It could be lively Friday evening in northwest suburban Crystal Lake. Over expected protests by Latinos and peace activists, an Ohio sheriff is set to speak on how he’s managed to send scores of immigrants into deportation proceedings. He’s a guest of one of three Chicago-area groups that call themselves minutemen. That’s a reference to private patrols along the Mexican border aimed at deterring illegal crossings and promoting tougher immigration measures. Like their counterparts in the Southwest, the minutemen in our area get labeled everything from patriots to vigilantes, from cultural defenders to bigots. Here’s a view inside this small but determined movement.

It’s hard for minutemen to hold a big meeting in public without disruptions by protesters. So, in unseasonably warm fall weather, Evert Evertsen has rented an 1,800-foot tent for his backyard in rural McHenry County. The retired systems manager welcomes about 45 people under the tent to a three-hour strategy session. Most have come from suburbs north and northwest of Chicago. All but a handful are middle-aged and white.

EVERTSEN: OK, we’re almost ready to start, so if we can all address the flag.

AUDIENCE: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

Within minutes, participants begin sharing fears about illegal aliens spreading infectious diseases and about a secret plan to erase U.S. borders and establish a North American Union.

MAN IN AUDIENCE: A friend of mine works for ICE in Washington, D.C., the intell section. There is a concerted effort by the Mexican government to flood the southwest United States with Mexicans and vote it back to Mexico.

AUDIENCE MEMBERS: Absolutely. Yeah.

BIESADA: They call that Azltn. That’s been around, that’s been in existence for years.

Rick Biesada is a former Marine who hosts a local AM radio show called, “Perspectives on Our Heritage.” He’s visited Arizona to help patrol the border. And he helped form the Chicago area’s first minuteman chapter in 2005. That group has splintered into three factions whose differences are more personal than ideological. Each has an e-mail list of more than a thousand. And, as Biesada shows, they often join forces.

BIESADA: I have two of my personal heroes in attendance today. Paul Humpfer and Judy Sigwalt, would you please stand up (applause)? Paul and Judy were instrumental in putting forth the illegal-alien ordinances in Carpentersville (applause). Our only problem is trying to get like-minded politicians like Paul and Judy elected to public office.

On that, the host of today’s meeting has a plan. Evertsen says it’s time for minutemen to take over ward and precinct posts of both the Republican and Democratic parties. He says it’ll require everyone in the tent to spend less time in front of the TV.

EVERTSEN: You know more than Lou Dobbs. Quit watching him and let the other people watch him who need to learn. You go out and become a committeeman and get other people to watch Lou Dobbs.

Several times during the afternoon, the tent fills with ideas to stop Illinois from allowing undocumented immigrants to drive legally. And the minutemen share tactics for taking advantage of 287(g), a law enabling federal training of local police to initiate deportations.

FLANNIGAN: I don’t think the answer anymore is to go after the cities.

Fred Flannigan hosts an AM show in Waukegan.

FLANNIGAN: I think the answer is to go after the counties. Sheriffs in the county do not have to get permission from the boards that are supervising their counties to get 287(g) applications in. They can do it on their own. Force them. Take examples of crimes that have been committed by illegal immigrants. Force them to adopt 287(g).

Flannigan eventually turns to the only reporter at the event.

FLANNIGAN: Chip, I know that it’s a big thing for people on the other side of this equation, the liberal side, to say that it is about fear. Yeah, it is about fear for me because this culture that I grew up in, that all of us grew up in, is important to me. And we want to retain this culture. It’s the American culture. If you don’t believe there’s an American culture, you’re wrong. Are we asking for any more than for the law to be enforced?

AUDIENCE: No!

FLANNIGAN: Do we discriminate against people in any way? We don’t care where they’re from. If they’re illegal, get out.

Writing off this gathering would be a mistake. That’s according to Devin Burghart of the Chicago-based Center for New Community. The center tracks a dozen national groups that promote what it calls anti-immigrant bigotry. Burghart says those groups are chiefly responsible for derailing immigration reform this year.

BURGHART: They’ve got combined annual budgets of $15 million, an active donor base of between 650,000 and 750,000 people, and have the voices of 110 Congressmen and women, who have joined the anti-immigrant bloc inside the House of Representatives.

Burghart calls the minutemen nativist vigilantes whose ranks include white nationalists. But Evertsen looks at the people under his tent and insists he’s kept out racial supremacists.

EVERTSEN: What we do is we go to gun shows. We go to various other venues. And we put up a table. And that’s where you find out who your rightwing extremists are. And whenever they show up, we just watch them. Because we do not advocate any kind of violence. Just the opposite, we advocate rejuvenation of our sovereignty from within through peaceful means. So, as a result, you want to make sure that you don’t kill your name like the John Birch Society did, in so far as being labeled extremists, because we’re not.

Tonight’s seminar with Daniel Beck, the sheriff of Allen County, Ohio, begins at 6:30 p.m. at McHenry County College. I’m Chip Mitchell, Chicago Public Radio.