The federal government’s dereliction of duty at the border is opening the door for private citizens, in partnership with local governments, to address the migration crisis. But the efforts of such well-intentioned groups are being undermined by state policy that leaves a lot to be desired.
One organization in particular, Patriots for America, has stepped up in Texas with the aim of “fight[ing] to defend everyone’s Constitutional rights while helping protect our borders and working together with law enforcement to rescue minors and children from sex trafficking,” per the group’s website.
Media have described Patriots for America, whose armed members include former law enforcement and military who train other members in the use of firearms, as a Christian militia group. But Samuel Hall, the group’s founder, emphasized in a conversation with Fox News that their mission is humanitarian in nature.
Patriots for America, Hall said, strives to get asylum seekers out of the hands of gangs and drug traffickers.
“These are asylum seekers, these are families with small children. We’ve been pulling even babies out of the river. And I’m not talking about waist-deep rivers … they’re swimming with their baby and anything can happen. The current’s strong,” Hall told Fox News.
The organization has worked toward its goals by working alongside law enforcement rather than against it.
Referring to his group’s good reputation among Texas law enforcement, Hall told Fox:
We worked very hard for that reputation, and so I think once they saw that we weren’t just going to show up and leave and that we were there consistently and our message was good, and it hadn’t changed, and we weren’t starting trouble, I think there was a period of testing for about six months and once they saw that we passed that test, they were willing to work with us after that. But it took a while. It definitely was an exhausting process.
In both northern and southern Texas, Patriots for America has been carrying out monthly rotations with authorities, including with Kinney County’s sheriff.
Kinney, notably, was one of several Texas counties which recently described the border crisis as an “invasion” in a call for the state and federal government to take stronger action.
Hall didn’t hold back his criticism of the current administration on the matter of migration. He told Fox News:
The federal government isn’t doing literally anything. In fact, they’re perpetuating that problem along with the United Nations.
“It’s all an engineered crisis. None of this is on accident. Literally every bit of this is engineered for the purpose of holding on to political power in D.C.,” the Patriots for America founder added.
Statistics back up Hall’s claim that the Biden White House’s border policy is as harmful to migrants as it is to Americans. As The New American reported, a recent study by the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration (IOM) found that migrant deaths went up significantly under Biden.
With 1,238 migrant deaths and disappearances recorded, 2021 was the year with the highest number of lives lost in the Americas since 2014, when the Missing Migrants Project (MMP) began documenting migrant deaths,” IOM’s findings read. “A significant increase compared to figures recorded in 2020 (798 deaths) and even before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019 (854 deaths).
“At least 728 of these deaths occurred on the United States-Mexico border crossing, making this the deadliest land crossing in the world, according to the data,” the report adds.
Patriots for America’s actions are laudable, though the organization and others like it are hamstrung by deficient action from the state government.
However, Hall’s group admits it works with border patrol to get illegal migrants who are seeking asylum processed, and in so doing, they inadvertently contribute to, rather than alleviate, the problem. The goal should be to stop illegals from coming in at all, not making it easier for them to take advantage of our immigration laws.
Border states, especially those dominated by Republicans, as Texas is, must take greater initiative in stopping the tide of the invasion. Rather than complaining about the federal government, they should simply do what the federal government should be doing — that is, preventing the entry of migrants and swiftly deporting those who do come in.
As Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis recently argued, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott should simply deport migrants rather than continue with the current state policy of paying for their fare to Washington, D.C. — from which they travel to and become a burden on other states, especially Florida.
