The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps was a volunteer group at one time headed by Chris Simcox (an Arizona newspaper publisher) and dedicated to preventing illegal crossings of the United States border with Mexico.

There was a standard operating procedure (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.

[4] 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.

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.

[12][13] On June 8, 2016, Minuteman Civil Defense Corps co-founder Chris Simcox was found guilty of child molestation,[14] and on July 11, 2016, was sentenced to serve 19.5 years in an Arizona prison.