Avowed racists either infiltrating the Tennessee Volunteer Minutemen or joining the anti-Hispanic chorus was an inevitable result of the organization’s efforts to oppose illegal immigration, officials say. 

The Morristown-based Tennessee Volunteer Minutemen continues to maintain it has no ties to racist groups, but unspecified “intelligence” sources confirmed the presence of Ku Klux Klan among Minutemen at a protest rally Saturday, according to Hamblen County Mayor David Purkey.

“I think that the situation as we’re seeing it development is pretty typical,” Purkey said this morning. “As a former Tennessee Bureau of Investigation agent, I can say that it is normal for outside organizations to take advantage of local issues to further their questionable agenda.

“This has been my fear all along, and I think Saturday was clear evidence of this,” Purkey added.

The protest rally coincided with the initial Morristown public meeting of Alianza del Pueblo, a Knoxville-based organization formed to promote civil rights awareness among Hispanics.

Protesters taunted Alianza supporters and shouted racial slurs and thinly veiled threats of violence toward Hispanics at the meeting, which was held on the lawn of the Hamblen County Courthouse.
“Where you have a spark of intolerance, you’re always going to get somebody who wants to cross the line into violence, and the Morristown Police Department has been ready at each case, and I think we showed that Saturday,” Morristown Mayor Gary R. Johnson said this morning.

“When (the Minutemen) meet again, we will be prepared with overwhelming force should anything like that happen again,” Johnson added. 

What’s significant, Johnson says, is none of the principals involved in the debate are from Morristown or Hamblen County.

The Tennessee Volunteer Minutemen was formed by a gubernatorial candidate who was born in Ohio and resides in Sevier County. The man who identifies himself as the organization’s public-relations officer hails from south Florida.

The founder of Alianza, who reportedly has a financial interest in an employment company employing large numbers of Hispanics, is from Knoxville. One of Alianza’s spokeswomen is originally from Canada, and some of the speakers at Saturday’s rally are from outside the Lakeway Area.

“The fact that these folks are, for some reason, focusing on our community for their free speech activities is disturbing,” Johnson said. “I don’t see anything good coming from this attention.” 

Some protesters’ wrath was directed toward government officials and law enforcement officials the protesters believe are largely responsible for the influx of undocumented Hispanics over the past decade.

More than one protester leveled invectives specifically at Hamblen County Deputy Jose Peralez, who was born in south Texas. Peralez attempted to diffuse the protesters’ scorn by reminding them he was a U.S. citizen.

Purkey and Johnson say they want to remind people neither the Hamblen County Sheriff’s Department nor the MPD have any authority to enforce federal immigration legislation.

“We have no authority locally to deport these people,” Purkey said. “We have to depend on federal immigration officials to do that.”

Johnson echoed Purkey’s response and adds it’s time for leadership in Washington to address the growing problem of illegal immigration.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson declared a “state of emergency” Friday in four counties along the Mexican border he claims have been “devastated” by the smuggling of drugs and illegal immigrants.

“When states start having to declare states of emergency for these types of things, you have to realize that the federal machine that deals with these types of things is broken,” Johnson said.