Minutemen Take Campaign to Maryland

[Shelor]

The Minutemen have crossed the border. After waging a high-profile fight in Northern Virginia against a center where employers can go to hire temporary workers, the anti-illegal immigration group has expanded into Maryland. In recent weeks, its members have patrolled centers funded by the Montgomery County government in Wheaton and Takoma Park that assist day laborers. They also have monitored a Gaithersburg parking lot as well as others in Montgomery and Prince George's County where men gather almost every morning, said Stephen Schreiman, director of the group's new chapter.

"The objective here is to send a clear message to the business community that it's illegal to hire undocumented workers and it's illegal not to pay appropriate taxes," said Schreiman, who couldn't specifically say how many people had joined the new chapter.

The group said it has recruited dozens of volunteers who plan to photograph laborers and the people seeking to hire them at centers in Silver Spring and Baltimore. Typically, three to six people take pictures at each site on any morning, Schreiman said. Day-laborer centers provide jobs for illegal immigrants and should not be funded by a county government, the group says. But advocates for immigrants say the sole purpose is intimidation.

"The good news is that these Minutemen are yet another in the long line of radical fringe groups that will die of their own weight in Montgomery County because they don't speak for Montgomery County," said County Council member Tom Perez (D-Silver Spring). About 40 percent of the county's 930,000 residents are foreign born.



http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/25/AR2006022501495.html

[Lerkfish]

1. so, what do they think about the UAE ports deal?

are they okeydoke with that?

[goforit]

3. LOL!!!.....It's great that these guys are taking an initiative.

Nothing better than setting the Bushies straight.

I guess they are against Sen. Spector's new bill that he is trying
to push (no doubt for Bush)to allow foreigners to work free in this
country for 6 years without any constraints.

Some how I feel this is turning into the Revolution of the
HAVEs and HAVE NOTs

So be it.

[leesa]

2. Yes, and what do they think of Orrin Hatch making everyone legit

At least the idjits found their way out of the woods.

[sharp_stick]

4. How do these morons get paid?

These "minutemen" stand around with video cameras and sidearms as volunteers. How in the hell do they survive, they are generally so stupid that I have a very difficult time believing they are independently wealthy and yet they can spend a month in a lawn chair watching sand.

[iam_ibiza]

5. Are these the best arguments we have against

the Minutemen? That they're stupid and idiots?

Let's assume for a moment that the assessment of their intellectual capacity is accurate. Does that mean that their position is wrong? Their position seems simple and relatively straightforward: illegal immigration is wrong and it is improper and immoral for the county government to encourage and support illegal behavior.

And what's the progressive response? That the county government should encourage and subsidize illegal immigration and the breaking of federal immigration law? If that's your argument, say so. If not, what is the proposed alternative to the influx of millions of illegals?

Please don't respond with an ad hominem attack stating that their position is anti-immigrant. That's specious and false. Their position is anti illegal immigrant, and the difference is substantive and important.

[GOPFighter]

8. The problem with the Minutemen is...

...that they assume every Hispanic day laborer is an illegal immigrant. That's wrong, most are here legally, and work day labor jobs until they can find a regular job. What happens is that the contractors who hire the day laborers get intimidated by the Minutemen with their cameras and threats and stop coming to the centers. Ergo, no jobs for the poor guys who are here legally and just trying to feed their family.

[iam_ibiza]

15. Most are here legally?

Please. There are more than 6 million immigrants here in this country illegally - most from Mexico and Central America. The claim that most of those looking for day labor jobs in Montgomery County are here legally is ridiculous - even they don't make the claim that they are here legally and are being unjustifiably harassed. Even the sympathetic stories in the Washington Post identify them as illegals, but well meaning. But we're faced with a problem: either our laws mean something or they don't. And if you think contractors would be intimidated from hiring legal workers by the Minutemen, you're delusional. If the laborer is here legally and willing to work cheaply, no contractor would avoid hiring them. They are backing off precisely because they know these men are here illegally.

[Solon]

17. 6 million versus over 40 million citizens of Hispanic orgins?

OK, give me the odds again?

http://www.census.gov/population/socdemo/hispanic/ASEC2004/2004CPS_tab1.1a.html

[iam_ibiza]

21. the point remains that nobody is claiming that these

workers are in the country legally. Not the Post, not the Montgomery County government, nobody. In fact, it is simply accepted that these workers are illegal, but so what. The fact that there are 40 million Hispanics in the US legally does not obviate the need to address a critical imigration issue. So what is the answer? Do we intend to enforce our laws and protect our borders or not. Pretty simple question.

[Solon]

23. Interesting choice of words...

The fact that there are 40 million Hispanics in the US legally does not obviate the need to address a critical imigration issue.

Heh, you know I'm talking about citizens, right? Seriously, your choice of words is really insulting to those who have probably had ancestors who have been in this nation longer than your ancestors have been here. Not to mention that, while guarding the borders is a good thing, as a matter of course, there is only so much that can be done, unfortunately, the borders, both of them, are long, and it would soon become prohibitively expensive to guard every mile stretch of it. This includes building walls or fences, they never worked that well historically, and they wouldn't work now. No, that's not the way to prevent people from coming here illegally, what we need to do is examine WHY they come here, lack of jobs in their areas, and then target the source for this uptick in immigration and try to solve the problem, rather than treat the symptoms. This is two fold, what the US can do directly is to prosecute employers with stiff sentences including high fines and jail time when necessary. Now, the next issue is what to do across the border, most people who cross this border are doing it for desparation, many leave family behind, etc. So what to do? Well, we could prosecute American companies that outsource the Factories in Mexico to even cheaper locations(Ford/GM). I don't know how that would work without risking sanctions from the WTO, but we could try.

[oneighty]

16. I wonder what the Native New World Peoples

think about illegal immigration. I would like the hear their opinion.

I am pretty sure my dear old Gramma slipped into the USA around 1890 there abouts (from Canada).

I wonder how many sneakins are in our collective backgrounds.

Just wondering of course. Welcome to DU.

180

[iam_ibiza]

22. what if I concede that my ancestors snuck into

the country? OK, in 1837 they did. Now, does that change the nature of the question being posed? The current problem (not an historical problem) still remains: do we intend to enforce our immigration laws or not. Simple question that has yet to be answered.

[oneighty]

24. We are a global economy as the elite wish it to be.

The barriers are down we are now living in the everyman for himself society.

Competition will be tough and rough.

Some will win some will lose.

I have lost interest to be right honest. But I am not afraid.

Good luck to you.

180

[GOPFighter]

6. But check out this response from CASA...

CASA is a worker's rights group in Montgomery County that runs day laborer centers in the county. According to a spokesman, Gustavo Torres, CASA representitives are going to go out with camers and video cameras and record the Minutemen, then they are going to picket member's homes, their kid's schools, and their workplaces! (This is from a Feb 22 article in a county weekly newspaper, The Gazette).

How's that for a response?! :bounce:

[Ben Ceremos]

7. The brave, patriotic, concerned citizens

who make up the membership of the Minutemen are just like the brave, patriotic concerned citizens who make up the membership of the Ku Klux Klan.
Illegal immigration is the new racist bedsheet and hood. F-U minute brains.

[951-Riverside]

9. I'm against illegal immigration

Am I a member of the KKK?

No.

Am I a neo nazi?

No.

Am I the product of a *legal* immigrant?

Yes.

[MockSwede]

12. BINGO

Immigration - DO IT LEGALLY, like the rest of us. O/W - you get sent back. That way 'immigrant' isn't a DIRTY WORD!

[pretzel4gore]

20. when the iranians overthrew the shah

this was back in 1978/79, they found masses of military equipment still in the crates parked in the desert, tens of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of junk the iranian military couldn't use even if it was trained for it, wasted, and paid for!.....the western media never mentions this (nor does the bush media mention the sale of a dozen plus nuclear power plants foisted on iran, power plants the iranians didn't need, and to think that today these very plants, which are basis of iran's nuke industry, are the reason for bushevik anti-iran NUCLEAR propaganda!)...the point of this missive is that you (we all, in fact) are habituated to blaming the victim of OUR depravity. The US has fukked with every country on earth, and has corrupted every single political system, promoting criminality and theft wherever it could....we will burn in hell if we do not FIX THIS, and maybe a good start is to stop acting tough with desperate people fleeing crime and poverty WE might be entirely responsible for creating....and hell, remember, is eternal

[Solon]

18. I'm against Illegal Immigration too...

But the "solutions" simply suck, the only one even kicked around as serious is the one for prosecuting employers of illegals that know about it. That I can get 100% behind, but some of the other "solutions" are simply stupid, like that wall they want to build, all I can think of with that is "Fortress Amerika!", but that's just me.

[Ben Ceremos]

26. So? Your point being?

You are a Minuteman? If you are, then what I said applies.

[951-Riverside]

29. Applies how?

[Burma Jones]

10. Speaking as a lifetime Montgomery County resident.....

I see these Minutemen as disgruntled racists pissed off that their race alone doesn't entitle them to much these days. Personally, if someone has the balls and energy to make their way here, and doesn't want to blow anything up, then, more power to them. I would rather have 20 illegal immigrants than one more dumb-ass white guy pissed off that his high school diploma and white skin doesn't entitle him to the same salaries as the engineers and scientists that have displaced him at the apex of the pyramid here in MoCo. Skilled workers such as plumbers, carpenters and electricians can make six figures here, my brother is one of them. The immigrants of the 1980's are now entering the ranks of the skilled workers, and many of their kids are succeeding. I also think that they're really pissed at the Asians, who are here legally and tend to have very high paying jobs in Biotech (the Human Genome Project is in Montgomery County), defense, and all sorts of other demanding jobs. I have also heard a lot of bitching and moaning about those "Jews in Potomac"

If these guys REALLY want to end illegal immigration, they will have to get the state and federal governments to severely punish those businesses that hire undocumented workers. Good Luck getting that done, any attempt to do so will label that party as anti-hispanic on one hand, and businesses will have a much smaller pool of low-paid workers from which to choose, so the Money Guys also want illegal immigration and the money guys pretty much dictate who gets elected.....

[MockSwede]

13. Maybe....

so then refocus them on taking pictures of the elected guy and the money guys and get the illegal (hiring) shut down.

[Burma Jones]

28. If they want to shut down hiring of illegals, they should do just that

But they don't, rather they go after the player with the least amount of power - the immigrant....which is why I think it's more about intimidating Illegals and feeling better by bullying a few individuals rather than confronting the power structure that benefits from illegal immigration.

[Leilani]

11. The hypocrisy of the Dems

Dems are up in arms about port security, yet have no concerns about border security.

And by echoing Bush's accusations of vigilantes against these people, they are falling right into the NeoCons plans of a few at the top, & the rest of us struggling to make ends meet.

The flood of illegal immigration is in the interests of the "New World Order" proposed by Poppy Bush....lots of cheap labor to keep the lower class from achieving upward mobility, & to keep the middle class stagnant at best, at worst losing ground.

The illegal surge goes hand in hand with jobs gone offshore, & work visas for foreigners to came here & replace American workers.

Bush has said those opposed to the port sale are racists; he says the same thing about those opposed to illegal immigration.

By the way, his trip to India is for "opening new markets."

The Senate takes up the Border situation, guest workers, etc in the next 2 weeks.

I'm still waiting to hear a Dem plan.

All I hear is accusations of racism, xenophobe, etc.

And I hear the vast majority of Americans laughing at the concept of Dems are the party for "working people."

And it's not a happy laugh.

[Solon]

19. Your quote here:

The illegal surge goes hand in hand with jobs gone offshore, & work visas for foreigners to came here & replace American workers.

Is actually more true than you know, for Mexican and Central American workers are also seeing their jobs being outsourced at the mantle of "free" trade, and all I can say is that the rich here get richer and the poor and middle class in all these nations, including ours, get poorer.

ON EDIT: Besides, just an FYI, Bush is the one who proposed the plan to pardon all illegal immigrants and let them stay indefinately, most Democrats opposed that plan, and Republican xenophobes, the base, didn't like it either, so no real hypocrisy there.

[MADem]

14. Well, if we can outsource our ports to the UAE, we can solve this issue

by outsourcing our BORDER SECURITY to the CHINESE!!!

Hell, they sure know how to build a GREAT WALL!!!!! Slap one of those babies up, and we'll all be experiencing more than one DAY WITHOUT A MEXICAN (great film, BTW).

[depakid]

25. Wow. The anti-immigrant sentiment here never fails to shock me

In one sense- I sort of admire the so called minutemen. At least they're acting on the same types of sentiments I hear expressed in some of these posts.

Others just bitch about it- while holding the same sorts of ill conceived opinions (prejudices) toward undocumented workers, the vast majority of whom come here to escape abject poverty or starvation. Many of these people send a substantial percentage of their paltry wages back home to their families.

Obviously, I have a problem with companies failing to pay the appropriate taxes- and they need to be held accountable for that. Not that the workers will ever see a dime in benefits from their payroll taxes- but that doesn't excuse companies who try to get over on the system.

A lot of day labors get hired out to do fairly simple things for individuals- moving, heavy yard work, improvement projects, etc. So they get a few bucks here and there- why does that bother people?

Welp- seems to me that some of you might consider hat it would be like if the shoe were on the other foot. What if you were a refugee trying to get out of an economically decimated and politically oppressive nation to keep your families from starving?

Could be that day will come. And people will think of you just like you think of them. Probably worse, if you have an American accent.

[Ben Ceremos]

27. I agree.

It smells like a whites-only barbeque.

[951-Riverside]

30. You forgot to add *illegal* to your subject

Stop trying to tie legal immigrants (immigrants) with *illegal* immigrants (aka *illegal* aliens) its no better than Bush trying to tie 9/11 with Iraq.

[depakid]

31. Proof positive.

I rest my case.

[lynne]

32. Something the WP failed to include in its article -

- From MD Gazette http://www.gazette.net/stories/022206/wheanew213954_31988.shtml

"And while Stephen Schreiman, president of the Maryland chapter of the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps, said his group would work covertly for the time being, Casa of Maryland, a workers’ rights group that runs day laborer centers in Silver Spring, Wheaton and Takoma Park, said it would take the opposite approach, threatening to picket the Minutemen’s homes, workplaces and even their children’s schools."

Casa of Maryland is threatening to PICKET MINUTEMEN CHILDREN'S SCHOOLS??? I've got a big problem with any faction - don't care which one - using children as an outlet for their anger.