Minuteman National Blog

Minuteman Corps of California (MCC) has had over 175 participants since October 1st, heavy on weekends, and much lighter during the weekdays. We have enough to man our line, but not as many as we would like. We aided Border Patrol in 6 confirmed apprehensions; with a report on another 6 outcome unknown.

Funny thing, I was driving to the line, running a little late when I spotted a group of 5 crossing a ranch and running toward Hwy 8, about 3 miles west of a Border Patrol checkpoint.

I put the call out on the radio & waited by the side of the road approximately. 1/2 mile from the location where they crossed they highway. I watched in my rearview mirror to see if they crossed the westbound lanes. Perhaps not wanting to scale the sheer cliff on the other side of the westbound lanes, they re-crossed the eastbound lanes just in time for Border Patrol to pull up and offer a lift.

Fox News was trailing behind me in traffic & saw the whole thing & mentioned it on air all day while they were on our line.

One more affirmation of the SOP.

The rumor about the Mexican National Guard planning to conduct exercises south of our position turned out to be just that: a rumor. About 30 to 40 protesters showed up on both sides of the border.

We kept everyone on our line sitting down under their shade tents or standing behind them. This effectively de-escalated a potentially violent situation. It was our intent to expose them as the aggressors to any and all cameras present, and it worked. This strategy in combination with the presence of Law Enforcement, defused a potentially volatile situation.

That same day, Jim Gilchrist came down, manned a post and brought supplies and lunch for all the minutemen on the line.

Chock up another point for the SOP.

Another incident occurred on Sunday, Oct 9th that was worthy of note. A small contingent of protesters showed up at about 2 PM including Gente Unida, Angels of the Desert, and some anarchists. What was particularly interesting was a blue pickup truck that drove slowly down our line with no license plate, flying the Confederate Flag from their aerial. The skinheads driving the truck tried to park close to the minutemen, but never succeeded in infiltrating our ranks. A few of the protesters pointed at the vehicle, saying, "see the minutemen are racists." It was a very pathetic attempt to smear us and it failed.

We are operating our day line in O''neill Valley, where we have been very effective at getting a little news out each day, albeit to local print reporters, but on Saturday, we did have Fox News on Saturday shooting live shots, and Canadian Television also came down.

The Minuteman Corps of California is staging out of a campground called OUTDOOR WORLD in Boulevard, CA. The owner, Dimitri, is a legal immigrant and a huge supporter of the Minutemen. He has 183 acres, and owns the access road off the main highway so the protesters cannot get anywhere near us. He has offered a special rate for Minutemen, and has given us the use of his conference center for training sessions.

We were treated to a full Italian dinner on two nights due to the culinary expertise of one of our leader''s wives, who cooks from her heart. It was a wonderful way to unwind and get to know one another after a long day on the line.

Of particular note:

We have a minuteman in our midst who is famous in his own right. Dr. Johan Hultin, is a world-renowned pathologist, credited in 1949 with discovering a corpse as a young researcher in the Alaskan wilderness who died of the 1918 Spanish Flu (now recognized as avian flu). Almost 50 years later, he went back to retrieve the tissue sample used to recreate the deadly virus in order to develop a vaccine for the current version of the avian flu. This week he has been interviewed by dozens of reporters, and he has told every single one of them that he is a minuteman. We are proud to have him in our ranks.

Dr. Hultin was recently profiled in The Des Moines Register.

We also have a man named Greg Sheehan, who flew out all the way from Altoona, Pennsylvannia to join our border watch. He carries with him a heavy burden: telling the horrific tale of a triple homicide to all who will listen. Greg is a soft-spoken minuteman who is as humble as he is tall. Here is his story:

In late August of this year "Miguel Padilla, the alleged killer, attacked Alfred Mignogna, a local businessman, Fred Rickabaugh, a worker at the veterans club, and Stephen Heiss, a Marine veteran, and killed them in cold blood. Stephen had just returned home from serving in Iraq and jumped in front of his fiancée taking the bullet that otherwise would have ended her life and instead took his. It is terrible enough when a murder occurs, but to have it happen by someone who should not have been here adds to the despair.

Padilla had been living in the US illegally for fifteen years, had a driver''s license, a registered car, graduated from Penn-Cambria High School and has been arrested twice before for assault with a knife and illegal possession of a gun.

"This is an example that happens far too often in our country. When police had Padilla in custody during these arrests they contacted Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE did nothing and they have no answers to this day. Three murders could have been prevented. It is outrageous for Padilla to go unnoticed in our country for that long, especially with prior arrests. It is hard enough to find illegal aliens, but when they are handed over to federal authorities action needs to be taken" this according to Congressman Bill Shuster of Pennsylvania.

Greg Sheehan needed to do something. He had heard of the Minutemen a year earlier and joined their April watch in Arizona. This week Sheehan and a local CBS television crew travel to East San Diego County to help secure a portion of America''s borders hoping to prevent another Padilla from entering illegally.

"Greg is but one of thousands of volunteers nationwide that have been personally touched this national crisis. Having thousands of unknown individuals enter our country each day is an unacceptable risk after 9/11," said Tim Donnelly, Leader of the Minuteman Corps of California.

We can always use a few more good men and women. Please register at http://www.minutemanhq.com/hq/ or call us at 619-407-7073.

Godspeed.

Tim Donnelly Leader, Minuteman Corps of California