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The FBI arrested a 69-year-old New Mexico man who illegally arrested immigrants crossing the border on the pretext of working for the US Border Patrol.
Larry Mitchell Hopkins, who heads The United Constitutional Patriots (UCP), an armed border militia that spreads far-right conspiracies and brings asylum seekers to the border, was arrested by the FBI in New Mexico Saturday, charged with possession of firearms and ammunition a convicted criminal.
A video footage recently published by the UCP shows two members carrying seemingly semi-automatic weapons near immigrants, many of them children.
The group also collects conspiracy theories and produces a radio program where members broadcast information about QAnon and accuse migrants of associating with ISIS. Hopkins also claimed that President Trump had personally questioned him about "Muslim immigration."
UCP and Hopkins report working with Border Patrol, who has publicly denied it. Border patrol agents sometimes appear on the periphery of the group's videos, which show members of the camouflaged UCP interacting with migrants on the southern border.
"There is no question of whether or not we work with Border Patrol," said Jim, a spokesman for the UCP who declined to give his last name. "Everything is documented, and not once. It is documented hundreds and hundreds of times in the videos I post. "
"US Customs and Border Protection does not endorse private organizations or groups that deal with law enforcement themselves," said a Border Patrol official at the Daily Beast.
The border patrol is not supposed to interact with border guards, it has been documented. A Mother Jones A reporter who joined a border militia in 2016 witnessed the group's information from border patrol agents.
The UCP is only one of the self-defense groups that patrol the southern border.
The Attorney General of New Mexico, Hector Balderas, issued a statement Saturday in which he praised the FBI for the arrest of Hopkins.
"It's a dangerous criminal who should not have weapons around children and families," Balderas wrote in a statement. "Today's arrest by the FBI makes it clear that the rule of law should be in the hands of well-trained law enforcement officials, not armed groups.
Hopkins, of Flora Vista, N.M., is scheduled to appear for the first time in the Las Cruces District Court in New Mexico on Monday. Federal authorities have announced that they will not disclose additional details about Hopkins' arrest before the appearance.
The arrest was the last of the fallout for the group. On Friday, the Facebook group of the UCP announced to its members that they no longer accepted donations via PayPal, the service having suspended their account.
"TO ALL PATRIOTS, I would like to thank all those who have donated to the Border Ops Mission to date. We can no longer accept payments via PAYPAL, they have suspended our account permanently, "he added. "… and holds $ 1,300.00 in donations for 180 days. I'm looking for another outfit that we can cross. "
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