A member of the United Constitutional Patriots ― a group of violent militiamen at the U.S.-Mexico border that has been accused of detaining hundreds of immigrants and plotting to kill top Democrats ― allegedly referenced Adolf Hitler and said he would like to put all immigrants “in a gas chamber.”
Steven Brant, a former member of the UCP who went by the code name “Viper,” told police in New Mexico that he had heard Armando Gonzalez advocating for putting immigrants in gas chambers, according to a Sunland Park Police report first obtained by Ken Klippenstein of The Young Turks.
“Why are we just apprehending them and not lining them up and shooting them?” Brant alleged Gonzalez asked about a group that had been detained. “We have to go back to Hitler days and put them all in a gas chamber.”
Brant told police he had left the UCP to start a new militia that “followed the law.”
He told authorities that Gonzalez gave him a gun when he observed several immigrants crossing the border on the night of April 24. Brant said he returned the firearm and argued they were only supposed to observe and report. Gonzalez then reportedly got upset and made the comments about Hitler.
The leader of the UCP, Larry Mitchell Hopkins, was arrested last month on a federal complaint charging him as a felon in possession of firearms. The federal government had been investigating him since 2017 following allegations that his group was “training” to kill Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and billionaire George Soros over their perceived support of anti-fascist activists, according to an FBI affidavit.
Still, the UCP is not relenting, according to a report by The New York Times.
“I took an oath to protect my country and what’s happening on the border is an invasion threatening our people,” Gonzalez, who the Times reported was a U.S. Army veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder, told the publication.
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