After incident, man asked to leave Minuteman Project

TOMBSTONE - A Minuteman Project volunteer who was investigated for potentially detaining an illegal immigrant by force has been asked to leave the volunteer group.

Bryan Barton, who reportedly is a possible Republican candidate for one of the California congressional seats, reportedly came upon an illegal immigrant and forced the man to hold a T-shirt that read: "Bryan Barton caught an illegal and all I got was this lousy T-shirt."

An investigation by Cochise County Sheriff's Department and the Mexican Consul in Douglas determined the illegal immigrant was not forcefully detained earlier this week.

However, there was an outcry over Barton's actions which led the leadership of the volunteer group to ask the Californian to leave the monthlong project, a program seeking to stop the flow of illegal activities from crossing the U.S.-Mexico border into Arizona.

"We asked him to leave and he is," said Bill Bennett, who works for one of the group's co-organizers, Chris Simcox.

The problem started slightly after noon on Wednesday when Barton came upon the illegal immigrant, who then videotaped the incident, including the unidentified Mexican national holding up the T-shirt.

Sheriff investigators and the Mexican Consul agreed the 26-year-old illegal immigrant was not held against his will.

The illegal immigrant was taken to the Border Patrol's Naco Station after agents took custody of him. The Border Patrol informed the sheriff, consul, FBI and U.S. Attorney of the situation, leaving the investigation to the sheriff's department and the consul.

Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever said Barton acted foolishly, much like a clown.

Barton was seeking publicity for his campaign, which was something the sheriff's department was not going to engage in, Dever said.

On Saturday, Barton was at a Border Patrol support rally outside the Naco Station.

Using a bullhorn he tried to get some of the 150 volunteers to follow him up and down the road while shouting chants. A few joined a couple of his attempts.

More than once he called the volunteers "boys and girls," many probably old enough to be his parents.

"Come on boys and girls, let's march," he said once, causing at least one of the older volunteers to express his displeasure at Barton by using a series of expletives.

SENIOR REPORTER Bill Hess can be reached at 515-4615 or by e-mail at bill.hess@svherald.com.

This is the email that I wrote to Minuteman Project organizers which may have had something to do with Barton's removal:

Bryan Barton claims to be running for Congress. A careful look at his congressional campaign website (www.votebarton.com) gives you the impression that his run for Congress is a joke. The alleged campaign commercial on the site makes it pretty obvious.

Given that he was the editor of the vile filth called The Koala - an obscene student magazine published at University of California San Diego (see www.thekoala.org - look at some of the back issues. The "race issue" is Barton's finest work) one can easily surmise that he's spoofing conservatives and border security advocates with his campaign and his involvement with the Minuteman Project.

A quick check of the Federal Election Commission databases at www.fec.gov does not show a Bryan Barton registered as a congressional candidate. A quick check of the California Secretary of State databases (http://cal-access.ss.ca.gov/Campaign/Candidates/) doesn't show him registered as any sort of candidate in that state either. Yet, he's accapting donations on his website as if he's running for office. That's likely a violation of state and federal campaign laws. Something none of us wants to be associated with.

He claims to be running in District 53. The address he used when he registered his votebarton.com domain is 3423 Cowley Way in San Diego is not even in District 53.

The premeditated actions he took in giving the border intruder the prepared T-shirt makes it obvious that Barton has another agenda than what the Minuteman Project is trying to accomplish. This stunt was planned ahead of time. His agenda is the sale of a "reality show" called Vote Barton. He explains this on his "campaign" website - that he is actually filming a reality show about his campaign and activities surrounding it. That explains why he had his own camera crew in Tombstone on Friday, in Naco and Douglas on Saturday, and apparently on the trail with him when he pulled his idiotic stunt. It also explains the odd signs he pulled out halfway through the Naco rally. The signs were simply huge blow-ups of Barton's face with his website's URL on the bottom. Nothing about the border, just self-promotion. He leaned these up against the barricades set up in front of the Border Patrol Station. Just where the news cameras could not easily miss them.

My impression of him the first time I saw him in Tombstone on Friday has only been reinforced by this stunt. In addition, Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever said that he acted like an absolute clown while he was being interviewed by law enforcement. This is NOT the kind of behavior exhibited by someone who is truly serious about this effort. I'll bet he had his camera crew filming the entire incident. He's already been interviewed by a California radio talk show and promises to release the self-promoting video on his website later.

But, besides all of this, Barton clearly violated the Minuteman Project S.O.P. He encountered illegal aliens and instead of following the S.O.P. he put himself, his team, and the entire effort at risk. Excusing this egregious violation will only serve to tempt others to cross the line and similary endanger themselves, their team, and the entire Project. We certainly do not need that.

Barton should be sent home despite his apparent popularity. He's a con man - a sham - he's suckered many people apparently. But the bottom line is that he has demonstrated that he is a liability to the Minuteman Project and should be sent away.

OK, so the guy isn't helping, but I really appreciate his sense of humor....

Hey, if he'd done this any other time I would be laughing my butt off. But in this case he pulled his stunt at the expense of a very important event. The Minuteman Project really has to walk a fine line to further their effort without doing anything that would damage it. It is a delicate situation between the Project's organizers, the individual volunteers, the media, the ACLU, public opinion, the illegal aliens, the violent gangs, the violent drug traffickers, the local law enforcement, the government of the state of Arizona, the local property owners and residents, the infiltrators, Grupo Beta, the Mexican Army, the Border Patrol, and the Federal Government. There is not room for the kind of crap that Barton pulled. Hilarious, but dangerous. He needed to go to serve as an example to anyone else who might step out of line. This is not a joke - he can joke on his own time somewhere else - but not here, not now.

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