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 Editorials | At Issue | August 2006 
Feuding Minutemen Only United on Border Woes
 Tim Gaynor - Reuters
| | Members of the border watchers group the 'Minutemen Project' and New Yorkers demonstrate at a news conference near the Ground Zero site of the World Trade Center in New York, July 26, 2006. (Reuters/Mike Segar) |
More than a year after their first stakeouts on the U.S.-Mexico border, Minuteman civilian patrol volunteers are divided and questions are being raised about whether their movement's influence is on the wane.
The Minutemen leaped into the media spotlight in April 2005 when its force of housewives, office workers and veterans camped out in lawn chairs in southern Arizona to spot illegal immigrants crossing from Mexico.
Sixteen months later, the founders of the movement have split acrimoniously, and questions swirl over how a breakaway group spent a reported $1.6 million in donations.
Dubbed vigilantes by President Bush and migrant hunters by Mexico, the activists seek to highlight what they say is the federal government's failure to provide security along the 2,000-mile (3,200-km) border and end illegal immigration.
The founder of the original Minuteman Project, Jim Gilchrist, 57, a retired accountant from California, is no longer speaking to his former ally Chris Simcox, with whom he planned the first patrols in Arizona.
Meanwhile, Simcox, an ex-teacher and newspaper publisher who leads the separate, Arizona-based Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, faces calls from some former members for a full audit of all donations made to his group.
They complained last month that the corps, a private corporation, had not published financial statements setting out how donations intended to buy equipment were spent, although Simcox vigorously denied any impropriety.
"These are just disgruntled individuals who are no longer with our organization who for some personal reason would like to tarnish our image," Simcox, 45, told Reuters in a telephone interview.
"We have hired accountants and auditors ... to handle all the money, and we're in fine shape," he said.
Simcox added that all questions about the use of donations would be settled in November, when the group posts its tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service.
IS MESSAGE WEARING THIN?
The movement has never counted more than a few thousand volunteers, but analysts say it has proved influential in setting a national agenda on border security and immigration enforcement.
Since the patrols began, Bush has sent 6,200 National Guard troops to help secure the border, and Congress has approved funds to recruit thousands more Border Patrol agents.
But in recent weeks, media attention has focused more on the group's woes than on the pro-enforcement message it seeks to push.
In July the Washington Times questioned their financial accounts. Then last week the Arizona Republic newspaper weighed in, publishing details of their feud and declaring that the "honeymoon is over for the Minutemen."
While the two leaders are pushing on with separate activities - Simcox is building a border wall on private ranchland in Arizona, and Gilchrist plans a stakeout near Laredo, Texas, starting next month - critics warn that their trusted formula for grabbing headlines may be wearing thin.
"They have been very good at maintaining the media's attention, but I think things are starting to turn for them," said Ray Borane, the mayor of Douglas, Arizona, near where they held their first patrols. "They are running out of tricks in their bag." |
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