United Constitutional Patriots: Border Patrol pushes back against armed civilians pol

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El Paso television station KXIA speaks with United Constitutional Patriots, an organization of armed civilians seen in videos posted to social media detaining large groups of Central American families in New Mexico.




Updated 5 minutes agoSUNLAND PARK, N.M. -- U.S. 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 over the last several days 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 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," the agency said on its Twitter account.



Jim Benvie, a spokesman for the group, said members assist a "stressed and overstrained Border Patrol" and there are no issues with its actions. One video shows a Border Patrol agent arriving after the group tells a small group to sit and wait.

"We get along great with Border Patrol. They get along with us," Benvie said in a Facebook video. "We work together, and yadda, yadda, yadda."

Benvie 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.

"We use verbal commands, we don't touch people. Our job is to slow them down...sit them down until Border Patrol can get over there," Benvie told El Paso television station KVIA.

United Constitutional Patriots operates in and around Sunland Park, New Mexico, a suburb of El Paso, Texas, and a popular spot for Central Americans to cross the border illegally because there is no physical barrier in some areas.

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 are children. In the Border Patrol's El Paso sector, which has suddenly 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.

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, said Friday that she was actively working with state and local police to address the armed groups. "Menacing or threatening migrant families and asylum-seekers is absolutely unacceptable and must cease," she wrote on Twitter.



The American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico on Thursday wrote Lujan Grisham and state Attorney General Hector Balderas on Thursday, urging them to investigate the incidents, including what it said was the detention of nearly 300 people on Tuesday near Sunland Park.

"This has no place in our state: we cannot allow racist and armed vigilantes to kidnap and detain people seeking asylum," the ACLU wrote.

https://abc7news.com/politics/border...order/5261756/

Armed Militia Is Holding Illegals From Mexico for Border Patrol

By The Daily Caller
April 20, 2019 Updated: April 20, 2019
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A militia group calling itself the United Constitutional Patriots is detaining illegals as they cross the New Mexico border.
The armed group stops the illegal migrants and holds them until U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) guards can intervene. They reportedly “arrested” about 200 illegal aliens this week and documented their efforts on YouTube, according to The New York Times.

The militia and groups like it have previously indicated their intention of apprehending illegal migrants. The CBP has issued instructions in the past to residents to ensure the militias are not a recognized state or federal authority.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets...34-600x400.jpg Border Patrol agents apprehend illegal immigrants shortly after they crossed the border from Mexico into the United States in the Rio Grande Valley Sector near McAllen, Texas, on March 26, 2018. (Loren Elliott/AFP/Getty Images) The southern border has been the scene of a massive influx of illegal border crossings in the past few months, with the CBP indicating that the situation has reached a “breaking point.” Texas has been particularly hard hit, and just this week, Nevada declared a state emergency.


New Mexico’s Otero County declared a state of emergency Wednesday and asked the governor to use the National Guard to re-open CBP checkpoints.



The checkpoints had been closed temporarily after agents were relocated to assist migrant processing to prevent drugs and illegal immigrants from crossing the border, but that apparently hasn’t stopped the influx of illegals who enter the state at non-designated crossings. the Alamogordo Daily News reported.


This week in Arizona, four illegals walked right past a group of visiting congressmen who were on scene to assess the extent of the border crisis.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets...80-600x337.jpg Border Patrol agents search the Rio Grande River for illegal immigrants crossing the border from Mexico into the United States near McAllen, Texas, on March 26, 2018. (Loren Elliott/AFP/Getty Images) The American Civil Liberties Union has condemned the militia’s actions in a letter Thursday to the governor of New Mexico, saying “racist and armed vigilantes” have no authority to “kidnap and detain” would-be refugees.


According to the Times, New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas has issued a statement warning, “These individuals should not attempt to exercise authority reserved for law enforcement.”


According to Fox News, Carlos A. Diaz, a spokesman for CBP, reiterated Balderas’s concerns and said Border Patrol “does not endorse private groups or organizations taking enforcement matters into their own hands.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/armed-...l_2887938.html