[3] The Minuteman Project describes itself as "a citizens' Neighborhood Watch on our border", and it has attracted the attention of the media due to its focus on the issue of illegal immigration.
Members of the Minuteman Project believe that government officials have failed to protect the country from the threat of invasion by foreign enemies.
For one month, activists guarded the 23-mile long stretch of the Arizona-Mexico border, kept count of the number of migrants who approached it, reported their presence, and prevented them from crossing it by scaring them away.
Critics of the MMP raised questions about the incident, but an investigation by the Cochise County Sheriff's office cleared the volunteer of any wrongdoing.
[8] In January 2006, the actions of the California Minutemen helped influence the cancellation of a program which was sponsored by Humane Borders and the government of Mexico with the purpose of supplying over 70,000 maps to migrants to aid their illegal entry into the United States.
[11] In August 2007, the Southern Poverty Law Center reported on the surfacing of two videos which depicted the murder of an alleged illegal immigrant by two Minutemen along the Mexico/California border.
A few days later, Minuteman representatives who were interviewed by reporters who worked for a San Diego TV station alleged that the videos were fakes which were made by members of the Mountain Minutemen group.
Minuteman Project leader Jim Gilchrist would later ban cooperation by members of his group with the Mountain Minutemen in response to the video incident.
[14] On April 28, 2005, the then California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger praised the Minuteman Project during an interview on The John and Ken Show on the Los Angeles radio station KFI, by saying that the group had been doing "a terrific job".
Discussions which were held during the 2016 presidential election with regard to the building of a wall and mass deportation directly aligned with the Minuteman Project's missions.
[citation needed] Recruits, operations and the influence of the California Minutemen continued to grow, and the North County Times[22] complained of Mike Chase's appointment to the political steering committee of California Senator Bill Morrow's campaign for the 50th District Congressional seat vacated by Randy "Duke" Cunningham.
Stewart, Courtney and Coe alleged that they constituted the board of directors of Minuteman Project, Inc. and fired Gilchrist for a variety of reasons.
Rather than accept their termination, Stewart and Courtney filed papers with the Secretary of State of Delaware saying that they were the board of directors and Officers of the Corporation.
[28] The ruling affirmed Gilchrist's position as head of the Minuteman Project, Inc. and its successor organization Jim Gilchrist's Minuteman Project, Inc.[29] Various media representatives, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and observers from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) are also in the patrol zone attempting to observe Minutemen volunteers at work.
"[31] Judge Wilkinson issued an interim ruling barring the board members from spending Minuteman Project donations until Gilchrist's lawsuit is resolved.