Minutemen Leader Talks Like A Humanitarian at DNC
Colorlines, News feature, Julianne Ong Hing , Posted: Aug 30, 2008
I imagined the folks at Minutemen gathering crowd asking themselves, “What’s a young, minority lady doing here?” I joined them in Congress Park in Denver. It was billed as an all-day rally—their 8-hour agenda featured speakers like Tom Tancredo, Bob Barr and Alan Keyes, but it was more like a subdued suburban picnic with lots of coded hate speech tossed around in alternating lofty and heated tones. Chris Simcox, president of the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps, called the event a “third party convention for the conservatives—the real conservatives.” The folks in the audience were nearly all white and middle aged, a relaxed crowd leaning back in their USA lawn chairs as if they were watching Independence Day fireworks.
I was first introduced to the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps while I was in school, in Orange County, of course, which is the home base of Minutemen founder Jim Gilchrist.
With large numbers of immigrants in towns like nearby Santa Ana and Garden Grove, there was a passionate anti-immigrant sentiment that was impossible to avoid, but until today I’d never been to a Minutemen rally. They’ve fashioned themselves as a kind of right-wing citizen militia, recruiting volunteers in border states along the U.S./Mexico border, and even those further inland (there is a Colorado chapter), to police the border. When Minutemen guards spot immigrants daring to cross the border, they alert local law enforcement and consider it a “rescue.”
Minutemen president Chris Simcox was a cordial and accommodating interviewee, he offered me water and ushered me to a shady spot away from the main stage for our interview wherein he outlined an easy 4-step plan to deal with undocumented immigration: “Secure the borders, step number 1. Enforce the laws, step number 2. Hold employers accountable, step 3. And, we feel we need to end automatic birthright citizenship. It’s the second most powerful magnet that attracts people to commit the crime of entering the country illegally—knowing if they have a child here it becomes a citizen. It’s not automatically a citizen.”
He both disparaged and glorified immigrants, calling them a wonderful addition to the American fabric, as well as criminal terrorists.
I asked him to help me sort out the “liberal rhetoric” I’m surrounded by that says many immigrants are hardworking folks who pay taxes and contribute to the local economy. He gave a puzzling reply, sounding at once sympathetic to the suffering immigrants endure in the U.S., and wildly off the mark with the policy solutions needed to address those problems.
“Many people here dearly want to return home. They wish they had the same opportunities in their country. They don't want to live in the shadows,” Simcox said. He then added, “Why don’t they ask their president, their Congress to provide them with the same resources [they seek in the U.S.]? By sending them home, they are going to return home and create sweeping reform movements in their countries.”
Simcox sounded like he’d adapted the language of the humanitarian pleas of immigrant advocates, but with a twisted logic.
I could see the attraction of this backwards, political thinking for the racist xenophobes who still wanted to believe in the “good immigrant” narrative and larger American myths. But while equating foreign nationals with “gangers” who “rape, murder and rob,” who also raise “pot plantations in our national parks, and they sweep it, and it's ALL foreign nationals,” Simcox revealed his wildly racist, deeply held fears. He couldn’t hide it behind his occasionally generous depictions of immigrants in the U.S.
Julianne Ong Hing is an editorial assistant at ColorLines.
Related Articles:
The Other Denver: Hispanics Haunted by Specter of Deportation
Focusing on Immigration at the DNC
Immigration Not a Popular Topic at Democratic Convention
Immigration: Too Hot for DNC?
Latino Janitors Make the Convention Hall Shine
Page
1 of 1
|
User Comments
Hang Ten Lopez on Sep 03, 2008 at 23:28:26 said:
Faux Journalist Acts Unbiased At DNC…until she can no longer contain her agenda.
No one asked themselves “what’s a young minority lady doing here” because Minutemen don’t care about race.” Juliann, come to the border where you will see these multi-ethnic (albeit according to you “racist xenophobic”) Minutemen.
My father immigrated from Mexico LEGALLY. My wife is a foreign national and a Muslim, and I am I Minuteman, hardly the makings of a racist or a xenophobe.
If you want to ignore the truth and keep Americans ignorant with propaganda for whatever reason be my guest. If you want to educate yourself and Americans, come to the border.
I could see the attraction of this backwards, propagandist writing for the purpose of throwing red meat to your readers.
Ultimately though, Juliann Ong Hing revealed her wildly bigoted, deeply held fears. She couldn’t hide it behind her occasionally generous depictions of Simcox.
Dave Andres on Sep 03, 2008 at 09:57:49 said:
If Ms. Hing wants to hear some racist hate speach, she should come to Chicago to hear Luis Gutierrez speak.
carolyn campbell on Aug 31, 2008 at 20:32:18 said:
american's have lost there job's and business and being pay less for the work they do. because of illegal immigrants and bush and his rich friends they make them richer while the poor get poorer and the soom there will be no american middle class this country was built by hard working people[american's]and they was not giving half of what they giveillegal immigrants our children and there will suffer the most.
Carmen Mercer on Aug 30, 2008 at 21:04:26 said:
Julianne, maybe you should have the courage to come to the border with us, to see how we interact and act when we rescue. We do not call spotting and reporting illegal alienas to BP a "rescue". A rescue to us is literally rescueing people from dying in the desert.
We have a well trained Search and Rescue team and with the help of same, we have been rescuing more than 350 people who otherwise would have parished.
We do not tolerate racists and if you would join us, you would learn a great lesson in your life.
But, if you also follow the news, you will begin to realize, that finally Mexican people have had enough and are standing up against their own government.
Maybe, while being here, we have taught them enough to take back to their own country and to demand the right to life in dignity.
thetruthwillsetyoufree on Aug 30, 2008 at 13:52:41 said:
The minutemen, at least that's what their wives call them.
Jim Gilchrist, President, The Minuteman Project on Aug 30, 2008 at 12:45:48 said:
Julianne Ong Hing's article at first appeared to be a reasonably well written account of the MCDC event in Congress Park, until the so-called journalist revealed her wildly, deeply racist and fascist fears with her two-sentence conclusion deliberately attacking Simcox and distorting his views. Hing couldn't hide her bigotry behind what otherwise appeared to be a reasonable attempt at fair, balanced, and objective journalism.
Her conclusion:
"Simcox revealed his wildly racist, deeply held fears. He couldn’t hide it behind his occasionally generous depictions of immigrants in the U.S."
My conclusion:
Julianne Ong Hing should choose an alternative career, perhaps writing hate propaganda for the War Dept., a place where her deficient and limited talents might be of some productive use.
Professional canons of news reporting require the reporter to keep his or her blatant personal opinions out of the news story.
Hing falls right in line with similar "dirty" journalists like Frank Mickadeit of the Orange County, Ca. Register, or Ruben Navarrette, Jr. of the San Diego Union Tribune. They are not the only "dirty" journalists in the news business, but, they are two of the "dirtiest" ones.
Someday, Ms. Hing will thank me for helping make her a professional journalist, not a bigoted, second-rate one with no credibility.
Jim Gilchrist, President, The Minuteman Project, Inc.
Cliff Brooks on Aug 30, 2008 at 11:10:44 said:
Money is literally stolen from our paychecks by the government to pay for health care, education, food, and housing for illegal immigrants. That's why people come here illegally and stay. And YOU AND I are forced to pay for this. The more people who are here illegally, the more WE pay, including legal taxpaying law abiding immigrants. That has nothing to do with racism.
Dana Garcia on Aug 30, 2008 at 10:24:56 said:
The Minutemen, like the majority of Americans of all political persuasions, want immigration to be legal and returned to the rule of law. How is that racist?
UnionLabel on Aug 30, 2008 at 10:15:28 said:
I support the Minutemen and believe its high time that we enforce immigration laws. Illegal aliens need to go home!
-->