The Marauders

November 1, 2021
Journalist Strickland (Alerta! Alerta!) spotlights in this vivid, character-driven report one Arizona town’s efforts to fight back against “a flood of extremely dangerous, virulently racist, and heavily armed outsiders” who have flocked to the U.S. border with Mexico in recent years. He briskly recounts previous waves of anti-immigrant persecution, including the burning of Irish Catholic churches in Philadelphia in 1844 and the 1919 Palmer Raids that led to the deportation of hundreds of Italians and Eastern European Jews, linking these events to the resurgence of the “white supremacist movement” during Donald Trump’s presidency. Scarred by a 2009 incident in which “rogue militiamen” killed a man and his nine-year-old daughter during a home invasion, residents of Arivaca, Ariz., lobbied local businesses to ban militia members and erected antimilitia signs around town. The vigilantes and their supporters responded by livestreaming confrontations with locals and “accusing any vaguely humanitarian-minded Arivacan” of connections to Mexican drug cartels and child sex traffickers. Strickland profiles residents who spearheaded the campaign as well as those who welcomed the vigilantes, documents the extensive criminal records of militia members, and notes “the cozy relationship between many law enforcement agencies and radical right-wing groups.” The result is a fascinating and often harrowing portrait of a community in the crosshairs.

November 15, 2021
A view of the militia members who have taken it upon themselves to patrol the border with Mexico, wreaking considerable havoc in the process. The far right-wingers who descended on southern Arizona in 2015 and beyond faced a generally unwelcoming crowd, especially in the little town of Arivaca, where humanitarian-aid supporters far outnumbered the build-the-wall contingent. Granted, there were representatives of the latter, writes journalist Strickland, including a wealthy, right-wing rancher. But for the most part, Arivacans had no use for the outsiders and their camo-donning, soldier-playing ways. The latter were, of course, abetted by the White House: "For decades, federal authorities had sought to stamp out the armed vigilantes and militia groups organizing and causing mayhem in remote pockets around the country, but now they had a voice in the highest office in the United States." The Arivacans had good reason to resist; one early vigilante had insinuated herself into the drug trade and orchestrated a raid on a rival dealer that led to the killing of a local girl, landing the vigilante a slot as one of only three women on Arizona's death row. Those vigilantes who followed, some with big names in militia circles, are revealed to be criminally inclined, with a tendency to drug dependency and anti-social behavior. So it was when the local bar, the only watering hole within an hour's drive, banned vigilantes, it provoked a huge confrontation among locals and newcomers. Strickland's account is mostly by the numbers, with plenty of overlap; there's not much need to repeat the details of vigilante raids on water tanks left for those crossing the desert on foot. Still, the author does good work in linking the militias to the QAnon movement, especially in their combined ravings on child sex trafficking and "that POS George Soros." Repetitive but revealing and worthy reading for anyone with an interest in border and immigration issues.

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