NM Governor ignorant of Citizen’s Arrest
U.S. NEWS
04/20/2019 12:33 am ET
New Mexico Governor Demands Right-Wing Militia Stop Illegally Holding Migrants
Armed vigilantes in camouflage rounded up about 300 immigrants, many of them children, in a video posted by the United Constitutional Patriots.
By Mary Papenfuss
PAUL RATJE via Getty Images “Viper” and “Stinger” — armed members of the Constitutional Patriots New Mexico Border Ops Team militia — patrol the border last month in Sunland Park, New Mexico.
New Mexico’s governor has ordered a right-wing militia to stand down and stop illegally holding migrants — often at gunpoint ― in her state. “Regular citizens have no authority to arrest or detain anyone,” Michelle Lujan Grisham said Friday.
“That migrant families might be menaced or threatened in any way, shape or form when they arrive at our border — often times after an unimaginably arduous journey — is completely unacceptable,” Lujan Grisham said in an email to NBC News.
The American Civil Liberties Union alerted the governor to the militia in a letter Thursday. The vigilantes, who call themselves the United Constitutional Patriots, “arrested” nearly 300 people near Sunland Park in New Mexico on Tuesday, according to the letter.
A video revealing the “operation” has been posted online by the group (below). A woman with the militia can be heard telling others not to point guns at the migrants while they wait for U.S. Border Patrol agents to arrive to collect the asylum seekers.
The ACLU characterized the group as an “armed fascist militia organization” made up of “vigilantes” working to “kidnap and detain people seeking asylum.”
The vigilantes are “not police or law enforcement and they have no authority under New Mexico or federal law to detain or arrest migrants in the United States,” the letter stated. The vigilantes are seen in photos posted or taken by the media dressed in fatigues and armed with semiautomatic rifles or handguns.
“The Trump administration’s vile racism has emboldened white nationalists and fascists to flagrantly violate the law,” the ACLU said in the letter. “This has no place in our state: we cannot allow racist and armed vigilantes to kidnap and detain people seeking asylum. We urge you to immediately investigate this atrocious and unlawful conduct.”
A spokesman for the group who identifies himself as Jim Benvie of Minnesota posted a video Wednesday on Facebook showing a group that appeared to be almost all women and children being held on a sandy patch of earth, presumably initially by the vigilantes, but border agents are on the scene as Benvie films. Benvie claims in another video that Border Patrol agents are “happy” that the vigilantes take action.
He told The New York Times that his group has been camped out near El Paso for the last two months. He insisted the vigilantes’ actions are legal, comparing the detentions to a “verbal citizen’s arrest.” He told the Times that group members are told not to point their weapons at the immigrants.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a statement that CBP “does not endorse private groups or organizations taking enforcement matters into their own hands.” It added that interference by civilians “could have public safety and legal consequences for all parties involved.”
“It should go without saying that regular citizens have no authority to arrest or detain anyone,” Lujan Grisham said in her statement. “My office and our state police are coordinating with the Attorney General’s Office and local police to determine what has gone on and what can be done.”
State Attorney General Hector Balderas warned that “these individuals should not attempt to exercise authority reserved for law enforcement.”
Law enforcement should intervene and prosecute militia members for kidnapping, Stephanie Corte, an immigrant rights campaign strategist at the ACLU in New Mexico, told The Guardian.
“These people are armed, their intentions are misguided and they certainly don’t have training, much less any authority, to be conducting arrests and long-term detentions of people coming across the border,” Peter Simonson, executive director of the ACLU of New Mexico, told CNN. “We are concerned this is such a potentially explosive situation, we are worried someone is going to get hurt.”
Pasted from <https://www.huffpost.com/entry/new-mexico-border-militia-border_n_5cba764ee4b032e7ceb869d9>
Created by FindLaw’s team of attorney writers and editors.
In certain situations, private individuals have the power to make an arrest without a warrant. These types of arrests, known as citizens’ arrests, occur when ordinary people either detain criminals themselves or direct police officers to detain a criminal.
While arrests by private citizens are subject to fewer constitutional requirements than an arrest by law enforcement officers, there are still rules that apply. Failure to abide by these rules can result in civil and criminal liability for the arresting individual.
When Can a Private Citizen Arrest Someone?
A person can arrest someone that they reasonably suspect of committing a felony, even if the felony didn’t occur in the presence of the individual making the arrest. As long as a felony was actually committed and the individual making the arrest knew of the crime, a reasonable suspicion about the identity of the perpetrator will justify their arrest. However, if the crime did not in fact happen, the person making the arrest could become civilly and criminally liable.
In general, people can’t use a citizen’s arrest for misdemeanors unless the misdemeanor involves a breach of the peace. Even in these circumstances, however, individuals can only make arrests when they’ve personally witnessed the criminal behavior and the breach has just occurred or there’s a strong likelihood that the breach will continue.
Constitutional Requirements for a Citizen’s Arrest
As mentioned above, a citizen’s arrest doesn’t carry with it the same constitutional requirements that attach to an arrest by law enforcement officers. If, however, a person acts on the request of law enforcement, any arrest they carry out must meet the same constitutional standards as an arrest by the law enforcement officers themselves.
For example, a citizen’s arrest upon the request of law enforcement would still have to comply with the Fourth Amendment search and seizure requirements. A citizen could also face prosecution under statutes that make it a crime to deprive someone of their constitutional rights. If a citizen acts on their own initiative in making the arrest, however, those same constitutional restrictions do not apply.
Use of Reasonable Force
Despite the fact that citizens’ arrests don’t carry the same constitutional requirements as a typical arrest, individuals must only use the amount of force that’s reasonable and necessary to make the arrest. Just what exactly constitutes the reasonable and necessary amount of force depends on the facts surrounding each arrest. Juries will usually examine the facts surrounding the arrest and determine whether the force was excessive.
Some states prohibit the use of deadly force except in circumstances where the person making the arrest or someone else is faced with the threat of serious bodily injury or immediate use of deadly physical force. In these situations, the person making the arrest may use deadly force in order to prevent harm to themselves or others.
Other states allow a private individual making an arrest to use deadly force to stop a fleeing arrestee as long as the person making the arrest used reasonable methods in order to make the arrest. Some states go further and require that the person using deadly force first attempt to restrain the subject of the arrest, and other states require pursuit and an explicitly stated intent to arrest before using deadly force.
Criminal and Civil Liability
The use of excessive force can open up the arresting individual to civil and criminal liability, which is especially true when individuals use deadly force to apprehend criminals. Any use of deadly force during a citizen’s arrest that doesn’t comply with the applicable state law could result in manslaughter or murder charges against the arresting individual. In additional to criminal liability, a private citizen may end up facing a wrongful death lawsuit from the family of the suspected criminal.
In addition to wrongful death lawsuits, a citizen’s arrest has the potential to expose individuals to other kinds of tort liability if the arrest wasn’t justified. If a person doesn’t comply with the law’s requirements when making the arrest, the arrestee could allege a number of claims in a personal injury lawsuit, including the aforementioned wrongful death, false imprisonment, assault, and battery.
Learn More About Citizens’ Arrests: Speak with an Attorney
Every individual is empowered to arrest wrongdoers in certain circumstances, but citizens looking to make an arrest act at their own risk. Not only is the act of apprehending a criminal inherently dangerous, but failure to meet the legal requirements for a citizen’s arrest could have devastating legal consequences for the person making the arrest. To learn more, speak with an experienced criminal defense attorney near you
Pasted from <https://criminal.findlaw.com/criminal-procedure/citizen-s-arrest.html>
Citizens’Arrest – Constitution Society
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United Constitutional Patriots ~ Call (505) 334-2492
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The law states that: Any two or more persons, whether with or without uniform, who associate, assemble or congregate together by or under any name in a military capacity for the purpose of drilling, parading or marching at any time or place or otherwise take up or bear arms in any such capacity without authority of the Governor, must, on conviction, be fined not more than $1,000.00. This section does not apply to any school or college where military training and instruction is given under the provisions of state or federal laws. We are covered under the 501C3 Home of the 5th.
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Thank you for your time and effort to post this. As a concerned United states national, I appreciate your work and encourage others to stand up ~ as I understand in 2017 illegal boarder crossing was deemed a felony so our people were with in their rights to arrest these criminals.