Homeland Insecurity - Patriots or Xenophobes?

There's a firebrand political group that's arisen in the western United States recently. Calling themselves "The Minuteman Project," this group garnered national media attention early in 2005, when it organized and activated volunteer citizen patrols, to assist the US Border Patrol in preventing illegal immigration along the Arizona-Mexico border.

Predictably, this group has created quite a stir in the American southwest, and indeed even south of the border. For those who are unfamiliar with this group, you can read more about them here, here, and here. Surprise of surprises, there also seems to be at least one "official website", which seeks volunteers and solicits donations.

Until now, It had appeared that this group's activities were confined to those areas of the United States adjacent to the Mexican border. That's apparently not quite the case however. According to Salt Lake City Weekly, the group has been quite active (and politically effective) in Utah, too. As today's City Weekly reports this morning, this group (or an affiliate) may have been effective in lobbying for recently-enacted Utah legislation which could be fairly-characterized as "anti-immigrant." This is a fascinating wrinkle in the local political landscape, I think; and it's something that seems to have been ignored by the establishment Utah print and broadcast media. For those interested in the issue you can read the City Weekly article here.

This story hasn't entirely gone unnoticed in the the Ogden area however, as City Weekly reports:

El Ogdentino, an Ogden, Spanish-language newspaper, devoted its April issue to minutemen from Utah and elsewhere who traveled to Arizona, concluding in an editorial they were “terroritas-racistas” hiding behind the cause of national security.

“These racist persons believe we Latin Americans are plotting to take over this country. … [that] we are a criminal band and we come to destabilize their well-being,” a newspaper editorial said.

For my own part, I found this City Weekly article to be more than slightly disturbing. What about our gentle Weber County Forum readers though? Do you believe this group are "true patriots," defending our national sovereignty, as these "minutemen" contend? Or are they just the usual tiny group of wacko xenophobes who fear anyone -- and everyone -- who's even a little bit different from them?

Chime in readers! It would be interesting to hear your views on this.