrants along the border with Mexico this weekend, stepping up a campaign that has raised fears of violence.

Volunteers plan to gather at seven sites between San Diego, California, and Brownsville, Texas, throughout October to scour the deserts for illegal immigrants and report them to the U.S. Border Patrol so they can be arrested.

The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps began their controversial patrols in Arizona in April and spin-off groups later held similar operations in California.  [CONTROVERSIAL??]

Now, for the first time, the Minutemen are taking their protest to all four U.S. states along the porous 2,000-mile (3,200-km) border with Mexico beginning on Saturday.

The Minutemen, who take their name from an American Revolution militia, are keeping the specific locations secret for fear they might attract protesters, who clashed with breakaway militia patrols in California.

"It is being very tightly controlled this time because the opposition has blatantly said that they are going to direct violence at our volunteers," Minuteman founder Chris Simcox told Reuters in a telephone interview.

"Our patrols will be held on private ranch land ... Our volunteers have been well-trained and know how to deal with protesters if they do get near us and will report them to local law enforcement," he added.

In July, protesters scuffled with breakaway California Minutemen volunteers in Campo, a border town southeast of San Diego.

Some of the Minutemen were armed. U.S. President George W. Bush has called them "vigilantes" and Mexico's government dubbed the group "migrant hunters."

The Minutemen insist they are simply filling a gap in U.S. law enforcement and drawing attention to the government's failure to secure U.S. land borders.

"We will be going home when the government sends troops or the National Guard to secure the border," Simcox said. "Until then, the patrols will continue."

While most of their attention is focused on the frontier with Mexico, which millions of immigrants cross illegally every year, they also plan vigils in areas on the Canadian border.

GROWING OPPOSITION  [GROWING OPPOSITION??;Don't Know about that]

The growth of the Minuteman patrols has stirred stiff opposition among Latino activists and many residents in towns and cities along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The California-based Brown Berets, a Mexican-American group that was allied with the revolutionary U.S. Black Panther Party in the 1960s, has vowed to confront the Minuteman volunteers during their October vigil.  [VIGIL????]

An Arizona rights group, the Border Action Network, distributed posters to stores in Naco, Douglas and Nogales on the Mexican border this week, declaring the communities "hate-free zones" and saying "racist vigilantes" are unwelcome.

In Texas earlier this year, 11 state senators urged Gov. Rick Perry to oppose the Minuteman patrols, saying they could "negatively affect tourism and trade along the border" and make law enforcement "more dangerous and difficult."    
[Once again they start stories based on a false supposition]

In the sweltering border city of Brownsville, a court this month passed a resolution opposing the presence of "Minutemen or other vigilante groups" along a stretch of the Rio Grande in Cameron County.

The volunteers range from retired servicemen and off-duty law enforcement officers to businessmen and office workers.

[/MEDIA LINGO DETECTOR]

They are NOT Vigilantes!!!!!!!!----------

They are Undocumented Border Patrol Agents

Quoted: The slant in this article overwhelming

So is the guy's name - Tim Gaynor

Quoted: Quoted: One day Im gonna run with them or maybe ranch rescue Ranch Rescue has had some problems. You may want to stick with the Minutemen for now.

Word.

Backstop = hauled through the ringer by the courts, and not fucking happy about it.

Quoted: [MEDIA LINGO DETECTOR] In Texas earlier this year, 11 state senators urged Gov. Rick Perry to oppose the Minuteman patrols, saying they could "negatively affect tourism and trade along the border" and make law enforcement "more dangerous and difficult."     [Once again they start stories based on a false supposition] [/MEDIA LINGO DETECTOR]

tourism dollars WILL be greatly reduced if illegals are not allowed to come and go as they please
or if the US border on the US side becomes a battleground...........like nuevo laredo
and........
law enforcement will indeed be more dangerous and difficult if they actually are called upon to
deal with the illegals, or with any problem that the illegals have with the "vigilantes"

To me, those were very accurate statements, and I doubt anyone would accuse me of being "pro-illegal"

eta: the second article I posted has plenty of "charged, biased" statements

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: One day Im gonna run with them or maybe ranch rescue Ranch Rescue has had some problems. You may want to stick with the Minutemen for now. Word. Backstop = hauled through the ringer by the courts, and not fucking happy about it.

Can you at least give us a hint?

Quoted: Can you at least give us a hint?

I was subpoenaed by The Southern Poverty Law Center, and answered questions from Morris Dees for almost 3 hours.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: One day Im gonna run with them or maybe ranch rescue Ranch Rescue has had some problems. You may want to stick with the Minutemen for now. Word. Backstop = hauled through the ringer by the courts, and not fucking happy about it.

Sorry to hear they ran you through the ringer Backstop, maybe I'll work w/ the minutemen instead

Quoted: They are NOT Vigilantes!!!!!!!!---------- They are Undocumented Border Patrol Agents

You sir, are one clever cookie.

This is exactly what I have said since the beginning about this PC bullshit, use their own language against them.
Eventually, their words will have no meaning and they will have to invent new words and catch phrases.
then the process repeats, until it ends

Wait a second ...


If I join the Minutemen, I can become a militia member AND a vigilante at the SAME TIME??!!??!!

Where in the hell do I fucking sign up? THIS IS TOO COOL!


Actually , those guys are HEROS and true Patriots in my book.

CAN THEY SHAME THE FUCKING PREZ. INTO SOME ACTION??

At least, they ARE building a 130 mile long WALL down on the border. A token deal but it's a start.

You can join Homeland Security with this shirt!

Quoted: Quoted: Can you at least give us a hint? I was subpoenaed by The Southern Poverty Law Center, and answered questions from Morris Dees for almost 3 hours.

He seems to have an "activist" history, he has whipped some klans a$$es but, the
rest of his "accomplishments" are not quite as laudable, he doesn't like "us" either

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_Dees
"Some note that Dees has unfairly lumped a number of other movements
in with white supremacy, including Second Amendment or gun rights activists"

"Dees was cited in 1979 by his ex-wife with with numerous affairs
with women, including his daughter-in-law and underage stepdaughter."

Here is a history of his accomplishments, it is not too complimentary
especially the part about not working with blacks and defending the klan
www.patriotist.com/dees.htm here are a couple of paragraphs

Dees served in 1958 as state campaign manager for segregationist attorney general candidate McDonald Gallion and also worked for George C. Wallace. Fuller stated: "We wanted to be sure of having friends in high places."

In 1961 when Freedom Riders were beaten by a white mob at a Montgomery bus station, Dees [and Fuller] expressed openly his sympathies and support for what had happened at the bus station.

When one of the men charged with beating the Freedom Riders came to their office for legal representation, Dees and Fuller took the case. The legal fee was paid by the Ku Klux Klan and the White Citizen's Council. [Fuller, Millard. Love in the Mortar Joints. New Century Press: 1980 and The Progressive, July 1988]

Dees founded the Southern Poverty Law Center in 1971 with Joseph Levin [who left the SPLC in 1976] and Julian Bond [resigned late 1970's.] [Articles of Incorporation. Southern Poverty Law Center, Inc.]

Acted as Chief fundraiser for George McGovern's 1972 presidential campaign in return for the campaign's mailing list. Raised $20 million for McGovern. [Burlington Times, July 30, 1975. The Progressive, July 1988.]

Arrested and removed from court in 1975 for attempting to suborn perjury [bribing a witness] in the Joan Little murder trial in North Carolina. Little, a black convict, was accused of killing a prison guard with an ice-pick . The felony charge against Dees was subsequently dropped, but the presiding judge, Hamilton Hobgood, refused to re-admit Dees to the case. The refusal was upheld on appeal after the Supreme Court of the United States refused to hear Dees appeal. [Ibid.]

Trust me, 22.

My attorney filled me in quite well regarding the past activities of Dees.

I have been advised by my attorney to refrain from making gross disparaging statements in regards to Morris Dees and the SPLC.  They do have some cute attorneys, though.

He really tried to butter me up though.  Even sent me a personalized autographed book - his life story.

Fortunately for me, I saw the writing on the wall long before anyone else did, and left RR.  I got lucky.

Quoted: Trust me, 22. My attorney filled me in quite well regarding the past activities of Dees. I have been advised by my attorney to refrain from making gross disparaging statements in regards to Morris Dees and the SPLC.  They do have some cute attorneys, though.

I figured you couldn't\shouldn't make any statements, thats why I went ahead and posted it

I guess if the federal government did there job the minutemen wouldnt have to do it for them.

The last sentence is about the government saying that only trained professionals should be
"on the job"........what a bunch of bs, if they WERE "on the job" the Minutemen would be at home

I really don't understand how politics or political correctness has ANYTHING to do with our
NATIONAL SECURITY, some of our elected\appointed officials need to spend some time in jail
but, considering the sweetheart deal that sandy pants berger got for stealing\destroying
TOP SECRET documents, the flocktards in charge are not at all interested in national security

Minutemen Begin Patrols in El Paso Area
10.02.05
www.kvia.com/Global/story.asp?S=3925010&nav=AbC0
EL PASO COUNTY, TX -- The Minutemen Project has officially set up patrols along the El Paso-area border.

As of Saturday, a group of civilians are looking for immigrants who may be crossing illegally.

The border connecting Fabens and Fort Hancock is under surveillance by an unknown number of Minutemen, project volunteers confirmed. Some 100 people are expected to be on duty.

"I've lived in El Paso for 18 years and I've always admired the law enforcement. I've seen them in action,” one local volunteer said. “I just want to make sure everybody abides by the law."

The volunteers' presence has caused a chain reaction. While the Minutemen are watching illegal immigrants, members of the American Civil Liberties Union are watching the Minutemen to make sure civil rights are not violated during the stakeouts.

“It’s not just illegal immigrants we should be concerned about,” said Ed Oar, a farm owner who has allowed the Minutemen to start patrols on his property.

“We've had actual terrorists caught here,” Oar said. “A lot of dope dealers have been apprehended. There have been drug busts in broad daylight.”

“We need some help and the Border Patrol just can't catch everyone," he said.

The Border Patrol is also keeping an eye on the Minutemen. The government agency has said only trained professionals should be on the job.

Looks like a method to get rid of the Minutemen instead of trying to fix the open border.......

"Border Militia" Proposed
10/4/2005
Jim Forsyth
www.woai.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=9B18460A-C2E9-40AD-9F0F-D304A1E7D3ED
Several border area Congressmen said Tuesday they're preparing to introduce a measure calling for a federally funded, sworn border militia to patrol the country's borders and assist the U.S. Border Patrol, the Office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and other federal border security agencies, 1200 WOAI news reported today.

U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) says the proposal calls for the federal government to spend $100 million over several years to hire, train, and equip 'reserve deputies,' who would patrol the border under the authority of border county sheriffs.

Cuellar said the measure is in response to the activities of the Minutemen and other civilian groups which have recently encamped in border areas of Texas and Arizona, and claimed to be helping report illegal immigrant activity.

"These people would be trained, they would be sworn, they would be inside the law enforcement chain of command, and this would be a lot different than the Minutemen, who are out there on their own, and we don't know who they are or what their motives are," Cuellar said.

Other members of Congress who Cuellar says have signed on as co sponsors include Republicans John Culbertson and Henry Bonilla, both of Texas. he said he expects to obtain additional co-sponsors before the measure is introduced, which he expects to occur before the end of October.

Cuellar says the members of the militia would be 'reserve deputies.' He says they could be retired law enforcement officers, or part time officers who work on an as needed basis at the command of local officials.

"Those sheriffs would work arm in arm with the Border Patrol to provide security along the border."

Cuellar says how the reserve officers would be deployed, what their duties would be, and whether they would be armed would be up to the local officials and would be handled according to the laws in place in each jurisdiction.

He says the militia would have a decided advantage over the Minutemen, whom Cuellar said he 'doesn't want' in Texas. Cuellar said most of the Minutemen are untrained volunteers from out of the area, and the reserve deputies would have to be residents of the county where they would be deputized.

"They know the trails," he said. "They know the area because they have been doing this kind of work for a long time."

Cuellar unveiled his proposal at a time when several hundred Minutemen volunteers are engaged in a border watch operation in Brooks County, in rural south Texas.

Well hot damn!!

He says the militia would have a decided advantage over the Minutemen, whom Cuellar said he 'doesn't want' in Texas. Cuellar said most of the Minutemen are untrained volunteers from out of the area, and the reserve deputies would have to be residents of the county where they would be deputized.

I thought the Minutemen's ability to stay out of trouble was directly related
to the fact that they had MANY retired LEOs, Military and Attorneys on board