Free Republic

Minuteman founder Chris Simcox yesterday announced plans for a new nationwide "Secure Our Borders" campaign in April, saying 6,500 civilian volunteers will man observation posts and conduct patrols along 800 miles of U.S. border with Mexico and Canada. Mr. Simcox, president of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps (MCDC), said new efforts are being made to better respond to thousands of civilians who are expected to volunteer and a revised leadership structure has been established to meet what he called "the growing needs of continued Minuteman border security operations." Minuteman chapters have been established or are pending in 35 states, he...

SANTA ANA – Anti-illegal immigration advocate Jim Gilchrist filed a lawsuit today seeking to force Laguna Beach and organizers of the city's Patriots Day Parade to allow the Minuteman Project, which he co-founded, to participate in the March 4 event.Minuteman lawyer Richard Ackerman said the lawsuit is based on First Amendment issues and takes to task the parade committee's decision to ban the Minutemen as a controversial organization while allowing a peace group that opposes the war in Iraq to march in the parade. Charles Quilter II, a parade committee member, said earlier this week that the privately run nonprofit's...

As the insults flew and the protest reached a boil, Joseph Turner couldn't help but smile. The 29-year-old head of the upstart Save Our State organization had come to Baldwin Park to pick a fight over illegal immigration. He had led a band of like-minded souls into the heart of the city to protest public art they deemed "seditious and anti-American." Part of a monument at the Metrolink station is inscribed "It was better before they came," interpreted by some as a barb at whites who displaced California's Mexican residents in the 19th century. They got all of the fight...