Chris Simcox, National Spokesman for Civilian Border Security, Arrested on Child Molestation Charges

Chris Simcox, staunch activist against illegal immigration, was arrested and charged with child molestation in Phoenix in Wednesday for sexually abusing three girls under ten, according to Fox News.

Simcox was once synonymous with the Minuteman Civil Defense Corp (MCDC), a volunteer-based civilian organization he started in 2002 to monitor the United States border for illegal immigrants coming up from Mexico. Using the publication of his own newspaper (The Tucson Tumbleweed) to bring up support, Simcox formed the Minuteman Project with former reporter Jim Gilchrist. A difference of opinion between the two led to them splitting ways and Simcox's creation of the MCDC, in 2006.  What followed was a series of bold actions, including a series of civilian arrests that drew fire from civil rights groups and a letter to then-President George W. Bush demanding more border patrol under threat of the MCDC creating a fence themselves along private property.

By 2005, the organization was carrying out armed patrol efforts along the border of Arizona, California, New Mexico, Texas, and parts of Canada.

Claiming national security and the attacks of 9/11 as the basis for his group, Simcox's outgoing voicemail used to instruct listeners that they had to repeat the preamble to the Constitution before leaving a message if they wanted to be heard, according to Latin Times.

Prior to forming the Minuteman movement, Simcox was a kindergarten teacher at the Wildwood School in Los Angeles, California, where he taught for thirteen years. His tenure as head of the MCDC came to an end in 2009, when he announced his candidacy for the Republican Party's nomination in a primary battle against sitting senator John McCain. Citing lack of funds and infrastructural support, Simcox withdrew his nomination before the voting took place.

According to the Sierra Vista Herald, this is the just the latest - and most serious - criminal allegation against Simcox, whose wife Alena "submitted a protection order in Maricopa County Superior Court, after alleging her husband threatened her and their children with a gun," in 2010, shortly after his failed Senate race.

Simcox has denied guilt in the charges presented.