Trump’s Private Paramilitary Forces

When I was in Albuquerque in the 2000s, the so-called Minutemen developed. As you may recall, this was a bunch of asshole yahoos in big trucks patrolling the border to stop the evil Mexicans from coming across. They would catch people, rough them up a little, and deliver them to the Border Patrol. Once, the Albuquerque Journal profiled one of these guys. He told the paper that he decided to go to the border because he was in his favor buffet back home in Alabama and heard people speaking Spanish and he was so outraged, he had to save the nation himself. I still remember this today.

Well, these assholes are ready to rock and roll now.

Militias operating along the US–Mexico border plan to continue their vigilante operations once president-elect Donald Trump takes office, and some see themselves as acting in concert with military and federal agents to execute mass deportation plans.

It’s unclear how this would work in practice, but Tim Foley, head of Arizona Border Recon, a “civilian patrol group” based out of Altar Valley that claims to disrupt smuggling and trafficking routes, tells WIRED he has been in contact with the incoming Trump administration and that he expects to be a valuable resource to them.

“We’re in talks with a few different people,” says Foley, who rejects the term militia. “We have a better lay of the land than the federal agents do.”

The Trump transition team did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment.

Over the past two decades, vigilantes armed with guns and nativist rhetoric—and increasingly, with drones and high-tech trail cams—have acted with impunity, positioning themselves as authorities in borderlands in Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, muddying the line between civilian and official, hunting down asylum seekers, and even taking groups of migrants “into custody” before handing them over to the feds. Earlier this month, two leaders of a militia were convicted on federal charges for plotting to hunt and kill migrants and federal border agents.And now, as Trump prepares to take office in January, Foley isn’t the only one in this space who sees a place for vigilantes on the border. Other paramilitary groups and civilians also hope that they’ll be welcome to assist in the enforcement of Trump’s hardline immigration policies.

On Monday, via a post on Truth Social, Trump confirmed that his administration will utilize the military to conduct mass deportations. Mass deportations and reversing what he deemed an “invasion” permitted by the Biden administration were part of a cornerstone of Trump’s presidential campaign. It appears that proposed members of Trump’s administration are open to civilian assistance on the border, too: Last week, during an appearance on Fox & Friends, incoming “border czar” Thomas Homan said that he has been bombarded by messages from veterans and former agents offering to assist border operations. “There’s a lot of good patriots,” Homan said. “Thousands of retired agents, border patrol agents, retired military who have volunteered to help secure the border.”

I’m sure these guys will totally disband once all the immigrants are disappeared and won’t start going after gay clubs or college professors or whoever is the enemy of the day,……