By Ryan J. Reilly and Brandy Zadrozny -
NBC News
Some supporters of a caravan of truckers calling themselves patriots headed toward the U.S.-Mexico border have expressed violent rhetoric ahead of events planned for Saturday.
The group's organizers are emphasizing nonviolence as they struggle to organize an event as big as they said it would be, and convince their colleagues on the conspiracy-theory right that it's not some big hoax. Government.
The events titled
Take Our Border Back
have been advertised online as a "PEACEFUL ASSEMBLY AND PRAYER."
The organizers, who refer to themselves as “We the People" and the
Army of God
, have called on "
all active and retired law enforcement and military personnel
, veterans,
Mama Bears
[mothers protective of their children ] elected officials, business owners, ranchers, truckers, motorists, media, and freedom-loving, LAW-KEEPING Americans" to join them at events planned in three locations on Saturday: Eagles Pass, Texas; Yuma, Arizona; and San Ysidro, California.
Immigrants arrive to be processed by Border Patrol agents in Eagle Pass, Texas, on September 29, 2023.John Moore/Getty Images file
Some right-wing media outlets have exaggerated organizers' claims that 700,000 participants are expected on Saturday and thousands of trucks in the caravan, but images and live streams of the convoy have indicated a much smaller number.
A video posted Wednesday afternoon showed a few dozen vehicles and some semi-trailers.
"It's hard to predict how big it's going to be," Scot Saks, one of the group's leaders, told NBC News.
Social media posts in response to the events, which were reviewed by NBC News, include calls for civil war and violence.
The events have been announced on white nationalist and gun forums.
[These are the immigration and naturalization procedures that will increase in price]
"All Governor [Gregg] Abbott has to do is call the citizens and we will be armed and ready," one commenter wrote in a video.
Another sign said that members of the caravan should bring their "equipment so that
if things get complicated, they can protect themselves
and help." Another social media user posted a meme about "undocumented and untraceable" weapons and a note saying they were ready to join this "final battle for the Americans."
Saks, who is from California, said the group was not seeking confrontations with the government or migrants and that anyone who suggested otherwise on their Telegram channels had not heard what he considered to be a clear message coming from above.
"I think they're idiots," Saks said of people who post calls for violence.
"They're stupid. They're stupid Americans, they're stupid people. I mean, it's clear if you go to our website [...] these are peaceful assemblies."
The events scheduled for Saturday come amid right-wing acrimony after the Supreme Court last week authorized Border Patrol agents to remove barbed wire installed on the border by the state of Texas, which according to The federal government prevents agents from reaching immigrants in distress.
The White House and Senate are also currently negotiating bipartisan legislation to impose stricter immigration and asylum laws.
President Joe Biden declared that he will close the border when it is "overwhelmed" if he is given new authority in that agreement.
[Three people are charged in connection with the stabbing of a migrant in New York]
The first caravan to depart from Virginia on Monday
got off to a bit of a bumpy start
, according to livestreams posted by people who were part of the convoy.
A Wired reporter described the caravan's first day as "a complete disaster" as it headed to Florida.
As the news outlet Vice first reported, many potential supporters distrust the caravan and have posted on social media that they believe it is some kind of government setup.
That has been one of the main characteristics of conservative events after January 6: millions of Donald Trump supporters believe false conspiracy theories that the attack on the Capitol was a setup by the FBI or the
Deep State
to stop right-wing Americans.
Still, Saturday's events have been publicized by Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, and have received a boost from former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
"Where are the Texas men? Why aren't they protecting their state and the nation?" Carlson, who has 11.2 million followers on X, asked in a post on the social network formerly known as Twitter.
He next interviewed one of the caravan leaders, Dr. Pete Chambers.
Chambers served in the Texas National Guard on the southern border, but has said he left the military in 2022, after nearly 40 years, because of his opposition to mandating the COVID-19 vaccine.
He quickly
became a right-wing celebrity
, appearing on dozens of
podcasts
and panels where he claimed that he had suffered permanent injuries from the vaccine, that he had persuaded thousands of soldiers at the Texas-Mexico border to refuse to receive them, and that He was supposedly punished for his activism.
Chambers has also said that he treated soldiers infected with the coronavirus with ivermectin and hydroxychloride, drugs that have been shown to be ineffective against the viral disease, but that Trump promoted at the time.
[This is how the ordeal of a family separated by the broken US immigration system came to an end.]
Beyond vaccine misinformation, Chambers has promoted several other medical and government conspiracy theories, including that so-called globalists are planning another pandemic, that 5G cellular technology is an armed government threat against humanity, and that modified foods genetically they are part of a plot by "cabals" and "elites" to change human DNA and control the population.
Chambers also appeared in the anti-vaccine film
Died Suddenly
, revealing what he claimed was an increase in adverse reactions to vaccines among the military and a government plot to hide those injuries from the public, claims that have been widely denied.
Following his retirement, Chambers claimed to have recruited other retired military personnel to join a militia,
The Remnant A-Team
, and patrol the southern border.
The group, described by Chambers as a neighborhood watch, has been funded in part by the America Project, a conservative group that denies the election results, which sponsors and advocates for partisan audits of the 2020 elections and for changes in future elections based on unproven conspiracy theories.
Saks, one of the team members, stated that
he expects "thousands" of people to attend the three events
, and stated that they are "very well organized."
He called it a "grassroots" movement led by
podcasters
, bloggers and social media influencers.
Saks said anyone who causes trouble at the events will simply be asked to leave, noting that two of the three rallies will be held on private property, while the one in San Ysidro will be in a public park.
He expressed support for conspiracy theories that non-Trump supporters, whether federal agents or antifa, were responsible for the violence during the attack on the Capitol, and said there were "parallels to January 6 here [on the issue of the caravan]".
"If you don't believe
there were infiltrated and subversive people
, you haven't seen all the images I have," Saks said of January 6.
"It's obvious what I mean," Saks commented.
"I'll let you figure it out."