Minutemen Invade Phoenix : AZ IMC

“NO RACIAL ATTACKS!” their event announcement says. It's polite of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps to try to keep their message clean of blatant racism, but just the fact that they have to demand that of their event attendees gives you some insight into what this is all about.

They've started protesting in areas of Phoenix where a lot of day laborers stand waiting for work. On November 12th, the minutemen protested near the Macehualli Work Center off of Bell Rd., and on November 19th, they protested at 36th St. and Thomas. Twenty to thirty people held signs such as “Mayor and Governer: This is OUR Katrina” (?!?!), “How many are too many?” “It is illegal to hire illegals.” They were waving their american flags like they wanted to wipe the workers away with them.

On November 12th, they stood at the corners of a major intersection near the work center, but soon marched to the center, attempting to aggressively gain access, despite the center being private property. Calm workers closed the gate on them to keep them out, but it didn't keep them from yelling or taking photos of the people inside through the gate. A lot of harassment went on. Clearly an attempt at intimidation, a minuteman told the workers that their pictures would be put on the internet, although the threat seems rather pointless. Technically they were breaking the law by trespassing, but clearly only immigration laws mean anything to them. The police were called, and although the protesters demanded the immigrants be deported, all the police did was tell the minutemen and co. to stay on the opposite side of the street from the center because it was indeed private property.

The minutemen must have realized their harassment was only making them look bad, because they toned it down a little the next weekend (or maybe their bullhorn just ran out of battery power). However, a local woman from a neighborhood watch group made up for the lack of amplified harassment. First she was telling the media that most criminals are Mexicans, and then she was yelling, arguing, flailing her arms, and chastising the workers for not knowing the pledge of allegiance. I overheard a minuteman saying something like “She doesn't know better, she's not a minuteman”. I took this to mean she doesn't know to keep her racist anger to herself. The minutemen want an image that does not appear racist nor frantic.

Some of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps members, such as Stacey O'Connell, don't follow their own Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), which states that they "are courteous to everyone with whom they come into contact" and "do not verbally contact, physically gesture to or have any form of communications with suspected Illegal Aliens". One might figure since they were harassing people that they decided not to follow this SOP while they're not at the border, but in fact their event announcement they said "We operate under our MM (Minuteman) SOP." I guess the SOP is a bunch of BS just like their claims that the MM SOB's are not racist.

The protests were intended to focus on employers of undocumented immigrants, although they aimed most of their harassment towards the immigrants. They wanted to keep the workers from getting picked up for work in that particular area and they may have succeeded to some extent for a short time. Although many of the workers weren't picked up for the three hours that the minutemen were there, it seemed to be a bonding experience amongst their crowd as they cheered while some workers and supporters interviewed for spanish-language media.

The preference of those organizing with day laborers was that there not be a counter-demonstration to oppose the minutemen. Legal observers came out to make sure no one's rights were being violated. A couple folks showed up later on with anti-racist signs, which made their way into media photos.

The minutemen and various other anti-immigrant folks don't like to be called racist. Surely we can call it racism, but we must acknowledge the complexity of their position on immigration. Their problem is with the act of crossing the border illegally, living here illegally, working illegally, not speaking English, “not being educated,” etc. They're prejudiced, but it's not just about race.

For the most part, anti-immigrant folks feel completely comfortable scape-goating people who don't have much control over any of the actual problems that cause their situation, having to move to the US in order to support themselves and families. A handful of those against immigration take a position against the poor conditions in Mexico and the United States' role in the creation of those conditions. A few realize that U.S. interests lie in the exploitation of workers and that they're complicit in illegal immigration for the cheap labor. The rest (and some of the formerly-mentioned) just blame the immigrants and talk about them or treat them like they're less than human, which is why they're called racist.

Many want all undocumented immigrants deported as soon as possible. This includes children and adults who have never lived in another country. It's common for anti-immigrant folks to equate undocumented with terrorists or to call them all rapists.

Ignore the folks who use racial stereotypes, allegations of immorality, etc. for a moment and let's consider those who say they're not racist. It is commonly said by anti-immigrant folks that undocumented immigrants have a detrimental affect on "our culture". These sorts of statements imply that there is one culture in the US. Most people would disagree that there is one culture in the US. If we are to use their fallacy and talk about one U.S. culture being destroyed, disrespected, or somehow otherwise hindered by undocumented immigrants, would this not insinuate that "our culture" (or “our language”) is better than one that might be brought by immigrants? The position that the culture of those with this attitude (tends to be white people) is somehow better than other people's can be seen as a racist position. That would be called cultural racism.

So while the minutemen and their friends are singing “This land is MY land, this land is MY land,”* I'm saying no one owns this land, and if anyone should leave it's the people who don't love all others as equals.

See also:

http://www.azcentral.com/specials/pluggedin/articles/1114reza1114monday.html

http://arizona.indymedia.org/news/2005/10/32105.php

*I didn't actually hear them sing this. It just seems like something they would sing.