Minuteman woes

[question everything]

UNION-TRIBUNE EDITORIAL
Minuteman woes

Groups' focus all along has been misdirected

March 19, 2007

The Minuteman Project, that notorious band of border vigilantes, allows ordinary Americans to play Border Patrol agent. But maybe, all this time, these folks should have been playing accountant. If that had been the case, the anti-illegal immigrant organization might not have ended up where it has: locked in an ugly legal battle over accusations of financial wrongdoing and splintered into rival factions that don't get along.

The splintering occurred early. There are Minuteman-type groups all over the country, and most of them don't seem to be affiliated. Three of the top leaders of the border-watcher movement – Jim Chase of Oceanside, Jim Gilchrist of Aliso Viejo and Chris Simcox of Tombstone, Ariz. – have been at odds for some time over conflicting agendas and competing egos.

But these allegations of financial improprieties are relatively new and most disturbing. According to The Washington Post, at issue is $750,000 in private donations raised on behalf of the Minuteman Project by a now-defunct direct-mail firm in Herndon, Va., hired by Gilchrist. After the company deducted its cut, the project got only about $100,000. But, according to a former Minuteman Project employee-turned-whistleblower, that figure should have been closer to $400,000. The former employee accuses Gilchrist of improperly spending the remainder of the money to promote a book he co-wrote and fund his unsuccessful campaign for Congress in a 2005 special election. Gilchrist insists the money was spent on legitimate expenses related to the Minuteman Project. He has since been removed as president.

(snip)

We wish we could say that we're surprised, but we said from the start that border-watch groups like this were a bad idea. We just had no idea that some of them would be so badly run, and so much more effective at raising money than they are at managing it. The entire controversy demonstrates once more that those who oppose illegal immigration and want to stop it – a valiant goal, to be sure – should put their attention where it belongs: on Congress and the Bush administration. It's the job of these entities to find a solution to the problem of illegal immigration, even as others try to find a way to profit from it.


Find this article at:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20070319/news_mz1ed19top.html

[Kutjara]

1. Inevitable.

If you create an organization with hate as its guiding principle, and then recruit from the ignorant, the greedy, the disaffected and the feckless, it's very likely you'll end up with a situation like this.

Couldn't happen to a nicer group of people.