A group of demonstrators who want to raise awareness about the U.S.-Mexico border situation was traveling Friday to Eagle Pass, Texas — a city that has become a hotspot in the immigration debate.
The group, called “God’s Army”, started in Norfolk, Virginia, and had stopped in Florida and Louisiana before arriving in Dripping Spring, Texas. They planned to go to Eagle Pass to, as they put it, back up local law enforcement.
The group had a rally Thursday night with hundreds of people attending, and many more in the community curious about the event. Rock star and political activist Ted Nugent played music, and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin spoke to the crowd.
“What our federal government is doing to us is unconscionable, it’s treasonous, it’s actually sanctioning an invasion,” Palin said of the number of migrants crossing into the U.S. illegally.
The group had about 50 vehicles before reaching Dripping Spring. Organizers say the group has collected about $160,000 so far.
The group says its mission is to fight against “globalists” who they say are plotting to keep the U.S. border open and let immigrants enter illegally from Mexico.
The group is inviting active and retired law enforcement, military, veterans, elected officials and other “LAW ABIDING, freedom-loving Americans” to join them. Their aim is to “expose the clear dangers of wide open Southern borders,” according to a press release dated Jan. 12.
What Locals Are Saying
Catherina Castaneda, who lives near where the group plans to have a rally, told NewsNation that while she agrees with the group’s worries about the border, she is concerned about having so many people come to the area at once.
“They’re (the group) moving everything to Quemado,” said Castaneda. “If you don’t know Quemado, we’re a very small community. We have a lot of farms and a lot of country roads. Where are all these trucks going to park? Are you going to be on my road? If there are people who are going to protest, what do we get ready for?”
How It Started
The group comes amid a bitter legal conflict involving the White House, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and the Supreme Court.
Abbott, a Republican, said this week the fight “is not over” after the high court ruled to let Border Patrol agents cut barbed wire that Texas put on the U.S.-Mexico border while a lawsuit over the wire goes on.
Texas sued the federal government after Border Patrol agents started cutting the wire, and the justices agreed with the Biden administration.
On Thursday, 25 Republican governors issued a statement of support for Abbott for “taking action to protect American citizens from historic levels of illegal immigration, deadly drugs like fentanyl and terrorists entering our country.”
They also slammed President Joe Biden’s border policies, saying the U.S. is still at risk of unprecedented illegal immigration. Data released Friday by Customs and Border Protection show there were 302,034 encounters at the southern border in December, a record monthly high.
Source: News Nation
