Yesterday, local Arizona news stations began reporting that a group of undocumented immigrants were shot at in an area of Parker Canyon located near Rio Rico Arizona on Friday. According to reports, a group of undocumented border crossers were shot at by two men wearing camouflage using high-powered rifles. One of the five immigrants was hit by a bullet in the forearm and treated at an area hospital for his wounds. The migrants also told authorities that they came across two dead bodies. Nogales International reports:

Sheriff Antonio Estrada said that according to his department’s incident report, five undocumented migrants had crossed into the United States and were walking through a canyon around 5 a.m. on Friday when two unidentified males wearing camouflage clothing shot at them with a high-powered rifle.

“The victims claimed no demands were made. They were just walking and fired upon,” said Estrada, who added that the group had not been robbed. Estrada said that when the group ran, one of the men, Manuel Esquer Gomez, 45, from Nogales, Sonora sustained a gunshot wound to the left forearm.

As the group continued, the men stumbled upon skeletal remains of what they thought were two people.

While little is known about the attackers, Sheriff Antonio Estrada has stated that “[i]t’s perturbing to hear of people with high-powered rifles and camouflage. It raises some real red flags.” He also told KVOA that the shooters might have been U.S. citizens. “I hate to think that is what we’re looking at but we’re not going to dismiss any possibilities,” Estrada stated. “They may be individuals who may be hunting illegal border crossers. That’s really a big concern for us.”

Last summer, Shawna Forde, a member of the Minutemen American Defense, was charged with dressing up as a law enforcement officer and breaking into a house near the border in Arivica, Arizona and shooting a Latino man and his 9-year-old daughter. While it’s too early to say who is responsible for Friday’s shooting, it is known that James Gilchrist of the Minutemen Project has boasted about having 240 volunteers ready for a 30-day aerial and ground surveillance campaign on the Arizona-Mexico border. At the very least, last week’s incident further justifies the warnings of law enforcement officials who have pointed out that their presence “could be a very [volatile] situation, one that reasonable people ought to avoid.”

Jim Gilchrist, founder of the Minuteman Project, was caught on video last week slamming “Ron Paul fanatics” in the anti-immigration movement along with tea-bagger wannabe William Gheen who organized poorly attended “copycat” anti-immigration tea party protests:

I used to support Ron Paul, until I had this falling out with these Ron Paul fanatics. They’re not all that way, just too many. The ones that I’ve met, who are very hateful people, have no business supporting Ron Paul. Jeff Schwilk and William Gheen have no business being in political activism because, in my blatant personal opinion, they are outright racists.

Watch it:

Gilchrist has long attempted to distinguish his “multi-ethnic” border vigilante group from more overtly racist organizations such as Gheen’s Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC). However, their public feud is more the product of personal infighting than ideological differences.

To begin with, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) lists both the Minuteman Project and ALIPAC as “nativist extremist” organizations. SPLC has extensively documented the Minuteman Project’s ties to the Council of Conservative Citizens, a “white supremacist hate group” which even co-hosted a “strategy session” with one of the Minuteman Project’s chapters. The Anti-Defamation League points out that the Minuteman Project is “highly publicized among right-wing extremists ranging from militia groups to white supremacist organizations,” including neo-Nazi National Alliance members. Harvard University recently canceled Gilchrist’s invitation to speak at the campus, explaining that his views were “not compatible with providing an environment for civil, educational, and productive discourse on immigration.”

Earlier in the interview, Gilchrist offers a more convincing explanation for the mutual contempt held amongst nativist groups: “personality disorders” or “just hate for the competition.” Gilchrist claims Gheen’s hatred for him started when he refused to hand over his email lists and that his group was later attacked by Gheen for endorsing Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-AR) for President over Ron Paul. Both candidates pandered to the right-wing anti-immigrant fringe during their 2008 presidential campaigns.

Doug Hoffman, the Conservative Party candidate for New York’s traditionally Republican 23rd District, has just won the right-wing support of the Minuteman Political Action Committee — the political action arm of a “nativist extremist” armed vigilante group. The Minuteman PAC is currently running Independent Expenditure radio spots and predicts that Hoffman is “positioned to win a landslide victory” over Republican Party nominee Dede Scozzafava.

The Minuteman PAC’s Hoffman ad claims Scozzafava and Democratic candidate Bill Owens are tied directly to “the left-wing social agenda”:

You already know about ACORN — the corrupt organization scamming your tax dollars to promote a radical left agenda. And you’ve seen videos where Acorn officials offer to help a teenage prostitution ring involving illegal aliens. Now blogger Michele Malkin exposes yet another Acorn scandal: subsidized mortgages for illegal aliens. Acorn must be stopped, but how?

Two candidates for Congress, Dede Scozzafava and Bill Owens, are tied directly to Acorn and their far left-wing socialist agenda. That’s why voters all over Central New York and the North country are backing Doug Hoffman for Congress. Doug Hoffman is a CPA — a solid conservative and the only candidate for Congress opposed to amnesty and government handouts for illegal aliens. And only Hoffman will stand up to Acorn and the liberals. The choice is clear: Doug Hoffman for Congress — the wake-up call politicians in both parties need now.

Listen here:

The Minuteman PAC proclaims that it’s “THE ONE Political Action Committee that the open-borders, pro-amnesty lobby fears most,” but has been widely criticized for hoarding money and spending only a small fraction of its funds on political candidates.

However, Hoffman’s website indicates that he’s actually opposed to putting up a wall to “stop all immigration.” “The answer is to create an easier path for immigrants to enter the United States – and to work here,” says his immigration platform. Agriculture is one of central New York’s main industries and many farmers depend on migrant labor. The New York Farm Bureau has expressed “deep disappointment” in “the failure of Congress…to come up with an immigration reform measure that addresses the pressing labor needs of agriculture in New York and across the nation.”

Cross-posted at Think Progress.

Gary Kreep, head of the United States Justice Foundation and founder of DefendGlenn.com is a professional when it comes to defending the racist and bigoted actions of America’s radical right-wing. Aside from spearheading the creation of a website aimed at spreading smears about Color of Change and White House official Van Jones in defense of Fox News personality Glenn Beck, Kreep has also supported the hateful interests of nativists, homophobes, and anti-choice radicals.

After Beck called President Obama a “racist” with a “deep-seated hatred for white people,” Color of Change and its Co-Founder Van Jones convinced 46 companies to cancel their advertisements aired during Beck’s show. In response, Kreep then founded DefendGlenn.com. Kreep himself subscribes to the delusional notion that Obama “has been hiding the truth [about his birthplace] from the American people.” He has also expressed frustration about recent waves of immigration to the US, having told the Los Angeles Times:

“When the Italians came to America, they assimilated. When the Irish came to America, they assimilated…It isn’t the language barrier; it’s the willingness to assimilate. It’s not that hard to come here speaking only a little English and assimilate.”

In 1992, the gay community and the Anti-Defamation League expressed outrage when Kreep brought his “purportedly anti-homosexual views” to San Diego’s Human Relations Commission.

Those Kreep has chosen to defend as an attorney are even more telling of his radical right-wing agenda. Kreep’s professional biography reveals that he has served as General Counsel to the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps — a militant “nativist extremist” group — and has been honored by the anti-choice extremist group Operation Rescue for “his services to the community.” Most recently, Kreep defended the San Diego Minutemen and help win them more than $150,000 in damages for a lawsuit filed against Caltrans for revoking their Adopt a Highway permit. He also defended “anti-immigration crusader” John Monti who was charged with battery, interfering with the civil rights of two day laborers, and filing a false police report. In 2007, Kreep defended anti-immigration activist Roy Warden, who was convicted of one count of assault and two counts of threats and intimidation after burning a Mexican flag outside a Mexican consulate. Warden was also videotaped “threatening to blow a child’s brains out,” and vowed “he would continue to exercise his right to free speech, burn Mexican flags and protect himself from others.”

Fundamentalist pastor Wiley Drake, who has publicly prayed for Obama’s death, has hired Kreep to pursue a lawsuit challenging Obama’s birthplace and presidency.

The Phoenix New Times reports that Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard is alleging that Carmen Mercer, president of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps (MCDC), participated in a scam that involved offering homeowners phony property tax reduction services. The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps is the largest and best-financed border vigilante group in the US.

Mercer is accused of participating in a scheme in which official-looking letters were sent to homeowners offering to reduce their property taxes in exchange for a $189 processing fee. The lawsuit alleges that the solicitations were “completely fraudulent and deceptive” and that the defendants duped consumers into believing they were paying a legitimate business for services that could not be performed. Mercer was identified as the owner of the Post Office box listed on the scam letters. She claims that she was asked to open the Post Office box by a friend and that she did not know its intended purpose.

It’s pretty ironic that someone who is so worried about “illegal” immigrants harming US citizens is currently being accused of scamming unsuspecting American homeowners and breaking the law herself. However, Mercer’s legal woes are miniscule compared to those faced by other Minuteman leaders. Most recently, Shawna Forde, leader of the Minuteman American Defense group, was charged with the brutal murder of a 9-year-old girl. In 2007, former leaders of the Minuteman Project sued founder Jim Gilchrist for allegedly using $300,000 of the group’s money to promote his book and run for Congress. Gilchrist then filed a defamation suit against his colleagues.

Former MCDC President Chris Simcox was also mired in legal controversy. Anti-immigration advocates across the country turned against him when he failed to account for $1.6-$1.8 million in private donations he claimed to have raised for an “Israeli-style” barrier” based on “the fences used in Gaza and the West Bank.” The project turned out to be little more than a two mile-long barbed-wire cattle fence. Simcox’s own ex-wife fought to obtain full custody of their son, describing Simcox as being “prone to sudden, violent rages.” In January 2003, Simcox was arrested while while on patrol with Civil Homeland Defense for illegally carrying a .45-caliber semi-automatic handgun in a national park. Simcox is planning on running against Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) this fall, claiming “I work for the people, period.”

Mercer’s predecessor Al Garza resigned two weeks ago saying that MCDC “is now on a path that I cannot endorse.”

This weekend, Shawna Forde, 41, leader of the Minuteman American Defense (M.A.D.) group and two of her associates were arrested in connection with the murder of a 9-year-old girl, Brisenia Flores, and her father, Raul, in Arivaca, AZ. Local police are reporting that Forde and her posse broke into the Flores home dressed as law enforcement officers looking for money and drugs to finance her border watch group with the intention of leaving no witnesses behind.

Much like Jim Gilchrist’s Minuteman Project and Chris Simcox’s Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, Forde’s group is an extreme nativist organization made up of volunteer border vigilantes. M.A.D. has gone into damage control, posting a statement expressing condolences for the Flores family and distancing itself from Forde’s violent crime. Yet directly below its offering of “deepest regrets,” the website boasts a message from Shawna Forde, Executive Director:

“I would like to let everyone know that we are in full operation we have people coming from Florida and other parts of the country to assist in gathering exclusive footage of drug cartel drug smuggling and humane trafficking…We will expose and report what we know and find, we will recruit the serious and train the revolutionist, time for words have passed the time for bravery and conviction are now. I shall lead you to challenge yourself and your American heart into the future of what was once a great country and will be again but at what price?“

Other border vigilante groups are disassociating themselves from Forde and M.A.D. However, the Anti-Defamation League points out that many of them have publicly supported her anti-immigrant statements in the past. On three different occasions, Forde claimed to have been shot, raped, and beaten by Spanish-speaking assailants. Most inside her own anti-immigrant community questioned her credibility and accused her of faking the attack, but some, like Minuteman Project Executive Director Stephen Eichler stood by her, saying:

“I believe what I have been told, and the reports I have read in the newspaper, to be factual and accurate…I may be called gullible, sucker, and naïve, but it is of little consequence to me if I am right and the victims were comforted.”

Laine Lawless, an anti-immigration activist who started the group Border Guardians, praised Forde’s border activities and argued that Forde’s alleged attack was “obvious proof that the reach of the Mexican cartels extends way beyond the borders of Mexico deep into the United States.” After the Flores family murder, Minuteman in-fighting has lead the San Diego Minuteman to blame The Minuteman Project’s Jim Gilchrist for continuing to support Forde, who served as Gilchrist’s 2008-2009 Border Director, “despite warnings.”

Finger pointing aside, what all of these groups have in common is that they target individual immigrants rather than immigration policies. Their mission and rhetoric consistently fits the description of “rightwing extremist groups” that the DHS report warned have “the potential to incite individuals or small groups toward violence” in part due to pent-up “frustration over a perceived lack of government action on illegal immigration.” Forde’s alleged murder comes shortly after a white supremacist shooting rampage in Pittsburgh, an abortion doctor murder in Kansas, and a racially-motivated shooting at the Holocaust Museum that have caused some to “herald a disturbing surge in U.S. hate crimes.”