Militia Caravan Heads to the Border, But Locals Don’t Want Them There

Gun-toting militia members riled up by Donald Trump’s fake
border crisis targeting the Central American migrant caravan plan to carry out
their own trek to the southwestern U.S. border. But they aren’t being received
with open arms by local landowners, members of the Border Patrol, or even the
U.S. military.

The Washington Post reported
that a group called the Texas Minutemen has 100
volunteers making their way south, where they hope to serve as a vigilante force
against Central American migrants who are still weeks away from reaching the
U.S. border with Mexico. The migrant caravan certainly won’t arrive before
Tuesday’s midterm elections.

Bail bondsman and Texas Minutemen president Shannon McGauley
told the Post that his phone has been
ringing “nonstop” in recent days from others looking to join the effort. “You
got other militias, and husbands and wives, people coming from Oregon, Indiana.
We’ve even got two from Canada.”

Canada?

McGauley said their function would be to “observe and
report,” although he alluded to the fact that they would be armed.

In the border town of Columbus, NM, when members of a
militia calling itself the Patriots of the Constitution showed up to talk to
local officials, Mayor Esequiel Salas told
them to get lost.

“I told them, ‘We have a good relationship with Mexico, with
our little sister village Palomas,” he said, according to the Albuquerque Journal. “A lot of people
who never come here, they have a misunderstanding. They hear things that are
not true.”

Internal military
documents reported on this week by Newsweek show that military planning by Northcom views
the militias as a threat. In a mobilization dubbed “Operation Faithful
Patriot,” Trump is sending between 5,000 and 7,000 active-duty troops to the border ahead of
Tuesday’s elections, where they will remain at least until December. The
president has said he wants to increase that number to 15,000 troops.

According to the documents, “Open Source Reporting indicates
unregulated militia members self-deploying to border in alleged support to CBP [U.S.
Customs and Border Protection].” The document says militias have been known to
steal National Guard equipment. (About 2,100
National Guard troops have been stationed at the border since April,
costing taxpayers over $100
million.)

“Estimated 200 unregulated armed militia members currently
operating along the [southwest border]. Reported Incidents of unregulated
militias stealing National Guard equipment during deployments. They operate
under the guise of citizen patrols supporting CBP primarily between POEs [Points
of Entry],” the military assessment said.

Washington Post reporters
Mary Lee Grant and Nick Miroff spoke to several border-area landowners who seem
less than enthused about having armed militia members from places nowhere near
the border on their properties.

“They are a bunch of guys with a big mouth and no substance
to them,” the head of Texas Border Volunteers, Michael Vickers, told the
newspaper.

“I will not let militia on my
land,” South Texas resident Lucy Kruse added.

Joe Metz, a Republican who lives next to the Rio Grande, said,
“The militia just needs to stay where they are.”

He added: “We don’t need fanatical people. We
don’t need anybody here with guns. Why do they have guns? I have dealt with
illegals for 30 years, and all of them have been scared, asking for help. The
militias need to stay up north where they belong. We have no use for them here.
They might shoot someone or hurt someone.”

One more thing about the Patriots of the Constitution in Columbus: According to the Associated Press, “There’s no indication that the migrant caravan would try to cross the border at Columbus.”