Member of Guardian Patriots scheduled to appear in court Tuesday
A member of the armed civilian group the Guardian Patriots is set to appear in court Tuesday.
Jim Benvie , 44, of Albany, Minnesota, is accused of impersonating a Border Patrol agent in Doña Ana County. He is also accused of fraud and driving a stolen vehicle in Oklahoma.
Benvie has told ABC-7 he is the spokesman for the Guardian Patriots, a group that has been camping near the border, especially in Sunland Park and El Paso, to help Border Patrol with ” protecting the border. ”
The group has been in the area since the hundreds of migrants started arriving in the U.S. in recent months.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Benvie is facing two counts of impersonating a U.S. official. It happened in mid-April, according to court documents.
The FBI and other law enforcement agencies arrested Benvie Friday in Guthrie, Oklahoma, where he is also accused of operating a fake child-cancer charity scam for an 11-year-old boy suffering from cancer. State authorities said he is suspected of taking the money for his own profit. ​​​​​​
Benvie is scheduled for a detention hearing in the U.S. District Court of Western Oklahoma on Tuesday.
A Department of Justice official told ABC-7 that Benvie is going to be transferred to New Mexico for the charges in Doña Ana County.
If convicted of the charge of impersonating a Border Patrol agent, he could serve up to three years in federal prison.
The Guardian Patriots were previously known as the United Constitutional Patriots. The group changed its name after the arrest of another member, Larry Mitchell Hopkins.
Hopkins is currently behind bars awaiting a trial on a charge of being a felon in a possession of firearms.
Benvie is the second member of the group to face charges.
Sundland Park Police asked the group to leave back in April because they were camping on private property.
The American Civil Liberties Union has previously accused the group of kidnapping migrants after a video surfaced showing armed group members holding them before agents arrived.
The Guardian Patriots have told ABC-7 they only call and alert Border Patrol.
