SJ Forum on Minutemen Cancelled

Posted on Thu, Sep. 08, 2005

Forum canceled on border project

By Jessie Mangaliman

Mercury News

A public forum scheduled next week at the Mexican Heritage Plaza in San Jose on the controversial Minuteman Project was canceled Wednesday, after angry Latino community leaders and immigrant advocates objected to the planned appearance of Chris Simcox, Minuteman's organizer.

Calling the self-appointed, citizen border patrol a ``racist hate group,'' valley Mexican-American leaders said they took offense to Minuteman in the community's cultural home, on Sept. 16, Mexican Independence Day.

The event, sponsored by the Commonwealth Club, was to feature Simcox and a Minuteman volunteer; Art Torres, chairman of the California Democratic Party; and Hans Johnson, a research analyst at the Public Policy Institute of California.

It was billed as a public forum on an important issue of the day -- immigration and the growing number of armed U.S. citizens patrolling the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona. The Minuteman Project, based in Tombstone, is recruiting volunteers for border patrols in New Mexico, Texas and California. The Commonwealth Club said the forum will be rescheduled and held in San Francisco.

``This vigilante group is openly racist particularly to Latinos,'' said Lucy Hernandez, a member of Comite de Cesar Chavez, a San Jose civil rights group, and one of 14 people who met last week with Marcela Davison Aviles, the plaza's executive director.

Said Hernandez, ``Knowing the background of this group and have them come to our community home, especially on our day of celebration, was offensive and hurtful.''

But Aviles said the event was canceled at the plaza because of ``strong safety concerns'' raised by the group she met with last Thursday. Aviles said she received at least a dozen anonymous phone calls since then that threatened disruption to the plaza.

During her meeting with Hernandez and others, Aviles said, ``They indicated that if the plaza proceeded with the event, it was highly likely -- I'm paraphrasing here -- there would be a large crowd and they wouldn't be able to guarantee the consequences of their behavior.''

Aviles said she worried about the safety of people participating in the forum.

Alberto Carillo, a long-time community activist and an official of the League of United Latin American Citizens, a national civil-rights group, said emotions ran high during the meeting.

Carillo said he disagrees with Aviles' characterization. ``We were not hostile,'' he said. ``We were angry. We felt insulted.''

``I said we would picket the event and I'd get close to 100 people,'' Carillo said. ``Threaten? Nobody said that.''

Martha Campos, a program director at Services, Immigrant Rights and Education Network, a San Jose non-profit group, said the forum's panel failed to include immigrants and advocates, and legal experts who can talk about the implications of the Minuteman Project on U.S. civil rights.

Simcox, who has appeared in debates with Latino leaders and immigrant advocates in Arizona, did not reply to an e-mail request for an interview. A spokeswoman for Minuteman, Connie Hair, also did not respond to an e-mail.

``Perhaps we were misunderstood as endorsing Mr. Simcox,'' said Gloria Duffy, president and CEO of the Commonwealth Club of California, which sponsors 500 public forums a year.

Said Duffy, ``We see this as a service to the community.''

Aviles said she shared Duffy's view that a public dialogue on Minuteman would be a good way to engage the community in a discussion of a subject that, although it draws strong emotions, affects many people's lives.

``That's really where we were coming from,'' she said. ``By no stretch of the imagination was the plaza supporting or advocating the position of the Minuteman.''

In a Field Poll released today, a majority of California voters rejected the use of citizen patrol.
Contact Jessie Mangaliman at jmangaliman@ mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5794.