James "Jim" Walter Gilchrist, Jr. (born January 13, 1949) is the American co-founder and president of the Minuteman Project, a group whose aim is to prevent illegal immigration across the United States's southern border.

Early Life more less

Minutemen Project more less

Co-founder of the Minuteman Movement

Jim Gilchrist and Chris Simcox are widely recognized as the founders of the Minuteman Project. They founded the organization on October 1, 2004. The two staged a month long border watch project in April 2005 and that event catapulted the Minuteman movement into the national spotlight. Gilchrist chose to locate in Arizona for the Project, because there was a disproportionately large number of illegal immigrants crossing in that state.

Internal stife: Court finds in Gilchrist's favor

After their firing from the Minuteman Project, a small number of the members of an advisory board for Minuteman Project, Inc. took control of the organizations bank account and, at least temporarily, took control of the Minuteman Project's main web site, Minuteman Project founder Jim Gilchrist filed a lawsuit in Orange County, California, against three of the members of the group that claimed to be members of a board of directors: Marvin Stewart, Deborah Courtney and Barbara Coe.

Stewart, Courtney and Coe allege that they constituted the Board of Directors of Minuteman Project, Inc. and fired Gilchrist for a variety of reasons. Gilchrist fired Stewart and Courtney. Rather than accept their termination, Stewart and Courtney filed papers with the Secretary of State of Delaware claiming that they were the Board of Directors and Officers of the Corporation.

The pair, Stewart and Courtney, that brought suit against Mr. Gilchrist, are defendants in another action brought by Jim Gilchrist's Minuteman Project, Inc., a Delaware Corporation. The former volunteers cannot find legal counsel and are representing themselves in court. That trial began January 4, 2010. February 5, 2010, Judge Wilkinson issued a Statement of Decision finding that Stewart and Courtney were legally fired from Minuteman Project, Inc. on February 2, 2007. The February 2, 2007 meeting was properly noticed, the purpose of the special meeting (the firing of Courtney, Coe and Stewart) was noticed, and Courtney, Coe and Stewart were in attendance at the meeting. The court ruled previous meetings the pair held allegedly firing other members of the board were lacking - in that they didn't give notice, they didn't have a quorum and the mutinying directors lacked authority.

At that meeting Barbara Coe resigned her position (giving her resignation from MMP, Inc. to Jim Gilchrist, its president) and Stewart and Courtney were fired. Judge Wilkinson ruled that the two defendants were legally terminated from the board of MMP on February 2, 2007 and "under no circumstances" are they board members after February 2, 2007. He issued a permanent injunction against their claiming that they are board members, officers, members or spokespersons for the Minuteman Project, calls for them to remove any websites making those false claims and finally orders them to return to MMP any property they have in their possession.

The ruling affirms Jim Gilchrist's position as head of Minuteman Project, Inc. and its successor organization Jim Gilchrist's Minuteman Project, Inc.

2005 Election Bid more less

Minutemen: The Battle to Secure America's Borders more less

Minutemen is a book coauthored by Jim Gilchrist and Jerome R. Corsi. It was written in 2006 and addressed the illegal immigration issue in America. The book is 375 pages long and has twelve chapters. It also features a forward from Congressman Tom Tancredo.

The book uses powerful language to try to persuade readers that illegal immigration is a dangerous and costly problem that needs a policy solution immediately. Gilchrist and Corsi suggest that there is a population of 30 million illegal immigrants in the United States. The preface states, “This is an invasion, not a visit by neighbors asking for a cup of sugar.”

The invasion theme is seen throughout the book. The authors ask, "Will the American southwest secede to form the Mexican state of Aztlán?" Illegal immigration is called the “Trojan Horse Invasion”. Gilchrist and Corsi repeatedly remind readers that it is not just workers and families that come across the border, but serious criminals also enter the country illegally. The book states that 10-20% of people that enter the country illegally are criminals, and 10% will become criminals once they arrive in the U.S. A whole chapter discusses the MS-13 gang and how open borders puts the nation at risk with gangsters and drug cartels.

Additionally, Gilchrist believes that the open borders would create a welfare state, due to his belief that many of the immigrants take advantage of social benefits in America. The authors say that the number of undereducated illegal immigrants could outnumber the middle class. They discuss “anchor babies”, which is the large population of children born on U.S. soil to illegal immigrants. Since they are born in the United States, then they are American citizens by default. When the anchor babies are twenty-one years old, then they are able to sponsor their parents in the citizenship process.

The book also provides information about the Minutemen Project. It says that the goal of the group is to provide awareness of the disregard by politicians of the “illegal immigration crisis” and to prove that the mere presence of a person at the border would deter illegal crossings. Frustrated by his organization being called vigilantes, Gilchrist says that if people want to correctly address them, then this is what they should call the Minutemen Project: “a law-abiding, multiethnic, law-enforcement advocacy group, in favor of the orderly queue of legal immigration and opposed to the perilous chaos of illegal immigration.”

Gilchrist and Corsi disapprove of the way that employers abuse illegal immigrants by paying them lower wages and denying them benefits. The book calls this the “twenty-first-century slave trade”. This undermines the wages that U.S. citizens earn.

Minutemen devotes a whole chapter to discuss the death of deputy David March. March was killed in cold blood by an illegal immigrant involved in gang and drug activities during a routine traffic stop. There are over three thousand documented cases where an illegal immigrant commits a murder and then escapes to the safety of Mexico. The Mexican government does not agree with the death penalty and will not extradite fugitives that may face that fate.