In a CNN commentary entitled "Minutemen have a right to be idiotic", Ruben Navarette Jr. a member of the editorial board of the San Diego Union-Tribune, and someone in my opinion who seems way more racist than anything he accuses the Minuteman Project of doing, had a few things to say.

Here's what he says about the Minutemen and those of us who want enforcement of our immigration laws.

... a gang of misfits who have been labeled "vigilantes" by President Bush and which includes members of hate groups ... It's not my posse who ... prowl the U.S.-Mexico border chasing Mexicans -- admittedly, not an easy thing to do when you're carrying a lawn-chair and a cooler of beer.

...

I have little tolerance for wannabes who play cop and even less for those who play with fire by taking up a cause that appeals to nativists and hooligans.

...

It is the same lesson we all learned in 1977 when a group of Nazis wanted to march in Skokie, Illinois, a mostly Jewish suburb of Chicago. The question of whether they should be allowed to march split the Jewish community, pitting civil libertarians against community activists. The Nazis won the right to march when the courts held they had a First Amendment right to express their views even if their message was vile and deliberately provocative.

That's a good standard. Good enough for the Nazis, good enough for the Minutemen.

Wow, I'm a nativist hooligan because I want illegal immigration stopped. Who woulda thunk it.

Jim Gilchrist isn't going to rest on his laurels and let this guy get away with it. He wrote into CNN with his own commentary entitled "Don't fall for media's spin about the Minutemen" regarding the Ruben Navarrette statements above.

His litany of name-calling and bogus accusations against The Minuteman Project membership places him solidly in the category of propagandist journalists who "spin" their stories to suit their bias -- valid facts and objectivity be damned.

...

Under the penumbra of supporting free speech, he creates a wholly fictitious connection between The Minuteman Project and the Nazis who wanted to march ... leading his uncritical readers to false assumptions and conclusions. Navarrette calls The Minuteman Project viewpoint "offensive speech" and says the project promotes inaccuracy, intolerance and idiocy.

...

In fact, Minuteman volunteers only observe and report; they do not chase or confront and they do not drink on duty. There has never been a violent incident initiated by volunteers. By contrast, in the past 18 months, nonviolent Minuteman volunteers nationwide have been victims of more than 50 acts of violence against their property and persons by deviants opposed to freedom of speech. Much of this violence is encouraged by propagandist journalists like Navarrette, whose words inflame readers and foster hostility.

Gilchrist doesn't realize that in the illegal alien community, violence against citizens and those here legally who are opposed to them, is open season. After all they aren't citizens they are invaders. They haven't assimilated and don't intend to. They've already broken a law coming here why not break more? Then in the end they can always claim that they are the true victim of racism or a hate crime because someone is voicing opposition to their illegal status.

They don't understand free speech because they refuse to follow American laws, don't know what America really is all about and just think that America owes them something.

So where are the racists within the Minuteman project? Gilchrist points them out.

Navarrette implies racism, but never says exactly which of The Minuteman Project volunteers is racist. Could it be the African-American members? Or the Asians or Hispanics? Perhaps he refers to the Native American Indian members? Maybe Navarrette means the Jewish members of The Minuteman Project?

Of course, there are European-Caucasian members. Ah-hah! In the twisted perception of the propagandist journalist, any organization with at least one white person must be, ipso facto, a racist organization.

In fact, The Minuteman Project is a multiethnic, pro-legal immigration, law enforcement advocacy group. Minuteman volunteers are teachers, college professors, taxi drivers, truckers, construction laborers, lawyers, college students, CPAs, surgeons and physicians, retired police officers, veterans, homemakers, authors, PhDs, politicians, grandparents, and naturalized citizens -- Americans who simply want to help protect their country from the problems of illegal immigration.

One would be hard pressed to find another national fraternity with a more diverse membership of race, color, creed, age, or vocation. Membership is about 25 percent non-whites and 55 percent women. The board of directors includes women and a black American with a master's degree from the University of Southern California.

People like Navarette don't actually investigate what they are talking about. They simply see this movement to enforce immigration law as a sudden hate of Mexicans instead of a group of fed up citizens who are sick of their communities falling apart around them due to the massive increase in illegal immigration over the past decade.

Illegal immigration has always been with us, but only lately has it come in such a flood that people have seen the true impacts that it is having and now are standing up to end it. For people like Navarette to see this as anything other than related to this wave of invaders just shows his short sighted and quick playing of the race card anytime illegal immigration is mentioned.

America simply cannot absorb this constant flow of millions of illegal aliens across our border each year and maintain the standards and services that it currently enjoys. It is simply impossible. Either we ignore this problem by agreeing with politically correct words, fear mongers, race card players and inaction or we stand up and fight for what is ours.

In this case the fighting is being done by volunteers alerting law enforcement and speaking out. To suggest they are detaining illegal aliens and hunting them like animals is simply wrong and Navarette should have to pay the price with his job. To so falsely accuse a group of things they aren't doing when you sit on the editorial board of a news paper shows that you don't know how to do simple research.