Leader of right-wing militia arrested by FBI 'for detaining migrant families at gunpoint in New Mexico'

Group uploaded videos with armed members detaining migrant children and parents

Larry Mitchell Hopkins appears in a police booking photo taken at the Dona Ana County Detention Center in Las Cruces, New Mexico, US, 20 April 2019. ((Dona Ana County Detention Center/Handout via REUTERS))

The FBI 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 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 FBI indicates clearly that the rule of law should be in the hands of trained law enforcement officials, not armed vigilantes.”

The firearms charge against 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.

Hopkins’ 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 organisation led by 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, Texas, before handing the migrants over to the Border Patrol.

Political leaders in New Mexico, a state largely controlled by Democrats, responded with fury. Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham said that any mistreatment of asylum-seekers on the border was “unacceptable.” The state’s two Democratic senators, Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich, said in a statement that the actions of vigilante groups “cannot be tolerated.”

The American Civil Liberties Union denounced the militia’s actions in a letter Thursday, saying the actions amounted to kidnapping by “racist and armed vigilantes.”

Still, such denunciations were far from unanimous in the state. A prominent New Mexico Republican, Gavin Clarkson, a former Trump administration official who is now running for US Senate, met with masked members of the group in March and praised their efforts, according to a video of the encounter uploaded to Facebook.

But Clarkson said Saturday on Twitter that he condemned militia activities. “Masked militiamen are 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 comment about Hopkins’ arrest.

The FBI said in a statement that the police department of Sunland Park, New Mexico, had assisted with the arrest. Hopkins, 69, is scheduled to appear Monday in US District Court in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Hopkins, whose residence is in Flora Vista in northwest New Mexico, had already come under the scrutiny of groups tracking right-wing militias around the United States. He was convicted in 2006 for impersonating an officer and for felony firearm possession, according to The Daily Beast.

Despite the recent criticism over its operations in New Mexico, the militia led by Hopkins maintains a wide reach on Facebook and YouTube.

Speaking to someone using a voice distorter while wearing a gas mask, Hopkins appeared on a right-wing extremist YouTube channel in November. He claimed to be in touch with President Donald Trump after a chance meeting at a Las Vegas casino.

The New York Times