WASHINGTON, DC— Chris Simcox and Carmen Mercer, President and Vice President of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps (MCDC) traveled to Washington, DC last week in order to attend meetings at the White House, Congress and to attend the Conservative Political Action Conference in order to stress the need for border security with presidential candidates, activists, bloggers and the media. The border security message resonated strongly with activists and some members of Congress.
“It was important for the border security movement to have representatives in Washington last week so that the Bush administration and Congress understand that the citizens of this country view border security as the highest priority issue,“ stated MCDC Founder and President Chris Simcox. “Minutemen representatives will continue to travel the country and serve as reminders to our elected officials that they have an obligation to defend our borders and the legal citizens of this country.”
Simcox’s advocacy initiative began last Wednesday by attending the Judiciary Committee’s hearing, where he sat in the front row while Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff provided excuses for why our country allows its porous borders to serve as a gateway for terrorism, drug and sex trafficking. Later that day, Simcox heard a briefing at the White House with other conservative activists who vocally expressed their outrage about border security failures to the White House staff without being prompted by Simcox.
Rather than address the enforcement of current immigration laws or the funding of a physical fence on the southern border which Congress “authorized” and then neglected last year, the White House responded with a policy that advances a roadmap to amnesty, only providing for some nominal technological security measures. Priorities similar to these were expressed by Republican Presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.
When Simcox questioned him publicly on the exhibition floor of CPAC, Romney refused to commit to a policy of National Guard troop deployments on the southern border, if elected President next year. In sharp contrast, attendance was good at a Congressional screening for the movie “Border” on Wednesday afternoon where Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA) encouraged the Minutemen to keep the pressure on Congress and the White House.
Throughout the weekend, Simcox and Mercer spent considerable time visiting with CPAC activists, college students, Congressional staffers and taking interviews with U.S. and international media. Moreover, they appeared on several shows broadcasting from “radio row” and they interviewed with bloggers on “blogger row.”
Simcox continued, “We will not allow our country to have a welcome mat out to international gang syndicates, arms dealers, rapists, drug traffickers and terrorists. After our visit to DC last week, it is very apparent and very encouraging that our message is resonating nationally—border security first, border security now.”
The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps (MCDC) is a peaceful, law-abiding and citizen-led initiative organized to stand watch at our borders and in our neighborhoods, report illegal activities to the proper authorities, and build border fencing on private lands using private donations. Additionally, MCDC seeks to urge local and federal officials to enforce our immigration laws in order to keep our families and country safe. MCDC conducts border watch operations that assist the activities of the U.S. Border Patrol, reports employers of illegal aliens, and advocates to keeps tax dollars from being used for illegal alien benefits.
