Despite declarations that the Minuteman Project would not associate with people and organizations tied to white supremacist activities, there has been evidence that the opposite is the case. Now comes word that Minuteman co-founder James Gilchrist has joined the California Coalition for Immigration Reform (CCIR), one of the more racist anti-immigration outfits active today.

CCIR and founder president Barbara Coe has made it public that Gilchrist has recently joined her organization, and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) makes mention of this in an article to appear in the next issue of the publication the Intelligence Report. The CCIR has been very active in the Minuteman Project, which has also seen members of the National Alliance and the Council of Conservative Citizens participating in the vigilante operation. Gilchrist himself has not spoken on his membership.

The CCIR is one of four anti-immigration groups listed by the SPLC as a hate group, and they get their claim to fame as co-authors of Prop. 187, which would have denied social and medical benefits to illegal immigrants and their children. It was voted into existence in 1994, but after a legal battle that went on for years, which included a court putting it in mediation Gov. Gray Davis killed it when he decided not to appeal rulings against it. CCIR founder Barbara Coe later worked to recall whom she called "Gov. Gray 'Red' Davis.” In 1995, Coe and Stan Hess also of CCIR, attended a conference of the Council of Conservative Citizens, writes and speaks for them regularly. Coe’s disdain for Hispanics was evident in a speech she gave at a rally where she said that every immigrant caught at the border would be "one less illegal alien bringing in communicable diseases, one less illegal alien smuggling deadly drugs, one less illegal alien gang member to rob, rape and murder innocent U.S. citizens." To Coe, it will also be one less illegal immigrant that would be a part of a white supremacist conspiracy theory called a reconquista which is supposed to be some vast Mexican conspiracy to take over the Southwest in an effort to reclaim lands that were stolen from Mexico. The CCIR works closely with fellow anti-Mexican activist and ardent white supremacist Glenn Spencer of Voices of Citizens Together, who also buys into the reconquista theory. Among CCIR’s membership is Hal Netkin, who in May was arrested during an anti-immigration protest in Garden Grove, CA, when he drove his van into a group of counter-protesters, injuring several of them.

CCIR members routinely try to deflect the charge that they are a racist group, and once Barbara Coe trotted out black conservative opportunist Jesse Lee Peterson during a CCIR meeting in 2003, although that doesn’t help much. The dim-witted Peterson, who often remarks that Black people are wicked, said at the time, "There are illegals coming into this country, and they're bringing crime and drugs, all kinds of stuff. So there is a savage personality to what they're doing."

Gilchrist has also insisted in the past that he is not a racist. On April 5, he appeared on Hannity and Colmes, and did just that. "Some people have said I'm racist, and that's just not true,” he said, “My son-in-law is a full-on Mexican, and my grandson is half-Mexican." He also acknowledged that neo-Nazis are trying to wage war on the border, even if that is not what the Minuteman Project is about. “I've been to that Stormfront website. I have put a warning on our website -- you are not welcome here if you're a member of any supremacist group, whether it be of any color, race or creed.”

Despite what Gilchrist has said, him joining the CCIR is the latest and most damning connection to a hate group for the Minuteman Project. On June 25, John Clark of both the CCIR and the American Immigration Control Foundation (another group listed as a hate group by the SPLC and run by Council of Conservative Citizens member John Vinson) was the keynote speaker at a Bridgewater, NJ recruitment meeting for the Minuteman-allied United Patriots of America.

To date, it is not known if Minuteman co-founder Chris Simcox has also joined the CCIR.