The recent defeat of legislation that would have created a citizens' border group is driving up support for Arizona militias.

Many considered Jason Todd Ready to be the most high-profile neo-Nazi in Arizona. He led groups of heavily armed civilians into the desert to look for illegal immigrants as he repeatedly tried to win public office.

The Minuteman border-watch movement that exploded in southern Arizona in the last decade has virtually disappeared, according to a new report from an Alabama-based civil rights center that monitors hate groups.

Two Democratic senators walked out of a border security panel this morning after its chairwoman invited an activist who is described by a civil rights group as a “vitriolic Mexican-basher.”

Senate President Russell Pearce characterizes the massive recall effort against him as a product of liberal citizens who unpatriotically share zero interest in his politics, which is seemingly limited to the topic of curtailing illegal immigration by any means necessary. 

The chairman of a civilian border watch group invited by an Arizona senator to address state lawmakers has been referred to by a watchdog group as a "vitriolic Mexican-basher" who courts white supremacists.

For conservative Arizona politicos, especially those on the forefront of the debate over illegal immigration, connections to hate groups have become an embarrassing pitfall.

Groups whose racist or white nationalist views include vehement opposition to illegal immigration often seek to align themselves with politicians who lead the anti-illegal-immigration movement. But politicians who put themselves in league with such groups — mistakenly or otherwise — usually spend years dealing with the fallout and repairing their images.