When Minutemen Project Puts Volunteers On Border, What Will Government Reaction Be?

Minutemen Project Begins Recruiting Volunteers To Man U.S. Border

July 11, 2014 by McClatchy-Tribune 

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(MCT) — The Minutemen Project says it’s recruiting volunteers to guard the U.S.-Mexico border from illegal immigration, claiming the government has failed to do so properly.

The activist organization is expecting at least 3,500 non-militia volunteers to participate, “plus uncounted groups of militia from all over the country,” according to the Minutemen Project website.

“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 to the border to invade anyone. We are going there to stop an invasion,” Jim Gilchrist, president of the organization, said in a statement on the site.

Gilchrist said it would take 10 months to get the volunteers ready to cover the “porous areas” of the border from San Diego to Brownsville, Texas.

The anti-illegal-immigration group has been in the news numerous times during the last decade because of accusations of vigilantism, criminal charges against some members and infighting.

President Barack Obama met in Texas on Wednesday with Governor Rick Perry and local and religious leaders to discuss options to deal with an overwhelming influx of immigrant children and teenagers.

The Los Angeles Times has reported that more than 39,000 adults have been caught crossing the Southwest border with children since October. An additional 52,000 unaccompanied children had been detained as of last week, and by year’s end officials expect that number to have increased to as many as 90,000.

Obama has called on Congress to quickly approve his request for $3.7 billion in emergency funding to deal with the crisis, but lawmakers have been initially cool to the proposal.

–Ryan Parker
Los Angeles Times