New Yorker Profiles Civilian Border Patrollers

The opening sentence of The New Yorker’s article The Private Citizens Who Want to Help Trump Deport Migrants is an attention grabber:

Christie Hutcherson, the right-wing activist from Texas who founded the organization Women Fighting for America, describes herself as a national-security expert and an authority on immigration.

Setting aside my shakes of ick, it surely invites you to read on. And read on you shall, to learn more about the “fervor for citizen policing” of migration.

In Arizona, the article notes:

The availability of paramilitary equipment, including night-vision goggles, drones, and firearms—which are legal to carry in Arizona without any training or license—means that almost anyone can equip themselves like soldiers … private security companies and militias are “often, literally, the same people.” Many … militia members ..  do a variety of legitimate security work and volunteer security, including at Trump rallies.

The author of the New Yorker article is journalist Jessica Pishko, who penned the 2024 book The Highest Law in the Land: How the Unchecked Power of Sheriffs Threatens Democracy.

-KitJ