To the Rescue

Specifically, like a nation where white people are the minority. s at packed meetings in Overland Park and Topeka, the third-floor conference room at the Wichita Public Library is crowded — and plenty of people are wearing red, white and blue.

But there's a difference on this late-October Saturday two months after the Kansas chapter's first public meeting. A significant portion of the audience is Hispanic. Nearly 30 members of a Wichita group called Sunflower Community Action are concerned about rumors of racism surrounding the Minutemen. They've come to hear Hayes' recruiting pitch for themselves.

A teenage girl in the back points a video camera at Hayes as he applauds the Australian government. "They recently told the Muslims to get out of their country unless they accept their laws, their language, their culture, and that's what I'd like to see happen here."

After Hayes opens the meeting to discussion from the crowd, a woman in the second row with long gray hair pulled into a bun stands and, reading from notes, addresses Hayes.

"Ninety percent of what you've said is highly inaccurate," she says. "It's just designed to inflame.... You're way off the mark."

The atmosphere changes instantly. Some people glance at the security guard, who is fiddling with her walkie-talkie.

Hayes asks the woman to give him an example.

She says that Hayes' claim of an episode in which 750 illegal immigrants crossed the border implied that they had come from Mexico. In fact, she said, that occurred on the Canadian border.

"He said they came into America," someone in the crowd yells in defense of Hayes.

A Hispanic man in the back says Hayes made it sound like they were from Mexico.

"It doesn't matter," a Hayes supporter shoots back.

"Yes, it does," the Hispanic man counters.

"No, it doesn't," the man says, raising his voice.

Hayes takes the microphone from the lectern and walks to the gray-haired woman.

"What else?" he asks.

She says he wrongly asserted that illegal immigrants are taking advantage of welfare, Social Security and medical care. Before Hayes can respond, a middle-aged man built like a linebacker stands up in a huff. He says his wife is a nurse who is forced to care for illegal aliens who all have Social Security cards with the same number.

The woman says that's not possible.

"Are you calling me a liar?" the man booms.

A young man in a black hoodie rushes from the back of the room. He's a head shorter than the indignant man but demands that the bigger man stop yelling at the woman. The man tells the kid to get out of his face, and Hayes moves in to break it up.

"I'm going to have to ask you to leave," he tells the young man.

"You can't do that," someone shouts. "This is a public space."

The argument about the accuracy of Hayes' claims continues. After a while, Hayes grows frustrated. For him and his fellow Minutemen, there's no debate about one of the biggest issues facing the country.

"People like you," he tells the skeptical woman, "are part of the problem."