The FBI on Saturday said it had arrested Larry Hopkins, the leader of an armed group who have been stopping migrants who illegally cross the US-Mexico border in New Mexico.
Hopkins, 69, also known as Johnny Horton, was arrested in Sunland Park, New Mexico, on a federal complaint charging him with being a felon in possession of firearms and ammunition, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said in a statement.
Hopkins represents himself as commander of the United Constitutional Patriots (UCP), a small volunteer group camped out near Sunland Park since late February.
The UCP describes itself as a "patriot group" helping over-stretched US Border Patrol agents deal with a surge in undocumented migrants.
The American Civil Liberties Union on Thursday accused it of being a "fascist militia organization" illegally detaining and kidnapping asylum seekers.
Jim Benvie, a spokesman for the UCP, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Hector Balderas, New Mexico's attorney general, described Hopkins as "a dangerous felon who should not have weapons around children and families."
"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," Balderas said in a statement.
Horton was previously arrested in Oregon in 2006 on suspicion of impersonating a police officer and being a felon in possession of a firearm, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Mexico's government on Saturday said it had "deep concern" about armed groups that intimidate migrants.
US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said it did not support citizens taking law enforcement into their own hands but encouraged the public to be its eyes and ears on the border.
"Border Patrol welcomes assistance from the community and encourages anyone who witnesses or suspects illegal activity to call 911, or the US Border Patrol," CBP said in a statement.
One UCP member, who declined to be named, said the group are US military veterans who carried weapons for self defense but that they never pointed guns at migrants, as has been reported.
"People misconceive what we are doing," the UCP member said. "All we're down there to do is back up Border Patrol. They're so thinned out with all these people coming in."
source: news.abs-cbn.com
SACRAMENTO, California - California Governor Gavin Newsom on Monday signed an order withdrawing more than two-thirds of the state's National Guard troops from the U.S.-Mexico border, calling claims of an illegal immigration crisis there nothing but "political theater."
Newsom said most of the roughly 360 National Guard members deployed to the border would be reassigned to other duties in the state, with about 100 remaining behind as part of a task force targeting drug trafficking and cartels.
"This whole border issue is a manufactured crisis. We are not interested in participating in this political theater," Newsom said at an afternoon news conference in Sacramento.
The governor, a Democrat who took office in January, said border crossings were at their lowest level since 1971 and that the state's undocumented population had dropped to a more than 10-year low.
"This is pure politics, period full stop," he said.
The move was a rebuke to President Donald Trump, who won election in 2016 partly on a populist pledge to build a wall on the southern U.S. border which he said in his campaign Mexico would pay for.
Trump's demand for $5.7 billion to help build that wall was central to a 35-day partial U.S. government shutdown that ended last month. He agreed to reopen the government for three weeks to allow lawmakers time to find a compromise and avert another shutdown on Feb. 15.
Newsom's predecessor, Governor Jerry Brown, agreed to send National Guard troops to the border last April after reaching agreement with the Trump administration that they would focus on fighting criminal gangs and smugglers and not enforce immigration laws.
New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham last week ordered the withdrawal of most National Guard troops deployed at the border by her Republican predecessor at Trump's request last year.
Trump has deployed an extra 3,750 U.S. troops on the border this month.
Newsom said some of the National Guard troops would be re-deployed to help fight what he said were mushrooming illegal marijuana farms following approval of a 2016 ballot measure to legalize recreational cannabis - legislation the governor helped champion.
"We have to hold accountable those who are not participating in the legal cannabis market," he said. "These illegal grows are manifesting, getting bigger."
source: news.abs-cbn.com
Washington, United States -- US Democratic leaders charged Monday that President Donald Trump was "plunging the country into chaos" with multiple crisis and said he was offering no way to end a government shutdown.
Nancy Pelosi, who takes over next month as House speaker, and Chuck Schumer, the top Democrat in the Republican-led Senate, complained that White House aides were giving inconsistent messages on what Trump would accept to restart the government.
"It's Christmas Eve and President Trump is plunging the country into chaos," the two said in a joint statement.
"The stock market is tanking and the president is waging a personal war on the Federal Reserve -- after he just fired the secretary of defense," they said.
They warned that they saw little solution to the three-day-old shutdown so long as Trump aligns himself with hard-right Republicans in the House of Representatives.
"The president wanted the shutdown, but he seems not to know how to get himself out of it," they said.
Trump has refused to sign a bill to authorize spending to keep the government functioning as he demands funding for a $5 billion wall on the Mexican border, a top election promise as he railed against unauthorized immigrants.
Trump has put off vacation plans in Florida due to the shutdown and has been frequently posting his thoughts on Twitter.
On Monday he attacked the Federal Reserve, which is traditionally shielded from political pressure, over a sharp downturn on the stock market and defended his decision to pull all US troops from Syria, which led to the resignation last week of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, often considered the most respected member of his cabinet.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
