Financial Ties Questions

Finding out about how the Minutemen Civil Defense Corp. runs their finances is a complex process that could lose anyone.

In fact, that’s why most of the members I’ve talked to have no idea where the money they donate goes after they write their check– making comments like, “We have to put our trust in them that they are putting it, (the donations), towards the right things,” one volunteer during the September muster told me.

On their Web site, MCDC states that the Minutemen Border Fence Project to which people donate is:

“… a project of the Declaration Alliance — a public policy and issues advocacy organization that aggressively addresses the intensifying assaults that the American Republic continues to endure — at home, and abroad. Declaration Alliance is a 501(c)(4) not-for-profit, tax exempt organization.”

Also, the organization has an IRS 990 form from 2006 available for their non-profit, Minutemen Foundation, Inc., which is where all the donations are apparently funneled.

But my questions come in the same form as ex-members such as former Arizona Chapter Director Stacey O’Connell and others asked before they were terminated by Chris Simcox. On the 2006 990 IRS form, there was a total of $87,500 claimed. This left an additional $177,599, (give or take $177, 559), unaccounted for if you know that one volunteer named Jim Campbell from Fountain Hills, Ariz. gave a donation of about $100,000 alone.

Here is a link to view the IRS 990 filing from the Minuteman Foundation, Inc., as well as an article by the Washington Times that may shed a little more light on the situation.

It makes me feel uneasy to know that many of the volunteers don’t know how they’re donations are handled in great detail. In all, this has left some pretty big questions unanswered, and proven much more complex a situation than I had thought.

In the Gray

Just as we all know that everything isn’t black or white, neither can every member of the Minutemen Civil Defense Corp. be classified as either good or bad.

While Simcox and the other leaders have shown that they aren’t always upfront about how they run their organization, I don’t think it is fair for the general volunteers be labeled with the same negativity.

Many of the volunteers in the MCDC join and serve because they truly want a better, more free America– and are willing to dedicate ther time and effort to make sure that happens. I don’t think that’s bad, or it makes them bad. It’s just another example of how diverse groups of thinkers can have differences and be accepted in this country.

So when Simcox claims that I came into this project with a bias, and that I will “do a hit piece on us (them) like all the rest and it will make no difference,” unfortunately he and the rest of the MCDC leadership made an unfortunate mistake in judgement. Although they still would never believe it, I probably gave them the biggest chance to prove wrong what the rest of the media has been saying about them since the beginning of my project.

It’s unfortunate that a few bad apples can ruin the whole barrel to the public who perceive them. I understand this, and think others should take that into account as well.

The Follow-Up

After being un-invited to the muster, Simcox decided to follow-up with another e-mail to me which further clarifies how paranoid the leaders of the MCDC have become. Below is the e-mail he sent in his own words– I have written none of my own, as he does a splendid job himself of showing who he is and how he leads his organization.

“I appreciate everyone’s input on this – and it is what it is. Great job – we WIN! Another journalist with an agenda exposed! Al, I don’t think I would classify a liberal arts college journalists as an assassin – she might get her feelings hurt and contact the ACLU

Remember I told you they are after me personally not the organization per se. That is now clear after reading her blog entries. I find it curious how the young lady can interpret and judge our thorough research based in facts, a passion for our country and security, and enthusiastic but tempered activism somehow equates to arrogance and is “suspicious”. The fact she is reading the SPLC articles proves she knows little about which organizations are credible -at least I get a good laugh out of some of their crazy fabricated stories, like I was a failed actor -geez, I never acted in my life except for my fun diversion acting in a few plays as part of the Tombstone repertory theater – have you guys ever seem those videos? – they are a hoot – we should watch them sometime for a good laugh – Carmen remembers how much fun that was. Thank God I never had any desire to be an actor – the dips -it was my former wife who was the failed actor! The SPLC articles are so full of holes and purposefully attempted to make me out to be a monster – I can take any article they have ever written about me and pick it apart and prove they are lying – my kids even have a field day with all the propaganda they attempt to use in character assassination – oh there’s that word again. What a distraction this all is – but now we certainly know her intentions are as evil as we suspected – thanks to everyone for helping to set her up – Gene thanks for your conscientious and thoughtful approach to this and Al – dude, you are the man!

I purposefully cc’d her on the email – if you notice she is deeply confused and thinks my email is the silver bullet she needed – but actually read my email and read her delighted exclamation that she has us running scared -it’s actually the exact opposite – we gave her more than enough access to the organization, just as we always have and we have been completely transparent so the bias will likely be evident in her final report – after all she messed up by putting her biased thoughts in her blog – her lack of objectivity is compromised and her report will be less than credible just like the SPLC. I’m glad you guys don’t complain as much as she did about my not returning calls or emails in a timely matter – ;} She must feel her little project is mighty important!

Funny coincidence, I spent time with ASU president Michael Crow yesterday at an economic conference – he didn’t seem to care about subjective criticism of our efforts and is looking forward to our plans for ‘09 and agreed we have made a tremendous impact in moving towards reform of our border security and immigration policies. I’ll have to get his opinion of Kendall’s witch hunt when I speak with him again in December at the next conference. I’m sure he would be interested in comparing her blog with her finished report – which I hope we get a copy of – I so enjoy education!

Let’s roll!
Chris”

Guilty by association

Apparently I have horns, or breathe fire– because the leadership of the MCDC seem to be running scared.

This weekend’s muster didn’t work out– again– but I’m not that surprised at it falling through. Instead, I’m incredibly shocked at the treatment I recieved by Simcox and the other leaders of the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps. following the e-mail I sent to Garza and copied the others on after he requested me not go this weekend.

Up until this point, I knew most of the leadership wasn’t fond of me, but I had mistakenly thought  Simcox at least agreed that, as a journalist, I was entitled to attend the muster like all other press. I was dead wrong.

Barely 15 minutes after copying Simcox on the e-mail, I received one of the nastiest replies I have ever received. Although it upset me on a personal level at first, it revealed the founder’s ugly side, and lead me to the conclusion I had been trying to avoid up until this point– Simcox is the king of manipultators in his organization, drowned in paranoia that everyone is out to get him.

Here is what he wrote me, his e-mail written to look like I was copied by “accident”:

“Guys,

I respected Gene’s wishes and did not have Kendall attend musters – his decision, his edict.

Gene, now that you have stepped away I just wanted to give the young lady what she wants- I gave permission to Kendall to sit the line and freeze her ass off with the rest of us. We have nothing to hide. I know she has been a conniving little pain in the butt, but then most liberal art college so-called journalists are the same way, even the 20 something reporter from the Ukraine we spoke with this week was a flaming liberal – so what. She will do a hit piece on us like all the rest and it will make no difference – we are winning this fight for law and order and to fix our broken borders and our broken immigration system.

She is after me and wants to create this situation to see how I will react – she wants as many people as possible to criticize me from inside the organization – this goes much bigger in scope but considering she is working with Stacey O’Connell, well that ruins her credibility with me, but then it’s my credibility that she’s after.

I try and keep things simple and move on to the next problem.

We don’t need this friction.

If you guys feel so strongly that she be banned then we will deal with how she spins it.

If we let her go on the line – we will deal with how she spins it – we are damned no matter what we do -so I will stand behind your decision.

I pretty much feel the whole thing is ridiculous and not worth any more of our time.

Chris Simcox”

I thought the reaction Simcox had was especially interesting, however, because from the beginning of this project I have tried my hardest not to automatically believe what articles written in the past have said. Instead, I have tried to give every Minuteman the benefit of the doubt as much as possible.

And while Simcox and the others feel that associating with former Minutemen like Stacey O’Connell makes me discreditable, trying to get both sides of the story is what any journalist should do– and well, his reaction just lets me know that I am doing my job!

Deja-Vu

After Simcox’s half-hearted apology and invitation to attend the November muster, I have been thrust back into the same position I was in at the time of the October muster.

No, it’s not the state director that wants me out this time– it’s the national executive director, Al Garza! After Simcox assigned me to a host for this weekend’s muster, I received an unexpected e-mail from my host telling me I was suddenly denied access by Garza and told I must contact him immediately if I wanted him to even think about letting me attend.

I don’t understand the treatment I am receiving from the leadership of this organization. I feel like I am experiencing some kind of deja-vu from last month’s operation. This is leading me to question who really holds the authority in MCDC, and who is in charge of making the final calls?

I have now e-mailed Garza like he requested, (see below), and am waiting to hear my fate. I’m not quite sure how this will work out in the end.

“Hi Al,

I just received an e-mail from Mike Vyne concerning this upcoming weekend’s muster. I understand there may be some personal concerns on your part with me attending, but I have done my best to be respectful of the Minutemen. Below I have included an invite that I received from Chris Simcox to attend the November muster.

As I have said before, observing the Minutemen operations is an essential part of my article that can only come from attending a full muster. I appreciate all of your help up until now, but I know that Chris mentioned students were just hosted at the last muster, so my coming should be no different. By picking and choosing who to let attend, the transparency of the group is hurt.

Thank You,

Kendall Wright”

Election Day: Minutemen appear to be going for McCain

Election day has finally come around, and just like most Americans, some Minutemen Civil Defense Corp. volunteers have been making their opinions known throughout cyberspace. According to one of the official MCDC forum pages, as well as another, the group seems to be going red.

Although MCDC President Chris Simcox adamantly made a point in our Sept. 29 interview that he was not personally supporting either of the candidates, (because he said neither put enough focus on the platform of illegal immigration), the rest of his organization seem to be demoralizing Barack Obama online as much as they can.

(Side note: Simcox later  stated on his Web site that he endorsed Republican candidate John McCain because of his “tough stance on border security” in early September through a press release. This is ironic because as I wrote above, he told me just the opposite. So where does he really stand? Is he just endorsing one candidate to please his organization’s volunteers?)

One of the bloggers on the Minuteman forum even went so far as to say,

“If we have ever prayed in our lives, we need to pray so hard now for Obama to be defeated. Not necessarily for a McCain win, just for an Obama defeat. The terrorist Obama is a major disaster waiting to happen, I don’t believe this country could survive him. We can fight against McCain to a certain extent, but not to cries of racism if we are against Obama. Plus he has tactics to silence us we don’t even want to think about, and all the radical left behind him.”

This blogger also commented on the long lines of African-American voters who have been making up many of the voting lines in Atlanta, Ga.– as if seeing a demographic like that there is surprising!

If you live in Atlanta, you should already know that a large population of the city is African American! The problem, is that comments like this only perpetuate the characterization of the group as bigots– a label they have been so desperately trying to break free of since the start.

I agree it’s unfair for one or two comments by individuals to be used as a generalization for the whole group, but unfortunately it can’t just be ignored.

And the Drama Continues

As of now, I feel like I have lost the key to door of the Minutemen organization. Without my even knowing it, my photographer and I have seem to have become exiled.

Last week I spoke to Chris Simcox by phone after I had recieved an email from Executive Director Al Garza that, in not so many words, told me I was no longer welcome to come out to any more of the organization’s musters. I only have my own assumptions as to what happened.

Simcox had told me to sit tight for a few days–and give him till Wednesday–to provide a few days to let things cool off with his state and executive directors and hopefully talk them into letting us go this weekend afterall. But after Wednesday came around and I hadn’t gotten any answers, I gave him a call in the morning and left him a voicemail. Then the late afternoon rolled around–still no callback– and I called again, with no answer.

Even though Simcox has been really good about answering his phone in the past, I know he’s a busy man, and I didn’t want to seem too impatient. That is, until Thursday around 4 p.m. — when he STILL didn’t call! This morning I decided to call for the last time and left him voicemail, but I still haven’t heard back from him. Am I being ignored by him now, too?

There’s one thing that has really got me thinking about the group and it’s inner-workings though, and that’s what Simcox told me on the phone last Thursday:

“If we can’t have you come out this weekend, I’ll do my best to make it happen the following weekend when Gene, (the state director), isn’t there. That way I won’t be stepping on his toes or making him feel like I’m dismissing his authority,” he had said.

What does this kind of statement say about the founder and his two other authorities of the group? I thought about that for a while, really mulling it over. To me, this is an interesting depiction of what little respect each of these guys have for one another– having the state director throw a fit to override the founder’s authority,  then Simcox saying that he was willing to go behind his back to accommodate us, and the executive director playing the middleman and spokesman for them both.

Wow, these guys not only don’t trust us–they don’t trust each other!

From Nobody to Somebody

Something about Simcox seems really fishy– and I’m not sure if it’s him or the news outlets that have created this underlying stench. After my 2-hour interview with him, I went home and reflected on the man I had just met. Sure, he  definitely seemed to have an underlying arrogance about him and a hunger to drive his point about immigration home, but he wasn’t nearly the monster the stories make him out to be– right?

Lately I’ve been reading a lot of articles on Web sites such as the Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights law firm known for its tolerance education programs and legal victories against white supremacists and its tracking of hate groups, and have begun questioning what I really know about the Simcox.  Afterall, this was the guy they referred to as a “failed actor” until his he took a starring role in the immigration debate.

While, the man I had talked with didn’t seem to be the mentally unstable extremist that one article made him out to be, the article was very convincing. For example, court records revealed that Simcox’s second ex-wife, Kim Dunbar, filed an emergency appeal in September 2001 to obtain full custody of their teenage son, after she is quoted as saying she was afraid he’d suffered a mental breakdown and was dangerous, (she said he’d threatened to kill himself with a knife in their kitchen and destroyed furniture).

After reading these articles, I’ve started to question whether my perception about Chris Simcox is correct, or if he is so skilled in dealing with the media that I’ve somehow been duped? I believe the old saying that goes ‘don’t believe everything you read or see,’ but many of these articles include views from people who have known Simcox fairly intimately, which makes it hard for me to disbelieve them. Once again, I am finding it extremely difficult not to jump to the conclusions I am so desperate to find!