A student of Cochise Community College in Douglas, Arizona (AZ), Ray Ybarra went on to graduate Summa Cum Laude from Arizona State University in 2002, and then, to interrupt his legal education at Stanford Law School with an daring project following and fighting (legally) the right-wing vigilante Minutemen Project, near the US-Mexico border. Born of parents from either side of that border, Ybarra was raised in Douglas and chose that place to begin this work with the support of the ACLU. Because he was raised there, he was familiar vigilantes and their history in this area. His experiences and insight into the workings of the Minutemen are especially relevant given the rise in anti-immigrant hate crimes nationally, and more specifically, the recent killings of a Latino man and his daughter in Arivaca, AZ. Their alleged killers are the founder and members of the Minutemen American Defense group

Ybarra’s work has involved bringing a civil rights lawsuit against one of the vigilantes he followed, creating and coordinating the Legal Observer Project during the Minutemen’s operations in the desert, and training hundreds of volunteers to follow the Minutemen as they patrolled the border. He has also co-written and co-produced an award-winning documentary on the subject, “Rights on the Line: Vigilantes at the Border.” Ybarra is an activist, writer, filmmaker, photographer, public speaker and now, a lawyer. He is currently working with PUEBLO, Center for Legal and Human Rights.

What made you decide to take time off to monitor the Minutemen in Arizona.
Yeah, I started working on the vigilante issue back when I was in law school. Between my first and second year in law school, I was trying to figure out what to do for the summertime and the vigilante issue was one that was very close to my heart because a lot of the history was there in Cochise County [Arizona] there where I was born. I knew that there were vigilantes out there hunting for migrants and nobody was out there doing anything directly about it. So I wanted to take my time and my energy and go down there and see if I could confront these guys and try to get them stopped.

How did this idea of the Legal Observer Project come together?
It was my idea originally. I needed a sponsor in order for my law school to give me money to do the project and so I looked in Arizona at one or two of the non-profits. Honestly, I hadn’t heard much about the ACLU before and then basically the only organization that somewhat fit the mold was the ACLU. So I just called them and said, “Hey, I got this idea. What do you guys think?” and thankfully they were up for it. That was in Arizona. The first summer was just myself really, mainly doing legal research, a bunch of boring stuff and then I came back. I applied to the ACLU, for what was called the Racial Justice Fellowship. Basically, they put out a call for any idea having to do with racial justice in the United States. I wrote my proposal up about the vigilantes and the racism within the anti-immigrant movement and trying to focus on that. And that’s when I was given the two years to work on this issue full-time. First I started off doing stuff mainly against Roger Barnett by doing some FOIA (Freedom of Information Act), public records requests, trying to develop lawsuits, following around Chris Simcox in the desert and then the Minutemen Project wasn’t really started up until April 2005.

What was an average day like while you were in Douglas, AZ? You ran your work from your grandfather’s laundry room?
Basically, there was no average day, which was the fun thing about it. Some days, you wake up and you’re trying to develop a lawsuit against Barnett. Other days you’re following Simcox in the desert. Other days you’re shooting a video to try to expose the racism within the anti-immigrant movement.

Now when it came to the Minutemen Project, those lasted a month at a time where volunteers would come from all over the country, you train them on non-violence training, how to use a video camera and then you go out into the desert and just sit behind these racists with guns and try to keep them from doing anything bad.

Did you ever feel like you were in danger?
Yeah, a few times. The Minutemen really didn’t like us being out there, not to characterize all of them as one person. There were some that were nice and some that were just very, very, very mean. And, yeah, there were some times when we had guns pointed at us and had threatening things said to us, but overall, it was pretty calm.

Many people think the Minutemen are like a neighborhood watch for the US-Mexico border. What did you learn about them? Did you find any links to hate groups?
Yeah, I think they did a great job with their media spin. They were really good at getting the media to cover what they wanted the media to cover. In reality, if you would have gone down there and spent a month with them, you would have seen the real racism that lies within the core of the Minutemen Project. And when they [the media] do identify racists with the Project, they say, “Oh, we kicked those people out. You know, those people aren’t like us.” But in reality, look at the concept of what they’re doing. They’re saying, “We don’t like brown people invading our country. So anybody in the world who has a gun and feels the same way we do, come down to the border and be with us. If that’s not racism, I don’t know what it is.

And it’s been very well documented that members of the National Alliance participate in the Minutemen Project, that other neo-Nazis have been involved with the border watch group and it continues to be the same. So it’s not surprising that these neo-Nazis and National Alliance types keep springing up within the Minutemen Project because that’s exactly what the Minutemen Project is. It’s just like when the Klan used to go out night riding and lynching people and then they tried to change [their image] putting on business suits and trying to look more mainstream. That’s all the Minutemen Project is, it’s an attempt to be little bit more pretty in the newspapers, but still have that racism at their core.

What is your general impression of the people who join the Minutemen? Who are they?
It’s both men and women, more men than women, predominantly, 98% white, angry, pissed off, conservative and too much free time and too much disposable income on their hands, middle class, working class. You also see some very nice Hummers and other fancy cars out there, so there are people with a little bit more money.

How are the different Minutemen groups structured? Are the affiliations loose or do the different groups work together? Do they know each other?
Originally, the guy that started the Minutemen Project was Chris Simcox and Chris had been down on the border since after 2001 doing his own thing, called Civil Homeland Defense. And then James Gilchrist came, a Vietnam veteran from California and said, “Hey, I want to help you out. Let’s do this Minutemen Project.” They called for volunteers from all over the country, to come down for a month. And they had done this before. They had tried, but it wasn’t successful, mainly because the media didn’t picked up on it. But this time the media did. So, the Minutemen Project took off.

Even before the end of the month the guys were already fighting, mainly Gilchrist and Simcox, about their egos. So Gilchrist says, “I’m going back to California to start my own group.” Other guys like James Chase, within the Minutemen Project, volunteered but saw it the same way, that Simcox was being too nice to immigrants. So he goes off to California and tries to start his own group. Guys go back to New Mexico and guys go over to Texas. Some of them remain with Simcox, others of them say they are going to do their own thing. Next thing you know, you got a bunch of crazies all across the country, putting up their own flag, trying to set up their own Minutemen group and there’s really no one person or group controlling it because nobody likes each other within that movement.

How did they recruit?
For the most part, they used the Internet at the beginning. So they put out a wide, open call on the Internet and then that got picked up by Stormfront.org and other white supremacist websites. That’s really how the news got spread. The second way was using these right-wing, AM radio talk stations that would just get the base of the Minutemen, these people that spend the whole day being angry and hating people of color and that’s how they got their volunteers. And after that, CNN and the likes come on board and that’s when the thing got really blown up.

Were you surprised when you heard the story about Shawna Forde and the murder of the father and daughter in Arivaca, AZ?
No, the thing that I was surprised about is that we haven’t discovered something like this sooner. I’m very surprised that it took until 2009 for a case like this to come to the forefront. There’ve been rumors of things like this going on since the Minutemen Project has been out there in the desert. Nobody has been able to confirm it. I’m just very, very saddened about what happened, but at the same time I’m glad that these racists are finally being shown for who they are.

What are you doing now for PUEBLO, Center for Legal and Human Rights?
I’m doing more immigrants’ rights work. I got my law degree finally so I’m trying to do some more immigration legal stuff. Just trying to help out in that way.

Does PUEBLO follow right-wing extremists or does it work more directly with immigrants?
It’s working more directly, trying to be more proactive. I do think it’s important that people remain on top [of right-wing groups], going after these crazies. But I also think we need to focus a lot of our energy on working with youth and the immigrant community to be more proactive.    

Past Close Up Articles

Astrid Bant, Anthropologist, Advisor to the Latin America Division, Oxfam Novib, The Netherlands
Jessica Devi Chandrashekar, Media Coordinator Canadian Humanitarian Appeal for Relief of Tamils (Canadian Hart)
Harmit Atwal, Editor, Institute of Race Relations
Avy Skolnik, Network Coordinator, National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs
Senem Doganoglu, Attorney for Pembe Hayat (Pink Life)
Leonardo Crippa, Staff Attorney, Indian Law Resource Center
Jim Harrington, Director, Texas Civil Rights Project
Prof. Brian Levin, Director, Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism
Juliana Rotich, Program Director, Ushahidi.com
Christina Iturralde, LatinoJustice PRLDEF
Anene Ejikeme Assistant Professor, Trinity University
Alexander Verkhovsky, Director, SOVA Center for Information and Analysis (Moscow)
Innokenty Grekov, Human Rights First
Paul St. Clair, Executive Director, Roma Community Centre
Rev. Allan Ramirez, Latino Advocate
Dr. Agapito López, M.D.
Bill Habern, defense attorney
Anya Cordell, activist
Rais Bhuiyan, survivor
Allison Moore, Volunteer