FBI Arrests Leader of New Mexico Militia That Detained Migrants at Border

The next time a MAGA cult member whines about criminals
flocking to the southern U.S. border, point them to this story.

Just days after videos surfaced of a right-wing,
conspiracy-theory-peddling militia called the United Constitutional Patriots detaining
hundreds of migrants near the border, the FBI has arrested the group’s 69-year-old
leader, Larry Mitchell Hopkins.

As it turns out, Hopkins is a convicted felon. The Daily
Beast previously reported that he has
multiple convictions, including impersonating an officer and a felony
firearm possession. The FBI arrested
Hopkins on Saturday in New Mexico on charges of possessing firearms and
ammunition as a convicted felon.

New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas called Hopkins a
“dangerous felon,” adding that, “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
Guardian reported.

The group’s videos and armed activities prompted the American
Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico to call for an investigation. A letter
to Balderas and New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham stated:

Two nights ago, on April 16, 2019, an armed fascist militia
organization describing itself as the United Constitutional Patriots arrested
nearly three hundred people seeking safety in the United States, including
young children, near Sunland Park, New Mexico. Other videos appear to show
arrests in the past few hours. The vigilante members of the organization,
including Jim Benvie, who posted videos and photographs of the unlawful arrests
to social media, are not police or law enforcement and they have no authority
under New Mexico or federal law to detain or arrest migrants in the United
States. Their actions undermine the legitimate efforts of our state’s law
enforcement officials to keep New Mexico families safe and they erode community
trust.

Hopkins is scheduled to appear
in federal court in Las Cruces, NM, on Monday.

Members of the group—including Hopkins and Benvie—have
claimed that they work with the U.S. Border Patrol, which the agency denies. On
Thursday, a Customs and Border Protection spokesperson said the agency “does
not endorse private groups or organizations taking enforcement matters into
their own hands,” the newspaper noted. In one of the videos posted this week,
Benvie filmed himself confronting a group of seven migrants, including
children. “Border patrol,” he said before calling the actual Border
Patrol.

In a 2016
investigation published by Mother Jones,
reporter Shane Bauer went undercover with border-area militias and noted some
of their close relationships with border patrol agents.

Benvie also told the Daily Beast, “There’s no question about
whether or not we work with Border Patrol.”

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Hopkins, who
also goes by the alias Johnny Horton Jr., runs his militia group out of Flora
Vista, NM. He has claimed that President Donald Trump frequently relies on him
for information and intelligence about the border situation. (Sure.)

Hopkins’ group also produces a radio show promoting the
QAnon conspiracy theory and one that claims migrants are linked to ISIS, the
Daily Beast reported.