FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 28, 2008

Jeff Schwilk, Founder, San Diego Minutemen, 760-525-1655
Howard Kaloogian, SDMM Attorney, 760-519-2393
 

FEDERAL JUDGE GRANTS INJUNCTION FOR SAN DIEGO MINUTEMEN ADOPTED HIGHWAY!

Judge William Hayes granted the San Diego Minutemen’s request for an injunction yesterday and in doing so has corrected the government censorship and denial of free speech rights of the group. The ruling restores SDMM’s legal five-year permit to the highway they adopted last November and restores their courtesy sign back to the side of the freeway about one mile before the San Clemente checkpoint. That sign represents for a large group of proud citizen activists who believe in secure borders, American sovereignty, and the rule of law in America. That message will not be silenced by the radical open borders activists and agents of the Mexican Government, including Assemblywoman Lori Saldana (San Diego) and others in the Legislative “Latino Caucus” in California who demanded that the Minutemen be barred from participating in the popular, long-running Adopt a Highway Program.

The local San Diego "Latino activists" continued their 3-year campaign of lies, hate, and propaganda to try to convince the public that SDMM pro-border security volunteers are criminals and racist, even though many of our volunteers are Hispanic Americans and/or legal immigrants to the United States. Judge Hayes found there was not a shred of evidence to support the Latino activists' outrageous claims.

“This is a great day for the U.S. Constitution and for Americans who volunteer to defend our nation from external threats, both here and abroad”, said Jeff Schwilk, founder of the San Diego Minutemen and a retired U.S. Marine. The ruling makes it clear that the State of California cannot discriminate and silence the San Diego Minutemen just because a few vocal and radical illegal alien activists threaten violence against our recognition sign. Judge Hayes also ruled that there were no inherent safety issues at that site as claimed by Caltrans officials and that Caltrans violated many of its own regulations when it tried to move the San Diego Minutemen 50 miles away to a freeway site in Santee to quell the controversy.

We are also confident that Caltrans will now grant our second permit for a southbound stretch of I-5 that we rightfully applied for on May 15. Caltrans has blocked our new adoption by moving Jobing.com from their previous site to our requested site on May 17, AFTER receiving our application.

The 600 plus volunteers and associates of the San Diego Minutemen look forward to resuming litter removal responsibility for our beautiful two-mile stretch of I-5 within the next two weeks. We are proud to have a highway site that is surrounded by the U.S. Border Patrol, the California Highway Patrol, and the 30,000 U.S. Marines at Camp Pendleton!