The U.S. Border Patrol is circulating an issue paper warning agents about private militias patrolling the Mexican border.
Concerns were raised after a recent incident in Mission, Texas, in which armed men in fatigues showed up while agents were rounding up immigrants hiding in and around a canal near the Rio Grande.
The Border Patrol says agents assumed the men were part of a Texas Department of Public Safety tactical unit. They later learned the men belonged to the Texas Militia, whose members dress like a SWAT team and carry weapons, but have no law-enforcement training or authority of any kind.
The incident ended peacefully, but officials say it’s easy to imagine a deadlier outcome as the armed militias patrol the border, searching for people entering illegally.
Updated 8/18/14 at 11:22 a.m.