{"article":{"id":192227,"heading":"The Homeland War","author":"Leslie Radford","created":"2007-01-29 04:32:30","modified":"2007-02-16 08:05:03","last_modified":"Fri, 16 Feb 2007 15:05:03","article":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><body><p>SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, 27 January 2007 - It was just another skirmish in the\r\ntwo-year war on migrants.&nbsp; Sixty minutemen, from San Diego Minutemen and\r\nSave Our State, tried to run day laborers out of San Juan Capistrano, but they\r\nwere held at bay by thirty or so determined day laborers and their supporters.<\/p>\r\n<p>But the terrain has changed in this low-grade war.&nbsp; The Border Patrol still shoots and kills\r\npeople on the border, but only a few a year.&nbsp; Thousands of others die\r\nbecause they're forced to cross through the heat of the desert or the cold of\r\nthe mountains.&nbsp; What's new is a year's worth of terrorism, come home to southern California just last week.&nbsp;  Last week, Department of Homeland Security ICE agents\r\nrousted more than 700 people from their beds in an early morning raid across the\r\nLos Angeles area demanding papers, leaving in their wake terrified neighbors and\r\nchildren too fearful to attend school.&nbsp; Yesterday, in Contra Costa County, federal agents\r\nidentified themselves as police to gain admittance to people's homes, and\r\ngrabbed more than 200 people off bicycles and away from their dinner tables.&nbsp; Reports to date list only one of these nearly one\r\nthousand detainees who has been arrested for a felony.&nbsp; The rest were\r\ntossed into detention camps, and half have already been shipped away.&nbsp; Five\r\nweeks ago agents with automatic rifles raided workplaces in a coordinated raid across several midwestern states,\r\nidentified people who didn't appear to be foreign-born with blue plastic\r\nwristbands, and transported the Spanish-surnamed people thousands of miles from\r\nfamily and lawyers to the camps.&nbsp; It took a month and a union-instigated lawsuit to\r\nlocate everyone.<\/p>\r\n<p>President Bush announces that he plans to continue deportation \"without\r\nanimosity.\"&nbsp; The Democratic-controlled Congress sets their immigration\r\npriorities: more confrontations at the border with Mexico, more workplace\r\nroundups, and, for those migrants who manage to remain, nearly impossible\r\nhurdles to legal status.<\/p>\r\n<p>Leading provocateurs of the anti-migrant sentiment, the minutemen, early this\r\nmorning targeted a donut store in San Juan Capistrano, where migrants wait and\r\nhope that more affluent people will hire them for a day's labor.<\/p>\r\n<p>Today the laborers were beset with dozens of U.S. flags and nearly as many\r\nvideo cameras, patriotic songfests, and five hours of insults and intimidation\r\nfrom a bullhorn from the minutemen across the street.&nbsp; \"Too much\r\nteatro,\" a worker concluded with a frustrated, slightly disgusted\r\nexpression.<\/p>\r\n<p>With minutemen, jornaleros, and migrant advocates interspersed on the other\r\nside of Doheny Park Road -- and the cops nearly invisible in a nearby parking\r\nlot -- the protest became a verbal tournament.<\/p>\r\n<p>The bullhorn announced, \"you see the mix of races,\" referring to an\r\nAfrican-American woman and a Mexican migrant among the otherwise white minuteman\r\nfaces.&nbsp; A \"patriot,\" meanwhile, declared, \"The Irish didn't drive\r\ndown wages.\"<\/p>\r\n<p>Another confronted a migrant supporter who was wearing a bandanna: \"Are\r\nyou a leper?&nbsp; Are you on probation or parole?\"<\/p>\r\n<p>On minutewoman challenged the defenders by mocking their youth.&nbsp; \"I\r\ngive you ten more years,\" she pontificated to one labor supporter.&nbsp;\r\n\"What?&nbsp; To get bitter and cynical and become a minuteman?\" he\r\nretorted.&nbsp; Following her friend's theme, she responded to a compatriot, \"He's a\r\n17-year-old leper who works at Mother's Market.\"<\/p>\r\n<p>A contractor hired a jornalero, and a minuteman on a motorcycle took off down\r\nthe street after the truck.<\/p>\r\n<p>\"You need a benevolent and strong government system,\" another\r\nnationalist offered, \"like the Roman Empire and the Egyptians.\"&nbsp;\r\nHe claimed the ancient Egyptians didn't have slaves, and didn't mention Rome's\r\nhabit of feeding prisoners of war to lions for public amusement.&nbsp; A few\r\nmoments later he added, \"My grandfather was Mexican. .&nbsp;.&nbsp;. OK,\r\nwhite Mexican, but so what?\"<\/p>\r\n<p>The bullhorn declared that migrants are subhuman.&nbsp; \"You can tell by\r\nthe clothes they wear, by their attitude, their language.\"&nbsp; Then the\r\nbullhorner pointed to a large sign with professionally-produced lettering and\r\nproclaimed, \"Brokebutt Border, where Americans get screwed.\"&nbsp; He\r\nhopped around shaking his ass at the crowd across the street and called over his\r\nshoulder, \"Kiss me before he breaks it off in there\" and \"It's\r\ngetting a little raw down there.\"<\/p>\r\n<p>A cop pulled up and asked the minutemen on the counterprotesters' side to\r\nchill with the inflammatory rhetoric.&nbsp; At the minutemen's insistence, he rebuked a counterprotester before he left.&nbsp;  When he drove off, a minuteman\r\ncomplained to a small group of counterprotesters, \"You're not going to\r\nsolve anything by calling names.&nbsp; Say you're the only one smoking crack and\r\nsticking gerbils up your ass.&nbsp; Is it fair to generalize?\"&nbsp; A\r\nman snapped back, \"This is not a 'let's work together'\r\nrally.\"&nbsp; \"You guys are scapegoating poor people,\" one\r\nsupporter told a video camera clutched protectively in front of a minutewoman's\r\nface.&nbsp; \"If you want affordable health care, talk to the\r\ngovernment.\"&nbsp; The only response was from a minuteman who mumbled,\r\n\"He's a chica.\"<\/p>\r\n<p>The bullhorner declared, \"The rest of us have our fingerprints\r\nregistered by the FBI.&nbsp; We don't know who you are.\"<\/p>\r\n<p>A woman spat on a minuteman organizer's flag.&nbsp; The minuteman sought out\r\na videographer to record the woman's face while proclaiming he didn't care about\r\nthe spitting incident.&nbsp; Meanwhile, a minutewoman pronounced, \"Spitting\r\non the flag -- that's desecrating the flag.&nbsp; That's a federal\r\noffense.\"<\/p>\r\n<p>A contractor pulled into the parking lot, and the minutemen rushed over to\r\ndeter him.&nbsp; The contractor assured the minutemen that he paid all the\r\nrequisite business and employee taxes.&nbsp; The call went out from the workers\r\nand their supporters:&nbsp; would a minuteman take the job?&nbsp; Eventually a\r\nwhite-bearded minuteman agreed and climbed into the truck, to the laughter of\r\nthe laborers.&nbsp; The contractor and the minuteman drove off, but the\r\nminuteman reappeared about half an hour later, admitting that he had been fired.<\/p>\r\n<p>The bullhorn called out \"Whose streets?\"&nbsp; The\r\ncounterprotesters quickly shot back, \"Our streets!\"&nbsp; \"Who's\r\njobs?\"&nbsp; Before the minutemen caught on, the counterprotesters chimed\r\nin, \"Our jobs!\"&nbsp; \"Whose country?\"&nbsp; A pause, and then a\r\nhandful of minutemen recognized their cue: \"Our country,\" they\r\nmumbled.<\/p>\r\n<p>One Mexican worker told the minutemen, \"California is Mexico.&nbsp;\r\nTexas is Mexico.&nbsp; Arizona is Mexico.&nbsp; It isn't now,\" he\r\nclarified, \"but it is.\"&nbsp;<\/p>\r\n<p>Several minutemen jumped in.&nbsp; \"I can't go to the emergency room and\r\nget care.\"&nbsp; \"My father had to take his business out of state\r\nbecause he wouldn't hire illegal aliens.\"&nbsp; \"How come hookers\r\ncan't work legally but illegal aliens can?\"&nbsp; \"Morally, it's never\r\nright to break a law, whether it's right or not.\"&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\r\n<p>Off to one side, a minuteman sneered and quietly threatened a counter\r\nprotester, \"You'll be in a hospital longer than I'll be in jail.\"<\/p>\r\n<p>\"What do we want?\" the bullhorn asked.&nbsp;\r\n\"Deportation!\"&nbsp; The minutemen had found the rhythm.&nbsp;\r\n\"When do you want it?\"&nbsp; \"Now!\"<\/p>\r\n<p>A minutewoman continued the conversation:&nbsp; \"Have you ever seen an\r\nM-16?\"<\/p>\r\n<p>A migrant supporter asked, \"What's the problem?\"&nbsp;\r\n\"They're breaking laws\" was the response.&nbsp; \"No, what's the\r\nproblem with these people being here?\" he persisted.&nbsp; \"The\r\nproblem is that these are people not obeying the laws of the land.\"&nbsp;\r\nAnother added, \"Laws are meant to make a cohesive society.\"&nbsp; A\r\ncounterprotestor retorted, \"What about slavery?&nbsp; Those were unjust\r\nlaws.\"&nbsp; A minuteman replied, \"We're talking about now, not\r\nthen.&nbsp; Are you a communist?&nbsp; Are you a Mexican?&nbsp; Are you a proud\r\nAmerican citizen?\"<\/p>\r\n<p>The counterprotestors didn't answer.<\/p>\r\n<p>After exhorting a jornalero ally for calling a minuteman a\r\n\"fucker,\" a minutewoman finally conceded, \"The Lord Jesus Christ\r\nis the only way out of this mess.\"&nbsp; A beat, then the man shot\r\nback, \"You believe in god, I believe in cuss words.\"<\/p>\r\n<p>As the flagwavers across the street sang \"God Bless America,\" the\r\nbullhorn implored, \"Where are we going to go when the United States becomes\r\na horrible, awful place to live?\"<\/p>\r\n<p>A minutewoman declared, \"If you can't feed 'em, don't breed 'em.\"&nbsp;\r\nAsked if she was saying Mexicans have too many kids, a minuteman passing by\r\nanswered, \"Yes.\"&nbsp; Then it was her turn: \"Illegal aliens cross\r\nthe border with fifteen children.&nbsp; They expect us to pay for\r\nthem.\"&nbsp; Her friend added, \"We put stray dogs to sleep in Los\r\nAngeles.&nbsp; It's comparable.&nbsp; There's a lot of overbreeding.\"<\/p>\r\n<p>The bull horn queried, \"Who are we saying we're better than?\"<\/p>\r\n<p>One minuteman was asked about the \"Europeans who came over here, walked\r\noff the boat, and killed and raped and destroyed everyone in their\r\npath.\"&nbsp; \"Crap happens,\" he shrugged, \"It happens to\r\nevery race.\"<\/p>\r\n<p>It was noon, the minutemen were packing it up, so I dashed across the street,\r\nwhere I found four white guys with close-cropped hair lurking behind the\r\nminuteman line.&nbsp; \"Are you minutemen?\" I opened the\r\nconversation.&nbsp; \"No, but after today, I'm going to join,\" the lead\r\nguy said.&nbsp; A few minutes later I was told to go back to my country.&nbsp;\r\n\"I don't want to push 'one' for English,\" he told me.&nbsp; Is it a\r\nproblem to push that button?&nbsp; \"It's an insult,\" he announced to a\r\nbackslap from one of his pals.<\/p>\r\n<p>Then, except for two stragglers, the minutemen were gone.&nbsp; A former day\r\nlaborer told me his story.&nbsp; \"I worked hard in this country for\r\ntwenty-five years, paid taxes, never took anything for nothing, raised four\r\nchildren.&nbsp; I'm retired, and they want to separate me from my family.<\/p>\r\n<p>\"This isn't the land of the free,\" he went on.&nbsp; \"You pay\r\nfor everything here.&nbsp; Last week I paid $400 to take my children's children\r\nto Disneyland, and that was just to get in.&nbsp; Three dollar Cokes, three\r\ndollars for a champurrado.\"&nbsp; He shook his head.<\/p>\r\n<p>The minutemen promised to return next week to San Juan Capistrano.&nbsp; And\r\nlike the swallows, and in spite of the efforts of the minutemen, the Department\r\nof Homeland Security, the Congress, and the President, the migrants will be\r\nthere, too.<\/p>\r\n\n<\/body><\/html>\n","contact":"leslie@radiojustice.net","link":"","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","summary":"Even as they face escalating government threats to their lives, freedom, and human rights, migrant day laborers, with their supporters, face down the cazamigrantes in San Juan Capistrano.","numcomment":26,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/2007\/01\/statement.jpg","filesize":"123.3 kibibytes","article_url":"\/news\/2007\/01\/192227.php","image":{"original":"\/uploads\/2007\/01\/statement.jpg","small":"\/uploads\/2007\/01\/statement.jpgthumb.jpg","medium":"\/uploads\/2007\/01\/statement.jpgmid.jpg"}},"attachments":[{"id":192228,"heading":"","article":"","author":"Leslie Radford","parent_id":192227,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","created":"2007-01-29 04:32:30","modified":"2007-01-29 04:32:30","fileurl":"\/usr\/local\/www-domains\/la.indymedia.org\/public\/uploads\/2007\/01\/anti_racism.jpg","image":{"original":"\/usr\/local\/www-domains\/la.indymedia.org\/public\/uploads\/2007\/01\/anti_racism.jpg"}},{"id":192229,"heading":"","article":"a loincloth?","author":"Leslie Radford","parent_id":192227,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","created":"2007-01-29 04:32:30","modified":"2007-01-29 04:32:30","fileurl":"\/usr\/local\/www-domains\/la.indymedia.org\/public\/uploads\/2007\/01\/fashion_statement.jpg","image":{"original":"\/usr\/local\/www-domains\/la.indymedia.org\/public\/uploads\/2007\/01\/fashion_statement.jpg"}},{"id":192230,"heading":"","article":"he lasted half an hour","author":"Leslie Radford","parent_id":192227,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","created":"2007-01-29 04:32:30","modified":"2007-01-29 04:32:30","fileurl":"\/usr\/local\/www-domains\/la.indymedia.org\/public\/uploads\/2007\/01\/half-hour_worker.jpg","image":{"original":"\/usr\/local\/www-domains\/la.indymedia.org\/public\/uploads\/2007\/01\/half-hour_worker.jpg"}},{"id":192231,"heading":"","article":"","author":"Leslie Radford","parent_id":192227,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","created":"2007-01-29 04:32:30","modified":"2007-01-29 04:32:30","fileurl":"\/usr\/local\/www-domains\/la.indymedia.org\/public\/uploads\/2007\/01\/homophobia.jpg","image":{"original":"\/usr\/local\/www-domains\/la.indymedia.org\/public\/uploads\/2007\/01\/homophobia.jpg"}},{"id":192232,"heading":"","article":"","author":"Leslie Radford","parent_id":192227,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","created":"2007-01-29 04:32:30","modified":"2007-01-29 04:32:30","fileurl":"\/usr\/local\/www-domains\/la.indymedia.org\/public\/uploads\/2007\/01\/in_your_face.jpg","image":{"original":"\/usr\/local\/www-domains\/la.indymedia.org\/public\/uploads\/2007\/01\/in_your_face.jpg"}},{"id":192233,"heading":"","article":"","author":"Leslie Radford","parent_id":192227,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","created":"2007-01-29 04:32:30","modified":"2007-01-29 04:32:30","fileurl":"\/usr\/local\/www-domains\/la.indymedia.org\/public\/uploads\/2007\/01\/squaring_off.jpg","image":{"original":"\/usr\/local\/www-domains\/la.indymedia.org\/public\/uploads\/2007\/01\/squaring_off.jpg"}},{"id":192234,"heading":"","article":"future minutemen","author":"Leslie Radford","parent_id":192227,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","created":"2007-01-29 04:32:30","modified":"2007-01-29 04:32:30","fileurl":"\/usr\/local\/www-domains\/la.indymedia.org\/public\/uploads\/2007\/01\/punks.jpg","image":{"original":"\/usr\/local\/www-domains\/la.indymedia.org\/public\/uploads\/2007\/01\/punks.jpg"}},{"id":192235,"heading":"","article":"","author":"Leslie Radford","parent_id":192227,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","created":"2007-01-29 04:32:30","modified":"2007-01-29 04:32:30","fileurl":"\/usr\/local\/www-domains\/la.indymedia.org\/public\/uploads\/2007\/01\/nativism_is_so.jpg","image":{"original":"\/usr\/local\/www-domains\/la.indymedia.org\/public\/uploads\/2007\/01\/nativism_is_so.jpg"}}],"comments":[{"id":192334,"heading":"degrading","article":"That's degrading to put the flag where you piss from. SOS\/MM should be piss off. Does that guy masterbate with that flag on too? ","author":"Blah","parent_id":192227,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2007-01-29 23:26:36","modified":"2007-01-29 23:26:36","fileurl":""},{"id":192449,"heading":"reply","article":"According to Rockerman on the SOS forums, they're gonna be there again. If you're going this Saturday to counter protest, beware of the guy who made threats to me. You can catch my videos on youtube under my username &quot;silascode.&quot; In the video of the guy with the Gilchrist hat, you see another guy sitting on his bike with his sunglasses on his cap. That guy on the bike is the one who threatened me. I may put the footage of him doing that on here.","author":"Jammer CC","parent_id":192227,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2007-01-31 09:38:18","modified":"2007-01-31 09:38:18","fileurl":""},{"id":192529,"heading":"Who Would Jesus Deport?","article":"Do most Evangelicals support mass deportations?\r\n\r\n\r\n    Who Would Jesus Deport?\r\n\r\n\r\n          By Alexander Zaitchik, Intelligence Report\r\n          Posted on January 29, 2007, Printed on January 29, 2007\r\n          http:\/\/www.alternet.org\/story\/46853\/\r\n\r\nWhen Joan Maruskin took the podium last April at a Family Research \r\nCouncil (FRC) immigration conference in Washington, D.C., it was hard \r\nnot to think of Daniel in the lion's den: The liberal director of the \r\nChurch World Service Immigration Program was addressing an audience \r\nconvened by a major force on the Christian religious right. It was not \r\nher crowd.\r\n\r\nIt turned out that the Book of Daniel was among the few books of the \r\nBible that Maruskin didn't quote. While making the Christian case for \r\namnesty, she demonstrated that the Old and New Testaments are chock-full \r\nof soundbyte-ready advocacy for the &quot;stranger.&quot; All told, she counts \r\nmore than 300 scriptural admonishments to mercy toward immigrants.\r\n\r\n&quot;The Bible is an immigration handbook,&quot; Maruskin told the FRC audience. \r\n&quot;'Cursed be the person who oppresses the alien.' Can we forget that \r\nChrist himself was a migrant and a refugee, born in a stable? Under our \r\nlaws, Mary, Joseph and Jesus would be sent to three different prisons.&quot;\r\n\r\nA powerful image, but Maruskin's position is far from dominant on the \r\nreligious right. In a FRC member poll conducted last spring, 90% of \r\nrespondents chose forced deportation as the appropriate fate for \r\nAmerica's estimated 11 million-12 million undocumented immigrants. This \r\nresponse aligns the FRC base with fire-breathing hard-liners like U.S. \r\nRep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.), the evangelical co-sponsor of an \r\nimmigration reform bill notable for its criminalization of those who \r\n&quot;aid and abet&quot; illegal immigrants, something many religious leaders and \r\nlaymen see as a Christian duty.\r\n\r\nSo it wasn't surprising that Maruskin's social-gospel message received a \r\ntepid response from the FRC audience. Heartier applause greeted the \r\nconservative Catholic journalist John O'Sullivan, who followed Maruskin \r\nto the podium and scoffed at her liberal &quot;proof-texting&quot; of Scripture. \r\nArguing that such selective quotation did not &quot;contribute to the \r\ndebate,&quot; he tried to debunk the argument for amnesty and dismissed \r\nMaruskin and her ilk as &quot;moral bullies.&quot;\r\n\r\n&quot;The fact is,&quot; said O'Sullivan, &quot;most Christians are more hard-line when \r\nit comes to immigration than their Church leaders. Are all of these \r\npeople going to hell?&quot;\r\n\r\nA better question might be: When did immigration assume a place next to \r\nabortion and traditional marriage as a &quot;family&quot; issue for the religious \r\nright? And is this new and highly charged issue a threat to that \r\nmovement's much-vaunted &quot;culture war&quot;? Or is it a legitimate part of it?\r\n\r\nThe 'definitive divide'?\r\n\r\nThe ascendance of immigration as a burning issue on the religious right \r\nhas been swift. Conservative commentators and politicians have both \r\nfueled and responded to a grassroots movement in which anti-immigrant \r\nrhetoric dovetails with the odes to God and country that have long \r\nconstituted conservative evangelical boilerplate. Hard-right evangelical \r\npoliticians like Tancredo have built national constituencies by blending \r\nanti-immigrant rhetoric into broadsides against secular liberals and \r\nIslamist radicals.\r\n\r\nAfter languishing for years in smaller Christian nationalist groups like \r\nPhyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum, the immigration issue has now landed \r\nsquarely on the agenda of larger religious right groups with political \r\nclout. Tony Perkins, president of the influential FRC, signaled this \r\nshift while opening last April's immigration conference. &quot;At question \r\ntoday is, do we have an immigration policy that is serving to strengthen \r\nthe cultural fabric of our nation, which has a great influence on the \r\nfamily?&quot; he asked. &quot;The answer is no. We must get this right.&quot;\r\n\r\nGetting it right will not and has not been easy for the religious right, \r\nany more than it has been for the country as a whole. Unlike abortion, \r\nthe immigration issue has sharply divided the movement's leaders and \r\npolitical allies. Fierce &quot;pro-family&quot; culture warriors stand on both \r\nsides of the debate, with religious right advocates in Washington \r\nbacking two radically different visions of immigration reform as \r\nsymbolized by the House and Senate immigration bills unveiled last \r\nwinter.\r\n\r\nA unified evangelical position could do much to determine the shape of \r\nimmigration reform, which was to be taken up again by Congress after the \r\nmidterm elections in November. How the religious right tilts or \r\nfractures over the issue also holds stakes for the movement itself. A \r\ndeep rift or further right turns could jeopardize the religious right's \r\npolitical coherence as well as its potentially natural alliance with \r\nAmerica's growing and culturally conservative Latino and predominantly \r\nCatholic population.\r\n\r\nAlready, there are signs of a split. According to the Pew Research \r\nCenter, 63% of white evangelicals view immigrants as a &quot;threat to U.S. \r\ncustoms and values,&quot; compared to 48% of the population as a whole. (Only \r\n39% of secular respondents held negative views of immigrants.) Though \r\nthe two most influential Christian Right groups -- James Dobson's Focus \r\non the Family and its spawn the Family Research Council -- have avoided \r\ntaking an official position on the issue, their mostly white flock has \r\nalready tacked hard right.\r\n\r\nRev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian \r\nLeadership Conference, says the Latino community is aware of rising \r\nanti-immigrant sentiment on the religious right and is &quot;very concerned&quot; \r\nabout attitudes such as those reflected in the FRC poll.\r\n\r\n&quot;Before immigration came along, we were building an alliance,&quot; says \r\nRodriguez. &quot;We had agreement on traditional marriage, partial birth \r\nabortion -- so many threads were being woven together. Immigration \r\nthreatens to become the definitive divide.&quot;\r\n\r\nMeeting of the minds\r\n\r\nThe Secure Borders Coalition is where the religious right meets and \r\nmeshes with the extreme end of anti-immigrant politics. An alliance of \r\nChristian Right groups, hard-right organizations like Accuracy in Media \r\nand the Swift Boat Veterans, and strident but secular anti-immigration \r\noutfits such as the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, the coalition in June \r\nissued a strong statement opposing all amnesty and guest worker \r\nproposals. It vowed to oppose any candidate, regardless of his or her \r\nstance on other issues, who does not toe the line on immigration. \r\nRemarkably, it also calls for a near-freeze in legal immigration.\r\n\r\n&quot;We favor a policy of attrition of the illegal population through strong \r\nenforcement of our nation's immigration laws, which includes, first and \r\nforemost, the securing of our borders,&quot; reads the coalition statement. \r\n&quot;[W]e dedicate ourselves to defeating any 2008 presidential candidate \r\nwho [disagrees]... . We pledge to do so regardless of political party \r\nand in both the primaries and the general election.&quot;\r\n\r\nThe list of religious-right figures signing the coalition statement is \r\nlong and varied. It includes Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum, Lou \r\nSheldon's Traditional Values Coalition, Howard Phillips' Conservative \r\nCaucus and Bishop Harry R. Jackson of Hope Christian Ministries. The \r\nsignatories concerned primarily with immigration include English First, \r\nthe American Council for Immigration Reform, the Center for Immigration \r\nStudies, Pro-English, and the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps.\r\n\r\nOne possible future for this nexus can be glimpsed in the budding \r\nrelationship between two Secure Border Coalition members -- a \r\nrelationship that links religious-right political muscle to the literal \r\nmuscle of the vigilante border-patrol movement. Last spring, Chris \r\nSimcox put his Minuteman Civil Defense Corps (MCDC) under the wing of \r\nAlan Keyes' Declaration Alliance, a group dedicated to overturning Roe \r\nv. Wade that also believes in a &quot;founding mandate to freely and publicly \r\nacknowledge the authority of the Creator God.&quot; Along with imbuing the \r\nSimcox group with a touch of the divine, the MCDC\/Keyes arrangement saw \r\nSimcox's mailing lists handed over to Response Unlimited, a \r\nKeyes-connected Christian mailing and telemarketing firm that now sells \r\nlists of MCDC donors for $120 per thousand names.\r\n\r\nAnother, similar relationship is developing between the Eagle Forum \r\n(founded in 1972 and one of the oldest religious right groups) and the \r\nMinuteman Project of Jim Gilchrist, Simcox's former organizational \r\npartner (Gilchrist did not join the Secure Borders Coalition). The Eagle \r\nForum's Schlafly, a long-time gay-basher, believes that guest-worker \r\nprograms and amnesty are &quot;immoral.&quot; The Christian thing to do, argued \r\nSchlafly in her newsletter last January, is to &quot;erect a fence and double \r\nour border agents in order to stop the drugs, the smuggling racket, the \r\ndiseases, and the crimes.&quot; Gilchrist, who holds a similar view, was a \r\nfeatured guest at the 35th annual Eagle Forum Conference in September.\r\n\r\nOther religious right groups may not be officially aligned with the \r\nborder-vigilante movement, but hold views indicating sympathy or \r\napproval.\r\n\r\n&quot;As the United States Senate continues debate on an immigration reform \r\nbill, the American people are backed up by the Bible in their demands \r\nthat America's national boundaries are to be respected,&quot; writes Roberta \r\nCombs, national president of the Christian Coalition. &quot;The left wing in \r\nthis nation is thoroughly wrong when they argue that 'because Christ \r\nshowed compassion to all of God's children, Christians should ignore \r\nviolations of the law by aliens.'&quot;\r\n\r\n'Culture,' Christianity and race\r\n\r\nThe kind of first-principle absolutism found in the Secure Borders \r\nCoalition statement, once reserved for the so-called culture war, \r\nindicates that immigration has touched a central nerve on the religious \r\nright. But it is not simply a national-security or law-and-order nerve, \r\nas no other national security issue generates so much heat within the \r\nmovement.\r\n\r\nSo what's going on? In the words of FRC's Tony Perkins, what's at stake \r\nis not so much guarding America's security as protecting its &quot;cultural \r\nfabric.&quot;\r\n\r\nGary Bauer, president of American Values and an icon of the religious \r\nright, has said as much. In June, Bauer wrote an op-ed for USA Today \r\nthat decried the failure of Latino immigrants to integrate into American \r\nsociety. &quot;Hyphenated Americans put other countries and affiliations \r\nfirst, and they drive a wedge into the heart of 'one nation',&quot; he wrote.\r\n\r\nIn choosing to highlight the &quot;cultural&quot; dimension of Latino immigration, \r\nBauer echoed the nativist argument offered by Patrick Buchanan in his \r\nbestselling anti-immigrant screed, State of Emergency. Bauer also lifted \r\na lid on the motivations of many anti-immigration voices on the \r\nChristian Right -- motivations more commonly cloaked in the rhetoric of \r\nlaw and order. Bauer admits as much, calling culture the &quot;unmentioned \r\nundercurrent&quot; in the immigration debate.\r\n\r\nSome, farther out on the intellectual fringes of the movement, are more \r\nblunt. Thomas Fleming, president of the Christian-flavored Rockford \r\nInstitute and, like Buchanan, a Catholic, says &quot;culture&quot; sits at the \r\nheart of his anti-immigration position. At a September \r\ninstitute-sponsored conference in Washington where Sen. John Cornyn \r\n(R-Texas) delivered the keynote address, Fleming said that &quot;the cultural \r\nambience aspect of [the immigration debate] is the only one that \r\ninterests me.&quot; Writing in the Rockford Institute magazine Chronicles: A \r\nMagazine of American Culture, Fleming was plainer about what he means \r\nwhen he says &quot;culture,&quot; admitting, &quot;Whatever we may say in public, most \r\nof us do not much like Mexicans, whom we regard as too irrational, too \r\nviolent, too passionate.&quot;\r\n\r\n&quot;Some American Catholics think we should welcome the hordes of pro-life \r\nCatholics swarming across our southern border,&quot; continued Fleming. &quot;But \r\nthis is a mistake. Mexicans quickly become acclimated to America's \r\nculture of consumerism and infanticide. What they do not appear to \r\nrelinquish is their own traditional style of violence.&quot;\r\n\r\nNor has the contentious question of culture completely escaped the \r\nnotice of James Dobson's much larger and more mainstream Focus on the \r\nFamily, which maintains a Spanish-language website and has been cautious \r\non the issue. Last summer, the group's website chose to run a shining \r\nreview of Victor Davis Hanson's Mexifornia, a lament for the defunct \r\nwhite-majority California of Hanson's youth. &quot;Jobs do indeed have a lot \r\nto do with the issue [of immigration],&quot; the Focus reviewer wrote. &quot;But \r\nnot as much as culture -- and that's what should really concern \r\nAmericans most.&quot;\r\n\r\nThe issue of immigration, it seems, not only threatens the success of \r\nthe religious right's larger culture war by alienating conservative \r\nLatinos. Immigration is also a growing component of that culture war.\r\n\r\nHard to starboard\r\n\r\nNativism has been a recurring obsession among religious Americans since \r\nthe colonial era. As they assume battle positions in the 21st-century \r\nimmigration debate, today's hard-line crusaders echo mid-19th century \r\nKnow-Nothings who decried &quot;ignorant and depraved foreigners&quot; from Italy \r\nand Ireland. Ditto 20th-century nativists like FDR's Assistant Secretary \r\nof State, Breckinridge Long, who thought Jewish and Slavic immigrants \r\nwere &quot;entirely unfit to become citizens of this country. ... They are \r\nlawless, scheming, [and] defiant.&quot;\r\n\r\nSuch bald sentiments are not often heard in the larger religious-right \r\ngroups, many of whose positions are informed by Biblical injunctions to \r\nmercy toward the &quot;stranger,&quot; the groups' connections to the business \r\nwing of the Republican Party, and a desire to cultivate Latinos as \r\nreligious and political allies in the culture war. But there is a clear \r\ntrend-line running right among a segment of culturally conservative \r\nChristians, one that worries moderate evangelicals and Latinos alike. \r\nWhat remains to be seen is whether the larger Christian Right will drift \r\ninto the arms of the hard-line anti-immigration camp, and how this will \r\naffect the movement.\r\n\r\n&quot;I don't think white evangelicals are racist,&quot; says Rev. Samuel \r\nRodriguez of the Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference. &quot;But the \r\nLatino community is starting to have some concerns that need to be \r\naddressed. We must start changing hearts and minds through dialogue. The \r\nrisk of polarization is real.&quot;\r\n\r\nAlexander Zaitchik is a freelance writer in Washington, DC.\r\n\r\n\r\n          \u00a9 2007 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.\r\n          View this story online at: \r\nhttp:\/\/www.alternet.org\/story\/46853\/\r\n\r\n","author":"repost","parent_id":192227,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2007-02-01 13:06:58","modified":"2013-11-11 00:47:00","fileurl":""},{"id":192564,"heading":"Any bets","article":"Anyone wondering what the minutemen did after they messed up traffic and messed with migrants in Capistrano?  \r\n\r\nSaturday evening, &quot;joaquinsantigo&quot; wrote on the <a href=&quot;http:\/\/www.saveourstate.org\/forums\/index.php?act=Search&CODE=show&searchid=7bc9fc0e5beecfc25fa57b0b84b704d9&search_in=posts&result_type=posts&highlite=camp&quot;>SOS list<\/a>: &quot;By the way, there is a migrant camp on the hillside of the Pacific Coast Highway - Route 1 where a number of the laborers &quot;live.&quot; I don't believe Orange County\/Dana Point will be as complacent about this as San Diego Count as been.&quot;  \r\n\r\nMaybe a little beer, a little talk, a little more beer, then, maybe, come Sunday morning:\r\n\r\n_________________________________\r\n\r\n\r\nVandals strike migrant encampments\r\n\r\n\r\nPossessions slashed; police investigating\r\nBy Kristina Davis\r\nUNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER\r\nJanuary 30, 2007\r\n\r\nRANCHO PENASQUITOS \u2013 Dozens of migrant workers returned to their canyon encampments Saturday afternoon to find their belongings slashed to pieces, police said yesterday.\r\n\r\nSeveral small encampments throughout Rancho Pe\u00f1asquitos were targeted in a string of attacks, said attorney Claudia Smith of the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation.\r\n\r\n\u201cIt was truly stunning to see and pick your way through maybe 100 items, and every one of them is slashed. Jackets right down the middle,\u201d said Smith, who notified police after reports of the attacks began to pour in Saturday. \u201cThis was so vicious and so deliberate.\u201d\r\n\r\nSan Diego police Capt. Boyd Long said the incidents were under investigation.\r\n\r\nOfficers interviewed victims yesterday and toured the encampments, including one near Rancho Pe\u00f1asquitos Boulevard and state Route 56.\r\n\r\nIt was unclear if there were witnesses or how many people were responsible for the vandalism.\r\n\r\nThe destruction appeared methodical, Smith said; for example, all the pants were slashed from the crotch down the side of the leg.\r\n\r\nPencils, cell phone chargers and a child's belt were not spared, she said.\r\n\r\n\u201cOne old man kept saying to me 'mis zapatos (my shoes),' making a slashing movement in the air,\u201d Smith said. \u201cThe workers were just stunned.\u201d\r\n\r\nAuthorities say some of the encampments emerged in the area after migrants were ordered to clear out of nearby McGonigle Canyon in November.\r\n\r\nThe workers, many of whom are undocumented, had squatted on private land in McGonigle Canyon off and on for the past 20 years.\r\n\r\nLandowners and police were working on a long-term plan to close the encampments last year, but the effort was hastened in November when residents, joined by supporters of the Minuteman Project, loudly protested the camps.\r\n\r\nDeveloper D.R. Horton, one of the landowners, since has posted No Trespassing signs in McGonigle Canyon and torn down the large shantytown.\r\n\r\nMany of the evicted migrants are believed to have relocated to Rancho Pe\u00f1asquitos on land that is part of an open-space preserve and part privately owned, police said. Caltrans also owns some of the land along the freeway.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n","author":"Kristina Davis (via nazis for target practice","parent_id":192227,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2007-02-02 03:02:42","modified":"2013-11-11 00:47:01","fileurl":""},{"id":192567,"heading":"reply","article":"As mentioned in the article, someone said that he'll be out of jail before the counter protestor he threatened is out of the hospital. I'm not sure if that guy is an actual Minuteman but he was definitely supportive of them and interacted with them as if he was one of them. And I'm the one he threatened. I got it on video so I'm gonna prepare the footage to show here. Stay tuned...","author":"Jammer CC","parent_id":192227,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2007-02-02 03:52:18","modified":"2007-02-02 03:52:18","fileurl":""},{"id":192572,"heading":"reply","article":"Here's the video of the guy who made threats to me. If you go to Capistrano to counter protest against the Minutemen\/SOS this Saturday, keep an eye out for this guy and avoid him. If he gives you or anyone any trouble, it's best to let the police know about this. If he's just talking trash, just let him interact with the Minuteman participants or be by himself to be miserable. If he physically strikes anyone, tell the police and let them handle it. I've interacted with the police and they were cooperative. If it looks like he's about to strike someone, film him from a good distance for your own safety. I doubt he'll try to seriously hurt someone but if he does that, any decisions on apprehension and self defense is your call. Infact it's all your call but I'm just making suggestions. Doing anything malicious to him isn't a good idea so I suggest you don't be tempted. Let the Minuteman\/SOS participants make the mistakes.\r\n\r\nWhile watching the footage of him, it may look like I was following him with my camcorder. But that was hardly the case. You can even see in one part where he approaches me. I was always a distance from him and besides, this was all in public. I continued to film him because of the threats he made against me. If someone threatens me like that, of course I'd want it on film to show the police and to show on the internet or where ever for everyone's awareness.\r\n\r\nYou'll see Minuteman\/SOS participants consistently hound people with their video cameras, as seen on their videos on youtube. You'll see one of them actually follow a man into the donut shop\/restaurant much like a paparazzi photographer would do to a celebrity. I don't do this.\r\n\r\nI probably could press charges against the man shown in this video making threats. However, I'm not out to try to get people arrested for any reason I can find. I'm not there to play that kind of game. Even though he tapped me with a protest sign and made the verbal threats, I'm still okay to let that go. I did of course let the police know about this and will do so again if I'm there this Saturday.\r\n\r\nAfter everyone left, I walked back to where I was parked with two other people. The man who made the threats follow us on his bike, as seen in the video. We ended up going to a Staples center where I called the police over. By the time they arrived, the man was out of sight. I left safety in my car and I assume the other two people did so on their bikes. They left and I thought they were saying they will pack their bikes and come back to where I was speaking with an officer. I didn't hear them and they must have meant they're leaving since that was the last time I saw them. Hopefully I'll see them this Saturday and let them know I did try to look for them for a while before leaving in my car.\r\n\r\nIf the man shown in the video follows you when you're trying to leave, try to video tape him from a safe distance. Don't be afraid to call the police.\r\n\r\nIf calling the local police, you can call the Dana Point or San Juan Capistrano police.\r\n\r\nThe number for the San Juan Capistrano non-emergency police is 949-443-6369\r\n\r\nThe number for the Dana Point Police services is (949) 248-3500\r\n\r\nIf it's a case of emergency, obviously call 911.\r\n\r\nGood luck.","author":"Jammer Cc","parent_id":192227,"mime_type":"video\/x-ms-wmv","created":"2007-02-02 04:35:29","modified":"2007-02-02 04:35:29","fileurl":"\/usr\/local\/www-domains\/la.indymedia.org\/public\/uploads\/2007\/01\/threats.wmv"},{"id":192573,"heading":"reply","article":"I meant Staples store, not center as in the sports arena. Obviously we weren't in Los Angeles.","author":"Jammer CC","parent_id":192227,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2007-02-02 04:38:39","modified":"2007-02-02 04:38:39","fileurl":""},{"id":192605,"heading":"Anarchists","article":"A lot of anarchists believe they are mainstream, and that normal people don't like authoritarian rule, so they can be persuaded to an anarchist philosophy.\r\n\r\nThe problem is, many people like authoritarian rule, when they happen to benefit from the tyranny.","author":"johnk","parent_id":192227,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2007-02-02 18:32:26","modified":"2007-02-02 18:32:26","fileurl":""},{"id":192646,"heading":"Minutemom","article":"That minutemom chick is hot.","author":"Gabe","parent_id":192227,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2007-02-03 06:02:31","modified":"2007-02-03 06:02:31","fileurl":""},{"id":192648,"heading":"reply","article":"Ask her out at the next rally. You'll recognize her right away. She wears camouflage and is really tall, looks like 6 foot 8 or so. Good luck.","author":"Jammer CC","parent_id":192227,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2007-02-03 08:03:20","modified":"2007-02-03 08:03:20","fileurl":""},{"id":192665,"heading":"Gabe","article":"I think Gabe meant Barbara Coe.","author":"Duh","parent_id":192227,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2007-02-03 21:30:52","modified":"2007-02-03 21:30:52","fileurl":""},{"id":192704,"heading":"reply","article":"Okay then look for the elderly lady who calls certain people &quot;savages.&quot; She wasn't at the rally though.","author":"Jammer CC","parent_id":192227,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2007-02-04 02:20:46","modified":"2007-02-04 02:20:46","fileurl":""},{"id":192707,"heading":"Barbara Coe","article":"Barbara Coe is considered &quot;hot&quot; by some species particularly those with chromosomal differences of only about 3% from the homo sapien (chimps).","author":"scientist","parent_id":192227,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","created":"2007-02-04 02:53:54","modified":"2007-02-04 02:53:54","fileurl":"\/usr\/local\/www-domains\/la.indymedia.org\/public\/uploads\/2007\/02\/chimp_like.jpg","image":{"original":"\/usr\/local\/www-domains\/la.indymedia.org\/public\/uploads\/2007\/02\/chimp_like.jpg"}},{"id":192718,"heading":"reply","article":"Looks like the Minutemen\/SOS will do it again tomorrow morning in less than 12 hours from now. Be sure to view the video clip I posted above and if you see that guy tomorrow, be aware of where he is if he's near you. I don't know his name but the SOS guy with the long hair and beard may know so let the police there know about that. I've already made them aware of this guy but they still need his name and other info. They have their eye on him.","author":"Jammer CC","parent_id":192227,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2007-02-04 05:49:28","modified":"2007-02-04 05:49:28","fileurl":""},{"id":192741,"heading":"reply","article":"I was there just now. Looks like the Minuteman parade didn't bother coming this time. There was only a couple of vehicles of the Minutemen I saw, including that of the bearded guy. They just stood across the street from the day labor site, I guess to take pictures or whatever. Their efforts won't amount to anything. With nothing else to do I headed home. This area is basically hassle-free for hard workers right now.","author":"Jammer CC","parent_id":192227,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2007-02-04 17:57:44","modified":"2007-02-04 17:57:44","fileurl":""},{"id":192744,"heading":"bearded guy","article":"The bearded guy you are referring to is Mike Fair (aka Rockerman in SOS forum).","author":"V","parent_id":192227,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2007-02-04 18:33:52","modified":"2007-02-04 18:33:52","fileurl":""},{"id":192762,"heading":"reply","article":"Yes that is him.\r\n\r\nI suppose the MM\/SOS participants could have went somewhere this morning, maybe Lake Forest or Laguna Beach. If they did, I didn't know about it. I was at Capistrano from about 9am to almost 10am I think, and it was just two or three guys including Rockerman. I didn't see any pick ups. So we all basically drove there for nothing.\r\n\r\nOn the way home I saw another pick up site, possibly one the workers can go to if they're being hassled by the Minutemen. Of course I won't say exactly where. It is in front of a store, which isn't that good or proper, but hopefully the city will consider making a day labor hiring center like the one in Laguna Beach.","author":"Jammer CC","parent_id":192227,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2007-02-05 07:04:00","modified":"2007-02-05 07:04:00","fileurl":""},{"id":192764,"heading":"reply","article":"Their commitment seems to be fading hahahahahahahaha\r\n\r\nhttp:\/\/www.saveourstate.org\/forums\/index.php?showtopic=21805&pid=1050021750&st=0&#entry1050021750","author":"Jammer CC","parent_id":192227,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2007-02-05 10:59:30","modified":"2007-02-05 10:59:30","fileurl":""}]}