Former Sunland Park militia leader convicted of impersonating Border Patrol agent

LAS CRUCES, New Mexico — A federal jury in Las Cruces has convicted a former Sunland Park militia leader of impersonating a U.S. Border Patrol agent last year.

Prosecutors said Wednesday that 45-year-old James Christopher Benvie was found guilty of two counts of false personation of an agent and faces up to three years in prison on each count.

His sentencing date hasn’t been set yet.

“The jury’s verdict in this case affirms the principle that we are a nation of laws and do not tolerate vigilantes who take the law into their own hands by falsely impersonating Border Patrol agents,” said John C. Anderson, the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Mexico.

According to public court records and evidence at trial, Benvie was a leader and spokesperson for a group of vigilantes known as the Guardian Patriots who established a “camp” at the Mexican border in the Sunland Park area of Dona Ana County.

Many members of the group wore badges, camouflage and other military-style clothing, often covered their faces with masks and carried pistols and assault rifles.

Prosecutors said Benvie misrepresented himself as a Border Patrol agent when stopping immigrants he suspected of crossing into the United States illegally.

According to prosecutors, Benvie and other group members stopped six women and children from El Salvador last Apr. 15 and four adults and three children two days later without any legitimate law enforcement authority.

They said Benvie interrogated the immigrants both times before turning them over to actual Border Patrol agents.