Members of a local militia in New Mexico apparently decided to take matters into their own hands regarding this nationβs immigration policy and detained a group of asylum seekers at gunpoint before turning them over to U.S. Border Patrol.
Video posted online by a group calling itself United Constitutional Patriots show armed militia members, wearing gloves and black face masks (of course), stopping migrants, including families with children, as they crossed the border into the U.S. from Mexico.
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βWe cannot allow racist and armed vigilantes to kidnap and detain people seeking asylum.β
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A spokesman for the group in an interview with the New York Times, calls its membersβ actions legal, likening them to βa verbal citizenβs arrest.β
The American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico calls it βkidnapping,β and itβs demanding that state and federal officials put a stop to it.
βWe cannot allow racist and armed vigilantes to kidnap and detain people seeking asylum,β two lawyers for the ACLU, MarΓa MartΓnez SΓ‘nchez and Kirsten Greer Love, said in a letter to New Mexicoβs governor and attorney general, the New York Times reports.
As CNN reports, the videos posted by the group show that not only were the militia members armed, they were dressed in fatigues, and in at least one instance, a member identified himself as βBorder Patrol.β:
They show people often in full military fatigues, with handguns strapped to their sides, wearing gloves and black face masks. Armed men order migrants to stop, force them to sit on the ground and then apparently call Border Patrol to pick them up. At least two videos posted on the groupβs Facebook page depict a man in fatigues verbally identifying himself as βBorder Patrolβ as he stops a group of migrants.
A U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman told CNN it does not condone the militiaβs actions, nor does the agency have any relationship with the group. Both the offices of New Mexicoβs governor and attorney general said the same.
βThese individuals should not attempt to exercise authority reserved for law enforcement,β New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas said in a statement to the Times.
But the ACLU of New Mexico blames the virulent anti-immigrant rhetoric coming from Donald Trump and his administration for emboldening groups like the militia. As ACLU of New Mexico Executive Director Peter Simonson told CNN:
βWe concede that these groups have a freedom to associate, to assemble, freedom to speech and our state gun laws do give them ability to carry weapons,β Simonson said. But the ACLUβs key concern, he said, is that private armed citizens are βtaking it upon themselves to carry out justice and not allowing federal authorities to do their job.β
βThese people are armed, their intentions are misguided and they certainly donβt have training, much less any authority, to be conducting arrests and long-term detentions of people coming across the border,β Simonson said. βWe are concerned this is such a potentially explosive situation, we are worried someone is going to get hurt.β
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