He worked in finance and as a car salesman before founding Patriots for America to help protect conservative protesters in 2015. Hall, 40, is a father of five who attended Bible college and volunteered as a missionary in Kenya, Uganda and Jamaica. (Molly Hennessy-Fiske / Los Angeles Times) Officials estimate that once it is lifted, 18,000 migrants could potentially arrive at the border daily, mostly in south Texas. Last month, a judge temporarily blocked the administration’s plans to lift the rule on May 23. But they have since expanded their rotations to three border counties, and plan to deploy even more members this month in case the Biden administration lifts a pandemic rule, Title 42, so that migrants may once again claim asylum and enter the U.S. The militia initially faced some resistance from state troopers and local lawmakers. “The state National Guard’s willingness to work with and alongside a virulently white-supremacist group that built its reputation through protesting Black Lives Matter and the removal of a Confederate statue is particularly alarming,” the latest complaint said. In two complaints this year, most recently last month, the ACLU of Texas called on the Justice Department to investigate. The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas maintains that Patriots for America is a racist group that has been patrolling without adequate training - detaining, questioning and intimidating migrants, who often assume they are law enforcement. Based in north Texas, they’ve been patrolling in monthly weeklong rotations, consolidating support among law enforcement in south Texas. Patriots for America is a conservative Christian militia trying to stop human trafficking and drug cartels on the border. “So they’re smuggling these kids?” Hall said. The girls were headed to join their grandparents in Los Angeles. Barrantes said the girl was Honduran, and that she and her 12-year-old sister had traveled to the border without adults, then joined the rest of the migrants at a smuggler’s house before crossing the river. “Ask them: Where did they find the kids if they’re not with their parents?” he said to Shawn Tredway, the militia member who was acting as his interpreter.Īs militia members distributed water and snacks, the Nicaraguan woman, Jania Barrantes, 40, tried to explain what had happened. “ Sola,” said the woman, adding in English, “Alone. He asked a militia member to translate.Ī migrant woman holding one of the girls said they had appeared without adults in Piedras Negras, the city on the Mexican bank of the Rio Grande. He wanted to know how the girls joined the group. The girl just stared with wide brown eyes.
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