James Gang continued through January 2006. At Against All Odds on February 12, 2006, Apolo and Homicide were scheduled to wrestle the James Gang. Apolo, however, had been released from TNA earlier that month for no-showing an event. His departure was explained on-screen by Konnan, who simply stated that the LAX was expanding, then introduced Apolo's replacement, the debuting Machete. Homicide and Machete went on to lose to the James Gang. On the March 18, 2006 episode of Impact, Homicide and Machete lost to Shark Boy and Norman Smiley after Konnan inadvertently hit Machete with his slapjack. After the match, Konnan tore off Machete's Puerto Rican t-shirt and threw him out of the stable. On the March 31 episode of TNA Xplosion, Konnan justified why he fired Machete, pointing to Machete's loss to Shark Boy. Later that evening, Konnan introduced the newest member of the LAX, the returning Hernandez. Hernandez and Homicide teamed together in a loss to Chris Sabin and Jay Lethal. The Militant Thugs (2006–2007) LAX were next involved in an angle where they refused to wrestle, claiming that Latinos were "discriminated" against in TNA. The storyline borrowed heavily from the then-current controversy surrounding illegal immigration. During this time Konnan established a "border" around the Spanish announcer area (where he provided Spanish commentary alongside Moody Jack Meléndez) and denied entry to non-Latino individuals (they usually used the derogatory term "gringo" when referring to American wrestlers or non-Latino wrestlers in general). LAX often jumped any wrestlers who wander too close to the area. On the June 29 episode of Impact!, Jim Cornette declared that LAX's work stoppage would mean a "check stoppage". Homicide would wrestle on the July 6 episode, with the stipulation that LAX have a special Spanish ring entrance, announced by Melendez. Konnan later made an offer to Ron "The Truth" Killings to join LAX. After Killings denied the offer, LAX assaulted him. LAX also attempted to give Sonjay Dutt a similar beating after one of Dutt's matches, but Killings interfered and made the save; this led to a tag team match at Victory Road between Homicide and Hernandez and Killings and Dutt. Hernandez picked up the victory for LAX after applying the Border Toss on Dutt. On the July 20 episode of Impact!, the NWA World Tag Team Champions A.J. Styles and Christopher Daniels made an open challenge in which they offered any team on the