Yes, every town had a Captain that kept the militia in order; they trained regularly, too. I have read a lot of 1700's town records. Each had its well organized militia and it definitely had a command structure.
probably the most famous was capt church of rehobeth because of the king philip war. but there were hundreds. even then operating outside authority was a crime.
i think these guys are facing legal troubles
Of course groups like this are outside the law, but if they haven't hurt anyone, I wonder who would complain? BP seems to tolerate them. The articles say they have held onto border jumpers before until the BP arrives.
m'am, BP only tolerates groups operating with authority. the rest are run off or arrested. even drs without borders is required to have permission(authority).
You know what i did when i did my 2 week stint along the border?
we cleaned out camp sites, packed out trash, maintained aid stations for bp. guided a few folks in to thosse aid stations tooo
we would never have been ordered to a mission as this group did. if we had done this we would all be in a desert jailhouse.
What we do is search and rescue. thats our main purpose and what we train for 95% of the time.