Illegal aliens are damaging U.S. citizens with 'silent war', says Minuteman founder

Minuteman Founder Jim Gilchrist said this week that the “silent war” illegal aliens are conducting against U.S. citizens is causing a higher toll than the war in Iraq. The ongoing silent war, he said, is "taking its toll in lives and domestic tranquility."

In the last five years, “45,000 U.S. residents have been killed in action via homicide or manslaughter at the hands of illegal aliens, and another 300,000 have been wounded," he said.

The financial cost is also significant, he said. Welfare benefit programs used strictly by illegal immigrants are costing "$400 billion a year - four times the annual cost of the war in Iraq," he added. "Our coffers are being plundered by those who don't deserve them," he noted, adding "Those programs were earmarked for American citizens.”

Gilchrist founded the Minuteman Project in 2004 after "years of frustrated efforts trying to get a neglectful U.S. government to simply enforce existing immigration laws. We just want to preserve a civilized society under the rule of law, under the First Amendment. That's the way the Founding Fathers set it up," he said.