Republican Don Goldwater’s call for use of all possible resources to deal with illegal immigration and border crime — including having the National Guard train at the border with Mexico — has won him the personal endorsement of an outspoken anti-immigration advocate.

Mr. Goldwater filed for the governor’s race this month.

“I look forward to Mr. Goldwater’s approach to using state law enforcement… as well as possibly the Arizona Rangers and even looking into using the National Guard in the name of public safety and to protect the citizens of this state,” Chris Simcox told a Capitol news conference Aug. 25. Mr. Simcox is president of the Minutemen Civil Defense Corp. and editor and publisher of the Tombstone Tumbleweed.

Mr. Goldwater bashed Governor Napolitano for her vetoes of several immigration bills, claiming she and Attorney General Terry Goddard have tried their best to curtail the implementation of Prop. 200, the immigration initiative passed by voters last year.

“The governor has proven she is pro-illegal immigration,” he said, calling for more citizen participation to combat illegal immigration.

“Anytime you can get citizens following the rights under the Constitution to protect citizens in Arizona when the government is not doing their job, that’s A-OK with me,” Mr. Goldwater said. “Citizens have a constitutional right to patrol the border.”

Following the lead of Sen. Jack Harper, R-4, who has authored measures for National Guard summer training at the border, Mr. Goldwater said Ms. Napolitano has the authority to direct where the Guard trains.

“The benefit of that is you’ve got more eyes down on the border,” he said.

Border Guards

Mr. Simcox suggested the governor also could form a militia of retired military to guard the border. “We don’t need border patrol; we need border guards, he said.” We need the National Guard on this border immediately to support the Border Patrol.”

He also said Ms. Napolitano has failed to apply for some of the $4 billion in available grants from FEMA and Homeland Security to help states with border security.

An article last year in Salon¸ an on-line political magazine, described Mr. Simcox as “a new poster boy for the American anti-immigration movement.”

“Simcox is doing what he can to mainstream the movement,” Salon said. “He fields requests graciously, with a boyish charm and a practiced cosmopolitanism that belie the paranoid image of someone who claims to pack a pistol and wear a bulletproof vest everywhere he goes.

“He has barnstormed from coast to coast to speak on behalf of local anti-immigration groups and boldly challenged the federal government to try to stop him. Apparently, people are listening. ‘If we’re attacked again,’ Simcox says, invoking the memory of Sept. 11, ‘you are going to see citizens defend their borders in a patriotic way and you are going to see people get shot on that border.’” —