🧵 Last night, a group of armed men with ties to far-right militias in #Arizona confronted migrants along the US-Mexico border near the Sasabe Port of Entry.
Among other implications, the expiration of Title 42 has caused an uptick in vigilantism along the southern border.
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Dressed in camouflage, the men corralled migrants and collected biographical information from multiple groups that had just crossed the border from Mexico
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In a Telegram message, Schmidt claims to have encountered “around 130” migrants, though a source with knowledge of the group’s activities cast doubt on this figure.
(Pictured: An unidentified man collects info from migrants)
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The group coordinated with border militia Veterans on Patrol, and included at least one member of the Proud Boys’ AZ Highlands chapter
Among them, alt-right internet personality Ethan Schmidt, who gained notoriety for threatening to “hunt” gay people
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fox10phoenix.com/news/ethan-sch…
Also present was Christopher Roach, a member of the AZ Highlands Proud Boys, who drove Schmidt and two associates in his white Ford F-150
(Pictured left: Roach, with his truck in the background. Pictured right: Schmidt, in front of the same vehicle yesterday)
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Photos and videos shared via Telegram indicate that Ethan Schmidt and at least one other occupant of the truck were heavily armed, carrying AR-style weapons throughout the day.
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Earlier in the day, the group was stopped by at least 4x CBP vehicles along the border road, which runs adjacent to the wall. During the encounter, Ethan Schmidt asked an agent if he was “on the cartel payroll”
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The group also harassed volunteers affiliated with the Green Valley-Sahuarita Samaritans, a humanitarian aid organization that provides food and water caches for migrants crossing the Sonoran desert.
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Some have made the case that interactions similar to the encounters filmed last night (and UCP's activities in 2019) could constitute illegal detentions.
In his debut article for @lawfareblog, Ring discusses how:
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lawfareblog.com/new-approach-p…
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