Border control advocates' talk protested

Sunday, June 26, 2005

BY BRIAN DONOHUE

Star-Ledger Staff

Demonstrators disrupted a meeting in Bridgewater yesterday of a group organizing civilian patrols to catch illegal immigrants along the nation's border.

The group, the United Patriots of America, drew about two dozen people from New Jersey and Pennsylvania to a function room overlooking the ice rink at the Bridgewater Sports Arena.

The group's goal is to pressure the government to toughen enforcement of immigration laws and tighten the nation's borders.

About 60 protesters marched outside the meeting denouncing the group's stated goals as veiled racism. Four protesters were arrested, including two who were among a group that sneaked into the meeting and disrupted it with loud chants of "fascists go home."

The meeting resumed with members of the Somerset County SWAT team lining the sidewalk outside the arena to prevent protesters from entering.

Members of the group said the protesters were trying to smear an organization whose focus is to protect the jobs of U.S. workers and prevent terrorists from entering the country.

"We are not against immigrants," said Ron Bass, a Linden resident and organizer of yesterday's meeting. "We make a direct distinction between legal and illegal. We are about securing our borders, and we want the laws of our country respected and obeyed."

In addition to Bass' group, yesterday's meeting included representatives from the New Jersey Citizens for Homeland Defense and the Minuteman Civil Defense Corp., which leads civilian patrols on the U.S.-Mexico border.

The group's primary goal, Bass said, was to organize a political movement to push for tougher enforcement of immigration laws.

The group also is seeking to recruit locals for the Minuteman Project, a volunteer effort that sent hundreds of people in April to Arizona, where they patrolled the U.S.-Mexico border calling Border Patrol agents when they spotted illegal migrants.

Those patrols also drew protests from immigrant rights groups. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security criticized the group, fearing they would interfere with the U.S. Border Patrol activities.

The group, now called the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, plans to conduct another operation in October, this time adding patrols in New Mexico, California and Texas.

While organizations affiliated with the Minutemen effort have held meetings recently in several states, the local organizers have struggled to dodge disruptive protests.

In February, the United Patriots of America were forced to call off a meeting on Staten Island when immigrant advocates contacted the hotel the group had rented and persuaded them to cancel.

In April, protesters contacted the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Freehold, whose site the group had booked, prompting the VFW to cancel the group's meeting. When the group moved to a diner, protesters contacted the diner owner who also canceled.

The advocates were chased from a second diner when protesters showed up and began picketing outside and finally met at a diner in Union County.

Protesters again yesterday said they hoped to shut down the meeting and prevent the Minutemen from organizing in New Jersey.