Free Republic

(Posted to FreeRepublic.com with the consent of Jim Gilchrist) A Special Announcement from Jim Gilchrist, President of the Minuteman Project The Minuteman Project’s “Operation Normandy” has been launched as of 1200 hours today (Monday, July 7). This event will dwarf the original Minuteman Project of 2005. I expect at least 3,500 non-militia volunteers to participate, plus uncounted groups of militias from all over the country. If you are familiar with the Normandy invasion of France in 1944, then you have an idea how large and logistically complicated this event will be. However, there is one difference. We are not going...

The Minuteman Project -- the controversial civilian patrol that came to prominence a decade ago -- is riding out of retirement in a bid to help tackle the illegal immigration crisis at the Mexico border. The group, which patrolled parts of the 2,000-mile border from 2005-2010, acting as unarmed and unsanctioned eyes and ears of the Border Patrol, is trying to recruit a force of thousands to help keep illegal immigrants from making their way into the United States from Mexico. Minutemen founder and president Jim Gilchrist said preparation for "Operation Normandy" will take place over the next 10 months...

The Minuteman Project, which had civilians guard the border, has all but disappeared. But it stoked a movement that continues to influence the immigration reform debate. In just a few years, perhaps the most visible civilian attempt to stop illegal immigration has all but disappeared amid the changing dynamics of the debate. A little less than a decade ago, the Minuteman Project and the copycats it spawned arrived at the Arizona border with binoculars and American flags, vowing to defend the country from what they described as an invasion. At their height, the Minutemen were the face of a conservative...

"I had to come 1,200 miles to find a governor who believes in a simple principle called the rule of law," Gilchrist said at the Crescent Hotel. "I'm here to encourage all you Texans to stand your ground and get out there and vote for this governor." Gilchrist later added that "Perry has a clear record of decisive action to secure our borders, stop illegal drug and human trafficking trade and is very clearly the right choice for voters in Texas to fight illegal immigration." In accepting the endorsement, Perry blasted the federal government's effort to secure that nation's borders....

In an example of the most extreme left-wing tactics, a website that supports illegal immigration has publicized the home address of the Director of the Illinois Minuteman Project, Rosanna Pulido. Apparently this website intends to try and harass Pulido at her home, a tactic that we recently saw from thug union members protesting in front of the private residence of an east coast banker and terrorizing his son. The website called South Side Chicago Anti-Racist Action is ostensibly an offshoot of a national group called Anti-Racist Action (ARA), a group originally dedicated in the 1980s to fighting neo-Nazis and white...

In an expected victory this week the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) granted the Minuteman Project, Inc. a 501 (C) (4) non-profit tax exempt designation, that organization’s president, Jim Gilchrist, announced today. After a three-year review of the organization Gilchrist founded in 2004 the IRS concluded that there were no improprieties or irregularities that would prevent Gilchrist or his Minuteman Project organization from receiving the approval. The approval concluded a long application process and came as what Minuteman legal counsel at Gordon & Rees law firm states “a great victory for Jim Gilchrist and the Minuteman Project, Inc. The non-profit status...

Anti-illegal immigration group struggling as chapters disband, donations slow "We've lost the battle," said Minuteman project founder Jim Gilchrist. "My intuition tells me … this entire movement will fizzle to nothing by the end of the year." Gilchrist, a former California accountant, founded the project in October 2004. In two years, the grass-roots border-control group had grown to boast more than 200 chapters across the country. Today, Gilchrist says, a host of internal problems are bringing the movement to its knees. More than 20 chapters, including the Skokie-based Illinois Minuteman project, have disbanded, leaving fewer than 180 in operation. Dozens...

The surprise decision this week by Minuteman Project founder Jim Gilchrist to endorse the candidacy of Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee has a drawn sharp reaction from within the Minuteman movement, which split two years ago over funding. Chris Simcox, founder and president of the Minuteman Civil Defense League called Gilchrist's endorsement of Huckabee "unwise." "Jim Gilchrist speaks only for himself – not for my organization and not for the Minuteman movement," Simcox told WND. Gilchrist's The Minuteman Project and Simcox's Minuteman Civil Defense League are completely separate organizations of citizen volunteers seeking to curb illegal immigration. "What raised everybody's...

No National Minuteman Group has endorsed Mike Huckabee. One individual Minuteman has personally endorsed him. For the sake of clarity, it is important to note that the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps (MCDC), the nation's largest Minuteman organization, is a 501(C)4 non-profit organization and cannot and does not endorse any candidate for public office. MCDC is not associated with Mr. Jim Gilchrist, who today endorsed Mike Huckabee for president. Jim Gilchrist’s erstwhile Minuteman Project is itself an organization which by its own representations as a non-profit civic group cannot legally endorse candidates. It does not have any volunteers who observe illegal...

Noting that he might not agree 100 percent on immigration with Huckabee, the firebrand illegal immigration opponent said Huckabee's recently released immigration plan won him over. "The governor has a plan and I appreciate his plan. That's why I'm supporting him. He's one of the few who's actually brought forth a plan and gone public with it. It shows to me that he's willing to engage in the tough love necessary to fix this problem," Gilchrist said. Gilchrist, whose organization is separate from the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, has drawn protests in appearances at college campuses in recent months for...

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa -- Mike Huckabee, under fire for some of his immigration stands while governor of Arkansas, picked up an endorsement in Council Bluffs, Iowa, from the ultimate illegal immigration opponent: Jim Gilchrist, founder of the Minuteman Project, the group that has roamed the border for the last several years operating effectively as an independent border patrol. President Bush called the group "vigilantes" two years ago. But Huckabee seemed eager to announce the endorsement, as it came on a day when former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney started running an ad that slams Huckabee for backing a provision that would...

Update: Here’s the official Huckabee campaign post on the endorsement. A commenter there also notes: Another positive sign is the fact that Roy Beck of NumbersUSA has changed several of his ratings for Governor Huckabee from “red” to “green” in response to his new immigration plan. This is a big turnaround from just a few days before, when Beck characterized the Governor as a “disaster” in the area of immigration. Here’s the new Numbers USA grid: We are entering Alice in Wonderland territory. *** Yeah, you read it right–the founder of the border control group, the Minuteman Project, is endorsing...

While ABCÂ’s Chris Cuomo played softball with Columbia University president Lee Bollinger on the upcoming speech of Iranian president Ahmadinejad, CNNÂ’s John Roberts directed tough questions to John Coatsworth, dean for ColumbiaÂ’s School of International and Public Affairs. Roberts opened the interview with a question which summarized AhmadinejadÂ’s record. "Here's a leader who's advocated the destruction of Israel, denied the Holocaust, and is accused by our government, the United States government, of supplying both fighters and equipment to insurgents in Iraq, to kill U.S. troops. Why would you ever want him on your campus?" Coatsworth appeared during the 7 am...

Columbia University students have scrapped plans to hear from the founder of the Minuteman Project - a year after their classmates violently interrupted a speech by the anti-illegal-immigration activist. The nonpartisan Columbia Political Union voted late Monday night to cancel a planned Oct. 4 appearance by Jim Gilchrist, who is based in California. The student group said in a statement that

The controversial Illinois Minuteman Project canceled its weekend seminar on illegal immigration in Crystal Lake after a McHenry County judge Thursday issued a restraining order barring the group from holding the event at a local hotel as planned. At the urging of the Crystal Lake Holiday Inn's owners, Judge Maureen McIntyre ordered the Minuteman Project not to appear at the hotel and to notify its guest speakers and about 100 ticket holders that the seminar would not take place there. The ruling left the Minuteman Project no option but to call off the event, Director Rosanna Pulido said. "There's a...

An event by the Illinois Minuteman Project scheduled for Saturday has been canceled after the Crystal Lake Police Department demanded a $3,500 payment for security costs from the hotel where the event was to be held. Regardless of how one feels about the Minutemen, the request by the police department is inappropriate. The Minutemen were planning to hold a private event on private property at the Holiday Inn in Crystal Lake. The supposed security need was for protesters – the McHenry County Peace Group – who were going to be on public property near the event. On Thursday, a McHenry...

ANAHEIM – Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, the leading contender for the Republican presidential nomination, was in town Tuesday and Wednesday for a ballgame and a fundraiser. Before leaving, he spoke with the Register at the Hilton Anaheim about immigration, border safety and Iraq. Here are some excerpts. You've been here twice as many times as any other candidate this year. You've been to California nine times… And eight of them have included Orange County. This is probably the most frequently visited place. This is a very important county for a Republican primary and (for) a general election....

A seminar expected to draw dozens of illegal immigration foes and perhaps hundreds of protesters to Crystal Lake on Saturday is in jeopardy after the hotel hosting the event told its sponsor it is no longer welcome. The decision by the Crystal Lake Holiday Inn has left the Illinois Minuteman Project scrambling to find an alternate location to host Allen County, Ohio, Sheriff Dan Beck, whose efforts to deport people in the country unlawfully has earned him national attention. “I’m disturbed by the whole thing,” Minuteman Director Rosanna Pulido said this morning. “We’re not bringing in a lunatic. We’re bringing...

MISSION VIEJO - John Paul Ledesma was pumped. His adrenaline flowing, he was ready for his day center stage amid the national immigration debate. A few days before, he had addressed the Minuteman Project's local support chapter, the California Coalition for Immigration Reform, had been written up in several newspapers and was a guest on the John and Ken Show on KFI/640 AM and Fox News. At 6 a.m. he hit the University Athletic Club in Newport Beach. He did bench curls with 15 to 35 pounds. The 5-foot-9-inch, 180-pound Mission Viejo council member needed strength and confidence. He was...

In a recent article, The Economist called blacks and Hispanics “natural allies.” Citing Barack Obama’s “brothers in the fight for equality” reference to the two groups, the writer conceded that with blacks and Hispanics, there’s no such thing. I frequently blog about what I perceive as a growing battle between blacks and Hispanics for “preferred minority” status. A preferred minority group is one that ostensibly is under-represented in certain professions and universities. This status goes beyond mere numbers and focuses on “oppression.” For example, while Asians are a minority group in America, they’re not considered oppressed in the same sense,...