The Patriots for America militia no longer conducts armed patrols along the US-Mexico border, but its members continue training for what they describe as a fight carried out in the name of Jesus Christ. During an interview with Lusa in Texas, leader Samuel Hall, 45, said the group’s main threat was not Mexican cartels but the US federal government.
Hall said members had been visited by the FBI, the Justice Department, the Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies. The militia became known after traveling to the southern Texas border in 2021, following reports that thousands of Haitian migrants gathered in Del Rio were preparing to wage war against the United States.
Patriots for America says it is a Christian religious mission. Civil rights organizations including the American Civil Liberties Union and the Southern Poverty Law Center, however, describe it as an illegal paramilitary group. They have also accused its members of impersonating authorities and preventing migrants from entering the country.
Hall said the group eventually believed it had been placed at the border to identify and help intercept children allegedly trafficked by Mexican drug cartels. He acknowledged that members were not law enforcement officers and said they could not arrest anyone. According to his account, their activities mainly involved distributing food, medicine and water, while notifying border police, the National Guard and local law enforcement when they encountered people crossing, including children and elderly people.
The militia leader claimed that more than 300,000 minors crossed into the United States illegally during the Biden administration, from 2021 to 2025, and alleged that many subsequently disappeared from official oversight. These claims were presented by Hall during the interview and were not independently substantiated in the material provided.
Hall said the group had saved lives and expressed sympathy for migrants seeking better opportunities, while opposing open borders. He argued that an absence of borders would undermine national sovereignty and create a national security risk.
He also said that relations with federal authorities had initially been difficult but improved over time, claiming that he was eventually invited to meet senior government officials. In response to accusations of racism, Hall pointed to the presence of white, Latino and African-American members in the militia. He added that his wife is Mexican and the wife of the group’s vice president is African-American.
Hall said the group’s border activities were not illegal, although he maintained that members felt threatened during the Biden presidency. He also said he regularly received death threats, including from abroad, but defended the militia’s work as part of a religious struggle to protect children.
The organization says it carefully screens recruits through background investigations, psychological assessments, trial periods and reviews of their social-media activity. It also conducts online operations intended to expose and help apprehend alleged child predators by posing as minors in conversations with suspected abusers.
Patriots for America has branches in states including Illinois, Maine, North Carolina and Virginia. The group does not disclose its membership figures; Hall said all members are volunteers and do not pay to belong.
Hall, who has five children and one grandchild, supports Republican Ken Paxton in the Texas Senate election and described a victory by Democratic candidate James Talarico as a catastrophe for the conservative movement. Despite saying he dislikes politics, he argued that members of the movement must remain politically involved.
He said the militia’s work had affected its members’ marriages, finances and mental health, but maintained that faith kept the organization together. “This is a spiritual war,” Hall said, arguing that the group must remain guided by the word of God.
Sources: Observador.