Armed vigilantes apprehend hundreds of asylum seekers near Mexican border

[EarthFirst]

Armed vigilantes apprehend hundreds of asylum seekers near Mexican border

Members of a heavily-armed group of vigilantes calling themselves the United Constitutional Patriots intercepted and apprehended hundreds of asylum seekers this week, despite having no authority to do so.

One of the men filmed while others took the asylum seekers, including children, into custody on Tuesday night. For the past two months, the group has camped out in the desert near the town of Sunland Park, on the border between New Mexico and the Mexican state of Chihuahua.

A Customs and Border Protection (CBP) official told ThinkProgress that while the agency welcomes community assistance, it does not condone vigilante groups taking border enforcement into their own hands.

“We’re just Americans,” Benvie said. “We’re veterans, we’re ex-law enforcement, we’re people who care about the over-strained Border Patrol.” As to why the group was so heavily armed, Benvie contended that there was danger that went along with their patrols, since they were supposedly interfering with cartel-run trafficking.

https://thinkprogress.org/vigilante-group-asylum-seekers-mexico-367557475411/

These groups have been at the border for MONTHS yet “CBP welcomes community assistance, it does not condone vigilante groups taking border enforcement into their own hands.”

Scary shit that this is allowed to transpire with impunity...

[Ferrets are Cool]

1. Allowing this shit to happen

banghead: : My head just

[EarthFirst]

7. It's insane!

They ought to be issued an “order to disperse” and within an acceptable amount of time; they are required to leave or face eviction and/or arrest.

I’m certain I do not need to point out the double standard here...

[BigmanPigman]

2. Arrest them now!

Do not give them an inch or they will take a mile.

[Solly Mack]

3. The vigilantes should be arrested and charged with kidnapping.

But that won't happen.

Scary shit, I agree.

Damn.

[flotsam]

4. Ex military means fakers and loons

Ex law enforcement are assholes too crazy or crooked to keep even in today's environment. Apprehending hundreds means false imprisonments. And if a single immigrant was accepted by CBP there should be HUGE ACLU lawsuits.

[EarthFirst]

9. +1 nt

[Basement Beat]

5. This country is racist as hell.

Seriously.
Let see a group of "patriots" that's people of color try this anywhere (not that I would condone this either). I guarantee the government just won't look the other way.

[nolabear]

6. How can they claim to be operating within the law? It's kidnapping.

If they take people against their will it’s kidnapping!

[EarthFirst]

8. That's exactly what it is... nt

[snort]

10. They're sure to be patrolling the northern border as well.

[brush]

11. Are they on the Mexican or American side? The OP doesn't make that clear.

[Luciferous]

12. This is kidnapping!

[Liberalhammer]

13. You Tube

Broadcasts them. Youtube is an accomplis.

[keithbvadu2]

14. Murder, robbery, child molesting - border patriots have some history

Murder, robbery, child molesting – border patriots have some history

“It really attracted a lot of people that had some pretty extreme issues,”

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/08/minuteman-movement-border-crisis-simcox/

During the past four years, the Minuteman groups that defined conservative immigration policy during the mid-to-late-2000s have mostly self-destructed—sometimes spectacularly so. Founding Minuteman leaders are in prison, facing criminal charges, dead, or sidelined. “It really attracted a lot of people that had some pretty extreme issues,” says Juanita Molina, executive director of the Border Action Network, an advocacy group that provides aid to migrants in the desert. “We saw the movement implode on itself mostly because of that.” An analysis by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors right-wing extremist groups, found that the number of Minuteman groups in the Southwest had declined from 310 to 38 between 2010 and 2012.