To the Rescue

Dave VonKleist is ready to jolt this crowd out of its early-morning stupor.

Armed with a guitar, VonKleist steps onto a makeshift stage in a large banquet room at the Clarion Hotel just east of the Truman Sports Complex. On weekday mornings, VonKleist hosts The Power Hour, a political talk show on KCXL 1140 focusing on government misdeeds and the hijacking of American freedoms. But on this Saturday morning in late September, he's providing entertainment at Operation U-Turn, a daylong event billed as a "Neighborhood Watch and National Defense Conference."

More than 120 people have been browsing at tables along the back wall. Sipping coffee from paper cups, they pick up copies of The American Free Press with headlines such as "Near War on the Mexican Border." They chat with Janet Renner, who hands out pens stamped with the phrase "Stop the Invasion!" So it's no surprise that VonKleist's unique rendition of Neil Diamond's "America" is a crowd pleaser. In an exaggerated Mexican accent, VonKleist sings: Free, I get everything free/I reach out my hand/They give it all to me.

VonKleist is just a warm-up act, the guy who keeps the energy level high between the sometimes tedious speeches. But one speaker doesn't need his help.

Al Garza, a compact man with a perfectly manicured gray mustache, is the executive director of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps. Since April 2005, the Minutemen have organized citizen patrols of the U.S.-Mexico border in an effort to observe and report the entry of illegal immigrants.

The Mexican border is 1,161 miles from the Clarion banquet room. But Minuteman Randall Cox, the leader of Missouri's chapter, believes that the Show Me State needs to hear what Garza has seen.

"I'm from what you'd consider ground zero — where they [illegal immigrants] come through your property, flip you the bird, laugh at you, threaten you," Garza tells the crowd, his voice rising. "They're not here to assimilate. Trust me. I know three languages. I listen to the radio on a daily basis, and I've learned to be attentive to what they say.... And what they're saying is, 'America, we're going to take your country away from you.' I don't mean to scare you, but these are the facts.

"It's not one or two or three coming through in the night," he continues. "It's an invasion. It's nothing short of that. The federal government's not doing anything about it, so, by God, the Minutemen will do it for them."

The crowd erupts into applause. At least one man is carrying a gun and extra ammunition.

"We're not vigilantes. We're not the KKK. We're a majestic form of neighborhood watch," Garza says. "And in the last few years, it's become so powerful in its momentum that we've gone from 10 people to well over 8,000 nationwide."

At the back of the room, surveying the scene stoically, is Ed Hayes, leader of the newly formed Kansas chapter of the Minutemen. Sitting at a table scattered with literature and black baseball caps, Erik Van Dusen recruits for his local group in Joplin. Tom Franiak, a construction contractor in Springfield, wasn't able to make the drive, but his chapter in Southwest Missouri drew more than 150 people to its first meeting two months ago.

When VonKleist takes the stage again, he wants to know: "How many are upset?"

The room resounds with applause and shouts of agreement.

"Well, get motivated," VonKleist says with a wry smile. "We've got a war on our hands, folks." d Hayes lives in a tidy Olathe subdivision. A 64-year-old grandfather who takes pride in his 28 years of law-enforcement service, Hayes keeps his big-screen TV tuned to Fox News, his American flag flying above his garage and his elected representatives informed of his outrage.

Fifty-three percent of Americans consider immigration among their top three concerns, according to a survey released last month by the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington, D.C., nonpartisan research organization. In Kansas, a SurveyUSA poll reported this past June that more than 20 percent of 600 likely voters said illegal immigration was their top issue. In Missouri, a Research 2000 poll conducted in September found that 73 percent of state residents want illegal immigrants deported, and 63 percent said they want stricter penalties for employers who hire undocumented workers.

In recent months, Hayes has become the local face of one of the most controversial groups in the immigration debate.

The square-jawed, straight-talking retiree was among two-dozen Midwest residents who went to Omaha, Nebraska, in June to meet with Greg Thompson, the national development director for the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps. There, they were groomed for leadership positions, with the aim of establishing Minuteman groups in every state by February 2007.