The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps was a volunteer group at one time headed by
Chris Simcox
Chris Simcox (born 1961) is the American co-founder of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps (MCDC), the project's main spokesperson, and a convicted sex offender. In June 2016, Simcox was convicted of child sexual abuse and is serving a 19.5-year se ...
(an Arizona newspaper publisher) and dedicated to preventing illegal crossings of the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
border with Mexico. Arguing that the government was insufficiently concerned with securing the border, they organized several state chapters, with the intention of providing law enforcement agencies with evidence of
immigration law
Immigration law refers to the national statutes, regulations
Regulation is the management of complex systems according to a set of rules and trends. In systems theory, these types of rules exist in various fields of biology and society, but the ...
violations. The group was one of several that emerged for the proliferation of civilian border patrol groups at the US-Mexico border. Arguably, the emergence of these groups can be linked to the increasing
criminalization
Criminalization or criminalisation, in criminology, is "the process by which behaviors and individuals are transformed into crime and criminals". Previously legal acts may be transformed into crimes by legislation or judicial decision. However, ...
and
securitization
Securitization is the financial practice of pooling various types of contractual debt such as residential mortgages, commercial mortgages, auto loans or credit card debt obligations (or other non-debt assets which generate receivables) and selling ...
of immigration. Simcox stated that the group merely reported incidents to law enforcement, and did not directly confront immigrants. There was a
standard operating procedure
A standard operating procedure (SOP) is a set of step-by-step instructions compiled by an organization to help workers carry out routine operations. SOPs aim to achieve efficiency, quality output, and uniformity of performance, while reducing misc ...
(SOP) that was to be followed by Minutemen volunteers, with rules including not speaking to, approaching, gesturing towards or having physical contact in any way with any suspected border crossers. According to Anthony Ramirez of the ''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', the organization "has been criticized as being a
right-wing
Right-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position on the basis of natural law, economics, authorit ...
militia
A militia () is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a country, or subjects of a state, who may perform military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of r ...
".
History and activities
Chris Simcox founded the Civil Homeland Defense organization, being the first antecedent of the group to patrol the borders, but were
disbanded after his first arrest. April 1, 2005, the group renaming the group Minuteman Civil Defense Corps was a militia organization concerned with border security that invokes the image of
Revolutionary War militiamen and traces his motivation to "protect the american borders",ready at a moment's notice to fight for America's freedom. Although the majority of the group's members are
Caucasian
Caucasian may refer to:
Anthropology
*Anything from the Caucasus region
**
**
** ''Caucasian Exarchate'' (1917–1920), an ecclesiastical exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Caucasus region
*
*
*
Languages
* Northwest Caucasian l ...
s, some
Mexican Americans
Mexican Americans ( es, mexicano-estadounidenses, , or ) are Americans of full or partial Mexican heritage. In 2019, Mexican Americans comprised 11.3% of the US population and 61.5% of all Hispanic and Latino Americans. In 2019, 71% of Mexica ...
work to patrol the borders as well, deeply the organization's call to protect legal immigration as a measure to protect American society and resources, approximately 900 volunteers patrol a twenty-three-mile section of the Arizona-Mexico border.
The MCDC is often confused with or thought to be affiliated with
The Minuteman Project Inc.
The Minuteman Project is an organization which was founded in the United States in August 2004 by a group of private individuals who sought to extrajudicially monitor the United States–Mexico border's flow of illegal immigrants. Founded by J ...
, but the two groups are wholly distinct. The militants have been accused of racial profiling, however, approaching persons of color, asking whether they speak English, asking where they live, and questioning them while not quizzing Caucasians in the same areas.
The group was originally co-founded by American
neo-Nazi
Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazism, Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and Supremacism#Racial, racial supremacy (ofte ...
,
J. T. Ready.
The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps web site spells out a "standard operating procedure" for Minutemen, which includes directives such as "Minutemen are courteous to everyone with whom they come into contact, and never discriminate against anyone for any reason." The group holds up an American ideal as part of its appeal for volunteers; illegal immigration is portrayed as the reason for the loss of high-paying manufacturing jobs, health care crises in emergency rooms on the borders, education problems in border state districts, and other socio-economic problems.
Arrested members
The first time that Simcox was arrested by
federal park ranger
A ranger, park ranger, park warden, or forest ranger is a law enforcement person entrusted with protecting and preserving parklands – national, state, provincial, or local parks.
Description
"Parks" may be broadly defined by some systems in thi ...
s on a stretch along the
Arizona
Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...
-Mexico border. Simcox was armed with a
single pistol,
police scanner radios, and was charged with a misdemeanor, subsequently serving a year on probation. His principal objective was clear, stop the illegal Mexican border crossings.
On March 15, 2010, Minuteman Civil Defense Corps President Carmen Mercer sent an e-mail to the group's members in which she stated,
After receiving what she described as a "dramatic" response from members who promised to return to the border armed, Mercer called for the dissolution of the group on March 23 citing her concern of being held responsible should members fail to follow the proper "rules of engagement".
On June 8, 2016, Minuteman Civil Defense Corps co-founder Chris Simcox was found guilty of child molestation,
and on July 11, 2016, was sentenced to serve 19.5 years in an Arizona prison. One of the founders J.T. Ready had twice been caught in 2011 forcibly detaining immigrants, and was under investigation by the FBI, who were looking into a potential domestic terrorism situation involving immigrants found shot to death in the desert.
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Organizations based in Arizona
Immigration political advocacy groups in the United States
Mexico–United States border
Right-wing militia organizations in the United States
2005 establishments in Arizona