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CHRIS SIMCOX
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Chris Simcox is the cofounder of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps (MCDC) and the project's main spokesperson. He was formerly a kindergarten teacher at the Wildwood School in Los Angeles, where he taught for thirteen years. The life long Cub fan also played city league baseball in Los Angeles for close to twenty years. Primarily a control pitcher with a seeing eye curve ball, Simcox's effectiveness diminished after the retirement of his long time catcher, Loren Lloyd. In October 2002, Simcox issued a public call to arms, inviting readers of his newspaper, the Tombstone Tumbleweed, to join a "Citizens Border Patrol Militia" whose function, Simcox said, would be to "shame the government into doing its job" of controlling the United States' border with Mexico. He founded Civil Homeland Defense, a group which patrolled the border, and within the next two and a half years sought to assist the United States Border Patrol by detaining thousands of illegal aliens. In January 2003, Simcox was fined and his handgun confiscated after being questioned by National Park Rangers in Coronado National Memorial Park about the pistol he was carrying. Simcox's practice of reporting immigrants attempting to enter the country illegally has been controversial, and questions concerning its legality have been raised. When the Civil Homeland Defense (the precursor to the MCDC) was first formed, Simcox's opponents claimed that it is illegal for a normal citizen who is in no way affiliated with law enforcement to detain people in the United States. Simcox claimed at that time that these detentions were justified under a "citizen's arrest" policy. Since the inception of the MCDC, however, their "Standard Operating Procedure" (SOP) states that "Minutemen Observe, Report, Record, and Direct Border Patrol or other appropriate emergency or law enforcement agencies to suspected Illegal Aliens or Illegal Activities." In December 2004, Simcox teamed up with James Gilchrist to organize the Minuteman Project, which brought nationwide attention to the southern border. While some have accused the Minuteman members of being vigilantes, supporters claim that there has never been a case of a member of The Minuteman Project physically harming anyone. Simcox was interviewed for the 2005 independent documentary Wetback: The Undocumented Documentary. Simcox also appeared in a 2006 documentary by Joseph Matthew called "Crossing Arizona," and now a 2007 documentary by Chris Burgard called "Border", where Burgard spent 30 days on the Border with Simcox, documenting the activities.. On April 21, 2006, Simcox issued an ultimatum to President George W. Bush to either send National Guard troops to guard the border or the "Minutemen" would begin construction of a wall along the border, built on private property. |
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