FBI arrests member of rightwing militia accused of detaining migrants

FBI arrests member of rightwing militia accused of detaining migrants

Larry Mitchell Hopkins accused of illegal weapons possession after videos apparently showed men stopping migrants in New Mexico

Sam Levin in San Francisco
@SamTLevin Email
Sat 20 Apr 2019 16.51 EDT

A member of an armed rightwing militia group accused of illegally detaining migrants at the US-Mexico border has been arrested, officials said on Saturday.
https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/148fa...ormat&fit=max&


The FBI arrested Larry Mitchell Hopkins, 69, for alleged unlawful possession of firearms and ammunition , days after his group posted videos that appeared to show armed men stopping migrants at the border in New Mexico, ordering them to sit on the ground and coordinating with US border patrol agents to have them taken into custody.

“Today’s arrest by the FBI indicates clearly that the rule of law should be in the hands of trained law enforcement officials, not armed vigilantes,” the New Mexico attorney general, Hector Balderas, said in a statement.

On Thursday, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) called for an investigation into the pro-Trump, anti-immigrant men who have been patrolling the border and calling themselves the United Constitutional Patriots (UCP).

The ACLU in New Mexico described the group as “an armed fascist militia organization” made up of “vigilantes”, saying they were working to “kidnap and detain people seeking asylum” and had directly made illegal arrests and held migrants at gunpoint.

Hopkins’ role in the group was unclear, and it was also not clear if he was facing any charges directly related to the videos of the men stopping migrants. The New Mexico attorney general’s office described Hopkins as a “dangerous felon who should not have weapons around children and families” and labeled him an “armed individual detaining migrants at the border”.

An FBI statement on the arrest did not mention the militia group or the detention of migrants, but noted that Hopkins has also gone by the name Johnny Horton Jr and that he was due to appear in court on Monday.

In one video posted last Monday night by Jim Benvie, a member of the armed group, it appeared the men were ordering around dozens of migrants, including many children, and telling them to sit. Benvie narrated: “There’s no border patrol here. This is us.”

The men appeared to call border patrol agents, who later were seen. The ACLU, in a letter to state officials, said the group had targeted nearly 300 migrants in Sunland Park, New Mexico, which is along the Mexico border and adjacent to El Paso, Texas.

The militia members advocated for Trump’s proposed border wall on the video streams and echoed the president’s anti-migrant rhetoric, warning of an “invasion”.

There have also been concerns that the men, who wear military-style clothes, could be misrepresenting themselves as border patrol agents. In another video, Benvie filmed himself stopping a group of four adults and three children and said “border patrol” as he approached, before calling for another member of his group to join him. In an apparent call to border patrol, one man said: “Hello, I’ve got seven over here.”

The UCP has previously presented itself as a group of “volunteers” aiding border patrol and supporting Trump. In recent years, there have been numerous reports of an increase in paramilitary groups and xenophobic activists surveilling the border, working with US agents and targeting undocumented people.

The UCP has not responded to the Guardian’s requests for comment.

On Thursday, a Customs and Border Protection spokesperson said border patrol “welcomes assistance from the community” but “does not endorse private groups or organizations taking enforcement matters into their own hands”.

The Daily Beast reported that Hopkins has a history of pushing far-right conspiracies and has a conviction for impersonating an officer and felony firearm possession. He could not be reached on Saturday and it was not immediately clear if he had a lawyer.

Stephanie Corte, an immigrant rights campaign strategist with the ACLU in New Mexico, said her group was still trying to make contact with the detained migrants and was uncertain if any had been released.

“Our next focus is to try to get their story and making sure they feel safe to tell their story of being held at gunpoint,” she told the Guardian, adding that the ACLU would explore legal options.

She said she hoped authorities would work to make sure this does not happen again.

“We absolutely believe that this was completely unlawful,” she said. “We’re hoping those involved will be brought to justice.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...ining-migrants

Trump's army: More than 300 asylum seekers surrender to armed militia of 'New Mexico

FBI Arrests New Mexico Border Militia Leader Larry Mitchell Hopkins

Hopkins runs an armed border militia group that spreads far-right conspiracies.

Audrey McNamara
04.20.19 5:00 PM ET

https://img.thedailybeast.com/image/...ts-hero_mamql4

PAUL RATJE/Getty

The FBI arrested a 69-year-old New Mexico man who allegedly illegally detained immigrants crossing the border under the guise of working for the United States Border Patrol.

Larry Mitchell Hopkins, who runs The United Constitutional Patriots (UCP), an armed border militia group that spreads far-right conspiracies and rounds up asylum seekers on the border, was arrested by FBI in New Mexico Saturday on charges of possessing firearms and ammunition as a convicted felon.

Recent video footage released by UCP shows two members holding what appear to be semi-automatic rifles near immigrants, many of them children.

The group also peddles conspiracy theories and produces a radio show where members spread information about QAnon, and accuse migrants of associating with ISIS. Hopkins has also claimed that president Trump has personally asked him about ‘Muslim immigration.’

UCP and Hopkins claim to work with Border Patrol, which has publicly denied doing so. Border Patrol agents sometimes appear in the periphery of the groups videos, which show camo-clad UCP members interacting with migrants at the southern border.

“There’s no question about whether or not we work with Border Patrol,” said Jim, a UCP spokesperson who declined to give his last name.

“That’s all documented, and not just once. It’s documented hundreds and hundreds of times over in the videos that I post.”

“U.S. Customs and Border Protection does not endorse private groups or organizations taking enforcement matters into their own hands,” a Border Patrol official told The Daily Beast.

Border Patrol is not supposed to interact with border vigilantes, but has been documented doing so. A Mother Jones reporter who embedded with a border militia in 2016 witnessed the group getting information from Border Patrol agents.

UCP is only one of several vigilante groups patrolling the southern border with guns.

New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas issued a statement on Saturday, praising the FBI over Hopkins' arrest.

“This is a dangerous felon who should not have weapons around children and families,” Balderas wrote in a statement. “Today's arrest by the FBI indicates clearly that the rule of law should be in the hands of trained law enforcement officials, not armed vigilantes.”

Hopkins, of Flora Vista, N.M., is expected to have an initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Las Cruces, New Mexico on Monday. Federal authorities said they would not released additional details about Hopkins’ arrest until after the appearance.

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The arrest was the latest fallout for the group. On Friday, the UCP Facebook group announced to its members that they no longer accept donations through PayPal, as the service has suspended their account.

“TO ALL PATRIOTS, I wish to thank all of you that has donated to the Border Ops mission up till now. We can no longer accept payments thru PAYPAL, they have permanently suspended our account,” the post read. “... And is hold $1300.00 in donations for 180 days. I am looking for another outfit that we can go thru.”

PayPal and GoFundMe announced Friday that they would no longer allow UCP to raise funds on their platforms.[

A PayPal spokesperson told BuzzFeed News in a statement that UCP had been banned from their platform following a video that shows the group rounding up nearly 200 migrants.

“The account associated with United Constitutional Patriots has been closed due to a violation of our Acceptable Use Policy,” the spokesperson told BuzzFeed News. “We do not allow PayPal services to be used to promote hate, violence, or other forms of intolerance that is discriminatory.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/fbi-ar...tia?ref=scroll [/COLOR]

• LOCO
  Leader of QAnon-Loving Border Militia Says He Talks to Trump
  
  Kelly Weill
  
  https://img.thedailybeast.com/image/...-embed1_olbfew

Armed civilian border group member arrested in New Mexico

Authorities say a New Mexico man belonging to an armed group that has detained Central American families near the U.S.-Mexico border was arrested Saturday on a criminal complaint accusing him of being a felon in possession of firearms and ammunition

By The Associated PressLAS CRUCES, N.M. — Apr 20, 2019 3:10 PM

A New Mexico man belonging to an armed group that has detained Central American families near the U.S.-Mexico border was arrested Saturday in a border community on a criminal complaint accusing him of being a felon in possession of firearms and ammunition, authorities said.

The FBI said in a statement it arrested 69-year-old Larry Mitchell Hopkins in Sunland Park with the assistance of local police. New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas said in a separate statement that Hopkins was a member of the group that had stopped migrants.

Hopkins was booked into the Dona Ana County detention center in Las Cruces and it wasn't immediately known whether he has an attorney who could comment on the allegations.

The FBI statement did not provide information on Hopkins' background, and FBI spokesman Frank Fisher told The Associated Press that no additional information would be released until after Hopkins has an initial appearance Monday in federal court in Las Cruces.

The FBI said Hopkins is from Flora Vista, a rural community in northern New Mexico and approximately 353 miles (572 kilometers) north of Sunland Park, which is a suburb of El Paso, Texas.

The Sunland Park Police Department on Saturday referred an AP reporter to the FBI.

Balderas said in a statement that Hopkins "is a dangerous felon who should not have weapons around children and families.

Today's arrest by the FBI indicates clearly that the rule of law should be in the hands of trained law enforcement officials, not armed vigilantes."

Federal authorities on Friday warned private groups to avoid policing the border after a string of videos on social media showed armed civilians detaining large groups of Central American families in New Mexico.

The videos posted earlier in the week show members of United Constitutional Patriots ordering family groups as small as seven and as large as several hundred to sit on the dirt with their children, some toddlers, waiting until Border Patrol agents arrive.

Customs and Border Protection said on its Twitter account that it "does not endorse or condone private groups or organizations that take enforcement matters into their own hands.

Interference by civilians in law enforcement matters could have public safety and legal consequences for all parties involved."

Jim Benvie, a spokesman for United Constitutional Patriots, did not immediately respond Saturday to a request for comment made via Facebook.

Benvie said in a video that the group's members were assisting a "stressed and overstrained Border Patrol" and said the group is legally armed for self-defense and never points guns at migrants. The posted videos do not show them with firearms drawn.

Armed civilian groups have been a fixture on the border for years, especially when large numbers of migrants come. But, unlike previous times, many of the migrants crossing now are children.

In the Border Patrol's El Paso sector, which has emerged as the second-busiest corridor for illegal crossings after Texas' Rio Grande Valley, 86% of arrests in March were people who came as families or unaccompanied children.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/...exico-62529747

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D4ngYrdU...jpg&name=small

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images...b9i_normal.jpgNM Attorney General

✔@NewMexicoOAG

Please see below release:

251
11:42 AM - Apr 20, 2019

130 people are talking about this

Under federal law, the crime of Felon in Possession of a Firearm is a Class D felony, punishable by up to ten years in prison, three years of supervised release, and $250,000 in fines.

Federal Felon in Possession of a Firearm - Richard Hornsby

https://www.richardhornsby.com/feder...f-firearm.html

Why would anyone who is a convicted felon prohibited from possessing firearms go on a border patrol armed and appear in a video for distribution? It just does not make sense to me why Larry Mitchell Hopkins or whatever his real name is would do that.

Notice the FBI and New Mexico AG are very quick to press charges against Americans trying to stop illegals from entering but almost never charge illegal aliens with repeat entry, voting in US elections, ressisting arrest, etc...

Caravan paranoia is tearing the border militia movement apart


November 15, 2018




Nick R. Martin





They’ve wound themselves up to believe all kinds of rumors about the migrant caravan that’s been making its way north through Mexico.



Rumors that it’s filled not just with Central Americans seeking asylum but with people from Venezuela, Nigeria and Syria — even Islamic militants. Rumors that caravan members were secretly trained by the United Nations. Rumors that it’s funded by Jewish billionaire George Soros. Rumors that MS-13 is involved. Rumors of cartels. Rumors of violence. Rumors of death.


Johnny Horton Jr. is a self-proclaimed border militia leader who believes the rumors are true. Except he doesn’t call them rumors. He calls them facts. And like several other militia leaders, he says he has fielded a team of “patriots” to travel to the southern border to stop the caravan from coming into the U.S.


“Our information comes from the very top,” Horton said in a recent interview with the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). “I’m not telling you where, but it comes out of very high agencies.”


Militia leaders like Horton have been hyping up the threat of the caravan in recent weeks and vowing online to take action. They say they’re putting “boots on the ground” from Texas to California to support the active-duty troops that have been ordered to the border in response to the caravan.


In the process, the militias have gorged on an array of hoaxes and conspiracy theories floated by conservative media, anti-immigrant groups and President Donald Trump himself, who released an ad about the caravan before the midterms that was deemed so racist that Fox News and other news channels pulled it off the air. The fantasies the militias have embraced smear the caravan as an invading army rather than a group of a few thousand desperate people fleeing poverty and violence. The militias see themselves as duty bound to stop the caravan, even if that means a shooting war breaks out.


At the same time, however, the militia movement has been afflicted by infighting and backstabbing over the caravan and their response to it. In their frenzy, they’ve told reporters that they are prepared to bring hundreds, even thousands, of armed men and women to the border to form a united front. But behind the scenes, these irregular armies are made up of unreliable individuals. Leaders have insulted other leaders. Groups have broken alliances with other groups. And self-described commanders have resigned their positions in the militias they run.


It all might be a bit comical if the groups weren’t armed and didn’t believe war was approaching. According to Newsweek, the Pentagon has already assessed the possibility that civilian militias could pose a threat to the 5,000 troops that are being deployed to the border. Beyond that, the broader antigovernment movement also has a history of breeding lone wolves who become so gripped by paranoia that they take matters into their own hands. That was the case with Jerad and Amanda Miller, who shot and killed two police officers in North Las Vegas in 2014 after attending the Bundy Ranch standoff. It was also the case with Shawna Forde, a former member of the border vigilante group Minuteman Civil Defense Corps who murdered a man and his 9-year-old daughter in 2009 during another outbreak of hysteria about the southern border.
The ballad of Larry Hopkins

It’s a little hard to know what to make of Johnny Horton Jr., who calls himself the national commander of the United Constitutional Patriots (UCP).


For one, that’s not his real name. He’s Larry Mitchell Hopkins.
“Horton” is the stage name used by the 69-year-old, who describes himself as an “artist, entertainer.” On YouTube, there are videos of Hopkins performing under the Horton name, singing covers of old country songs, including some by the original Johnny Horton, who died in a car crash in 1960.


Hopkins also uses the alias in the militia movement.

Larry Hopkins (aka Johnny Horton Jr.), head of the United Constitutional Patriots militia, posts a message on Facebook about heading to the border.







His group, UCP, is headquartered in Flora Vista, New Mexico, a small town in the northern part of the state. It’s unclear how many people are part of his group, and he declined to cite any figures when asked by the SPLC.


“I cannot give you numbers,” he said. “That would be the worst thing I could do.”
The main online presence for UCP, its Facebook page, is sparse. It contains a few reposts of videos, some of which are conspiracy-driven. The page also includes at least two links to videos of Hopkins performing “The Ballad of the Green Berets.”
Hopkins has said his group has a presence along the Mexico border and is working with other militia groups throughout the Southwest in response to the caravan. He was unwilling to provide proof to support these claims. However, UCP’s Facebook page published links to two fundraising sites — PayPal and GoFundMe — soliciting donations for the border-watch efforts. Both campaigns show they were started by a man using the name Mark Cheney, whose own Facebook page describes him as a “former disabled vet” and “currently on Social Security disability.” The page says he also lives in Flora Vista.
The GoFundMe pitch, which uses similar language to the one on PayPal, is simple:

We are raising money to help finance the various Patriot groups who have volunteered to go to the U.S. Border to help the Border Patrol in securing the Border before the invasion happens. We are doing this by assisting in fuel cards, food and water and various other supplies that are needed. Please give what you can, no amount is too small or too large.

As of Wednesday, Nov. 14, the GoFundMe campaign had raised $125 with a goal of $1,000. The PayPal campaign had netted $180 toward a goal of $1,500.
As for Hopkins, he’s all-in on conspiracy theories about the caravan. His rhetoric at times has been dire. On his personal Facebook page, he recently posted a message speculating about his death:

im 69 years old and i am going to the border when i know the enemy is close to the border, i am going to fight and i may give my life but at least i will be there and stand by my oath, they didnt get me when i was in the army and i will stand for our country, if they get me now at least i will die for our country and what keeping america free is all about, GOD WILL GUIDE AND PROTECT ME,

During his interview with the SPLC on Oct. 26, Hopkins explained that he expects his group to be shot at. He said he’d been “prewarned” by “very high level” law enforcement sources. “Armed groups are already here,” he said. “They’re planning on flanking us … to shoot us.”
“If we’re fired on,” he added, “we will fire back.”


When the SPLC pressed Hopkins about his claim that he was getting information from high up in the government — or as he put it elsewhere in the conversation, “from the very top” — he remained vague.


“I am not giving any information where my information comes from,” he said. But, he added, “I’m not implying the president.”
However, on Saturday, Nov. 3, in a video interview posted on a Facebook page called The Renegade Network, Hopkins did more than just imply he was in touch with President Trump — he claimed the president was relying on him for border intelligence.
https://www.splcenter.org/sites/defa...de-network.png
Screenshot of video interview between "Mr. X" of The Renegade Network and militia leader Larry Hopkins (aka Johnny Horton Jr.)





The claim came during an interview with someone going by the alias “Mr. X,” who appears to administer The Renegade Network page. The page itself is steeped in militia propaganda and traffics in plenty of conspiracy theories, but Mr. X was skeptical of many of the claims Hopkins had been making recently, particularly when it comes to border watch operations.
Mr. X — dressed in a gasmask and black hoodie, his voice distorted — grilled Hopkins on his claims. About midway through the interview, Hopkins defended himself by making grand statements about knowing Trump personally. He said their relationship began because of his own career in music.


“When I was doing music, I met Trump and his first wife when he had the casino in Las Vegas, and I played there numerous times. OK?” Hopkins said. “That’s how I knew him. And Trump and I have kept in touch ever since.”
He went on to say that Trump was a listener of an internet radio show he broadcasts on YouTube and that the president wanted intel from him, not about the southern border, but about the northern border. Because, Hopkins said, that’s where “all of the Muslims are coming in.”
Trouble in New Mexico

https://www.splcenter.org/sites/defa...jim-peyton.jpg
Jim Peyton, who called himself a "general" of the Patriots of the Constitution militia. (via Facebook)





Hopkins also claimed to be working closely with another militia, Patriots of the Constitution, which is based out of Alabama but had traveled to New Mexico in response to the caravan.
When the SPLC spoke to Jim Peyton, who calls himself the militia’s general, on Oct. 25, he said that he and the group’s other general, Terry Kelley, had recently arrived in Columbus, New Mexico, just a few miles north of the Mexico border. They’d driven straight through, without sleep, for two days to get there, he said.


Like Hopkins, Peyton wouldn’t say exactly how many people besides Kelley were taking part in his militia activities, but claimed it was “over 100 people.” Peyton also claimed that he was in charge of all the militia activities along the border.
“All the other militias have been contacted. We’re all acting as one,” Peyton told the SPLC. “When they come here, I’ll be commanding officer. And they’ll follow my ord — the orders that we have.”


He said that everyone in his group had served in the military in the past.
“We’re not a bunch of hillbillies running around with muskets,” he said. “People know what the rules are, what the rules of engagement are, what the rules of the border patrol are. And that’s how we’re operating.”


Peyton’s belief in a number of conspiracy theories prompted him to head to the border. Nigerians in the caravan? Check. Militants with the Islamic State? Check. Soros financing it? Check. His information, he said, came “from good sources, reliable sources, government-type sources.” What were those sources? He wouldn’t say. But he said he believed the caravan and other recent events were attempts to distract from what he saw as crimes committed by “the left.”


“Obama, Hillary, Schumer, Soros need to go in front of a military tribunal,” Peyton said. Asked what he meant by that, he replied: “Arrested. Tried by the military for treason.”


Despite Peyton’s claims of commanding a major joint militia operation at the border, problems with his plan were already clear.
His group, Patriots of the Constitution, previously advertised Hopkins’ militia as part of its coordinated effort. But when speaking with the SPLC, Peyton said that was no longer the case.


“We have split ties and affiliation with United Constitutional Patriots, OK?” Peyton said. “We don’t deal with them any longer. That’s, like I said, a recent thing. And we have our own reasons for doing so. And I just can’t get into that with you.”
(Hopkins later denied the groups had split. “He hasn’t severed no ties with us,” he said, adding that he would call Peyton to find out what was going on.)


Less than a week later, Peyton posted a message on Facebook announcing another departure from Patriots of the Constitution — himself.


“I, General James F, (sic) Peyton, do hereby submit this letter of resignation to General Terry Kelley of the Patriots of The Constitution,” he wrote. “I will still retain the rank of General that was given to me by (sic) former Commander, prior to General Kelley, and will be willing to assist any Patriot group in need of assistance.”
Generals and Crooks

https://www.splcenter.org/sites/defa...ation-crop.png
Jim Peyton announces his resignation from Patriots of the Constitution on Facebook.





Before his departure, Peyton said Patriots of the Constitution had been sending donations and manpower to a longtime border militia leader: Robert Crooks.


Crooks leads the Mountain Minutemen, a group founded more than a decade ago to conduct civilian border watch operations. He lives in the Las Vegas area these days but makes regular trips to Southern California for armed patrols at a spot near the Mexico border called Patriot Point.


When he spoke to the SPLC in late October, he was alone at Patriot Point. He was posting messages on Facebook asking for volunteers and financial donations, but he was working solo. His regular volunteers — his “base group,” he called them — had day jobs and were unavailable.


“So, you know, I gotta stand the line by myself until the cavalry shows up,” Crooks said.
He complained about the state of the border militia movement. The way he sees it, he said, people will talk a big game on the internet, but it’s all for show. They’ll promise to come to the border, and they might even donate to him, but they rarely follow through.
“I’m alone right now. I don’t have anybody,” Crooks said. “It’s all lip service, you know? These keyboard commandos, these Walmart warriors, they go down to Cabela’s and buy all these shitty looking goods — stuff to make ‘em look good in the mirror.”
The SPLC asked Crooks about Peyton’s group, Patriots of the Constitution, and how messages posted on the group’s Facebook page said it was working with Crooks.


“They sucked me into that without my knowledge, them people — what are they called? Um, Uniform Construction or Constitutional Patriots or some bullshit. I don’t know. I told them to take that off and they haven’t done it yet,” Crooks said. “I’m not affiliated with them. Don’t tie me to them. They did that on their own volition, and I’ve told them to pull me off that. I guess they haven’t, have they? Is it still up?”


Later in the interview, Crooks laughed about militia leaders who call themselves “generals.”
“Oh, this weekend I’m gonna be a general. All right!” he said. “They know they’re mindless midges, you know what I mean?”
When Peyton was asked later about Crooks’ comments, he was in disbelief.


“Really? Really? OK. It cost me over a thousand dollars out of my own pocket just to get down here. So what kind of a keyboard warrior is that?” Peyton said. “I don’t know why he would say that when we just sent him money!”
A neo-Nazi, not a rocket scientist

Crooks was the most explicit of the bunch in his assessment of the caravan. He used the slurs “cockroaches” and “ditch crickets” to describe immigrants who crossed the border illegally. And he talked up the anti-immigrant fantasy that the caravan was part of a secret plot by Mexico to take over the Southwestern U.S. — a conspiracy theory known as “la reconquista.” The eventual goal, he said, was a “New World Order.”


“These entities, these diabolical manifestations in this plane of consciousness, they’re trying to destroy the sovereignty of this nation, and have been from the onset,” Crooks said. “It’s pushing for the New World Order, pushing for the elitist takeover and the domination of and the destruction of America. And that’s exactly what it is. It has been all along.”
“One world government,” he added. “Total domination of the human species.”


Those types of comments are nothing new for Crooks, of course. In the past, he patrolled the Arizona desert south of Phoenix with longtime neo-Nazi Harry Hughes, who also uses the term “cockroaches” to describe migrants and rails against “globalists” and the “New World Order.” Hughes is entrenched in the border militia movement in Arizona and is friendly on Facebook with a number of its leaders. But he also plays a role as the communications director for the National Socialist Movement (NSM), a violent neo-Nazi group headquartered in Detroit.
https://www.splcenter.org/sites/defa...rry-hughes.jpg
Harry Hughes at a National Socialist Movement (NSM) event in 2012.





Hughes’ role in the swastika-carrying, Hitler-worshipping group is no secret. One of his own blogs shows a mix of selfies of him dressed alternately in either desert fatigues for border operations or else donning the black uniform and swastika armband that was formerly the dress code of the NSM. He was also a longtime friend and confidant of J.T. Ready, another NSM member who lived in Arizona and patrolled the desert with Hughes. Ready killed himself in 2012 after murdering four people, including an 18-month-old girl, inside a house in the Phoenix suburbs.
Crooks didn’t skip a beat when the SPLC asked him about his relationship with Hughes. “Harry’s a good friend of mine!” he said, adding that Hughes’ views, which he described as “political,” didn’t really matter to him.


“Am I a neo-Nazi?” Crooks said. “No, I am not. And if he is in fact a neo-Nazi and part of the Aryan — that’s his life, and I have no problem with that. I don’t care.” Crooks said his own patriotism didn’t deter him from being friends with a man who holds a leadership role in a group that celebrates Adolf Hitler.


“Nobody ever called him a rocket scientist, you know what I mean?” Crooks said of Hughes. “But he does go out in the desert and he patrols the desert for illegal aliens. I’ve gotta commend him for that. And if he’s gonna continue doing that with me, I’ll run with him.”
All of this, and the caravan had yet to arrive. In the days since the SPLC talked to the militia leaders, Trump had mobilized thousands of active-duty troops to the border, and photos surfaced showing them placing concertina wire along stretches of it. Earlier this year, when another caravan of migrants crossed Mexico to seek asylum in the U.S., 93 percent ended up getting it, according to BuzzFeed News. In other words, they immigrated legally.


This week, the first wave of the new caravan began arriving in Tijuana, Mexico, just across the border from San Diego. And VICE News reported that Trump’s border troops in Texas had nothing to do. The caravan was nowhere near them.
As for the border militia movement, its members are likely finding out they’re in the same boat.
Photo illustration by SPLC

https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/...movement-apart

Quote:

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Originally Posted by stoptheinvaders

Caravan paranoia is tearing the border militia movement apart




November 15, 2018




Nick R. Martin

They’ve wound themselves up to believe all kinds of rumors about the migrant caravan that’s been making its way north through Mexico.

Rumors that it’s filled not just with Central Americans seeking asylum but with people from Venezuela, Nigeria and Syria — even Islamic militants. Rumors that caravan members were secretly trained by the United Nations. Rumors that it’s funded by Jewish billionaire George Soros. Rumors that MS-13 is involved. Rumors of cartels. Rumors of violence. Rumors of death.

---

Rumors?!?!

FBI agents arrested Hopkins on April 20 on charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm. He has a long arrest record, dating back to at least 1986, when he was arrested and convicted of the “felony of false pretenses,” or fraud, in Midland County, Michigan. Decades later, in 2006, Hopkins was arrested in Klamath County, Oregon on charges of impersonating a police officer and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

https://heavy.com/news/2019/04/larry-mitchell-hopkins/

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Description of 2006 arrest
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In 2006, a Klamath County Sheriff's Office report said Hopkins was found at a gas station in Keno, Oregon, showing firearms to youth and telling them he was a police officer.


Hopkins displayed a badge that said "special agent" and numerous medals pinned to his shirt, according to the report obtained by the Santa Fe New Mexican.


The newspaper said the court records were uncovered by the Southern Poverty Law Center which monitors hate groups and extremists in the U.S.

https://www.myarklamiss.com/news/rep...rge/1943179656

In his guilty plea in the case, records show Hopkins acknowledged to the court that he had given "the impression to others that I was a peace officer" while unlawfully carrying a firearm as a convicted felon.

https://www.myarklamiss.com/news/rep...rge/1943179656

While I do not condone anyone impersonating a Police Officer, my brain can not help but compare.

Is it far more dangerous and harmful to this nation for a wannabe to pretend to be a Police Officer than it is for a Presidential candidate to lie and pretend for 16 months that he intends to do something about immigration, when his intentions were the exact opposite, and he proves that every day?

Published 1 hour ago

Report: Man arrested near border faced similar weapon charge

Associated Press


LAS CRUCES, N.M. – A New Mexico man who is a member of an armed civilian group that has detained migrants near the U.S.-Mexico border and was arrested on suspicion of being a felon in possession of firearms reportedly faced similar charges 13 years ago in Oregon.

Larry Mitchell Hopkins, 69, also was accused of impersonating a police officer in Oregon's Klamath County in 2006 and claimed to be a fugitive bounty hunter, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported Sunday.

The FBI and Sunland Park police arrested Hopkins on a federal complaint Saturday.

Hopkins was booked into the Dona Ana County detention center in Las Cruces and it wasn't immediately known if he had an attorney who could comment on the allegations.

The FBI said Hopkins is from Flora Vista, a rural community in northern New Mexico and approximately 353 miles (572 kilometers) north of Sunland Park, a suburb of El Paso, Texas.

Frank Fisher, a spokesman for the FBI in Albuquerque, said additional information about Hopkins would not be released until after his initial appearance Monday in a Las Cruces federal court.

In 2006, a Klamath County Sheriff's Office report said Hopkins was found at a gas station in Keno, Oregon, showing firearms to youth and telling them he was a police officer.

Hopkins displayed a badge that said "special agent" and numerous medals pinned to his shirt, according to the report obtained by the Santa Fe New Mexican.

The newspaper said the court records were uncovered by the Southern Poverty Law Center which monitors hate groups and extremists in the U.S.

In his guilty plea in the case, records show Hopkins acknowledged to the court that he had given "the impression to others that I was a peace officer" while unlawfully carrying a firearm as a convicted felon.

Federal authorities on Friday warned private groups to avoid policing the border after a string of videos on social media showed armed civilians detaining large groups of Central American families in New Mexico.

Armed civilian groups have been a fixture on the border for years, especially when large numbers of migrants come. But, unlike previous times, many of the migrants crossing now are children.

Mexico's Foreign Relations Department, in a statement issued Saturday, expressed "profound concern at the activities of intimidation and extortion of migrants on the part of militia groups on the border of New Mexico ... These types of practices can lead to the trampling of human rights of people who migrate or who solicit asylum or refuge in the United States."

https://www.foxnews.com/us/report-ma...-weapon-charge

Leader of armed group stopping migrants at U.S. border boasted of assassinations: FBI

Heavy.comNews

Larry Mitchell Hopkins: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know

• By Kate Prengel

• Updated Apr 22, 2019 at 1:00pm

https://heavyeditorial.files.wordpre...trip=all&w=780

Dona Ana County Jail/Facebook

Larry Mitchell Hopkins.


The FBI has arrested Larry Mitchell Hopkins, the head of a militia group that has been detaining would-be migrants at the US-Mexico border. The FBI announced that Hopkins, 69, had been arrested on April 20 in Sunland Park, New Mexico on charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition.

Hopkins, who often goes by the name of Johnny Horton, is the leader of a militia called the United Constitutional Patriots. The group says it has detained thousands migrants at the border in the last month alone, most of them children. United Constitutional Patriots regularly releases videos of their detentions; the videos show militia members wearing military fatigues and carrying guns. The militia members say they are fighting to defend their flag and their country, but human rights groups, like the American Civil Liberties Union, have denounced the group as a “fascist militia organization.”

Here’s what you need to know about Larry Hopkins:

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1. Hopkins Has a Criminal Record Dating Back to at Least 1986 & Has Been Convicted of Impersonating a Police Officer

https://heavyeditorial.files.wordpre...=all&strip=allArrest report from Klamath County, Oregon

FBI agents arrested Hopkins on April 20 on charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm. He has a long arrest record, dating back to at least 1986, when he was arrested and convicted of the “felony of false pretenses,” or fraud, in Midland County, Michigan. Decades later, in 2006, Hopkins was arrested in Klamath County, Oregon on charges of impersonating a police officerand being a felon in possession of a firearm.

According to the arrest report filed in Klamath County, police found Hopkins at a gas station showing off a gun to a group of young people. The arrest report says that Hopkinns was also showing the group of juveniles a badge that said “special agent” and was telling them that he was a police officer. Hopkins pleaded guilty to impersonating a police officer and to one count of possessing a firearm.

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2. Hopkins Says He Has a Long-Standing Relationship with President Trump & Claims His Militia Shares Information with the Government


Hopkins has repeatedly said that he has sources in the US government that pass along information to him. He told the Southern Poverty Law Center that he was getting tips “from the very top” of the government. He said he didn’t want to tell the SPLC where exactly he was getting his information.

But later, in a radio interview posted by The Renegade Network, Horton said that he had a long-standing relationship with President Trump and that he and the president were in close touch.

He said that the president listened to his radio show and that they were exchanging information about the US border — Horton said President Trump was especially interested in the northern border. Explaining where he first met the president, Horton said, “When I was doing music, I met Trump and his first wife when he had the casino in Las Vegas, and I played there numerous times. OK?” Hopkins said. “That’s how I knew him. And Trump and I have kept in touch ever since.”

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3. Hopkins Calls Himself an ‘Entertainer’ & Uses the Name of Country Music Legend Johnny Horton

Both on social media and on his YouTube videos, Hopkins uses the name Johnny Horton Jr. It’s a reference to country music legend Johnny Horton, who died in a car crash in 1960. Hopkins describes himself as an “entertainer” and also performs music. Horton says he first met Donald Trump and Ivana Trump when he was performing his music in Las Vegas. Horton also claims that the president listens to his radio show and that they exchange information about the US border.

4. United Constitutional Patriots Says They Detained Over 3,500 People at the Border in March

Hopkins is the leader of a militia group called United Constitutional Patriots. On April 1, Hopkins wrote on his Facebook page about the group’s recent activities at the border. He said the militia had detained over 3,500 would-be migrants in the past month alone. He added that most of the detainees were children whom, he said, were being trafficked by adults. The April 1 Facebook post reads:

“i am off of the border untill after the 11th , people need to see the truth of whats going on on our boder please go to the united constitutional patriots new mexico boreder ops page on face book , live streamed videos of what we are up against and why we need your support, in the last month our group of patriots have stopped over 3500, mostly kids being trafficked by adults , plus alot of young men that are wanted criminals, i will be going back to the border soon we need help, GOD BLESS YOU ALL.”

Horton’s Facebook page includes photos and videos of heavily armed members of his militia standing beside American flags. Many of the men are wearing camouflage; others have bandannas tied around their faces.

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5. New Mexico’s Attorney General Called Hopkins a ‘Dangerous Felon’ Who Should not Have Weapons

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https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images...b9i_normal.jpgNM Attorney General

✔@NewMexicoOAG


Please see below release:

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After Hopkins’ arrest, the attorney general of New Mexico, Hector Balderas, issued a statement praising his arrest. The statement said, “This is a dangerous felon who should not have weapons around children and families. Today’s arrest by the FBI indicates clearly that the rule of law should be in the hands of trained law enforcement officials, not armed vigilantes.”

FBI agents arrested Hopkins in Sunland Park, New Mexico on April 20 on charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition. Hopkins has a long history of arrests for gun charges and fraud. He is the leader of a militia group, United Constitutional Patriots, which detains would-be migrants at gunpoint along the US-Mexico border.

https://heavy.com/news/2019/04/larry-mitchell-hopkins/

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ALIPAC

Why would anyone who is a convicted felon prohibited from possessing firearms go on a border patrol armed and appear in a video for distribution? It just does not make sense to me why Larry Mitchell Hopkins or whatever his real name is would do that...

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He wanted to be famous.
He wanted to be important.
He wanted to be a hero.
(And he was in his own mind.)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

He wanted to be famous.
He wanted to be important.
He wanted to be a hero.
(And he was in his own mind.)

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and that seems to be a much worse crime than the fact that Mexico Soldiers disarmed American Soldiers in US territory

a much worse crime than our Border being invaded and our own government aiding a abetting it instead of stopping it

A much worse crime than someone who already was famous wanted to be even more famous and ran a campaign on immigration and now doing the opposite.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

He wanted to be famous.
He wanted to be important.
He wanted to be a hero.
(And he was in his own mind.)

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... or he's just a crazy kook Whatever the case, he's not exactly the 'face for our cause' we need running around the border pointing loaded weapons at anyone. I commend his initiative, but he should have done his patrols unarmed and with people authorized to carry firearms.

Armed militia group kicked out of their New Mexico camp