Border crossers in the Sonoran Desert leave water bottles behind on the Mexico side.

If an intelligence memo recently issued from the FBI’s office in Phoenix is any kind of barometer, the agency apparently sees antifascists organizing along the border as a dire threat, with the potential to wreak serious harm against government agencies. Yet for the past 15 years—and even today—as right-wing extremists have been organizing vigilante “border watches” that turned out to be breeding grounds for criminality and murder, and whose recent iterations have produced a similar litany of violence, no such intelligence assessment has been proffered for advice to law enforcement officials as the FBI’s memo about “anarchist extremist” has.

Titled “Anarchist Extremists Very Likely Increasing Targeting of US Government Entities in Arizona, Increasing Risk of Armed Conflict,” the memo outlines its reasons for fearing threats from the far left, including concerns that more such activists appear to be arming themselves.

“FBI Phoenix assesses anarchist extremists (AEs) very likely are increasing the targeting of U.S. Government … law enforcement personnel and facilities along the Arizona border, increasing the risk of armed conflict,” it reads. “FBI Phoenix also assesses Arizona-based AEs likely are increasingly arming themselves and using lethal force to further their goals and in confrontations with ideologically opposed groups.”

While the memo discusses intelligence—much of which it acknowledges it only has “medium” confidence regarding its veracity—that might raise concerns among people convinced that these leftists are intent on violence, none of the actions discussed are necessarily criminal in nature. Indeed, most fall under the rubric of protected speech and perfectly legal behavior, most of it related to organizing protests, but including the purchase of weapons.