Armed anti-government militia groups are deploying to the U.S. – Mexico border in Texas, according to news reports.
San Antonio Express-News reports that: “A slew of anti-government groups — many of which participated in the standoff at Cliven Bundy’s Nevada ranch — are recruiting armed volunteers to travel to the Texas-Mexico border as a citizen militia to participate in ‘Operation Secure Our Border,’ which aims to stop the surge of immigrants into the country.”
The Express News identifies the groups as “Patriots,” “Oathkeepers” and “Three Percenters,” which refers to the three percent of colonists who took up arms against the King of England during the Revolutionary War.
The group is mobilizing volunteers to head to the border at Laredo, Texas, to assist law enforcement agencies.
The Washington Post reports, “Members said the goal is not to interfere with law enforcement but to help secure the border and slow the surge of undocumented immigrants illegally entering the country.”
However, the L.A. Times reports that the leader of the group, Chris Davis, has come under fire for a YouTube video “in which he appears to advise members to confront and intimidate those caught crossing the border illegally.”
“You see an illegal. You point your gun dead at him, right between his eyes, and you say, ‘Get back across the border or you will be shot,'” Chris Davis says in the 21-minute video posted on his YouTube channel.
The video was later removed after the McAllen Monitor wrote about it last week.
The L.A. Times reports that the group has contacted several border sheriffs, “including those in Brooks and Hidalgo counties, the epicenter of the recent influx of Central American children — have rejected offers of help.”
Brenda Medina, spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office in Webb County, where Laredo is located, said the group had contacted her office but sheriff’s officials have no plans to meet with them. A Laredo Police spokesman did not return calls from The Times on Monday.
The Times concluded their report writing:
Denice Freeman, a North Carolina spokeswoman for the Secure Our Border group, said they have been screening and training volunteers at a “command center” outside San Antonio where they will rotate troops down to the Laredo area and, later, farther along the Texas border.
She said the militia has “signed, notarized statements” from landowners allowing them to patrol their properties, mainly to combat drug smuggling.
“If we happen to run across someone crossing illegally, we are prepared to do a citizens arrest,” Freeman told The Times. “We are not going to respond violently. We will not fire unless fired upon.”
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