9 March 6th-March 12th, 2025 phoenixnewtimes.com PHOENIX NEW TIMES | NEWS | FEATURE | FOOD & DRINK | ARTS & CULTURE | MUSIC | CONCERTS | CANNABIS | Hotbed of Hate These 7 extremist and hate groups are active in Arizona. BY TJ L’HEUREUX I n 2017, after a white supremacist used a car to mow down a crowd of protesters following a tiki torch-lit neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, then-President Donald Trump said there were “very fine people on both sides.” In 2021, right-wing extrem- ists stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election and illegiti- mately install Trump as president. Suffice it to say that hate groups and anti-government extremists have always been attracted to Trump. Now that their man (and Elon Musk) is back in power and dismantling the federal government with abandon, experts who track extremist groups are acutely concerned they will feel emboldened to leave the shadows and operate openly. Those experts have their eyes on Arizona. “Arizona is a hotbed,” Rachel Goldwasser, a senior research analyst at the Southern Poverty Law Center, told Phoenix New Times. In July, self-described “Nazi hunter” Kristofer Goldsmith gave a workshop with local Arizona veterans about how to fight back against extremist groups. He warned that if Trump was elected, things could become authoritarian very quickly and that the white supremacist gangs he’s been hunting for four years would operate without a leash. While hate groups — neo-Nazi, white supremacist, anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim and so on — dominate the extremist land- scape in the American South and Northeast, they play a secondary role in the Southwest. “In Arizona, anti-government groups tend to be the most active,” Goldwasser said. Phoenix New Times interviewed Goldwasser to gain a better understanding of what Arizona’s most troubling extremist groups are up to, and what kind of threat they pose to the public and constitutional order. The SPLC tracks the activity of a broad spectrum of hate and anti-govern- ment extremist groups. Its data is publicly available on its Hate Map. But what constitutes activity? “As long as we’ve determined they’re actually out there pushing their propaganda and are recruiting or engaging people and are trying to or successfully radicalizing people, we define that as activity,” Goldwasser said. “The groups we look at can be very different in terms of their activi- ties, even if their ideologies are similar.” Some groups are more official and work in legal and policy spaces, whereas militias tend to be active on the ground, conducting firearms or other physical training. Here are the most concerning groups based in or operating in Arizona. Arizona Border Recon In 2011, Tim Foley founded Arizona Border Recon, which operates near Arivaca. While the group had around 200 volunteer members as of 2016, it’s unclear how many it has in its ranks now. The group says it shares intelligence with federal officials to stop illegal immi- gration. But it’s been known to go beyond that. Court records show that the group has detained and held people near the border while prosecutors have not brought charges against them. Humanitarian groups have also reported being harassed by the vigilantes. “We consider them vigilantes because they don’t have a government role at all,” Goldwasser said. Veterans on Patrol Formed in 2015 by Michael “Lewis Arthur” Meyer, the group is headquartered in Pima County. In Arizona, the group patrols the border with Mexico as a vigi- lante group, engaging in acts for which they lack authority, Goldwasser said. Veterans on Patrol has removed water containers put down by the nonprofit Humane Borders. Its members have also detained migrants at the border, collected information on the migrants and their sponsors, and then visited some of those sponsors at their homes for “wellness checks” that are little more than acts of intimidation. “There have not been any criminal charges over any of this behavior,” Goldwasser said. “They’ve also worked with a wide variety of border vigilantes or people interested in vigilantism.” That includes QAnon-aligned groups, neo-Nazi-aligned groups and the Proud Boys. In 2018, Meyer was arrested for the third time that year for trespassing just after he pointed law enforcement to what he said was a child sex trafficking ring that involved Hillary Clinton. In reality, it was just a homeless encampment. Police found zero evidence of human trafficking. Recently the militia railed against and threatened the U.S. military, claiming it orchestrated the hurricane that devastated North Carolina with weather manipulation technology. “I don’t think he’s, like, a stable char- acter. He’s very nomadic,” Goldwasser said of Meyer. “That’s part of the issue — some- times wherever he takes up residency is only because he lost housing in one place and moved somewhere else. But he’s also charismatic in that he’s able to get a lot of people — who, frankly, don’t seem particu- larly stable — to follow along with him.” Oath Keepers (Yavapai County Preparedness Team) Arizona’s former chapter of the Oath Keepers, a right-wing anti-government militia that played a critical role in the Jan. 6 insurrection, began calling itself the Yavapai County Preparedness Team after breaking from the national organization. Yet much has stayed the same. “They still sort of maintain themselves as Oath Keepers. Like, they have Oath Keepers signs up at their meetings, they wear Oath Keepers uniforms,” Goldwasser said. “So they’re not really removed from the concept or mission or agenda at all.” The group is led by Jim Arroyo, who Goldwasser said is trying to expand the group’s reach. Yavapai County Sheriff David Rhodes has ties to the group and spoke at one of its meetings in September 2022. YCPT meets regularly and also seems to be preparing for disasters. Its website notes that the group has formed home medicine, engineering and security teams and welcomes “anyone who sees the possi- bility of disasters and the need to be ready for them.” Mayhem Solutions Group LLC A little-known private company that has faced legal issues for advertising unli- censed private security and investigation services, Mayhem Solutions is based in Casa Grande. Its president, Shawn Wilson, has reportedly fled the country, but Goldwasser suspects he might return now that Trump is in power. Civilian paramilitary leader Tim Foley, director of Arizona Border Recon, stands in camp near the U.S.-Mexico border in 2016. (John Moore/Getty Images) Jim Arroyo leads the Arizona chapter of the Oath Keepers, which calls itself the Yavapai County Preparedness Team. (Screenshot via YouTube) >> p 10 | NEWS | | NEWS |
