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The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps held an organizational meeting Friday, November 9th, in the public library to organize Horry County.
The local organizer was Mrs. Pat Matthews and the room reserved at the library had 64 chairs in it for the expected crowd. The Hon. Thad Viers, a State representative in whose district the meeting was located, was one of the participants in a panel discussion of the problem of illegal immigration moderated by Mrs. Matthews. Representative Viers also brought a bunch of food for the expected crowd and helped prepare it before the meeting.
There was an overflow crowd of more than 200 people present, not all of whom could get into the standing room only meeting. Many had to stand in a nearby hallway where they could hear, but not see, the proceedings.
In addition to Rep. Thad Viers, other panel participants included Dr. Frederick Hamilton, a local orthopedic surgeon; noted author and biologist Jeff West; Dean Allen who is State Chairman of the Hugh Cort for President campaign; Mr. Joe DeFeo, an elected member of the Horry County School Board; Mr. Paul Whitten, Director of Public Safety for Horry County; and Mr. George Mabry, South Carolina Chairman of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps.
Dr. Hamilton spoke first and told of the millions of dollars illegal aliens cost the Taxpayers of Horry County with medical costs he estimated to be $23 million a year that the illegals do not repay. This was, he emphasized, in addition to at least another $3 million that went unpaid to doctors like himself who had to basically eat the expense.
The Hon. Thad Viers spoke about a number of measures he had introduced in the Legislature to regulate so-called "Immigration Assistance" businesses in our state as well as a measure to stop food stamps from going to illegal aliens. Viers said the latter measure passed the House and died last year in the State Senate. Rep. Viers also said he has pre-filed bills for the next session that will allow local governments to enforce housing code violations by illegal aliens and another bill to require that the State print materials only in English. Vires also recognized another half dozen local elected officials who were in the audience.
The general tenor of the audience was that they were very frustrated with the problems of illegal immigration, and that they were upset with elected officials and law enforcement at all levels for not already doing more about this serious problem.
Dean Allen spoke on behalf of presidential candidate Dr. Hugh Cort telling the audience that Dr. Cort is deeply committed to closing the border and to deporting illegal aliens in a manner similar to President Eisenhower's highly successful 1954 program known as "Operation Wetback" where 86,000 aliens were deported by the INS and another 1.3 million deported themselves in fear of being arrested.
Some of the biggest applause of the night came when several speakers were critical of US Senator Lindsey Graham and said that Graham must be defeated in his re-election bid.
The local newspaper and the State newspaper both printed articles about the meeting that were inaccurate and derogatory toward the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps. They quoted statements by the "Southern Poverty Law Center" implying that Minutemen were prone to violence and that they were a "Nativist" organization. While it is unclear exactly what a "Nativist" is, it was clearly intended to sound bad.
The facts are that every speaker on the podium and most of those who spoke or asked questions from the audience each began their remarks by saying they were not opposed to LEGAL immigration by folks who want to assimilate and speak English whether they are Hispanic or other races. Several speakers clarified that the problem was not exclusively with Hispanic aliens because between 20 and 30 percent of the estimated 30 million illegal aliens here are other than Mexican and that they include Russians, Red Chinese, and people from every Middle Eastern country.
In addition to the fact that the MCDC is not racist, the State paper failed to report that organizers, including Mrs. Matthews, Mr. Allen and Mr. Mabry pointed out that anyone seeking to join the MCDC must pay a $50 fee that covers a police background check, or hold a valid Concealed Weapons Permit (CWP). When there were a few snickers about the CWP it was quickly explained that the CWP was merely proof of a police background check designed to filter out anyone with a criminal background and that most Minuteman activities involve communicating with elected officials, co-operating with local and federal law enforcement and that MCDC members do not use firearms in any of their programs. While some MCDC members in observation posts on the Mexican border may carry, with a valid CWP, for personal protection; in South Carolina all our activities are strictly political or reporting our observations of possible illegal alien employment to the proper authorities.
The Horry County MCDC Chapter is off to a great start and will meet the second Friday of each month beginning in January. The meeting was closed as it opened by Mr. Jeff West seeking the blessings of God on our undertakings in prayer.
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