As President Donald Trump directs thousands of troops to the U.S.-Mexico border in a show of military force against an approaching caravan of migrants from Central America, preliminary intelligence assessments are preparing for encounters with a litany of groups from unregulated militias to transcontinental criminal organizations, according to documents obtained by Newsweek. 
 
 In a powerpoint presentation from Saturday, the Joint Force Land Component Commander Threat Working Group prepared an intelligence assessment for Pentagon officials as they begin to carry out Operation Faithful Patriot, the interagency operation with the Department of Defense and led by the Department of Homeland Security, that started Tuesday. 
 
 The presentation is marked as “UNCLASSIFIED//FOUO//LES,” meaning, the documents are for official use only and are law enforcement sensitive. Newsweek obtained the operational planning documents earlier this week from two different Defense Department sources that have direct knowledge of U.S. Northern Command's mission on the southern U.S. border. 
 
 The documents take a detailed look at the four-point of entry locations spread across the southwest border and assesses where the caravan might travel. Two areas of concern to U.S. intelligence officials involving points of entry and transcontinental criminal organizations is the point of entry in Brownsville, Texas, where the Rio Grande River is located between Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico, and the San Ysidro point of entry, separating San Diego, California from Tijuana, Mexico. 
 
 The assessment underscored news reports that combatant commanders might encounter unregulated militia members along the southern border in alleged support of U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents. 
 
 “Estimated 200 unregulated armed militia members currently operating along the southwest border. Reported incidents of unregulated militias stealing National Guard equipment during deployments. They operate under the guise of citizen patrols supporting CBP [Customs and Border Protection] primarily between POEs [Points of Entry],” according to the documents. 
 
 The documents go onto highlight historical protests that support immigrants crossing the U.S. border. Those protests in some cases have shut down points of entry controlled by Customs and Border Protection, but the assessment concludes that protests are “normally peaceful unless extreme right or left groups attend.” 
 
 Militia groups and far-right activists have already announced plans to make their way to the U.S.-Mexico border with the aim of preventing caravan members from entering the country. 
 
 With the caravan still hundreds of miles away, it is unclear how many militia members will turn up. Among groups determined to help fortify the border, are members of the Minuteman Project. 
 
 Historically, Minutemen were once known as civilian colonists who organized to form self-trained militia groups during the American Revolution. Today, however, the Minuteman Project is an activist organization, which was founded in August 2004 by Jim Gilchrist and Chris Simcox and describes itself as a “citizen’s Neighborhood Watch on the southern border.” 
 
 Minutemen Project National Political Director Howie Morgan told Newsweek on Wednesday that the organization hoped to have its members out in full force at the border before the coming caravans arrive. 
 
 “We believe our nation is under attack by foreigners who refuse to accept the rule of law on how to become a citizen in the United States,” Morgan said. 
 
 Asked whether he believes that applies to migrants who arrive at official ports of entry at the border to make asylum claims through the U.S.’s long-standing legal process, Morgan said he believed Central Americans should make those claims “in their own country.” 
 
 “Instead of following the rules, they are using our nation’s laws as a shortcut to get in front of the line,” Morgan claimed. 
 
 To obtain asylum through the U.S.'s affirmative asylum process, however, asylum seekers must be "physically present in the United States," according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Agency. Asylum seekers also are eligible to apply for asylum regardless of how they arrived in the country or what their current immigration status is. 
 
 On Monday, the Minuteman Project issued a call to action, asking “Minutemen and Minutewomen” to “converge on the U.S.-Mexico border immediately to support U.S. law enforcement and military organizations already there.” 
 
 “Your presence is needed along the 2,000-mile border from San Diego, California to Brownsville, Texas at any time for the next 90 days,” the organization said in a statement issued on its website. 
 
 Morgan said he was not sure how many Minuteman members would arrive at the border in the weeks ahead. However, he said he hoped to see people come out in “thousands,” but said that may be unlikely given that the government has already made strong efforts to fortify the southern border. 
 
 Of those who do arrive, Morgan said that members have been warned to follow the rule of law and focus their efforts on reporting migrants to Border Patrol authorities. However, he did say that he expected members would be armed. 
 
 “We understand how dangerous the border can be and we certainly want to ensure that all of our volunteers are safe,” he said. “If they are entitled and in an area where it is legal to carry guns, it is their right to do so,” he said. 
 
 On Wednesday, Trump announced that his administration could send as many as 15,000 troops to the southern border in anticipation of the thousands of migrants currently making their way to the U.S. with several caravans departing from Honduras and El Salvador. 
 
 Applauding the Trump administration’s controversial crackdown on immigration, the Minuteman Project spokesperson said that while the organization is “always looking to have a better security and immigration program in the United States,” Trump has “shown he is fighting to keep those efforts moving in the right direction.” 
 
 In its call to action for supporters to make their way to the southern border, the Minuteman Project tells members: “Remember, defending your nation’s sovereignty and its heralded stature as ‘a nation of laws’ does not make you a racist, a bigot, a xenophobe, a Nazi, a fascist… or any of the various epithets commonly used by our adversaries to falsely deface our patriotic virtue. 
 
 “The real fascists and xenophobes are those who openly hate us because we love our country just as we love our families and our communities,” the message continued. 
 
 It also warns members not to speak with news outlets, reminding them that “most newspaper reporters” will be “hostile to your presence on the border,” aside from Fox News, and One America News. ||||| Michael Vickers, a veterinarian and rancher in Falfurrias, Texas, says he won’t let outside militia onto his property and he doesn’t think such groups will be trusted by most area landowners. (Dominic Bracco II/Prime/FTWP) 
 
 Gun-carrying civilian groups and border vigilantes have heard a call to arms in President Trump’s warnings about threats to American security posed by caravans of Central American migrants moving through Mexico. They’re packing coolers and tents, oiling rifles and tuning up aerial drones, with plans to form caravans of their own and trail American troops to the border. 
 
 “We’ll observe and report, and offer aid in any way we can,” said Shannon McGauley, a bail bondsman in the Dallas suburbs who is president of the Texas Minutemen. McGauley said he was preparing to head for the Rio Grande in coming days. 
 
 “We’ve proved ourselves before, and we’ll prove ourselves again,” he said. 
 
 McGauley and others have been roused by the president’s call to restore order and defend the country against what Trump has called “an invasion,” as thousands of Central American migrants advance slowly through southern Mexico toward the U.S. border. Trump has insisted that “unknown Middle Easterners,” “very tough fighters,” and large numbers of violent criminals are traveling among the women, children and families heading north on foot. 
 
 [Migrant caravan: What Trump’s threats sound like to the Central Americans trudging north] 
 
 The Texas Minutemen, according to McGauley, have 100 volunteers en route to the Rio Grande who want to help stop the migrants, with more likely on the way. 
 
 “I can’t put a number on it,” McGauley said. “My phone’s been ringing nonstop for the last seven days. You got other militias, and husbands and wives, people coming from Oregon, Indiana. We’ve even got two from Canada.” 
 
 Asked whether his group planned to deploy with weapons, McGauley laughed. “This is Texas, man,” he said. 
 
 And yet, the prospect of armed vigilantes showing up beside thousands of U.S. troops — along with Border Patrol agents, police officers and migrants — is considered serious enough that military planners have issued warnings to Army commanders. 
 
 According to military planning documents obtained by Newsweek, the military is concerned about the arrival of “unregulated militia members self-deploying to the border in alleged support” of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. 
 
 [Army assessment of migrant caravans undercuts Trump’s rhetoric] 
 
 The assessment estimates that 200 militia members could show up. “They operate under the guise of citizen patrols,” the report said, while warning of “incidents of unregulated militias stealing National Guard equipment during deployments.” 
 
 The military report provided no further details about the alleged thefts. 
 
 Manuel Padilla Jr., the top Border Patrol official in the agency’s Rio Grande Valley sector, the nation’s busiest for illegal crossings, said he has not issued any instructions to agents in the field or to landowners whose properties are adjacent to the river. But he plans to meet with community members in the coming week, he said, to address their concerns. 
 
 “We don’t have any specific information about the militias,” said Padilla, reached by phone along the border. “We have seen them in the past, and when things start getting really busy, we have to make sure to let the community know they’re out there.” 
 
 “But they’re doing that on their own,” Padilla said. 
 
 [Trump vows to block asylum seekers in caravan but offers few details] 
 
 McGauley said that in addition to weapons and camping gear, his group will have night-vision goggles and aerial drones with thermal sensing equipment, capable of operating in darkness. He emphasized that the group would report any suspicious activity to authorities and would heed any instructions from Border Patrol agents or military personnel. 
 
 Several landowners in the area said they do not want the militias around. 
 
 Michael Vickers, a veterinarian and rancher who lives an hour north of the border in Falfurrias, said that he will not let militia members from outside the area onto his property and that he doubts most area landowners would trust outsiders. 
 
 “They are a bunch of guys with a big mouth and no substance to them,” said Vickers, a Republican who heads the 300-strong Texas Border Volunteers. The group doesn’t call itself a militia, although it patrols ranchland to intercept migrants who hike through the brush to attempt to avoid Border Patrol checkpoints. The group uses ATVs, night-vision goggles, spotlights and trained dogs. 
 
 “People on the [Rio Grande] have been calling us,” Vickers said. His group is in a “holding pattern,” he said, adding, “We can have 100 volunteers in a hot area in four to eight hours. 
 
 “We’ve already talked to a bunch of landowners who wanted to know if we’ll be operating if the Border Patrol can’t be there to keep their property from being vandalized and their crops from being messed up.” 
 
 “We’re ready to move,” he said. 
 
 [South Texas county faces wave of migrant deaths] 
 
 Others in South Texas are less enthusiastic. 
 
 Lucy Kruse, 96, said immigrants often stop on her property as they walk through the bush country, sometimes breaking into a small cabin to sleep. Her family’s ranch lies amid the thorny mesquite brush, cactus and tawny dry grass 80 miles north of the border. 
 
 As the migrant caravans head north, she and other landowners in the area worry that the number of trespassers walking through their ranches will increase dramatically. But many say the militias coming to the area also pose a threat. 
 
 “I will not let militia on my land,” Kruse said. “They’re civilians stepping into a situation where the Border Patrol is supposed to be in control and make decisions. They could damage property or harm workers. I would guess they would be trigger-happy. If they shot someone, they might just say the person they shot was reaching for a gun.” 
 
 Joe Metz, 80, lives in what looks like a pastoral tropical paradise near Mission, a town of 84,000 in the Rio Grande Valley. Tall, green sugar cane grows beside the wide river, and citrus trees dot the sandy small hillocks away from the banks. 
 
 The Rio Grande is less than a mile from Metz’s living room window, and a section of border wall crosses his property. He has watched for years as border-crossers ford the river and walk onto his land, their first step on American soil. The wall has slowed the flow significantly, he said, but between 50 and 100 people a day still cross through the farm next door. 
 
 He worries that the caravan, which includes many women and children, will surge through the area, but he doesn’t want armed vigilantes on his farm. 
 
 “The militia just needs to stay where they are,” said Metz, a Republican. “We don’t need fanatical people. We don’t need anybody here with guns. Why do they have guns? I have dealt with illegals for 30 years, and all of them have been scared, asking for help. The militias need to stay up north where they belong. We have no use for them here. They might shoot someone or hurt someone.” 
 
 [Trump on throwing rocks at the border: Military will consider that a threat] 
 
 The heir to the state’s largest and most influential ranch said he thinks the militias could pose a threat of their own. Stephen J. “Tio” Kleberg, who has lived most of his life on the 825,000-acre King Ranch outside of Kingsville, said he will allow federal and state law enforcement and the military onto his property, which is larger than the state of Rhode Island, but he won’t let private militia beyond the gates. 
 
 “I don’t think they have a governing body,” he said. “They are independent and not authorized by anybody. It could lead to individuals taking action without someone in authority supervising. I think that could be dangerous. 
 
 “I think if the [caravan members] get across the river, they need to be caught and sent back,” said Kleberg, who wears a bushy handlebar mustache and chews an unlit cigar. 
 
 “Once they get on U.S. soil, they need to be stopped and detained. We don’t have enough Border Patrol, ICE and Highway Patrol to handle them. If we get 2,000 or 3,000 people, we will need the military,” Kleberg said. 
 
 Correction: In a prior version of this story, Texas rancher Stephen J. “Tio” Kleberg said he would allow private militias onto his property to confront migrants crossing into the United States illegally. Subsequent to publication, Kleberg said he misunderstood the questions he was asked and requested that his comments be amended to reflect that he will not allow militia groups onto his ranch. ||||| .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 
 
 Copyright © 2018 Albuquerque Journal 
 
 COLUMBUS, N.M. – When the two men with a self-described militia showed up last week offering Columbus Mayor Ezequiel Salas help protecting the border, the conversation was brief and polite. 
 
 “I told them, ‘We have a good relationship with Mexico, with our little sister village Palomas,” said Salas, referring to the community just across the border. 
 
 “A lot of people who never come here, they have a misunderstanding. They hear things that are not true.” 
 
 ADVERTISEMENTSkip 
 
 While rumors and heated rhetoric about a crisis on the border contribute to rising tensions, border communities are caught in the middle. 
 
 In Columbus, home to about 1,600 residents, the mayor and other villagers were perplexed by the arrival of a small band of men with the Patriots of the Constitution militia. The men said they were there scouting locations to prepare for the migrant caravan from Central America slowly making its way through Mexico toward the southwest border. 
 
 The number of those in the caravan has dwindled from about 7,000 to 3,500 people. President Donald Trump announced this week that he planned to deploy 15,000 troops to the border to meet the caravan he referred to as an “invasion” and he vowed to set up tents to hold Central Americans who he said will likely be denied asylum and be deported. Troops could arrive this weekend to support U.S. Border Patrol agents. The caravan appears headed for Texas. A previous caravan’s final destination was California. 
 
 Along this quiet stretch of New Mexico borderland, some residents expressed concern about armed militias making their way to the border. 
 
 “They should not be patrolling the border if they were not sent by the federal government,” said Martin Garcia, a Columbus resident, as he watched over farmworkers picking red chile in a field that borders Mexico. “If the U.S. wants to send soldiers, that’s fine.” On another farm along the border, two men in their 20s in a pickup truck said the only militia members they had seen “were two old men with guns.” 
 
 ADVERTISEMENTSkip 
 
 Richard Puntasecca, the driver, said the militiamen asked if they could set up tents for volunteers, but the farmer who owned the property said no. 
 
 ‘Stop the bad guys’ 
 
 At a hotel in town Wednesday, a few members of the militia rested and waited for nightfall to patrol the border. One of their trucks in the parking lot had an “ISIS hunting” decal on the bottom of the windshield. 
 
 As one of the militiamen paced in front of the hotel, smoking and talking on his phone, another sat in a chair on the second-floor balcony holding binoculars. 
 
 They were spurred to action by news of thousands of Central American migrants in a caravan headed for the border, said Jim Peyton, a 71-year-old retired Detroit police officer. 
 
 Peyton drove 1,355 miles from Jasper, Ala., where he now lives, to Columbus. 
 
 ADVERTISEMENTSkip 
 
 “We’re only armed for self-defense,” he said. The goal of the militia is to “stop the bad guys.” He declined the Journal’s request to photograph him. 
 
 Peyton said he and his second in command checked in with U.S. Customs and Border Protection as soon as they arrived in Columbus, as well as with the mayor. 
 
 “We’re here to assist when possible,” he said. “We don’t have the authority to touch, corral, interfere. That would be illegal because we are not authorized to do so.” 
 
 Peyton said Border Patrol asked that the group stay north of Highway 9 to avoid confusion when agents are tracking footprints and other traffic from illegal border crossers. “We are aware a group of people have arrived in New Mexico with the goal of ‘patrolling’ the border but they are not working in conjunction with the Border Patrol,” according to a statement from the El Paso Border Patrol sector, which includes all of New Mexico. 
 
 “For any individuals coming to observe the border, we ask the public to report any illegal activity they witness to the appropriate law enforcement agency and allow those enforcement professionals to perform those duties without interfering,” the U.S. Border Patrol advises. 
 
 Extra eyes, ears 
 
 The militia will serve as extra eyes and ears near the border and notify Border Patrol dispatch if they spot illegal crossings or smuggling, according to Peyton. 
 
 ADVERTISEMENTSkip 
 
 Peyton said he is spending a lot of his time on the phone calming fears about the caravan. 
 
 “A woman from Florida was in tears calling me, thought she was going to die,” he said. 
 
 “They’re taking this as they’re going to knock on their door and blow their brains out. That’s not going to happen.” 
 
 Social media call 
 
 Patriots of the Constitution put out a call via social media Oct. 23 for “A FULL DEPLOYMENT OF EVERY ABLE BODY U.S. CITIZEN to Head to the U.S. Southern Border and Link up with other U.S. Citizen Groups whom are making a Stand to Secure our Border from a Mob of Migrating Immigrants.” The organization is among patriot militia groups committed to defending the Constitution and, in some cases, the border. 
 
 ADVERTISEMENTSkip 
 
 There are volunteers ready to help in Arizona, California and Texas, according to Peyton. 
 
 “It was reported to us this was a soft spot, but so far we have not seen much of anything. But, then again, the caravan hasn’t really arrived and there’s a second one coming up,” he said. 
 
 The U.N. Refugee Agency providing assistance in Mexico said many of those traveling in the caravan are families with “babies and toddlers.” 
 
 Peyton believes the caravan is a “Trojan horse” hiding ISIS, MS-13 and cartel gang members, as well as Nigerians and Venezuelans. He would not say how many militia members were in Columbus, but several people in the village said it was less than a handful of volunteers. 
 
 Caravan a ‘decoy’? 
 
 David Miller, 59, drove from Alamogordo with his dog Snow after hearing a call for volunteers to patrol the border at a biker rally. 
 
 ADVERTISEMENTSkip 
 
 “He got down here, his truck broke down,” Peyton said. “We had to go find him, tow his truck in.” 
 
 “It’s my country,” Miller said. “If we’re getting invaded, shouldn’t we help?” 
 
 Miller called the migrant families in the caravan a “decoy” for gang members trying to sneak into the country. 
 
 “They’re not coming for ice cream and cake,” he said. 
 
 Miller is doing odd jobs in Columbus to earn money to get his truck repaired. But for now, he and his lab mix are stranded near Pancho Villa State Park. 
 
 The park’s museum includes a “remembrance” for the Americans who gave their lives defending the village when the Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa crossed the border with a band of his men and raided Columbus in 1916. 
 
 ADVERTISEMENTSkip 
 
 David Ferguson, 79, and his wife parked their RV in Pancho Villa State Park. The snowbirds escaped winter in Michigan for sunny southern New Mexico. 
 
 Ferguson said he is not worried about the caravan or staying so close to the border. 
 
 “Albuquerque is a lot more dangerous than this place ever thought of being,” said Ferguson, though he acknowledged that he had never visited. 
 
 As tensions rise over the arrival of the migrant caravan, which is not expected to cross the border at Columbus, Mayor Salas tried to dispel misperceptions about his hometown. 
 
 “Don’t be fearful,” he said. “We’ve lived here for years. We have good relations (with Mexico). We work together.”
– Troops headed for the US-Mexico border aren't just aiming to help prevent migrant entry—they have unregulated militias and criminal organizations on their minds, too. According to planning documents obtained by Newsweek, the Department of Defense is aware of nearly 200 armed militias already operating along the southwest border. "Reported incidents of unregulated militias stealing National Guard equipment during deployments," reads an intelligence assessment for the Pentagon by the Joint Force Land Component Commander Threat Working Group. "They operate under the guise of citizen patrols supporting CBP [Customs and Border Protection] primarily between POEs [Points of Entry]." The documents analyze four points of entry including one in Brownsville, Texas, and another in the San Ysidro district of San Diego, Calif. The assessment jibes with media reports that militia members are already heading for the border, the Washington Post reports. They include the Texas Minutemen, who apparently have 100 armed volunteers going to the Rio Grande. "I can’t put a number on it," says Shannon McGauley, who leads the group. "My phone’s been ringing nonstop for the last seven days." Meanwhile, members of another group—the Patriots of the Constitution militia—arrived last week in Columbus, New Mexico, per the Albuquerque Journal. Yet the military planners expect the migrant caravan to reduce in size and contain "no terrorist infiltration," per the documents. They also say the migrants could trigger a "balloon effect" on smuggling if traffickers take advantage of the diversion. (While providing troops, the Pentagon refused one request from Trump.)