Militia members showing up on NM border [View all]

In Columbus, NM, home to about 1,600 residents, the mayor and other villagers were perplexed by the arrival of a small band of men with the 'Patriots of the Constitution' militia. The men said they were there scouting locations to prepare for the migrant caravan from Central America slowly making its way through Mexico toward the southwest border.

Along this quiet stretch of New Mexico borderland, some residents expressed concern about armed militias making their way to the border. “They should not be patrolling the border if they were not sent by the federal government,” said Martin Garcia, a Columbus resident, as he watched over farmworkers picking red chile in a field that borders Mexico. “If the U.S. wants to send soldiers, that’s fine.” On another farm along the border, two men in their 20s in a pickup truck said the only militia members they had seen “were two old men with guns.”

At a hotel in town Wednesday, a few members of the militia rested and waited for nightfall to patrol the border. One of their trucks in the parking lot had an “ISIS hunting” decal on the bottom of the windshield. As one of the militiamen paced in front of the hotel, smoking and talking on his phone, another sat in a chair on the second-floor balcony holding binoculars.

“We are aware a group of people have arrived in New Mexico with the goal of ‘patrolling’ the border but they are not working in conjunction with the Border Patrol,” according to a statement from the El Paso Border Patrol sector, which includes all of New Mexico.

https://www.abqjournal.com/1241360/militia-members-showing-up-on-nm-border.html