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ALBUQUERQUE – The F.B.I. arrested on Saturday the leader of a right-wing militia that was holding migrant families under the threat of a gun near the border in southern New Mexico, while the group was facing a torrent of criticism for his tactics.
New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas said federal agents arrested the leader, Larry Mitchell Hopkins, who operated under the pseudonym of Johnny Horton Jr. Mr. Balderas said in a statement that Mr. Hopkins had been arrested for possession of firearms by a criminal.
"It's a dangerous criminal who should not have weapons around children and families," Balderas said. "The arrest of today by the F.B.I. makes clear that the rule of law should be in the hands of qualified law enforcement officials, not armed groups.
The firearms charge against Mr. Hopkins is relatively minor. But this is probably the beginning of a deeper investigation into his activities and those of the militia, and opens the way for the authorities to bring more serious charges such as the kidnapping and imitation of a police officer or police officer. an employee of the United States.
Hopkins' arrest came as tension mounted around ultra-conservative paramilitary groups operating along the southwestern border. The professed militias have a long history of targets for Latin American immigrants, dating back to the Ku Klux Klan War. creating its own border patrol in the 1970s. A record number of Central Americans migrants apprehended by federal authorities in recent months has been accompanied by a further increase in the number of people in the United States. militia activity at the border.
The organization led by Hopkins, the United Constitutional Patriots, recently posted videos of armed members holding children and their parents in the New Mexico desert near El Paso, before handing over the migrants. border patrol.
The political leaders of New Mexico, a state largely controlled by the Democrats, reacted furiously. Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham said that the mistreatment of asylum seekers at the border was "unacceptable". The two state Democratic senators, Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich, said in a statement that the actions of self-defense groups can not be tolerated.
The American Civil Liberties Union denounced the actions of the militia in a letter on Thursday, saying that these actions amounted to kidnapping by "racist and armed militia."
Yet such denunciations were far from unanimous in the state. An important Republican from New Mexico, Gavin Clarkson, former head of the Trump administration who is now Running for the US Senate, met with masked members of the group in March and praised their efforts, according to a video of the meeting uploaded on Facebook.
But Mr Clarkson said Saturday on Twitter that he had condemned the militia's activities. "The masked militia is the antithesis of what a free republic looks like," he said.
Jim Benvie, a spokesman for the militia, did not immediately respond to requests for comments on Mr. Hopkins' arrest.
The F.B.I. said in a statement that the Sunland Park Police Department, N.M., had helped with the arrest. Hopkins, 69, is scheduled to appear before the Federal Court in Las Cruces, MN on Monday.
Hopkins, whose home is located in Flora Vista, in northwestern New Mexico, had previously been closely scrutinized by groups who were tracking right-wing militias in the United States. According to the Daily Beast, he was convicted in 2006 for pretending to be an officer and for possession of firearms, a crime.
Despite recent criticism of its operations in New Mexico, the Hopkins-led militia retains a broad reach on Facebook and YouTube.
Speaking to someone who uses voice distortion while he was wearing a gas mask, Mr. Hopkins appeared on a far right YouTube channel in November. He claimed to be in touch with President Trump after a chance meeting at a Las Vegas casino.
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