Citizen's group taking border battle into own hands

PINAL COUNTY, AZ - JT Ready and a group of armed men are taking Arizona's border battle into their own hands this weekend.

"This is the Minutemen project on steroids," he said.

Ready is a member of the Nationalist Socialist Movement, and he and his citizen's militia group are tired of waiting.

"We're going to go all night and shut down the drug corridor that comes directly into Phoenix," Ready said. "We have guys that are going to be doing some covert stuff and we have some snipers coming out."

Though some people call what this group is doing extreme, they are far from alone.

As Arizona continues to be at the epicenter of the U.S. immigration debate, state law enforcement agencies and other departments are seeing a growing trend of people asking to help secure the border.

"With calling and writing emails, probably 100 plus a day," said Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu.

Babeu's county is one of the nation's worst for drug trafficking and human smuggling.

And Patrick Bray with the Arizona Cattlemen's Association said his office has been receiving a lot of calls as well from people asking to help ranchers patrol their land.

"It's been a pretty big response," he said. "We tell them 'Thanks, but no thanks.' This is something for the federal government."

But that's why Ready said his group feels the need to act.

He said the federal government is not doing enough, and that now is the time to act.

"Defending our nation is dangerous," Ready said. "We have some brave patriots that are willing to put their lives on the line."

But Babeu said he's worried about what could happen.

"There's more to this than just going out there with a gun," he said. "People are getting killed out there, and we have drug cartels at war with each other."