Militia group in New Mexico detaining illegal immigrants at border

A militia group has begun stopping illegal immigrants at gunpoint in southern New Mexico and detaining them before U.S. Border Patrol agents arrive, the New York Times reported Friday.

The group, which calls itself United Constitutional Patriots, has recently filmed their detention of illegal immigrants and uploaded the footage on social media, prompting pushback from the ACLU.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) denounced the actions, saying the militia is operating without state or federal authority to arrest or detain migrants.

The militia group rounded up nearly 200 illegal immigrants who had recently crossed the border near Sunland Park, N.M. The group was reportedly exhausted from their journey to the U.S. and was attempting to seek asylum, The Times reported.

The ACLU penned a letter asking New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) to address the situation.

“We cannot allow racist and armed vigilantes to kidnap and detain people seeking asylum,” ACLU lawyers said in the letter to Lujan Grisham and the state Attorney General Hector Balderas.

Lujan Grisham said it is "completely unacceptable” that illegal immigrants “might be menaced or threatened in any way, shape or form when they arrive at our border.”

“It should go without saying that regular citizens have no authority to arrest or detain anyone,” she said in a statement.

Jim Benvie, a spokesperson for United Constitutional Patriots, told The Times that their actions were legal.

“We can't make them stay if they don't want to,” Benvie said, comparing the detention of illegal immigrants to a “verbal citizen’s arrest."

“If these people follow our verbal commands, we hold them until Border Patrol comes,” Benvie told The Times. “Border Patrol has never asked us to stand down.”

Carlos A. Diaz, a spokesman for Customs and Border Protection, declined to comment to The Times on the incident with the militia group but added that the federal agency “does not endorse private groups or organizations taking enforcement matters into their own hands."