Three years later, the government had done nothing to secure the borders, and Jim Gilchrist decided that letters and phone calls to politicians clearly weren t enough. On October 1, 2004 he founded The Minuteman Project and launched a recruiting program that called together patriotic Americans to stand watch on the borders, report to the Border Patrol, and try to stem the tide of illegals and terrorists who daily, in the thousands, infiltrate America. With about 1,200 volunteers from every state in the union Gilchrist and his hand-picked co-organizers successfully conducted the largest minuteman assembly since 1776.

For his efforts, Gilchrist, a wounded combat Marine veteran and retired CPA, has been routinely attacked by the usual suspects: special interests, pro-unrestricted immigration groups, supporters of amnesty, drug lords, and others, in and out of government.

Jim Gilchrist is under attack from a different sort of terrorist: covert subversives who managed to gain Gilchrist’s trust, only to breach that trust by attempting to kidnap the child he founded. Gilchrist has effectively led The Minuteman Project since its inception, but according to the propaganda voiced by these brazen corporate raiders, Gilchrist is a bad guy. These hostile corporate raiders claim they are taking over The Minuteman Project to “save” it.

Save it? Hijack and take it over, is a more apt description, says Steve Eichler, The Minuteman Project s Executive Director. He supports Gilchrist and is outraged at the high-handed manner in which a gang of isolated insiders have moved to oust Gilchrist.

Deborah Courtney, Marvin Stewart, and Barbara Coe have all been trusted confidantes, said Eichler, and it is devastating to Jim and me, personally, to realize that they have been covertly manipulating to take over the Minuteman Project.

Courtney, Stewart and Coe claim that they are the Minuteman Project, by virtue of them having voted Gilchrist off the Project s so-called board of directors, a board that never existed.

That s pretty funny, says Eichler. The Minuteman Project is incorporated under Delaware law, and Jim is the only corporate officer. There is no board, so just how is it that three supposed board members meet secretly and vote off the founder and president, then vote to give themselves access to the bank accounts and withdraw money? What will they claim next, that Marvin L. Stewart is the president of the United States in an attempt to oust the president from the White House?

These people were simply confidantes and a board of advisors. explained Gilchrist. They were not a decision-making corporate board. Even if the seven-person board they claim to have been a part of existed, how could three people, who couldn t even constitute a quorum, meet secretly without notifying the others, and take any sort of legal action?

There is also the question of bank fraud, adds Eichler. Deborah Courtney, Marvin Stewart, and another person went to the bank with bogus paperwork, seized the Project’s bank account and withdrew Minuteman Project funds, causing the Project’s outstanding checks to bounce. We re not talking about a simple policy disagreement, here. This is white collar crime, and we intend to pursue it as such.

An Orange County Times article ( Ousted Minuteman leader seeks court remedy, by Jennifer Dilson, Feb 27, 2007) refers to the non-existent board of directors having ousted Gilchrist, and refers to Gilchist s claim that the renegade board had stolen 20,000 letterhead stationery and envelopes bearing Gilchrist’s personal signature, had hacked into the Minuteman Project s website, and had stolen money from the Project s bank accounts (about $4,000, according to Gilchrist, who filed a criminal report of theft with the Orange County Sheriff), and had diverted money from other sources. Gilchrist plans to meet with investigators from the Federal Bureau of Investigation next week to discuss any federal criminal violations that may have been perpetrated by the takeover collaborators.

Gilchrist is concerned that Courtney, Stewart and Coe will use the stolen Minuteman Project materials, including access to the Project s mailing list, to send out bogus appeals for funds. Our supporters are dedicated patriots. They don t deserve to be deceived by bogus fund-raising appeals, says a concerned Gilchrist.

Attorneys for both sides presented their case Feb 26 to Orange County Judge Randell L. Wilkinson. This morning the court ruled in Gilchrist’s favor by expediting the matter and setting a court date for a formal hearing on March 21 at 1:30 PM in Santa Ana Superior Court.

“These bank executives obviously care nothing about our national identity or security,” says Gilchrist, but says he is stopping short of calling for a nationwide boycott of Bank of America, and of any other bank which makes it easier for illegal aliens to continue to break our laws and strain American society.

B/A’s program doesn’t even require any credit history, except having had a checking account with the bank for three months without an overdraft, according to reports by Reuters and the Wall Street Journal.

“Imagine that!” exclaims Gilchrist. “Average Americans have to work hard for years to create a decent credit rating, but an illegal alien can waltz into a B/A branch, open a checking account, and three months later, can open a credit card account! Am I the only person who sees that this is a recipe for disaster?”

In addition to the obvious problems of security and societal disruption which illegal aliens create, Gilchrist, whose background include being a certified public accountant, lists these: increasing costs of credit, which will be passed on to other credit card holders, as illegals default on credit card obligations; rising interest rates, as illegals compete for loans; rising real estate costs, as illegals drive up housing prices; higher transportation costs, as illegals add to congestion and demand for autos and oil; and increasing costs of security, police, and jails, as illegals continue to represent a large proportion of criminal activity.

“I just can’t support businesses which support illegal aliens,” says Gilchrist, but so far, he is stopping short of calling on Minuteman Project volunteers and all others who are concerned about the illegal alien invasion to boycott Bank of America and other big businesses. When asked if he, personally, will be doing any business with BofA until the bank changes its policies, he responded with a definite “no,” and left the door open for a general boycott.

After being sentenced, both men turned themselves in for incarceration in federal prison — and Ramos has already been brutally kicked and beaten by illegal alien inmates.

“This is an outrageous railroad job,” fumes Gilchrist. “These men could have fled, but they didn’t. At the very least, they should be out on bail pending appeal. They certainly shouldn’t be mixed in with the prisoners they or their fellow Border Patrol agents put there!”

“Our members from around the nation are disgusted with a government which ignores its duty to secure our borders, then grants Constitutional rights to illegal non-citizens and persecutes the people who risk their lives to protect us,” Gilchrist continues, “and as a former Marine, I can’t have much respect for a Commander-in-Chief who doesn’t stand by his troops.”

Gilchrist and others are convinced there are serious flaws in the prosecution which led to the border agents’ convictions. Evidence was reportedly withheld, the illegal alien drug smuggler was given immunity to testify against the agents, and some jurors have reported feeling “coerced” into delivering a guilty verdict.

“We cannot stand idly by if border agents are railroaded, so in addition to our work of monitoring border activities, we are establishing a citizens’ investigation commission to look into this Ramos/Compian situation, starting with a thorough review of the federal attorney’s procedures and motivations,” states Gilchrist. “We believe that federal attorney Johnny Sutton was, at the least, overzealous in his prosecution of these agents.”

Gilchrist is considering plans for a press conference at the courthouse in El Paso, where he would present the concerns of the Minuteman Project’s membership, and outline plans for a citizens’ investigation commission.

Concurrently, Gilchrist pledges that he and Minuteman Project volunteers from around the nation will be working to gain a Presidential Pardon for the two agents. Petitions are circulating, and calls, faxes and e-mails are being sent — and the number of congressmen calling for pardons, led by Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO), has already grown to over one hundred, an unusual — possibly unprecedented — situation.

If Gilchrist, Tancredo and others are correct, federal attorney Sutton’s prosecution could be the spark that lights the fuse of citizen rebellion against federal mismanagement and possible corruption at the highest levels. The American people, according to spokesmen for the patriot community, are fed up with empty promises, such as legislation to build a fence, but no funding for the fence; and backroom big money dealing which seems to benefit only politicians and drug dealers, at the expense of the American people.

The Iowa Chapter of the Minuteman will protest January 19, 2007 outside the Embassy Suites Hotel in Des Moines, located at 101 Locust Street, in opposition to the Moving America Forward Conference, which seeks to promote the building of a highway stretching from Mexico to Canada with only one border checkpoint proposed for Kansas City, Mo. The Minutemen seek to ensure the United States does not construct a highway that will serve as a pipeline for increasing the illegal drug trade and the illegal immigration crisis plaguing our nation.

“This highway will serve as a super bridge to illegal immigration,” states Craig Halverson, Iowa State Director for the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps and a Griswold resident. “We need to increase security on the borders and keep Middle America from being exposed and vulnerable to these lawbreakers.”

The Iowa Minutemen, like their counterparts around the country, will continue to place pressure on Congress and the President to increase border security first rather than support amnesty legislation like that proposed in the “Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act Of 2007” (S.9). Members of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps have already been volunteering their time and money towards the building of a fence on the U.S.-Mexico border since Congress has refused to appropriate funds towards the construction of the border fence it “authorized” last session.

The Iowa Minuteman realize that the proposed road, which is masked as a means for increasing economic development for the transportation industry, is a direct threat to our national security and sovereignty.

The Minutemen Civil Defense Corps (MCDC) is a peaceful, law-abiding and citizen-led initiative organized to stand watch at our borders and in our neighborhoods, report illegal activities to the proper authorities, and build border fencing on private lands using private donations. Additionally, MCDC seeks to urge local and federal officials to enforce our immigration laws in order to keep our families and country safe. MCDC conducts border watch operations that assist the activities of the U.S. Border Patrol, reports employers of illegal aliens, and advocates to keeps tax dollars from being used for illegal alien benefits.

A STRONG PRESENCE WILL KEEP OUR COUNTRY SAFE

Dozens of volunteers from the Minutemen served on the United States-Mexico Border alongside National Guard troops and Border Patrol agents this past weekend in response to the drug cartels who incited acts of aggression last week forcing national guard troops to retreat. For the last few years, Minuteman members have assisted Border Patrols agents in the apprehension of over 10,000 illegal crossers, many of whom were transporting drugs, and have since witnessed the west desert corridor become the busiest in the Tucson Sector for marijuana and contraband seizures.

“I am not at all shocked by this incursion; our President and federal government have sent these lawbreakers a message of immunity if caught, and a helping hand to accomplish their criminal goals,” stated spokesmen Al Garza. “Our nation is being overrun by the influx of illegal aliens as well as drug cartels that show no signs of fear in crossing our border because the federal government refuses to do the job they were elected to do, and refrain from supporting the open border advocates.”

Garza continues: “The Minutemen have taken notice of this incursion and will no longer tolerate our federal government’s refusal to secure our borders and protect our public safety rather than promote illegal activity and cooperate with corporate America to exploit human beings for their cheap labor. The deployment of the National Guard is not only mandatory, it is the duty of our elected officials to enforce immigration laws, but the Minutemen will gladly volunteer their time until our government gets its priorities straight.”

The Minutemen are peaceful, law-abiding and citizen-led initiative organized to stand watch at our borders and in our neighborhoods, report illegal activities to the proper authorities. Additionally, the Minutemen seek to urge local and federal officials to enforce our immigration laws in order to keep our families and country safe. The Minutemen conduct border watch operations that assist the activities of the U.S. Border Patrol, reports employers of illegal aliens and advocates to keeps tax dollars from being used for illegal alien benefits.