Posted on January 10, 2006

Website Labels Illegal Immigration Opponents ‘Racists’

Jeff Johnson, CNSNews.com, Jan. 10, 2006

A liberal Hispanic lobbying group is labeling some opponents of illegal immigration “racists, cowards” and “domestic terrorists” on a new website. But the activists targeted by the accusations say they have no time for “name-calling” and will continue their work.

The League of United Latin America Citizens (LULAC) — which bills itself as “the largest and oldest Hispanic civil rights organization in the United States and Puerto Rico” — sponsors the website WeAreRacists.com.

Under the banner, “Stop the Minutemen*!,” the site’s home page features photos of some members of the “Herndon Minutemen,” a group opposed to illegal immigration trying to discourage the unlawful hiring of illegal alien “day laborers” in their city. The Herndon group is a chapter of the nationwide “Minuteman Project” that began patrolling the U.S. borders in 2005 in an attempt to slow illegal immigration.

The asterisk following the phrase “Stop the Minutemen*!” on the LULAC-sponsored website refers the reader to the bottom of the page, where a dictionary-style “definition” of the word “minutemen” is provided.

“*MIN.UTE.MEN n. def: racists, cowards, un-Americans (sic), vigilantes, domestic terrorists,” the LULAC-sponsored website charges.

The website’s original domain name, using a singular reference, was WeAreRacist.com. It was registered on Dec. 13, 2005. The plural version — WeAreRacists.com — was registered the next day. The website accuses the Minutemen of being “an anti-immigrant group” and claims that its members are “often affiliated with white supremacy groups.”

The Herndon chapter of the Minutemen raised LULAC’s ire in the weeks before a taxpayer-funded gathering site for day laborers opened in the Virginia town. The Minutemen — along with another group, HelpSaveHerndon.org — called public attention to the fact that the Herndon Town Council was planning to use taxpayer dollars to fund the operation of a “day laborer” center on public property. The two groups oppose spending tax dollars on a facility that they believe will aid illegal aliens in finding work.

When the center opened Dec. 14, 2005, Minutemen volunteers gathered on the public sidewalks adjacent to the site and photographed the contractors who hired day laborers. They also noted the contractors’ vehicle license plate numbers and the number of workers they employed.

Law enforcement officials have confirmed that the men who gather at such day laborer sites looking for work are often illegal aliens. The information gathered by the Minutemen can be used to file complaints against unlicensed contractors and to prosecute those who do not pay taxes or maintain worker compensation insurance for the laborers they hire.

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