A popular state volunteer program that picks up litter on California highways is snarled in a tangle of bureaucratic goofs, a lengthy rules revision process, and a protracted legal battle between state officials and an anti-illegal immigrant group.

The 20-year-old Adopt-A-Highway program, in which businesses and groups gather garbage in return for a small highway sign recognizing their efforts, stopped issuing new permits last June.

The 3,373 permits that were in effect then are still in effect, but state Department of Transportation officials said suspension of the program has resulted in a statewide backlog of 10,000 applicants.

David Anderson, a Caltrans spokesman, said via e-mails that even before the moratorium, Caltrans had 9,215 applicants on the waiting list. He also said the moratorium was meant to give the department time to draft new regulations for the program.

"The guidelines in place were 'underground' regulations," Anderson said. "They had not gone through public review and comment. ... The regulations being developed are going through public review and comment."

But lawyers for the San Diego Minutemen contend the moratorium and redrafting of rules stem from efforts by Caltrans to prevent the group from participating in the Adopt-A-Highway program, and thus gain a higher public profile through having a sign with its name on it along the freeway.

"My understanding of what happened is that ... they suspended the program because everything they were doing (in dealing with the Minutemen) violated their own rules," said attorney Lowell Robert Fuselier." Somebody there (at Caltrans) said, 'We're just going to stop and figure this out.' "

The permit moratorium is just one chapter in a saga that began in November 2007, when the San Diego Minutemen applied to Caltrans for a litter pickup permit, and were approved.

"Welcome to the Caltrans Adopt-A-Highway Program!" began a cheery Nov. 19 letter from a department manager to Minutemen leader Jeff Schwilk. "I hope that you find participating in the Adopt-A-Highway Program a rewarding and enjoyable experience."

The Minutemen portray themselves as a volunteer group devoted to upholding enforcement of U.S. immigration laws and border security. Foes of the group contend they are racist vigilantes.

Soit was a big surprise to everyone when someone at Caltrans assigned the Minutemen the task of cleaning up a two-mile stretch of northbound Interstate 5 that straddles a major Border Patrol checkpoint on the freeway between Oceanside and San Clemente. It's the kind of spot where the volatile issue of illegal immigration springs quickly to mind.

"It (the assignment) was done randomly," an attorney for Caltrans admitted during a federal court hearing last May. "It was a bizarre coincidence." In any event, a "San Diego Minutemen" sign went up on the site, and members of the group began their first litter pickup without incident on Jan. 17, 2008.

In Sacramento, meanwhile, Caltrans officials found themselves under fire from immigrants' rights groups and Latino legislators, who wanted Caltrans to rescind the permit and expel the Minutemen from the program.

According to court documents, Dale Bonner, secretary of the Business, Transportation and Housing Agency, ordered Caltrans Director Will Kempton and Pedro Orso-Delgado, director of the San Diego Caltrans district, to find a way under the program's rules to justify ousting the Minutemen. On Friday,Jan. 19,Orso-Delgado e-mailed Kempton, "I will call you Tuesday cuz we may have more leverage on the Minutemen."

Kempton replied, "Pedro: I will need information sooner than that. I am being called on the carpet by the Latino (legislative) Caucus on Tuesday morning, and we need to have an appropriate strategy developed by the meeting."

The strategy consisted of asking the California Highway Patrol to launch an "informal investigation" of the group, to see whether the Minutemen could be disqualified for violating Adopt-A-Highway rules against participation by groups that advocate violence or discriminate.