Minuteman to Tea Party: A Grassroots Rebranding

by David Holthouse for Media Matters Last August, more than 600 right-wing activists gathered for a Tea Party Nation rally on private land near the U.S.-Mexico border in Cochise County, Arizona. Fluttering in the desert breeze were hundreds of tiny American flags attached to a border fence of 15-foot-tall rusty poles. Sheriff Joe Arpaio at a Tea Party Nation rally on the border last August Rally speakers included Tea Party candidates for the US Senate and House of Rep...

Second Anti-Immigrant Vigilante Gets Death Sentence in Arizona

by Asraa Mustufa An Arizona jury has sentenced another member of the anti-immigration splinter group the Minuteman American Defense to the death penalty for the murders of Raul Flores and his 9-year-old daughter Brisenia two years ago, according to Reuters. Jason Eugene Bush was the group’s national director of operations and is the second member to receive the sentence, following ringleader Shawna Forde’s sentencing in February. A third member, Albert Rober...

Weekly Diaspora: Justice for Brisenia as Minutemen Leader Convicted of Murders

Courtesy of The Media Consortium Days after Arizona Governor Jan Brewer and Attorney General Tom Horne filed suit against the federal government for allegedly failing to protect the state from a Mexican “invasion,” the high-profile murder conviction of a Minutemen border vigilante underscores the state’s misguided border priorities. Earlier this week, a jury found Shawna Forde—leader of the Minutemen American Defense (MAD)—guilty of murdering 8-year-old Brisenia Flores and her father, Ra...

Minuteman Murderer, Shawna Forde, Speaks

By Terry Greene Sterling Shawna Forde of Arizona was convicted Monday of killing a 9-year-old girl and her father. Terry Greene Sterling’s exclusive jailhouse interview with the beautician-turned-border vigilante. Forde maintains her innocence, describes the jury’s guilty verdict as “surreal,” and prepares for a possible death sentence. On Valentine’s Day, after deliberating for about a day and a half, a Tucson jury convicted Shawna Forde of murdering 9-year-old Brisenia Flores and her dad...

Minuteman Vigilante Shawna Forde Convicted for Brisenia Flores’ Murder

by Julianne Hing This afternoon a Pima County, Arizona, jury found Minuteman border vigilante Shawna Forde guilty on two counts of first-degree murder for killing nine-year-old Brisenia Flores and her father Raul Flores Jr. in May 2009, the Arizona Daily Star reported. Forde was also convicted of attempted first-degree murder for shooting Brisenia’s mother Gina Gonzalez, along with other aggravated assault and robbery charges. On May 30, 2009, Forde and two suspected accomplices woke up...

Trial of anti-illegal immigration activist accused in killings spotlights tense climate along border

By Krissah Thompson Washington Post Staff Writer After Arizona rancher Robert Krentz was killed on his land last year by a man police believe was an illegal immigrant, television networks and more than 300 newspapers wrote about his death as an example of the dangers on the border. Nine months before Krentz was killed, 9-year-old Brisenia Flores and her father, Raul, were shot to death in their home, 150 miles from Krentz's ranch. Their attackers were allegedly affiliated with an m...