Armed Militia Rounding Up Migrants At Southern Border

[Swordsmyth]

A New Mexico militia operating along the border with Mexico has been stopping groups of migrants who have illegally entered the country, holding them at gunpoint, and then handing them over to Border Patrol agents, according to the New York Times.

Known as The United Constitutional Patriots, the group has long operated along the southern US border, attempting to stem the flood of undocumented migrants entering the country. According to KVIA, the group rounded up more than 350 people this week who had crossed the border in West El Paso, Texas - one town over from Sunland Park, New Mexico. The US Border Patrol has not confirmed the exact number.
In YouTube videos uploaded on Tuesday and Wednesday, groups of migrants - many of them coughing - can be seen sitting on the ground until Border Patrol officers arrive on scene.

"This country was built on three things: God, guns and guts. That American flag has to keep flying," UCP Commander John Horton told KVIA, adding "It's in danger, a lot of danger right now."

More at: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-...outhern-border

[ATruepatriot]

There is another group in Az also.

[Anti Federalist]

Good.

[Swordsmyth]

The United Constitutional Patriots, who made headlines on Thursday for helping catch hundreds of illegal aliens invading America through our southern border, announced Friday on Facebook they were banned by PayPal and all their funds have been frozen for 180 days.
The United Constitutional Patriots said they wanted to thank everyone who donated to their “Border Ops mission” but they “can no longer accept payments” through PayPal as “they have permanently suspended our account.”
They said PayPal is holding $1,300 in donations “for 180 days.”

Even though the group knows the law and there’s no indication they broke it, the ACLU falsely suggested it was a “kidnapping” — even though the illegals were free to go at anytime — and dozens of media outlets used their false claim to imply their actions were illegal.

The ACLU, which has completely abandoned fighting for the rights of all Americans in favor of fighting exclusively for prog-globalism, also tried to imply they were “white nationalists” (even though the videos show they’re a diverse bunch):

Two nights ago, an armed civilian militia organization describing itself as the “United Constitutional Patriots” arrested nearly 300 people seeking safety here, including young children, in New Mexico. Other videos appear to show even more recent arrests.
— ACLU (@ACLU) April 19, 2019

The Trump administration has emboldened white nationalists to flagrantly violate the law.
This has no place in our country — we cannot allow armed civilians to kidnap and detain people seeking asylum.@ACLUNM is urging the governor to immediately investigate.
— ACLU (@ACLU) April 19, 2019

Every indication suggests PayPal kicked them off just because they disagree with their politics.
While the United Constitutional Patriots are punished by PayPal for trying to uphold the law and protect America, leftist groups are allowed to fundraise in support of law-breaking illegals aliens seeking to invade America without any issue!


More at: https://www.infowars.com/paypal-blac...-invading-u-s/

[Anti Federalist]

Private company...they can do what they want!!!

Horse $#@!ing $#@!.

I will cut them a check tonight.

[ATruepatriot]

Private company...they can do what they want!!!

Horse $#@!ing $#@!.

I will cut them a check tonight.

I talked with my wife about volunteering some time with these guys because I could use the physical exercise. She said go for it and I am good to go except for one thing, I am not going for their mandatory requirement that the weapon I carry has to be a AR variant to participate. Absolutely not in a sandy dusty environment. Been there... and this will get your ass killed. So until they change this discriminatory requirement against choice of weapons carried I am out. They are cutting off their nose to spite their face with this.

[spudea]

Federal complaint alleges the leader is a felon, felons can't own guns or carry guns?

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-u...-idUSKCN1RW0O5

[Anti Globalist]

Those guys are $#@!ing beasts.

[ATruepatriot]

Those guys are $#@!ing beasts.

These guys in Az are serious... Their ranks are swelling because no one else is fixing the problem.

https://www.arizonaborderrecon.org/

[Origanalist]

Federal complaint alleges the leader is a felon, felons can't own guns or carry guns?

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-u...-idUSKCN1RW0O5

This is what government does when you don't stay in "your lane".

[ATruepatriot]

Those guys are $#@!ing beasts.

There was a king named George who once said that very same thing...

[AngryCanadian]

These guys in Az are serious... Their ranks are swelling because no one else is fixing the problem.

https://www.arizonaborderrecon.org/

If the MSM Fake News Media outlets expects for the actual law enforcement to its job at the border they are then sadly clueless.
Law enforcement can be bribed by special interest groups in order for them not to report nor to do their job on arresting them.

[ATruepatriot]

If the MSM Fake News Media outlets expects for the actual law enforcement to its job at the border they are then sadly clueless.
Law enforcement can be bribed by special interest groups in order for them not to report nor to do their job on arresting them.

It is a much more serious problem than they are sharing. This action by the people themselves has now become necessary.

[AngryCanadian]

It is a much more serious problem than they are sharing. This action by the people themselves has now become necessary.

And MSM wonder why people call them Fake News?

[Danke]

Hey ACLU, they are just Undocumented Border Patrols. Leave them alone!

[nikcers]

F.B.I. Arrests Leader of Right-Wing Militia That Detained Migrants in New Mexico

ALBUQUERQUE — The F.B.I. on Saturday arrested the leader of a right-wing militia that was detaining migrant families at gunpoint near the border in southern New Mexico, as the group faced a torrent of criticism for its tactics.

Hector Balderas, New Mexico’s attorney general, said federal agents had arrested the leader, Larry Mitchell Hopkins, who had been operating under the alias Johnny Horton Jr. Mr. Balderas said in a statement that Mr. Hopkins was arrested on charges of firearms possession by a felon.

“This is a dangerous felon who should not have weapons around children and families,” Mr. Balderas said. “Today’s arrest by the F.B.I. indicates clearly that the rule of law should be in the hands of trained law enforcement officials, not armed vigilantes.”

The firearms charge against Mr. Hopkins is relatively minor. But it is likely the start of a deeper investigation into his activities and those of the militia, and opens the way for the authorities to bring more serious charges like kidnapping and impersonating a police officer or an employee of the United States.

Mr. Hopkins’s arrest comes as tensions rise over ultraconservative paramilitary groups operating along the southwestern border. Professed militias have a long history of targeting immigrants from Latin America, tracing back to the Ku Klux Klan’s creation of its own border patrol in the 1970s. Record numbers of Central American migrants apprehended by federal authorities in recent months have been accompanied by a new surge in militia activity on the border.

The organization led by Mr. Hopkins, the United Constitutional Patriots, recently uploaded videos of armed members detaining children and their parents in a stretch of the New Mexico desert near El Paso, before handing the migrants over to the Border Patrol.

Political leaders in New Mexico, a state largely controlled by Democrats, responded with fury. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said that any mistreatment of asylum seekers on the border was “unacceptable.” The state’s two Democratic senators, Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich, said in a statement that the actions of vigilante groups “cannot be tolerated.”

The American Civil Liberties Union denounced the militia’s actions in a letter on Thursday, saying the actions amounted to kidnapping by “racist and armed vigilantes.”

Still, such denunciations were far from unanimous in the state. A prominent New Mexico Republican, Gavin Clarkson, a former Trump administration official who is now running for United States Senate, met with masked members of the group in March and praised their efforts, according to a video of the encounter uploaded to Facebook.

But Mr. Clarkson said on Twitter on Saturday that he condemned militia activities. “Masked militiamen are the antithesis of what a free republic looks like,” he said.

Jim Benvie, a spokesman for the militia, did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the arrest of Mr. Hopkins.

The F.B.I. said in a statement that the police department of Sunland Park, N.M., had assisted with the arrest. Mr. Hopkins, 69, is scheduled to appear on Monday in Federal District Court in Las Cruces, N.M.

Mr. Hopkins, whose residence is in Flora Vista in northwest New Mexico, had already come under the scrutiny of groups tracking right-wing militias around the United States. He was convicted in 2006 for impersonating an officer and for felony firearm possession, according to The Daily Beast.

Despite the recent criticism over its operations in New Mexico, the militia led by Mr. Hopkins maintains a wide reach on Facebook and YouTube.

Speaking to someone using a voice distorter while wearing a gas mask, Mr. Hopkins appeared on a right-wing extremist YouTube channel in November. He claimed to be in touch with President Trump after a chance meeting at a Las Vegas casino.
A version of this article appears in print on April 20, 2019, on Page A15 of the New York edition with the headline: F.B.I. Arrests Leader of Right-Wing Militia in New Mexico.

[Schifference]

How long has Larry Mitchell Hopkins been patrolling the border? How many men, women, or children has he shot? Is the public safer when Larry Mitchell Hopkins is in possession of a firearm or when police are?

[PursuePeace]

[Anti Federalist]

But Mr. Clarkson said on Twitter on Saturday that he condemned militia activities. “Masked militiamen are the antithesis of what a free republic looks like,” he said.

[Swordsmyth]

F.B.I. Arrests Leader of Right-Wing Militia That Detained Migrants in New Mexico

"We’re not worried about it, he’s going to be cleared," said Jim Benvie, a spokesman for the United Constitutional Patriots (UCP), which blamed the arrest on political pressure by the governor. Hopkins is known as the "national commander" of the group.

More at: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-...outhern-border

[AngryCanadian]

That is a lot of migrants! i am surprised at the level of those human traffickers they are becoming desperate. Those Human Traffickers are lying to the migrants.

[nikcers]

Look at all of those organ donors. Why should we let China take the lead in organ transplants and let all of these Americans die. I am sure glad the FBI stopped the leader, the white nationalists who are as dangerous as Islamic terrorists might bring in their own militias and they won't bother calling border patrol they use them like slaves and murder them like Islamic terrorists.

[Schifference]

Sounds like they are considering charging him with kidnapping.

[acptulsa]

How long has Larry Mitchell Hopkins been patrolling the border? How many men, women, or children has he shot? Is the public safer when Larry Mitchell Hopkins is in possession of a firearm or when police are?

You're missing the point. Trump promised to make America great again, and a lot of people who think they're conservative bought in. He's failing, because government has never made America great, and cannot make America great, as any real conservative can tell you.

Now the only people who ever made America great--Americans--are doing what Trump said he'd do, but can't. And somebody's jealous.

[Anti Federalist]

You're missing the point. Trump promised to make America great again, and a lot of people who think they're conservative bought in. He's failing, because government has never made America great, and cannot make America great, as any real conservative can tell you.

Now the only people who ever made America great--Americans--are doing what Trump said he'd do, but can't. And somebody's jealous.

Yup.

Meanwhile:

Mexican troops disarmed American soldiers on US side of the border

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/n...-of-the-border

by Daniel Jativa April 20, 2019 11:14 AM

U.S. Northern Command said in a statement that "five to six Mexican military personnel questioned two U.S. Army soldiers who were conducting border support operations" this month. The U.S. soldiers were in an unmarked Customs and Border Protection [CBP] vehicle near the southwest border near Clint, Texas.

Officials confirmed that the Mexican troops were armed with what seemed to be rifles. They raised their weapons when they saw the two U.S. soldiers, and then took a pistol from one and put it in the CBP vehicle. According to officials talking to CNN, the two Americans obliged "in an attempt to de-escalate a potential volatile situation."

"Throughout the incident, the U.S. soldiers followed all established procedures and protocols," the statement said. The two U.S. troops were on the south side of the security perimeter but north of the Rio Grande and thus were in the U.S., according side American territory, it added.

Pentagon and Department of Homeland Security officials demanded an explanation from the Mexican government. "An inquiry by CBP and DOD [Department of Defense] revealed that the Mexican military members believed that the US Army soldiers were south of the border," the statement said.

"Though they were south of the border fence, U.S. soldiers remained in U.S. territory, north of the actual border."

[Schifference]

Yup.

Meanwhile:

Mexican troops disarmed American soldiers on US side of the border

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/n...-of-the-border

by Daniel Jativa April 20, 2019 11:14 AM

U.S. Northern Command said in a statement that "five to six Mexican military personnel questioned two U.S. Army soldiers who were conducting border support operations" this month. The U.S. soldiers were in an unmarked Customs and Border Protection [CBP] vehicle near the southwest border near Clint, Texas.

Officials confirmed that the Mexican troops were armed with what seemed to be rifles. They raised their weapons when they saw the two U.S. soldiers, and then took a pistol from one and put it in the CBP vehicle. According to officials talking to CNN, the two Americans obliged "in an attempt to de-escalate a potential volatile situation."

"Throughout the incident, the U.S. soldiers followed all established procedures and protocols," the statement said. The two U.S. troops were on the south side of the security perimeter but north of the Rio Grande and thus were in the U.S., according side American territory, it added.

Pentagon and Department of Homeland Security officials demanded an explanation from the Mexican government. "An inquiry by CBP and DOD [Department of Defense] revealed that the Mexican military members believed that the US Army soldiers were south of the border," the statement said.

"Though they were south of the border fence, U.S. soldiers remained in U.S. territory, north of the actual border."

They should be demanding an explanation from the US troops. WTF? Surrender to Mexicans on US soil?

[Swordsmyth]

The leader of the militia group which we profiled over the weekend for its detention of migrant families at the US border, was arrested and charged of plotting the assassination of former President Barack Obama, George Soros and various other key Democratic Party figures, the FBI said in court papers.
While militia leader Larry Hopkins, 69, was arrested on Saturday for a weapons charge said to be unrelated to his activities on the border, the FBI now claims Hopkins bragged about his fellow militia members "training to assassinate" former President Barack Obama, Trump's nemesis in the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton, and the Democratic Party's most generous billionaire donor, George Soros.


To be sure, Hopkins had been a busy man - if what the Feds say is to be believed (which these days is a stretch) - for a long time, and before the F.B.I. arrested the militia leader, he’d had so many run-ins with the law that his police record stretched across much of the United States. Oregon police arrested him in 2006 on charges of impersonating a police officer and a felony weapons offense. They had found him showing guns to teenagers in a gas-station parking lot while wearing a police-style uniform and a badge emblazoned with the words "Special Agent" according to the NYT.
“Hopkins stated that he worked for the federal government directly under George Bush,” Officer Jack Daniel of the sheriff’s office in Klamath County, Ore., wrote in his report. Hopkins, the report said, claimed variously to be investigating a meth lab, hunting fugitives and undertaking unspecified “operations” in Afghanistan.
Over a decade later, Hopkins finally came under the scrutiny of federal authorities in 2017, after the FBI received reports that his group was “training” to assassinate Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and George Soros, according to documents unsealed Monday in federal court.
Hopkins appeared in Federal District Court on Monday after his arrest over the weekend on yet another charge, this time of being a felon in possession of firearms and ammunition.


Hopkins' attorney, Kelly O’Connell, said the militia group leader planned to plead not guilty. The militia’s spokesman told local media that he’s “confident” Hopkins will “get through this.” He also claimed that the New Mexico, Hector Balderas, “has declared war on American citizens at the order of the ACLU” by pushing to prevent private citizens “from assisting and documenting a crisis on the border.”
In an affidavit, FBI special agent David S. Gabriel, said the bureau was made aware of the activities of Hopkins after receiving reports in October 2017 of “alleged militia extremist activity” in northwestern New Mexico. Gabriel said that the following month, two F.B.I. agents went to a trailer park in Flora Vista, N.M., where Hopkins was living at the time. With Mr. Hopkins’s consent, the agents entered the home and saw about 10 firearms in plain view, in what Mr. Hopkins referred to as his office.
Hopkins, who has also used the name Johnny Horton Jr., told the agents that the guns belonged to Fay Sanders Murphy, whom he described to agents as his common-law wife, according to the affidavit. The agents collected at least nine firearms from the home as evidence, including a 12-gauge shotgun and various handguns.
According to the NYT, the court affidavit gave few details about the report the F.B.I. received stating that the United Constitutional Patriots “were training to assassinate George Soros, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama because of these individuals’ support of Antifa."
Hopkins’s lawyer, Kelly O’Connell, disputed the reports about assassination plans. “My client told me that is not true,” Mr. O’Connell said. He also questioned the timing of the arrest. “My question is, why now?” O’Connell said. He suggested that pressure from prominent Democrats in New Mexico may have prompted the F.B.I. to take action.

More at: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-...nton-soros-fbi

[Brian4Liberty]

One of the leftist Fox hosts (and a Fox VP?), Gillian Turner was outraged the other day that these regular people were out there with guns, and actually detaining illegal border crossers. It is anti-American!

[Brian4Liberty]

To be sure, Hopkins had been a busy man - if what the Feds say is to be believed (which these days is a stretch) - for a long time, and before the F.B.I. arrested the militia leader, he’d had so many run-ins with the law that his police record stretched across much of the United States.

What to believe at this point? Is this a smear job, or was this guy a con-man?

[Swordsmyth]

What to believe at this point? Is this a smear job, or was this guy a con-man?

I have no idea.
I just know that the timing of the arrest is meant to discourage the border militias, if they wanted to go after him they could have done so long before now.