A Los Angeles Times investigation found that Border Patrol and local law enforcement agencies in the vicinity of Eagle Pass, Texas, are working at times alongside “Patriots for America,” an armed conservative Christian citizen militia that the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas accuses of espousing White supremacist beliefs.
A Times reporter witnessed militia members intercepting and interviewing migrant children in the field as Border Patrol agents look on.
— Molly Hennessy-Fiske, “Border militia stops migrants and shoots video of kids. Rights groups say they’re racist” (Eagle Pass: Los Angeles Times, May 13, 2022) https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2022-05-13/texas-border-militia.
Sector(s): Del Rio
Agency(ies): Border Patrol
Event Type(s): Vigilantism Tolerance or Collaboration
Last Known Accountability Status: Unknown
Victim Classification: Unaccompanied Child
An article at the Border Chronicle covered “Veterans on Patrol,” a QAnon-affiliated citizen militia group in rural Arizona that has interdicted hundreds of unaccompanied children when they cross the border. While the militia turns the kids over to Border Patrol, its members “take the phone numbers of the children’s sponsors and, in some cases, confront the sponsors at their homes in the United States.”
Border Chronicle reporter Melissa del Bosque questioned why Border Patrol permits the militia group to carry out these activities, including leaving no presence but “Veterans on Patrol” at gaps in the border wall where children regularly cross.
—Melissa del Bosque, “’Humanitarians’ with Guns” (United States, The Border Chronicle, March 22, 2022) https://www.theborderchronicle.com/p/humanitarians-with-guns.
Sector(s): Tucson
Agency(ies): Border Patrol
Event Type(s): Vigilantism Tolerance or Collaboration
Last Known Accountability Status: No Steps Taken
Victim Classification: Unaccompanied Child
