Recently, the Las Cruces chapter of the ACLU was suspended because a member of the group's board was leading the local Minuteman chapter.

The lack of border enforcement has chilling consequences for our National Security: terrorists can cross the border at will, perhaps with WMD. Here is their website: http://www.minutemanproject.com/ In doing so, the Minutemen volunteers are exercising their right to freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and freedom to petition to the government for a redress of grievances. The volunteers are composed Americans of Mexican, Russian, Armenian, Lebanese, Indian and Cuban descent. There are also volunteers who have immigrated – legally – from Australia, Mexico, Peru, Russia, England and the Phillipines. Politicians and MSM has sometimes characterized the group as ‘racist’ or ‘white supremacist’, but the facts do not bear out this characterization.

Their mission statement says: "The main mission of The Minuteman Project is to bring national attention to the fact that the U. S. Federal Government is not fulfilling its mission to protect American citizens from the economic and physical danger of porous borders. The majority of peace loving Americans are concerned about the ramifications of allowing massive amounts of unscreened, undocumented aliens to just walk right into our country. And of course the greatest fear that lurks in the dark corners of our minds is another 9-11 attack, or worse, a suit case bomb. The Minuteman Project plans rallies in support of the rank and file U.S. Border Patrol agents, protest rallies of blatantly unenforced federal immigration laws, and actively spotting and reporting anyone, of any race, color or creed, crossing into the US illegally. We will seal the border by our presence, but will not violate anyone's civil rights, and will not abuse anyone from any country. By legal means we will observe ILLEGAL immigrants on trails heading north. We will alert border patrol to the location of illegals, and wait for USBP to come and pick them up. We will follow illegal aliens from a distance and continue spotting them until authorities answer our cell phone and/or back-pack radio calls. All spotting, calls for assistance, and the response from the appropriate authorities will be chronicled and provided to any media representative."

Governor Schwarzenegger praised the Minutemen with a dramatic decline in illegal immigration. "I think they've done a terrific job. They've cut down the crossing of illegal immigrants a huge percentage. So it just shows that it works when you go and make an effort and when you work hard. It's a doable thing. It's just that our federal government is not doing their job. It's a shame that the private citizen has to go in there and start patrolling our borders."

By highlighting the deficiencies of the federal government in stopping illegal immigration, the issue can come to the political front burner. Notably, some groups condemned the Minutemen Project as ‘racist” which is a characterization that serves their own political purposes rather than recognize the political problems of any Presidential administration trying to enforce the southern border with a significant Hispanic voting bloc. American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) does not support American citizens rights in this matter. They characterize the Minutemen as "vigilantes". What is a vigilante?

According to Merriam-Webster, a  vig·i·lan·te Pronunciation: "vi-j&-'lan-tE Function: noun Def: a member of a volunteer committee organized to suppress and punish crime summarily (as when the processes of law appear inadequate); broadly : a self-appointed doer of justice

The application of this term by the ACLU is incorrect.

The Minutemen Project volunteers spot illegal aliens and call in to the Border Patrol. They trail these illegals until the Border Patrol spots them and takes the appropriate action. The Minutemen Project does allow some individual to carry a weapon as long as they adhere to the laws of the state of Arizona. A violent criminal gang, Mara Salvatrucha, had threatened the Minutemen with violence, but this threat was not noted by the ACLU as reasonable grounds for personal self-defense.