BURBANK, January 14, 2006--On Tuesday, the minutemen promised the Los Angeles Times that they'd be at the new Burbank Home Depot today to protest the day labor center there. On Thursday, the leader of Save Our State, a minuteman spinoff group, reasserted that promise and again told the Times that there would "probably" be members of his organization at the site today. The minutemen didn't show up.

But Mexica Movement was there, to defend the laborers from the near-weekly assaults by minutemen across the Los Angeles basin. The minutemen, reluctant to patrol the border through the winter months, have taken to harassing day laborers in more temperate areas of the state for the season. Apparently, this morning's wet and chilly weather kept the minutemen at home.

Last month, Save Our State cancelled an announced protest against laborers in San Bernardino, citing the possibility of rain, which hadn't been predicted and didn't materialize.