Citizen border patrol meets protest in L.A.

LOS ANGELES – The Minuteman Project, the self-proclaimed citizen border patrol that has emerged as a vocal opponent of illegal immigration, arrived in the heart of South Los Angeles on Wednesday hoping to recruit blacks to their cause.

But instead, they were met by protesters, most of them black, who compared the group to the Ku Klux Klan and urged them to take their campaign elsewhere.

The event, billed as the Minuteman Project’s launch of a cross-country caravan to Washington, D.C., quickly devolved into a series of shouting matches between two sides punctuated by honking horns and howls from a megaphone.

And the newspaper, radio and TV reporters far outnumbered the participants.

“The Minuteman organization has never had any concern with the black Americans,” said Najee Ali, a South L.A. community activist who led the protest. “They don’t come into our community and give any assistance to help reduce gang violence, create employment opportunities.”

The project, which gained national attention for its patrols of the U.S.-Mexican border last year, had hoped to gain a sympathetic audience in L.A.’s black community for its message of tighter border controls and stricter laws against illegal immigration.

The group argues that illegal immigration strips jobs from blacks.

Minuteman founder Jim Gilchrist cited high unemployment rates, particularly among black teenagers, to make the same case.

But Ali and others said they don’t buy the message or the motives of the Minuteman Project.

“The same system that wants to criminalize immigration is the same system that disproportionately imprisons black men,” said Monica Morant, a Los Angeles-area resident who decided to protest the event after hearing about it on the radio. The event had less the feel of a dialogue than of counter-protests.

As Ali chanted “Minutemen, go home” through the bullhorn, Gilchrist treated his message as a metaphorical call to arms.

“Minutemen, stand your ground. Do not fire unless fired upon, and if it’s war he wants, then let it begin here,” Gilchrist said.

Gilchrist then yelled, “Let’s roll,” and the members boarded a fleet of RVs, campers and cars to begin their cross-country trek aimed at raising awareness of their cause.

The caravan plans to visit rural and urban communities in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama and Virginia. The group plans to rally in Phoenix and Crawford, Texas, before ending at Capitol Hill.