CALEXICO, SEPTEMBER 17, 2005--Early afternoon reports from anti-minutemen leadership indicate Andy Ramirez and his Friends of the Border Patrol have\r\nabandoned Imperial Valley. <\/p>\r\n
According to San Diego\r\nIndymedia, this morning protestors entered an FBP training session and disrupted the meeting. Several were handcuffed and detained, and one protestor\r\nof color was charged with a misdemeanor. Later reports indicate that FBP\r\nhas determined that Imperial Valley residents and visiting protestors had made\r\nCalexico unwelcome for the minutemen and that they were withdrawing, perhaps to\r\ntheir other camps in Campo and Smuggler's Gulch.<\/p>\r\n
Gente Unida, a San Diego group leading the fight against the vigilantes, held\r\na press conference at Smuggler's Gulch this morning. The Buenas Noches\r\nBrigade, which successfully disrupted minuteman activities in Campo in July, has\r\nallied with the Buenas\r\nNoches Army in a call for autonomous direct action against minutemen along\r\nthe border.<\/p>\r\n
This afternoon, Ramirez appeared at a press conference in Calexico with ten\r\nsupporters, although he claimed a membership of 125 migrant hunters including\r\narmed law enforcement agents. Ramirez headed the 1994 Save Our State\r\ncampaign supporting Proposition 187. Friends of the Border Patrol is\r\nchaired by Ron Prince, co-author of Prop 187.<\/p>\r\n
Last week, according to the San\r\nDiego Tribune, the Calexico City Council had unanimously voted that the\r\nminutemen were not welcome in their city. Today they were joined in a\r\nrally and march by buses, passenger vans, and caravans from as far away as San\r\nFrancisco, with the announced intention of forcing FBP to withdraw from\r\nCalexico. The o.r.g.a.n.i.c.\r\nCollective, Anarchist Action San\r\nFrancisco, Bay Area Coalition to Fight the Minutemen, Blast Furnace Radio of\r\nPittsburgh, ABC Melbourne Australia, Anti-Racist Action LA, Gente Unida\r\nCoalition, La Tierra es de Todos Coalition, San Diego Renters Union, Peninsula\r\nAnarchist Collective, San Diego Indymedia, El Laboratorio de Integracion\r\nPlastica \"La Gargola\" of Mexico City, D.F. endorsed the protest.<\/p>\r\n
James Chase and a small contingent of his California Minutemen group, who had\r\nscurried to Campo to \"cover\" for the hundred U.S. Border Patrol agents\r\ndispatched to New Orleans, left their campsite on Thursday, possibly to avoid\r\nclashes with FBP and the protestors. Chase was persona non grata <\/i>with\r\nRamirez and evicted from the nationwide Minuteman Project because he espoused\r\nthe use of civilian snipers to hunt migrants. Chris Simcox, leading the\r\nMinuteman Project with Jim Gilchrist, has since endorsed Chase.<\/p>\r\n
Although the minutemen movement appears to be crumbling in California, it\r\nremains a political force in other Southwest border states, and it appears to\r\nhave captured the attention of Republicans, who hope to make \"illegal\"\r\nimmigration a 2006 election issue.\r\n<\/p>\n","contact":"lradford@radiojustice.net","link":"","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/html","summary":"Early reports from leaders of the anti-minutemen forces in Calexico indicate Friends of the Border Patrol rousted.","numcomment":1,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2005\/09\/135503.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[{"id":135531,"heading":"LATimes: Minuteman-Style Border Patrol Is Over","article":"*Organizers call off the event after a scuffle with protesters and a lower turnout than expected. Counterdemonstrators declare victory.\r\n\r\nBy Anna Gorman and Richard Marosi, Times Staff Writers\r\n\r\nSAN DIEGO \u2014 After touting their plans for months, organizers called off their Minuteman-style patrol of the California-Mexico border this weekend after a minor scuffle with counterdemonstrators and a far lower turnout than expected.\r\n\r\n[url may change when article is archived; use search function at www.latimes.com to locate. Full article may require log in.]\r\n","author":"Leslie","parent_id":135503,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2005-09-20 01:18:51","modified":"2013-11-11 00:35:27","fileurl":""}]}