The Texas Border County at the Center of a Dangerous Right-Wing Experiment

Carolea Hassard, a rancher in rural Kinney County, Texas, population 3,100, received a jury summons in April.

卡洛莉亚·哈萨德 (Carolea Hassard) 是德克萨斯州金尼县农村地区的一名牧场主，该县人口 3,100 人，她于 4 月份收到了陪审团传票。

“They called more than 175 of us for a six-member jury selection,” she said.

“他们召集了超过 175 人来选出 6 名陪审团成员，”她说。

“I felt like I was in a murder trial.

“我感觉自己正在接受一场谋杀案审判。

But this was for a misdemeanor trespassing case.”

但这是一起轻罪侵入案件。”

The trial was for an undocumented Honduran man who had crossed the border into Kinney County, 120 miles west of San Antonio.

此次审判针对的是一名无证洪都拉斯男子，他越过边境进入圣安东尼奥以西 120 英里的金尼县。

He was being prosecuted for trespassing on private ranchland by the county attorney, Brent Smith, a major proponent of Texas Gov.

他因侵入私人牧场而被县检察官布伦特·史密斯（Brent Smith）起诉，布伦特·史密斯是德克萨斯州州长的主要支持者。

Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star, which seeks to bypass the federal immigration system by detaining asylum-seekers and migrants on low-level state trespassing charges.

格雷格·阿博特（Greg Abbott）的“孤星行动”（Operation Lone Star）旨在绕过联邦移民系统，以低级侵入州罪指控拘留寻求庇护者和移民。

In the end, Hassard wasn’t chosen for the jury.

最终，哈萨德没有被选为陪审团成员。

She lost half a day’s work plus gas since it was an hourlong trip to the county courthouse and back.

她失去了半天的工作量和汽油费，因为往返县法院需要一个小时的时间。

“It was really a waste of time,” she said.

“这真的是浪费时间，”她说。

“Calling 175 people for a misdemeanor jury is going overboard.”

“召集 175 人组成轻罪陪审团太过分了。”

Like other residents in the border county, Hassard said she’s grown tired of Operation Lone Star and fearmongering by local elected officials like Smith, who paint the region as being under invasion.

和边境县的其他居民一样，哈萨德说，她已经厌倦了“孤星行动”和史密斯等当地民选官员的恐吓行为，他们将该地区描绘成受到入侵。

Over the last year, the formerly quiet ranching community has become a backdrop for Fox News and far-right media to promote the idea that states can declare an invasion under the U.S. Constitution and use force against migrants seeking refuge as if they were a hostile foreign power.

去年，这个原本安静的牧场社区已成为福克斯新闻和极右媒体的背景，以宣扬这样的想法：各州可以根据美国宪法宣布入侵，并对寻求庇护的移民使用武力，就好像他们是敌对外国势力一样。

The attention has thrust Smith, Kinney County Sheriff Brad Coe, and County Judge Tully Shahan into the national spotlight.

这种关注使史密斯、金尼县警长布拉德·科和县法官塔利·沙汉成为全国关注的焦点。

The three have led the charge in Texas, working to push Abbott, who is up for reelection in November, even further to the right.

三人在德克萨斯州带头，努力将即将于 11 月竞选连任的阿博特推向更右翼的方向。

After Shahan and Smith declared a state of disaster last year due to “illegal aliens invading Kinney County,” Abbott quickly followed suit, issuing a broader disaster declaration that granted him emergency powers usually reserved for responding to events like hurricanes or floods.

去年，沙汉和史密斯因“非法外星人入侵金尼县”而宣布进入灾难状态后，阿博特迅速效仿，发布了更广泛的灾难声明，授予他通常为应对飓风或洪水等事件而保留的紧急权力。

Instead, Abbott used the declaration to tap into state and federal funding and deploy thousands of state police and National Guard members to the border under Operation Lone Star, which has already cost more than $4 billion.

相反，阿博特利用该声明动用了州和联邦资金，并根据“孤星行动”向边境部署了数千名州警察和国民警卫队成员，该行动已耗资超过 40 亿美元。

But that wasn’t enough for the Kinney County officials.

但这对金尼县官员来说还不够。

This past July, the trio held a press conference to declare their 16 miles of border with Mexico under invasion.

今年 7 月，三人组织召开新闻发布会，宣布其与墨西哥 16 英里的边境遭到入侵。

They called on Abbott to make a statewide declaration and exercise his authority under the Texas and U.S. constitutions to immediately “remove all persons invading the sovereignty of Texas and that of the United States.”

他们呼吁阿博特在全州范围内发表声明，并根据德克萨斯州和美国宪法行使权力，立即“驱逐所有侵犯德克萨斯州和美国主权的人”。

The officials were joined by a handful of other county leaders in the two-stoplight town of Brackettville, Kinney’s largest with just 1,400 residents.

布拉克特维尔是金尼最大的小镇，只有 1,400 名居民，有两个红绿灯。

“They’re coming through here in droves,” Shahan said of migrants and asylum-seekers.

“他们成群结队地经过这里，”沙汉谈到移民和寻求庇护者时说道。

“Ranches are getting their fences cut every day.

“牧场的围栏每天都在被砍伐。

…

……

The Biden administration is using this as a political act to bring people to the United States so they can go vote.” Shahan declined to be interviewed for this story.

拜登政府正在将此作为一种政治行为，将人们带到美国，以便他们可以去投票。”沙汉拒绝就此事接受采访。

The narrative of fences being cut and ranchers packing pistols due to President Joe Biden’s “open-border policies” has not only drawn dozens of right-wing media outlets, YouTube content creators, and armed militias to the county, but also former members of the Trump administration and candidates vying for the former president’s endorsement leading up to the midterm elections.

由于乔·拜登总统的“开放边境政策”，围栏被砍断、牧场主收拾手枪的故事不仅吸引了数十家右翼媒体、YouTube内容创作者和武装民兵来到该县，还吸引了特朗普政府前成员和在中期选举前争夺前总统支持的候选人。

This explained the unusual presence of two former Trump administration officials at the local press conference: Mark Morgan, former acting commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and Ken Cuccinelli, who served as acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and acting deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.

这解释了两名前特朗普政府官员异常出席当地新闻发布会的原因：美国海关和边境保护局前代理专员马克·摩根和美国公民及移民服务局代理局长兼国土安全部代理副部长肯·库奇内利。

Both now work for right-wing think tanks.

两人现在都为右翼智库工作。

Since Biden took office, Cuccinelli and Morgan have pressured elected officials nationwide to adopt the fringe concept — which legal experts say would be rejected in a court of law — that states and counties can declare themselves under invasion.

自拜登上任以来，库奇内利和摩根一直向全国民选官员施压，要求他们采用边缘概念——法律专家称这一概念将在法庭上被驳回——各州和县可以宣布自己受到入侵。

Cuccinelli explained how it would work in a Breitbart radio interview: “Because they’re acting under war powers, there’s no due process,” he said.

库奇内利在布莱巴特广播电台采访中解释了它的运作方式：“因为他们是在战争权力下行事，所以没有正当程序，”他说。

“They can literally just line their National Guard up, presumably with riot gear like they would if they had a civil disturbance, and turn people back at the border.”

“他们实际上可以把国民警卫队排成一队，大概配备防暴装备，就像发生内乱时那样，然后把人们赶回边境。”

At the press conference, Cuccinelli praised Shahan for being the first judge in the nation to declare an invasion.

在新闻发布会上，库奇内利称赞沙汉是全国第一个宣布入侵的法官。

“For the first time in American history, a judge has found, as a matter of law, that the United States is being invaded,” he said.

“在美国历史上，法官第一次从法律角度认定美国正在遭受入侵，”他说。

In Texas, county judges oversee the local governing body and preside over minor criminal and civil cases; Shahan’s invasion declaration was not a judicial ruling.

在德克萨斯州，县法官监督当地管理机构并审理轻微刑事和民事案件；沙罕的入侵声明并不是司法裁决。

Still, the declaration succeeded in pumping more money into the county’s coffers.

尽管如此，该声明还是成功地为该县的金库注入了更多资金。

While Abbott stopped short of declaring a statewide invasion, a day after the press conference, he directed another $30 million into Operation Lone Star to be disbursed to Kinney County and other participating jurisdictions.

虽然阿博特没有宣布全州范围内的入侵，但在新闻发布会后的第二天，他又向“孤星行动”拨款 3000 万美元，拨款给金尼县和其他参与的司法管辖区。

Texas striking out alone on immigration enforcement might make good Fox News ratings, but it has done little to curb migration.

德克萨斯州单独打击移民执法可能会在福克斯新闻上获得良好的收视率，但它在遏制移民方面几乎没有采取任何措施。

The growing number of arrivals is part of a hemisphere-wide phenomenon as people flee their homes due to climate change, authoritarianism, and pandemic-wrecked economies.

由于气候变化、威权主义和大流行破坏的经济，人们逃离家园，抵达人数不断增加是整个西半球现象的一部分。

What Operation Lone Star has done is militarize already overpoliced Latino communities and deny migrants a right to due process and asylum, said Anita Gupta, a Texas-based staff attorney with the nonprofit Immigrant Legal Resource Center.

非营利性移民法律资源中心驻得克萨斯州专职律师安妮塔·古普塔 (Anita Gupta) 表示，“孤星行动”的做法是将已经过度警戒的拉丁裔社区军事化，并剥夺移民获得正当程序和庇护的权利。

“It also drains resources from border communities,” she said.

“这也耗尽了边境社区的资源，”她说。

“It’s just funneling money away from real needs, all for the purpose of expanding the criminal legal system to conduct immigration enforcement.” Without federal intervention, Gupta and other advocates worry that more states will adopt the Texas model, further persecuting people of color.

“这只是从实际需求中转移资金，所有这些都是为了扩大刑事法律体系以进行移民执法。”如果没有联邦干预，古普塔和其他倡导者担心更多的州将采用德克萨斯州模式，进一步迫害有色人种。

“It has real national implications,” she said.

“这具有真正的国家影响，”她说。

Sheriff Brad Coe in his office in Kinney County, Texas, in December 2021.

2021 年 12 月，警长布拉德·科在德克萨斯州金尼县的办公室。

For nearly a decade, the Rio Grande Valley, more than 300 miles from Kinney County, has received the largest number of Central Americans and other migrants because it is the stretch of U.S. border closest to Central America.

近十年来，距金尼县 300 多英里的里奥格兰德河谷接收了最多数量的中美洲和其他移民，因为它是距离中美洲最近的美国边境。

But as the Trump administration implemented “Remain in Mexico,” which required asylum-seekers to await U.S. immigration proceedings in Mexican border cities, and then Title 42, which blocked asylum access at ports of entry, migrants and human smugglers began to search for other routes.

但随着特朗普政府实施“留在墨西哥”（要求寻求庇护者在墨西哥边境城市等待美国移民程序），以及随后封锁入境口岸庇护通道的第 42 条，移民和人口走私者开始寻找其他路线。

That’s when the normally quiet stretch of border that includes Kinney County began to see a large uptick in migrants crossing through its cattle and hunting ranches as they headed north for larger cities in the United States.

就在那时，包括金尼县在内的通常安静的边境地带开始出现大量移民，他们穿越当地的牛群和狩猎牧场，向北前往美国大城市。

Notably, when Abbott declared the border a disaster in May 2021, the border’s most populous counties in the Rio Grande Valley and El Paso pushed back, refusing to sign local disaster declarations.

值得注意的是，当阿博特于 2021 年 5 月宣布边境为灾难时，里奥格兰德河谷和埃尔帕索边境人口最多的县进行了反击，拒绝签署当地的灾难声明。

“We don’t feel we have a disaster,” Starr County Judge Eloy Vera told Border Report after the counties asked to be carved out of Abbott’s plan to arrest migrants.

“我们不觉得我们遇到了灾难，”斯塔尔县法官埃洛伊·维拉在各县要求排除在雅培逮捕移民计划之外后告诉《边境报道》。

Many cash-poor counties like Kinney, meanwhile, secured millions in Operation Lone Star money after declaring a disaster.

与此同时，金尼等许多现金匮乏的县在宣布灾难后获得了数百万美元的孤星行动资金。

Abbott granted nearly $3.2 million to the county for law enforcement and the prosecution of migrants over a two-year period.

雅培在两年内向该县拨款近 320 万美元，用于执法和起诉移民。

Between August 2021 and July 2022, the county prosecuted more than 3,500 migrants for trespassing, according to Smith, a majority of the cases statewide.

史密斯表示，2021 年 8 月至 2022 年 7 月期间，该县以非法侵入罪起诉了 3,500 多名移民，其中大多数案件在全州范围内进行。

The local officials also solicit donations through the Christian crowdfunding site GiveSendGo with the message “We the people will save our country!” The campaign has generated around $22,000.

当地官员还通过基督教众筹网站 GiveSendGo 募捐，并发出“我们人民将拯救我们的国家！”的信息。该活动已筹集约 22,000 美元。

On top of the influx of cash from Operation Lone Star, the county has reaped as much as $3 million in bond money from the migrants it has prosecuted, according to an estimate from sheriff’s department spokesperson Matt Benacci.

据治安部门发言人马特·贝纳奇 (Matt Benacci) 估计，除了“孤星行动”带来的大量现金外，该县还从其起诉的移民身上获得了高达 300 万美元的保释金。

Because bail bond companies usually won’t bail out jailed migrants, defendants’ families have to pay the cash bonds in person.

由于保释保证金公司通常不会保释被监禁的移民，被告的家人必须亲自支付现金保证金。

In theory, the families should get the money back if the migrants show up for their trial dates.

理论上来说，如果移民到庭审，家属就应该拿回这笔钱。

Once migrants are released from jail, however, defense lawyers say they are often deported, and the county makes it almost impossible for them to recoup the bond money.

然而，辩护律师表示，一旦移民出狱，他们往往会被驱逐出境，县政府让他们几乎不可能收回押金。

In one Zoom hearing I witnessed, held by the cantankerous Shahan, several men in Honduras and Mexico waited on hold for hours with their defense attorneys in Texas, only to be told to dial in again later.

在一次由脾气暴躁的沙汉主持的 Zoom 听证会上，洪都拉斯和墨西哥的几名男子与德克萨斯州的辩护律师一起等待了几个小时，结果被告知稍后再拨通。

The hearing turned out to be nothing more than a roll call.

结果听证会只不过是点名而已。

But anyone who didn’t appear, one defense attorney told me, would forfeit his bond money.

但一位辩护律师告诉我，任何没有出庭的人都会被没收保证金。

In an interview at the county courthouse in downtown Brackettville last December, Smith, in a white button-down shirt, jeans, and cowboy boots, sat at a desk stacked with empty manila folders, which would soon hold more Operation Lone Star cases.

去年 12 月，史密斯在布拉克特维尔市中心的县法院接受采访时，身穿白色系扣衬衫、牛仔裤和牛仔靴，坐在一张堆满空马尼拉文件夹的办公桌前，这些文件夹很快就会容纳更多孤星行动案件。

Behind him was a framed replica of the Texas independence flag with its black cannon and “Come and Take It” rejoinder.

他身后是一面镶框的德克萨斯独立旗帜复制品，上面有黑色大炮和“来吧，接受它”的反驳。

The 42-year-old is a former oil and gas attorney from a prominent ranching family in the area.

这位 42 岁的人曾是一名石油和天然气律师，出身于该地区一个显赫的牧场家族。

Before Operation Lone Star, the county handled around 10 misdemeanor prosecutions a month, he told me, usually for shoplifting or hunters trespassing on private land.

他告诉我，在“孤星行动”之前，该县每月处理大约 10 起轻罪起诉，通常是因为入店行窃或猎人侵入私人土地。

But since he’d started as county attorney in January 2021, he said, they were prosecuting 500 to 600 migrants a month.

但他说，自从他 2021 年 1 月开始担任县检察官以来，他们每月起诉 500 至 600 名移民。

According to a lawsuit filed on behalf of migrants arrested in the county, Smith has pressed charges for criminal trespass on his land in at least eight cases, making him both the complainant and prosecutor.

根据代表在该县被捕的移民提起的诉讼，史密斯在至少八起案件中提出了非法侵入其土地的指控，使他既是原告又是检察官。

Coe, the sheriff, has been a complainant at least three times, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

据美国公民自由联盟称，警长科至少曾三次提出申诉。

With the Operation Lone Star money, Smith said he wanted to create a judicial center with additional staff.

史密斯说，他希望利用孤星行动的资金建立一个司法中心并配备更多工作人员。

Acknowledging that it would be difficult to convince attorneys to move to rural Kinney County to prosecute migrants, Smith said he envisioned something more like the ad hoc “man camps” that house workers at oil and gas rigs.

史密斯承认很难说服律师搬到金尼县农村起诉移民，他说他设想的更像是专门为石油和天然气钻井平台工人提供的“人员营地”。

“You have the man camps in Midland and West Texas,” he said.

“在米德兰和德克萨斯州西部都有男子营地，”他说。

“It’s the same concept, only they’re prosecution camps.” (In August, the county’s spokesperson said that Smith had yet to build his judicial camp but did recently hire a former prosecutor from neighboring Uvalde County.)

“这是同一个概念，只是他们是起诉营。” （八月，该县发言人表示，史密斯尚未建立司法营地，但最近确实从邻近的尤瓦尔迪县聘请了一名前检察官。）

Young and ambitious, Smith, along with Shahan, has worked to convince other counties to declare an invasion, giving interviews to right-wing media, penning newspaper op-eds , and speaking at political rallies.

年轻而雄心勃勃的史密斯和沙汉一起努力说服其他县宣布入侵，接受右翼媒体采访，撰写报纸专栏文章，并在政治集会上发表演讲。

He’s also an ardent secessionist, serving on the advisory board for the Texas Nationalist Movement.

他也是一位热心的分离主义者，在德克萨斯民族主义运动的顾问委员会任职。

All the attention, he said, has brought Republican officials to his doorstep trying to recruit him to run for statewide office.

他说，所有的关注都让共和党官员来到他家门口，试图招募他竞选全州公职。

Smith declined to name these officials but said he’d told them a statewide run would have to wait.

史密斯拒绝透露这些官员的姓名，但表示他已告诉他们全州范围内的竞选必须等待。

“If Operation Lone Star is Abbott’s baby,” Smith said, “then we’re his poster child.” Texas Gov.

“如果‘孤星行动’是阿博特的孩子，”史密斯说，“那么我们就是他的典型代表。”德克萨斯州州长

Greg Abbott tours the U.S.-Mexico border in Eagle Pass, Texas, on May 23, 2022.

2022 年 5 月 23 日，格雷格·阿博特 (Greg Abbott) 游览德克萨斯州伊格尔帕斯 (Eagle Pass) 的美墨边境。

As I drove through Kinney County, I was startled to see several National Guard Humvees lined up on the shoulder of the empty highway, their machine guns pointed south toward the Rio Grande as if awaiting an attack.

当我开车穿过金尼县时，我惊讶地看到几辆国民警卫队悍马车排列在空荡荡的高速公路路肩上，机枪向南指向格兰德河，好像在等待攻击。

Uniformed guard members stood around looking bored, scrolling through their phones as they leaned against the bumpers of the vehicles.

身穿制服的警卫站在周围，看上去很无聊，靠在车辆的保险杠上刷着手机。

Armed militia men, housed by local ranchers in Kinney County, were also out patrolling the wide expanses of scrub brush and mesquite for migrants, whom they turned over to Coe and his deputies or state police.

金尼县当地牧场主安置的武装民兵也在大片灌木丛和豆科灌木丛中为移民巡逻，然后将移民交给科和他的副手或州警察。

At his office adjacent to the county courthouse, Coe had “Let’s Go Brandon” and Trump campaign stickers prominently displayed on his desk.

在县法院附近的办公室里，科的办公桌上醒目地贴着“布兰登吧”和特朗普竞选贴纸。

He also had a life-sized cardboard cutout of Vice President Kamala Harris, a prop he used to lampoon the administration at press events.

他还有一个真人大小的副总统卡玛拉·哈里斯纸板模型，这是他在新闻发布会上用来讽刺政府的道具。

A retired Border Patrol agent, Coe refers to border crossers as “give ups” and “got aways.” The “give ups” are asylum-seekers who present themselves to Border Patrol, but it’s the “got aways” who are passing through Kinney County, he told me, and trying to evade law enforcement.

作为一名退休的边境巡逻人员，科将边境越境者称为“放弃者”和“逃跑者”。他告诉我，“放弃者”是向边境巡逻队报案的寻求庇护者，但“逃亡者”则是途经金尼县并试图逃避执法的人。

“We are the funnel point,” he said, noting that surrounding counties have Border Patrol checkpoints but not Kinney.

“我们是漏斗点，”他说，并指出周边县有边境巡逻检查站，但金尼没有。

“This is a very quiet county.

“这是一个非常安静的县。

We don’t have industry.

我们没有工业。

We don’t have factories.

我们没有工厂。

Our biggest employers are the electric co-op and the school,” he added.

我们最大的雇主是电力合作社和学校，”他补充道。

“And our ranchers and exotic game hunters.

“还有我们的牧场主和异域猎物猎人。

We lose them, we lose the county.

我们失去了他们，我们失去了县。

So we’ve got to protect the ranchers.”

所以我们必须保护牧场主。”

Like Smith, Coe is counting on Lone Star money.

和史密斯一样，科也指望着孤星公司的钱。

“We’re looking at new vehicles, new radios, additional manpower, new computers,” he said.

“我们正在考虑新的车辆、新的收音机、额外的人力、新的计算机，”他说。

“I just got a new one the other day because I couldn’t open Word anymore.”

“前几天我刚买了一个新的，因为我无法再打开 Word。”

Last October, Coe appeared ready to deputize militia members using Lone Star money to help his six deputies patrol the county’s 1,360 square miles.

去年 10 月，科似乎准备利用 Lone Star 的资金来代表民兵成员，帮助他的六名副手在该县 1,360 平方英里的土地上巡逻。

The idea was quashed by the Texas Department of Public Safety, but it generated weeks of media coverage, drawing far-right YouTube personalities to the county like Anthony Aguero, an ally of Georgia Rep.

这个想法被德克萨斯州公共安全部否决，但它引发了数周的媒体报道，吸引了 YouTube 上的极右人士来到该县，比如佐治亚州众议员的盟友安东尼·阿奎罗 (Anthony Aguero)。

Marjorie Taylor Greene, as well as outlets such as Real America’s Voice, which largely serves as a platform for Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast.

马乔里·泰勒·格林 (Marjorie Taylor Greene) 以及 Real America’s Voice 等媒体，该媒体主要充当史蒂夫·班农 (Steve Bannon) 的“战争室”播客的平台。

That same month, in a “War Room” interview , Coe invoked an oft-used racist trope and equated Haitian migrants with disease, saying that some of them had brought chicken pox and leprosy to Texas.

同月，在“作战室”采访中，科援引了一种常用的种族主义比喻，将海地移民与疾病等同起来，称其中一些人将水痘和麻风病带到了德克萨斯州。

“What’s next?” Coe said.

“接下来怎么办？”科说。

“Tuberculosis?

“肺结核？

Smallpox?”

天花？”

Coe told me that he had no authority to stop private militias from chasing down migrants if ranchers agreed to give them access to their land.

科告诉我，如果牧场主同意让他们进入自己的土地，他无权阻止私人民兵追捕移民。

During my visit, neither Coe nor Smith would say where militias were patrolling or if any members were being housed on Smith’s property.

在我访问期间，科和史密斯都没有透露民兵在哪里巡逻，也没有透露史密斯的财产中是否有任何成员。

But in July, Texas Monthly reported that a member of a Texas militia, the Patriot Boys, was arrested at a ranch belonging to Smith’s family for involvement in the January 6 Capitol insurrection.

但今年 7 月，《德克萨斯月刊》报道称，德克萨斯州民兵爱国者男孩的一名成员因参与 1 月 6 日国会大厦叛乱而在史密斯家族所属的牧场被捕。

One militia in particular, Patriots for America , run by a former missionary from North Texas named Samuel Hall, has spent several months in and out of the county.

特别是一个民兵组织“美国爱国者”，由来自德克萨斯州北部的前传教士塞缪尔·霍尔领导，已经在该县进出数月了。

Hall and his group wear ballistic vests and Punisher regalia and carry assault rifles when they detain migrants.

霍尔和他的团队在拘留移民时穿着防弹背心和惩罚者服装，并携带突击步枪。

They film the apprehensions, then upload the footage to right-wing social media sites like Rumble to recruit new members and raise money.

他们拍摄了逮捕过程，然后将视频上传到 Rumble 等右翼社交媒体网站，以招募新成员并筹集资金。

Hall, who has angel’s wings tattooed on his arms, has raised thousands of dollars through GiveSendGo for his “humanitarian mission” in Kinney County, referring to himself as “the hands and feet of Christ.”

霍尔的手臂上纹着天使的翅膀，他通过 GiveSendGo 筹集了数千美元，用于他在金尼县的“人道主义使命”，他称自己为“基督的手和脚”。

In one video Hall posted on Rumble, a frightened Nicaraguan man detained by militia members in the middle of the night pleads for help and says he’s fleeing Nicaragua’s dictatorship.

在霍尔在 Rumble 上发布的一段视频中，一名在半夜被民兵拘留的受惊的尼加拉瓜男子恳求帮助，并说他正在逃离尼加拉瓜的独裁统治。

The man expresses fear, then confusion, as he tries to figure out whether Hall’s men are going to hurt him.

当这名男子试图弄清楚霍尔的人是否会伤害他时，他先是表现出恐惧，然后是困惑。

At one point, the Nicaraguan man asks for asylum and apoyo , or help.

有一次，这名尼加拉瓜男子请求庇护和帮助。

A militia member in an American flag headband responds, “Chicken?” Finally, a Kinney County sheriff’s deputy arrives and takes him away.

一名戴着美国国旗头带的民兵回答道：“鸡？”最后，金尼县副警长到达并将他带走。

Coe called Hall a “straightforward, strong Christian man.” When asked where the militia was operating, Coe said he had no idea.

科称霍尔是一位“直率、坚强的基督徒”。当被问及民兵在哪里活动时，科说他不知道。

“He’s out and about somewhere,” he said.

“他在外面某个地方，”他说。

“As long as he’s staying on private property and not creating a ruckus, he’s free to come and go as he pleases.” A migrant family rests after being processed in Roma, Texas, on May 5, 2022.

“只要他住在私人领地上，不制造骚乱，他就可以自由出入。” 2022 年 5 月 5 日，德克萨斯州罗马，一个移民家庭在接受处理后休息。

Not everyone in Kinney County is on board with the idea of declaring an invasion and spending millions on prosecuting and jailing migrants.

并不是金尼县的每个人都同意宣布入侵并花费数百万美元起诉和监禁移民。

Several residents said they wondered whether the money devoted to Operation Lone Star might not be better invested in the state’s power grid, which failed in February 2021 due to extreme cold.

一些居民表示，他们想知道用于孤星行动的资金是否可以更好地投资于该州的电网，该电网于 2021 年 2 月因极度寒冷而发生故障。

Residents had to survive several days in freezing temperatures without heat or running water.

居民们不得不在没有暖气或自来水的冰冻温度下生存几天。

Or it could be invested in preserving the state’s groundwater.

或者可以投资保护该州的地下水。

In April, Las Moras Springs and Creek, which are critical for the county, dried up due to extreme drought.

四月，对该县至关重要的拉斯莫拉斯泉和小溪因极度干旱而干涸。

Many of the roads in Brackettville are riddled with potholes or unpaved.

布拉克特维尔的许多道路坑坑洼洼或未铺砌。

Nearly 18 percent of residents live below the poverty line, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

根据美国人口普查局的数据，近 18% 的居民生活在贫困线以下。

Residents told me that there was a wide economic divide between wealthy ranching families like Smith’s who are Anglo — and run the county’s government — and Latino families who live in town.

居民告诉我，像史密斯这样的富裕牧场家庭（他们是盎格鲁人，并管理着县政府）和住在城里的拉丁裔家庭之间存在着巨大的经济鸿沟。

“There’s no jobs here for people,” one resident said of the county’s unemployment rate , which is higher than the state average.

“这里没有人可以找到工作，”一位居民谈到该县的失业率时说道，该县的失业率高于州平均水平。

The resident asked to remain anonymous, citing a fear of reprisal from Smith, Coe, and Shahan.

该居民要求匿名，理由是担心史密斯、科和沙汉的报复。

“Some don’t even have cars to get out of town,” she said.

“有些人甚至没有车出城，”她说。

“You can see the need.

“你可以看到这种需要。

And yet we’re spending all this money on arresting people.”

然而我们却把所有这些钱都花在了逮捕人上。”

Residents said they found the invasion talk both frightening and confusing.

居民们表示，他们发现有关入侵的言论既令人恐惧又令人困惑。

With Brackettville being a small town where everyone knows each other, they worried that criticism of the county’s leaders could not only end long-term friendships but also divide families or even result in someone losing their job.

由于布拉克特维尔是一个大家都互相认识的小镇，他们担心对县领导的批评不仅会结束长期的友谊，还会导致家庭分裂，甚至导致某人失业。

The fearmongering has polarized a community already hurting from political division over the 2020 presidential election.

散布恐慌的行为使这个已经因 2020 年总统选举的政治分歧而受到伤害的社区变得两极分化。

Of the county’s 2,270 registered voters, 1,603 people turned out to vote .

该县 2,270 名登记选民中，有 1,603 人参加了投票。

Donald Trump won by a margin of nearly 3 to 1.

唐纳德·特朗普以近 3 比 1 的优势获胜。

Democrats said they’d lost friends after putting out political signs supporting Biden.

民主党人表示，在张贴支持拜登的政治标语后，他们失去了朋友。

Some said their yard signs had been destroyed in the middle of the night.

有些人说他们院子里的标牌在半夜被毁了。

One resident told me that a neighbor, a staunch Trump supporter, had taken to walking around his yard with a pistol tucked into his waistband.

一位居民告诉我，一位邻居是特朗普的坚定支持者，他喜欢在他的院子里走来走去，腰带上别着一把手枪。

“Do you feel safe?” he asked one morning.

“你觉得安全吗？”一天早上他问道。

“There are illegals coming right through here.”

“有非法分子从这里经过。”

“How many of these people passing through our county are really criminals?” asked another resident.

“经过我们县城的这些人，有多少是真正的罪犯？”另一位居民问道。

“And how many carried drugs or had a weapon?

“有多少人携带毒品或持有武器？

The sheriff’s never really explained it, and he’s been asked.

警长从来没有真正解释过，而且有人问过他。

They just make everybody afraid.”

他们只会让每个人都害怕。”

I met with Kelly Perry, vice president of the local affiliate of the Texas Federation of Republican Women, at her house in Fort Clark.

我在凯莉·佩里 (Kelly Perry) 位于克拉克堡的家中会见了她，她是得克萨斯州共和党妇女联合会当地分支机构的副主席。

The gated community, a former military barracks built after the Mexican American War, is home to many military and Border Patrol retirees.

这个封闭的社区是美墨战争后建造的前军营，是许多军队和边境巡逻队退休人员的家。

Since Biden took office, local tea party groups, the women’s federation, and other conservative organizations have held “Border Invasion Awareness” rallies in Kinney and surrounding rural counties, featuring speakers such as Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Maria Espinoza of the Remembrance Project, which demonizes immigrants as murderers and rapists and has been designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

自拜登上任以来，当地茶党团体、妇女联合会和其他保守派组织在金尼和周边乡村县举行了“边境入侵意识”集会，演讲者包括德克萨斯州总检察长肯·帕克斯顿和纪念项目的玛丽亚·埃斯皮诺萨，该项目将移民妖魔化为杀人犯和强奸犯，并被南方贫困法律中心指定为仇恨团体。

Perry owns a business selling owner-financed homes.

佩里拥有一家销售自有资金房屋的公司。

“But my real area of work is a support system for the county,” she said.

“但我真正的工作领域是为该县提供支持系统，”她说。

One way she does this is by organizing the rallies.

她做到这一点的一种方法是组织集会。

Her job, she said, was to sound the alarm to protect America because Kinney County was the “gateway for illegals to the United States” and “the worst of the worst.” The Biden administration was letting them in, she added.

她说，她的工作是拉响警报以保护美国，因为金尼县是“非法移民进入美国的门户”，也是“最糟糕的地区”。她补充说，拜登政府让他们进来了。

“I’m very upset with what I’m seeing with the changes in the United States right now under a Democratic president.”

“我对目前在民主党总统领导下的美国所发生的变化感到非常不安。”

At times the rallies veer into extremist QAnon conspiracies that claim that traffickers are harvesting organs and worshipping Satan.

有时，集会会转向极端主义“QAnon”阴谋，声称贩运者正在摘取器官并崇拜撒旦。

At a rally in Kinney County last year, Mike Miller, founder of an anti-immigrant nonprofit called Warriors for Ranchers, told residents that Hondurans had been “capturing kids and harvesting their organs.”

去年在金尼县的一次集会上，反移民非营利组织“牧场主战士”的创始人迈克·米勒告诉居民，洪都拉斯人一直在“抓捕儿童并摘取他们的器官”。

As we sat at her dining room table, Perry mentioned that she’d been flown by the Trump-aligned FreedomWorks to Washington, D.C., for an election integrity summit before the 2020 election, where she learned about the fraud that Democrats planned to commit nationwide.

当我们坐在她的餐桌旁时，佩里提到，她曾乘坐与特朗普结盟的 FreedomWorks 飞往华盛顿特区，参加 2020 年大选前的选举诚信峰会，在那里她了解到了民主党计划在全国范围内实施的欺诈行为。

“I learned a lot about the things that were being done to hurt our values as Americans,” she said.

“我学到了很多关于损害我们作为美国人的价值观的事情，”她说。

Later, I spoke with a resident who broke down in tears as she described losing longtime friends in the county who were Republicans.

后来，我采访了一位居民，当她描述失去该县的共和党老朋友时，她泪流满面。

They now viewed her as the enemy, she said, because she was a Democrat and had questioned the need for Operation Lone Star and the police and soldiers in her town.

她说，他们现在将她视为敌人，因为她是民主党人，并质疑孤星行动以及她所在城镇的警察和士兵的必要性。

“Everyone is so afraid now,” she told me.

“现在每个人都很害怕，”她告诉我。

“I want to honor their fear, but I’m not afraid.

“我想尊重他们的恐惧，但我并不害怕。

I don’t know,” she said.

我不知道，”她说。

“I just don’t think that being fearful fixes anything.”

“我只是不认为恐惧能解决任何问题。”

Hassard said she moved to Kinney County because it’s quiet and she can see the stars at night.

哈萨德说，她搬到金尼县是因为那里很安静，而且她晚上可以看到星星。

“I live up in the hills and it’s real pretty,” she said.

“我住在山上，那里真的很漂亮，”她说。

She’s seen two migrants on her ranch in the last two years.

过去两年，她在自己的牧场上看到了两名移民。

“When I opened up my window, they turned and ran like the devil was on their heels,” she said.

“当我打开窗户时，他们转身逃跑，就像魔鬼在追赶他们一样，”她说。

It’s not the migrants who bother her but the armed militia members who’ve been drawn to the county by the endless invasion talk.

困扰她的不是移民，而是被无休无止的入侵言论吸引到该县的武装民兵成员。

Not long ago, Hassard met a couple on an ATV near her ranch who said they were patrolling with a group called Texas Border Rescue.

不久前，哈萨德在她的牧场附近的一辆全地形车上遇到了一对夫妇，他们说他们正在与一个名为“德克萨斯边境救援”的组织一起巡逻。

“They say they rescue migrants,” Hassard said.

“他们说他们拯救了移民，”哈萨德说。

“But they’re carrying guns.

“但他们带着枪。

You can phrase it however you want, but they’re here to chase human beings.

你可以随心所欲地表达它，但它们来这里是为了追逐人类。

I call them a vigilante group.”

我称他们为自卫队。”

“You are seeing in front of your eyes that your family is suffering and might be killed, but you can’t do anything about it.”

“你亲眼目睹你的家人正在受苦，可能会被杀，但你却无能为力。”

Chicago police officer Raymond Piwnicki has 99 civilian complaints on his record, many of them involving racist invective and violence.

芝加哥警官 Raymond Piwnicki 的记录中有 99 起平民投诉，其中许多涉及种族主义谩骂和暴力。

Bowman’s opponent, George Latimer, was recruited by AIPAC as part of the group’s $100 million campaign against progressive Israel critics.

鲍曼的对手乔治·拉蒂默 (George Latimer) 被 AIPAC 招募，作为该组织斥资 1 亿美元反对以色列进步批评者的活动的一部分。