Minutemen look for some traction

Re “San Diego Minutemen adopt a road,” Jan. 12

That was a nice piece about the Minutemen adopting a highway, but I think you gave credit to the wrong group. The Campo Minutemen adopted Buckman Springs Highway in Campo, Calif., more than a year ago, and there was no controversy or complaints.

The group has at least one man cleaning up literally every day, and every few weeks there is a crew out on a Saturday. They are doing a great job.

Indy Britton

Campo, Calif.

The Minutemen may wish to be simply characterized as a community activist group, but it is a loose network of anti-immigration groups whose primary goal is to stop an alleged invasion of the United States by immigrants from Mexico. We acknowledge its assertion that it does not advocate violence, but many Minutemen chapters conduct armed vigilante patrols of the U.S.-Mexico border, and some members have been associated with racist groups, militias or other extreme organizations.

The Minutemen are the common thread that links many mainstream and extremist elements of the anti-immigration movement, many of whom appear together at events staged by the group. The tactics and activities of the Minutemen have acted as a rallying cry for other groups and figures opposing immigration in this country.

Mark Dillon

Chairman

Civil Rights Committee

Anti-Defamation League

San Diego Region

Which is worse, the ugly bigotry of Minutemen or the spineless Caltrans spokesman who rewards it? Caltrans might as well give a stretch of Interstate 5 to the Ku Klux Klan.

Tanja Winter

La Jolla