Minuteman Work Continues in Southern Arizona

Minuteman Work Continues in Southern Arizona


Carmen Mercer started with the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps in 2002 Mercer said local chapters will continue to battle illegal immigration despite the fact that the national group has disbanded.
The president of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps says that even though her national group has disbanded, local Minuteman groups can continue to operate, and she promises to continue her work in Cochise County to solve the illegal immigration problem. The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps was founded as a neighborhood watch program in 2002 in Tombstone by Carmen Mercer and Chris Simcox, but it disbanded in late March. Numerous issues, including leadership struggles, financial mismanagement and failed political campaigning were cited as possible reasons for the group's dissolution.

Mercer, 54, president of the recently disbanded MCDC, is a German immigrant who went through the process to gain her U.S. citizenship. She has lived in Tombstone for 14 years and owns the O.K. Caf. She said she was unaware of the problems of illegal immigration until witnessing them first-hand.
"I would come home from Sierra Vista after doing my shopping at night and I would see hundreds of people walking along the San Pedro River, thinking they were tourists," she said. "I met Chris Simcox and told him what I had seen, and he said, 'You can't really think those are tourists. Those were illegal aliens that just broke into our country.'"


Written by Adam Lehrer/ArizonaNewsService.com