XPost: talk.politics.guns, misc.immigration.usa, tx.politics   
   XPost: alt.politics.trump, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, talk.politics.guns   
   From: incompetent.biden.and.harris@morons.com   
      
   (Reuters) - A vehicle convoy carrying Americans opposed to illegal   
   immigration plans to rally at three points near the U.S.-Mexico border on   
   Saturday, with organizers saying the action will focus on peaceful protest   
   and prayer.   
      
   Critics of the convoy, however, worry it could fuel anti-immigrant   
   sentiment at a time of acrimonious political sparring over the border and   
   high numbers of migrant crossings.   
      
   The “Take Our Border Back” convoy set off from Virginia this week and aims   
   to hold events near Eagle Pass, Texas - the site of an ongoing standoff   
   between the U.S. state and federal authorities over border security - as   
   well as in Yuma, Arizona, and San Ysidro, California.   
      
   Two truckers who led legs of the convoy - Vincent Saben of Massachusetts   
   and Kip Coltrin of Louisiana - estimated between 70 and 300 vehicles had   
   participated as of Thursday morning. Reuters could not independently   
   verify the figures.   
      
   The convoy hopes to bring more attention to border security as the number   
   of migrants caught illegally crossing into the U.S. has reached record   
   highs under President Joe Biden, a Democrat seeking reelection in   
   November. Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, the   
   party’s leading presidential candidate, have called for more restrictive   
   policies and sought to motivate their base voters with the issue.   
      
   Eagle Pass has become a flashpoint in a dispute between the White House   
   and Texas’ Republican Governor Greg Abbott over federal and state powers   
   to deal with illegal immigration. Texas has deployed National Guard troops   
   to the border and laid concertina wire and floating buoy barriers in the   
   Rio Grande in an effort to deter migrant crossings, leading to legal and   
   political disputes with the Biden administration.   
      
   In a separate high-profile event in Eagle Pass planned for Sunday, Abbott   
   is due to appear with 14 Republican governors to defend the state’s border   
   enforcement actions.   
      
   U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not respond to a request for   
   comment regarding the convoy.   
      
   A Reuters/Ipsos poll in late January found rising concern about   
   immigration among Americans, with Republicans ranking it as the top issue.   
      
   Trump has made immigration a key focus of his reelection campaign and   
   sparked controversy by repeatedly saying that immigrants in the U.S.   
   illegally were "poisoning the blood of our country," language that has   
   drawn criticism as xenophobic and echoing of Nazi rhetoric.   
      
   BOOSTED ONLINE   
      
   Details about the convoy have reverberated around right-wing media,   
   amplified by high-profile figures including former Fox News host Tucker   
   Carlson and Infowars founder and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.   
   Participants and supporters have organized and promoted the convoy on   
   social media and in chat groups, including a “Take Our Border Back”   
   Telegram channel, which as of Thursday had more than 4,400 members.   
      
   A video promoting the convoy begins with “Warning: Invasion Alert,” and   
   organizers and advisers have framed the action in religious, sometimes   
   apocalyptic terms, describing the convoy in an interview streamed on   
   online video platform Rumble as “God’s vision” and the illegal border   
   crossings as “the biggest spiritual battle the world has ever seen.”   
      
   Coltrin said the event was intended to be peaceful and organizers expected   
   a “hefty” law enforcement presence at the rallies. “Should migrants cross,   
   that is no business of the convoy,” he said, adding that while some   
   participants might be armed, Texas is an “open carry” state.   
      
   Stephen Piggott, an expert on right-wing extremism at the social-justice   
   nonprofit Western States Center, said he is concerned that the convoy and   
   attention it has generated could spur more people into taking action   
   against migrants or the groups that assist them, regardless of how many   
   people show up at the rally.   
      
   In 2022 a similar "People's Convoy" of more than a thousand vehicles   
   traveled from California to the outskirts of Washington, D.C., as part of   
   a protest against COVID-19 restrictions.   
      
   Republican Representative Tony Gonzales, whose district includes Eagle   
   Pass, told Reuters he understands many Americans are frustrated over   
   border issues, but that he won’t be joining Saturday’s rally.   
      
   “Those of us that live on the border, that work on the border, we're   
   exhausted,” Gonzales said. “Eagle Pass, three years ago, no one even knew   
   it existed. And now it's in the news every single day. And many of us, all   
   of us, we just want to get our lives back.”   
      
   (Reporting by Helen Coster and Mica Rosenberg in New York and Ted Hesson   
   in Washington; Additional reporting by David Morgan in Washington; Editing   
   by Mary Milliken and Daniel Wallis)   
      
   https://news.yahoo.com/border-back-vehicle-convoy-rally-110512744.html   
      
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