Vigilantes confront migrants, advocates near border after Title 42's end

Armed vigilantes intimidated a group of migrants and logged their biographic information Friday after the group had crossed the Arizona-Mexico border near Sasabe.

The far-right vigilantes earlier in the day had followed and harassed a group of migrant advocates who were providing humanitarian aid near the border wall.

The incident came the day after Title 42 was lifted when many Arizona officials had feared a large influx of migrants would materialize at the country’s southern border. Advocates had noted an increased presence of vigilantes in the area in the run-up to Title 42’s expiration.

In reality, there was no mass influx or chaos at the U.S.-Mexico border when the restriction expired late Thursday.

“We were looking for people to help but the only thing we found was the vigilantes again,” said Dora Rodriguez, director of the Tucson-based Salvavision, which provides aid to migrants in Sasabe, Sonora.

In 1980, Rodriguez was one of the 13 Salvadorans who survived when another 13 people in the group died after being abandoned by their guide and left to wander near Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Arizona.

Rodriguez was driving the truckful of volunteers with the Tucson and Green Valley-Sahuarita Samaritans along the border wall in order to identify asylum seekers in need of help. While the volunteers anticipated large groups, they only encountered their regular five to 10 asylum seekers.

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A white pickup truck carrying about four vigilantes eventually confronted the volunteers, accusing them of working for the cartels and being traffickers.  The vigilantes asked if the volunteers had voted for President Joe Biden and accused Biden of being a child trafficker.

After the confrontation, the vigilantes began to tail the volunteers and followed them for roughly 10 miles along the dirt road running parallel to the 30-foot wall, Rodriguez said. Rodriguez said she became “very scared” as she realized the group of older volunteers could not defend themselves against the armed vigilantes.

“I became very nervous but I stayed calm,” Rodriguez said. “We as humanitarian volunteers bring water, we don’t bring weapons.”

Ethan Schmidt-Crockett, a well-known anti-mask and anti-LGBTQ activist who was one of the vigilantes, suggested that Border Patrol agents who had stopped the group were under “cartel control” in a video he took. In the video, Schmidt-Crockett appeared shirtless with four Border Patrol trucks and various agents in the background.

Schmidt-Crockett has had numerous run-ins with the law in the past.

Schmidt-Crockett was sentenced to three years of probation in early March after he videotaped himself harassing the staff of a Mesa wig store for their mask policy in 2021. He was kicked out of an Arizona Barnes & Noble in April for harassing shoppers browsing the store’s pride-themed book stand.

Previously, he threatened to “hunt” LGBTQ rights supporters in a video and, in June 2022, he was arrested for failing to appear in court.

Later that night, the vigilantes filmed a video of themselves intercepting a group of migrants who recently had crossed the border. The vigilantes were donning headlamps and are believed to have been collecting the migrants’ biographic information.

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While frightened, this was not Rodriguez’s first run-in with vigilante groups along the border. In May 2022, far-right QAnon activists similarly intercepted groups of migrants along the stretch of border near Sasabe.

The incident was only the latest in a string of headaches for humanitarian volunteers attempting to provide aid to migrants in the area. Volunteers in the area recently began raising concerns over new “no trespassing” signs that had been put up on the border wall.

In March, Jane Storey, a 75-year-old member of the Green-Valley Sahuarita Samaritans, was arrested by the Border Patrol for stopping along the border road to help give migrant children water. Storey’s arrest was first reported by The Intercept.

The signs referred to an Arizona criminal trespassing statute and, despite being on federal land, are enforced by the Border Patrol by coupling state and federal laws. The coupling of the statutes allows Border Patrol to enforce the state trespassing law on people who stop along the border wall in the area.

The signs heavily restrict volunteers' ability to provide aid to migrants waiting in the scorching sun, advocates say.

Despite the signs, none of the vigilantes were arrested Friday.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not respond Monday to a request for comment.

Have a news tip or story idea about the border and its communities? Contact the reporter at josecastaneda@arizonarepublic.com or connect with him on Twitter @joseicastaneda.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Vigilantes confront migrants near Sasabe after Title 42's end