The Sun News - Minuteman group forms in Horry

Posted on November 14, 2007 
Filed Under News

Marshaling their frustration and fury against what they see as an invasion, at least 150 people on Friday transformed the library here into a staging ground for the local fight against illegal immigrants.
“We have a big problem and our government is not going to do anything about it, so we have to make them,” said organizer Patricia Matthews.

The meeting heralded the formation of Horry County’s chapter of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, a national group that advocates for border security and sends its own members to the Mexican border to assist federal agents in their patrols.

At the Horry County chapter’s inaugural meeting citizens mostly vented their anger.

“They want us to assimilate to their lifestyle. Sorry, this is our country,” Bobbie McLaughlin, a former Southern California resident now living in Socastee, said after the meeting. “They’re more than welcome to come here, if they do it through legal channels.”

During the meeting, public officials described the impact of illegal immigrants on local services.

Paul Whitten, Horry Country Public Safety director, said a one-day “snapshot study” in May found 46 suspected illegal immigrants among the J. Reuben Long Detention Center’s 634 inmates. If the snapshot is accurate, the county spends $850,000 a year jailing illegal immigrants, he said.

In a brief address, state Minuteman President George Mabry told the residents they can stop the immigration, if they put enough pressure on elected officials.

“We’ve got to get rid of them, one way or another,” Mabry said.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil-rights organization in Montgomery, Ala., classifies the Minuteman group as a “nativist extremist” organization, meaning members use force to target people they oppose, rather than simply trying to change the law, said Heidi Beirich, deputy director of the center’s intelligence project.

She said tactics vary from chapter to chapter, but some members aggressively confront people they believe to be illegal immigrants, or harass employers who hire from day-labor sites.

The Minuteman Web site touts itself as a peaceful movement, urging members not to verbally confront suspected illegal immigrants.

Those exhortations for peace, however, mixed at the Friday’s meeting with the rhetoric of war.

“Millions of illegal aliens, that’s an invading army, the way I’m looking at it,” said organizer and state Rep. Thad Viers, who closed his comments by saying. “We’re going to start another revolution to get our country back.”

THE SUN NEWS
Minuteman group forms in Horry
Chapter hears of illegal immigrants’ costs to county

By Robert Morris - The Sun News