F.B.I. Arrests Leader of Right-Wing Militia That Detained Migrants

[wvit1001]

F.B.I. Arrests Leader of Right-Wing Militia That Detained Migrants in New Mexico


The F.B.I. on Saturday arrested the leader of a right-wing militia that was detaining migrant families at gunpoint near the border in southern New Mexico, as the group faced  a torrent of criticism for its tactics.

Hector Balderas, New Mexico’s attorney general, said federal agents had arrested the leader, Larry Mitchell Hopkins, who had been operating under the alias Johnny Horton Jr. Mr. Balderas said in a statement that Mr. Hopkins was arrested on charges of firearms possession by a felon.

“This is a dangerous felon who should not have weapons around children and families,” Mr. Balderas said. “Today’s arrest by the F.B.I. indicates clearly that the rule of law should be in the hands of trained law enforcement officials, not armed vigilantes.”

The firearms charge against Mr. Hopkins is relatively minor. But it is likely the start of a deeper investigation into his activities and those of the militia, and opens the way for the authorities to bring more serious charges like kidnapping and impersonating a police officer or an employee of the United States.

Mr. Hopkins’s arrest comes as tensions rise over ultraconservative paramilitary groups operating along the southwestern border. Professed militias have a long history of targeting immigrants from Latin America, tracing back to the Ku Klux Klan’s creation of its own border patrol in the 1970s. Record numbers of Central American migrants apprehended by federal authorities in recent months have been accompanied by a new surge in militia activity on the border.

The organization led by Mr. Hopkins, the United Constitutional Patriots, recently uploaded videos of armed members detaining children and their parents in a stretch of the New Mexico desert near El Paso, before handing the migrants over to the Border Patrol.


https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/20/us/militia-arrest-border-new-mexico.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

[dont-blameme]

Do you have a reliable source to back that up spam1001 NYT have been proven to be a member of the fake news cadre?

[wvit1001]

Larry Mitchell Hopkins runs an armed civilian group that peddles far-right conspiracies and claims to work with Border Patrol. He says Trump’s asked him about ‘Muslim immigration.’


https://www.thedailybeast.com/qanon-loving-border-militia-is-run-by-ex-con-who-says-he-talks-to-trump

[dont-blameme]

I said reliable source spam1001, not some left wing socialist leaning site.

[wvit1001]

you don't believe it blammie?   I'm betting it is, what do you think?

[wvit1001]

crickets from blammie.

[dont-blameme]

Spam1001 doesn't understand reliable.

[wvit1001]

that still doesn't answer whether you think it's true or not blammie.   

[wvit1001]

crickets from blammie.

[dont-blameme]

You had two attempts to link to a reliable site and you ailed both times wvit, so it's true what we already know about you.

[wvit1001]

that still doesn't say whether you think it's true or not goofy.