Publisher’s Note

The following information about antigoverment groups active in  2019 is reprinted from the Website of the Southern Poverty Law Center Intelligence Project, which documents and monitors hate groups in the United States.  ~ LeRoy Chatfield, Publisher 

Southern Poverty Law Center

Antigovernment Movement

The Intelligence Project identified 576 extreme antigovernment groups that were active in 2019, down from 612 in 2018.

Of these groups, 181 were militias (marked with an asterisk), down from 216 in 2018.

The remainder included “common-law” courts, publishers, ministries and citizens’ groups.

Generally, such groups define themselves as opposed to the “New World Order,” engage in groundless conspiracy theorizing, or advocate or adhere to extreme antigovernment doctrines.

Listing here does not imply that the groups themselves advocate or engage in violence or other criminal activities or are racist.

The list was compiled from field reports, group publications, the internet, law enforcement sources and news reports.

It does not document activities that take place only online by individuals or groups, whether on social media, online forums or websites.

Groups are identified by the city, county or region where they are located and active.

Top Takeaways

Three years into the term of President Trump who shares its penchant for conspiracy theories—about the “deep state” and Barack Obama’s birthplace, for example—the antigovernment “Patriot” movement has found itself in the odd position of being on the same side of the very federal government it has long professed to despise.

Lacking the sort of mortal enemy in the White House that supercharged Patriot groups when Obama was elected in 2008, the movement has gravitated more and more toward the same white nationalist themes—animus toward nonwhite immigrants and Muslims—that animate the Trump administration.

In addition to immigrants, the emergence of anti-fascist activism has provided another timely foe for the movement during this identity crisis. Not coincidentally, antifa is often depicted as the street army of the deep state.

List of Antigovernment Groups In U.S.

Profiles of Extremists