The Minutemen of New York
Small local group fight “illegal immigration” in New York City and its suburbs.
Ask Ron Cutlip why undocumentated immigration is detrimental to the U.S., and the chapter head of New York City’s Minutemen will count a dozen reasons easy.
“Illegal immigrants don’t pay taxes,” he’ll say. “They abuse social welfare systems, they steal lower-paying jobs from American citizens….”
Ask immigrant advocates about Cutlip’s claims and they’ll try and refute them just as quickly. The truth can be hard to divine.
For certain is this: About 1 million undocumented immigrants are entering the U.S. each year, and the Minuteman Project, a national organization of American citizens vehemently against such immigrants, is trying to stem the flow. Unified by a marked distaste for the U.S. government’s handling of these immigrates, the Minutemen, who come from many walks of life, are making the issue theirs.
“The Minutemen aren’t calling for an end to legal immigration,” said Cutlip, a Manhattan resident who owns a construction business. “America needs new talent and new minds. But we need to know who these people coming into our country are.”
The Minutemen Civil Defense Corps, a Minuteman Project offshoot, has made national news. The Defense Corps is known for going on “border patrols,” where armed Minutemen volunteers stake out the Mexican—and sometimes Canadian—borders trying to catch immigrants crossing illegally.
“The Minutemen are armed vigilantes who purport to be a legitimate organization—it’s really scary,” said Nadia Marin-Molina of the Workplace Project, a Long Island group that fights for immigrant rights.
A year ago, Cutlip, 47, frustrated by the economic, social and political burden he felt undocumentated immigration placed on America, contacted the Minuteman Project through its Web site. The project had been founded in 2004 by Jim Gilchrist, an ex-Marine and Californian with grievances similar to Cutlip’s.
For $100 Cutlip opened a New York City chapter and his contact information was added to the Minuteman site. Immediately, he said, he began fielding calls from the media, which had questions about the growing organization. Mostly, Cutlip said, he spoke with everyday citizens, “everyone from grandmas to soldiers returning from Iraq,”embittered by the loss of American jobs to illegal immigrants, and wanting to know how to prevent it. Subsequently, he recruited scores of people, mostly from states outside New York. At the most basic level of the Minuteman organization, such recruits are supposed to be ready “at a moment’s notice” to use the means at their disposal to combat “illegal immigration.”
Cutlip’s own Minuteman duties since signing up haven’t changed. He fields calls and tries to recruit. However, the organization he joined has grown. The Minuteman Project now has about 150,000 members in 21 chapters throughout America, according to Gilchrist.
Considering this expansion, Cutlip’s division remains somewhat of an anomaly. Some Minuteman chapters have thousands of members; Cutlip’s has 20.
Cutlip attributed the low membership to New York City’s status as a “sanctuary city,” i.e., one whose many leaders—and employers—turn a blind eye to the perpetually swelling, illegal workforce.
“It’s almost taboo to talk about illegal immigrants here,” he said.
Cutlip, who holds an M.A. in real-estate development from Columbia University and whose chapter is composed of strictly white-collar workers, admitted his members aren’t the Minuteman Project’s most active. In fact, Cutlip couldn’t point to any concrete actions his members have taken against undocumented immigrants. Instead, he said, New York City’s chapter was set up for “political posturing purposes and to be another voice on the issue.” But don’t count New York out of the battle against illegal immigration, Cutlip said, “The Long Island chapter is much more aggressive.”
Recently, the Long Island chapter made headlines for trying to push legislation, which would hinder illegal day laborers from easily finding work. The Island’s Minutemen are also known for frequently tipping off police to homes in violation of housing occupancy codes because illegal laborers cluster within, trying to save money on rent. Politicians have even come under fire. Last spring, members of the Long Island chapter picketed in front of the home of a South Hampton mayor who they believed facilitated illegal day laborers.
Cutlip said undocumented immigrants’ do not pay income tax and send a large portion of their money home to Mexico in order to support families. Their money, as a result, doesn’t reinvigorate the U.S. economy.
But Luis Valenzuela, president of the Long Island Immigration Alliance, says that’s a misconception.
“Like the rest of us, undocumented workers have to buy food, they have to pay rent,” he said.
Valenzuela pointed to a recent study by the Horace Hagedorn Foundation, which shows that Latin American immigrants, both documented and not, contributed $5.7 billion to Long Island’s economy in 2004.
Cutlip and other local Minutemen had a reason to celebrate recently when New York Governor Eliot Spitzer abandoned a plan to issue driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants. Spitzer had hoped the plan, met widely with criticism, would have brought thousands of immigrants “out of the shadows” in New York and made roads safer.
Cutlip, who had been incensed by the proposal when he first heard of it, said he felt relieved.
“Political correctness regarding illegals is still way off the charts,” he said. “But Spitzer’s loss was a victory for common sense.”
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