Anti-Immigrant Speaker Greeted With Brawl at Columbia U.

The College Republicans at Columbia University had invited the founder of the Minuteman Project to speak on the campus on Wednesday night, but he didn’t have a chance to deliver his speech, as protesters stormed the stage and then engaged in a pitched brawl that left at least one student bloodied, according to the Columbia Spectator.

The Minuteman Project opposes illegal immigration to the United States by means of vigilante-like direct action on the country’s borders. The group’s founder, Jim Gilchrist, was confronted at Columbia by, among others, protesters from the International Socialist Organization, who sought to display a banner on the stage that read, “No human being is illegal.” The arrival of the banner, and efforts by Gilchrist supporters to remove it, seems to have prompted the brawl, which can be viewed in cinéma vérité on the newspaper’s Web site. As the Ivy Leaguers fight it out, Mr. Gilchrist can be seen being quickly ushered off the stage. Before long, Columbia officials cleared out the audience as well.