joining us now is peter simonson, executive director of the aclu of new mexico. he is in albuquerque. welcome to democracy now! can you lay out who this man i , who the fbi have just detained and what his group was doing along the border? >> sure. you pretty much explained what we know about mr. hopkins to this point. the group has been operating for a while now, i think since we found out about them late last fall they have been convening part -- down in the summer area. we really did not expect to see been a sort of activity of the kind they have manifested over the last several weeks where there are actually detaining people, dozens of families, at gunpoint. threatening them. these are families that consist of young mothers, younger children, infants. if you watch the videos, they are just chilling. they are heartrending to see innocent people expososed to ths kindnd of a memenace. juanan: peter r simonson, theres quite a long history of vigilante groups along the border. i think back to the 1990's when the result white of the border ofement by people -- light

they deploy in august 1959 under the leadership of lieutenant arthur bull simonson. he actually those two things. they are on 6-month rotations because of a restriction you can't station americans in laos. they are going to do 31/2 rotations and then the dynamics are going to change. in of december 1960, the last of the paratroopers conducted in august, december, the forces sparked the battle and he drop in apps, goes to the point and joins forces, turns traitor. special forces, that is when they start first entering. next slide please. some typical pictures. how the guys are dressed. they live in villas, gotta find a jeep in a trailer. on the lower left across the border in the flatlands, one of the major training areas and then teams help by building ranges and whatnot. next slide. that is in the four major training centers. they open up in a plain of jars, notice the french guy in the center. if you look in the background, americans. america is only allowed to do individual skills training. a lot of animosity builds up. a lot. in january 1961 when they come up to

officer simonson, alcohol liaison unit. there are no letters of protest, no letters of support. they are located in plot 706, which is considered a low-crime area. they are in census tract 402, which is considered a high saturation area. richmond police station has no opposition. recommend approval on the following conditions. number one, sales, service of alcoholic beverages shall be allowed between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. petitioner shall monitor the area under their control in order to prevent loitering of persons on their property or adjacent property, and third no distilled beverages should be sold in a bottle less than .15 liter. >> supervisor mandelman: thank you. is there any public comment? >> thank you. we keep the neighborhood nice and clean, you know, try to monitor if there's anything wrong, and contact the police, and thank you very much. >> supervisor mandelman: any comments or questions from my colleagues? so thank you. and is there any public comment on this item? okay. seeing none, public comment is now closed. so colleagues, i want to thank the a

and peter simonson joins me now.nforcement or did you bring it to their attention because i -- i think we can't have vigilante running around even if they're trying to help border patrol, especially? >> that's exactly right. from everything i know, it looks like we were the first to bring it to their attention. our first action was to send letters to federal, state, and local authorities demanding that a criminal investigation be l j launched into their activities. it seems to suggest they were violating various federal and state laws as well as putting women and children and families in harm's way. we wanted very swift reaction. >> was the reaction appropriate as far as your concern? did fbi and other authorities jump into this and take action? >> i think it's a heartening sign that we've seen charges brought against one individual. there were many folks who were involved in these activities. if you study the video evidence posted to their facebook site, what you see is indications that they were impersonating feder

the fear of violence is something which looms large here if the military are not willing to end simonson the go see a shit do you worry that their kids be bloodshed. yeah i think i think there is a way of avoiding bloodshed because i think sudanese are wise enough to avoid it and now if the n.c.p. militias are being put out of functions that will help because more discipline under will do their best to try and stop any change but at least for that it's been to some extent eliminated they want to still be some element somewhere where ready to you know to resist and to fight on not to allow a game and can't help but i think for the army to ensure the got the support of the people you have to take certain steps you have to consult with the people if they don't do that then i don't think the protest i'm going to stop and that might risk more violence because of the protests can continue by be they might be faced with some attack or some because there's too many elements there's too many militias and bremer thirty whoops is still some might be some of them out there but we what we want is for

. >> simonson claims militia members who often wear badges are impersonating federal agent, but only has actually been arrested. 69-year-old commander larry hopkins who also uses the alias johnny horton jr. >> this country was built on three thing, guns and god. >> according to prosecutors he has three felony convictions in mish d michigan and oregon including impersonating a peace officer and nine guns were seized from his home in 2017. hopkins' attorney kelly o'connell says his client is not guilty of the gun charge which is unrelated to the militia's activities. >> when he got arrested it made -- it seemed like it was something that was going on down here according to the accusations that happened up north. >> the fbi said hopkins also told them the millisha was training to assassinate barack obama, hillary clinton and democratic donor george soros. on monday, militia members were dealt another blow where the owner of the land where they set up their camp kicked them out. they have to leave by the end of the week. for "cbs this morning," mireya villarreal. >>> the nationwide measl