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A Dripping Springs business, One Shot Distillery, hosted a rally last week for the Take Our Border Back convoy, whose members largely identified themselves as members of “God’s army.”
The convoy initially commenced its journey in Virginia, traveling through the United States on the way to the U.S.Mexico border. The convoy included participants from across the county, including musician Ted Nugent and former Governor of Alaska Sarah Palin, touting a national call to action for “lawabiding, freedom-loving Americans” on its website. Organizers of the convoy have said they’re on a mission to stand up against the “globalists” who they claim are conspiring to keep U.S. borders open and “destroy the country,” as first reported by Vice.
Speakers at the Feb.
1 rally expressed mixed views on what they believed was the proper approach. Some emphasized the importance of prayer, while others supported more direct confrontation.
“It’s treasonous what our own federal government is doing to us,” Palin told the rally’s approximately 500 attendees. “It’s actually sanctioning an invasion, a foreign invasion across our border.”
Organizers said their intent was a “peaceful” gathering, and they raised almost $170,000 on crowdfunding website GiveSendGo. According to the fundraising page, these donations will go to “MISSION WTP HAG GAI 28,” referencing Bible verse Haggai 28.
From their stop in Dripping Springs, many convoy members continued their cross-country journey towards Eagle Pass, a city on the Texas-Mexico border. At Cornerstone Children’s Ranch, just off of the Rio Grande River, the convoy held another rally. No violent outbreaks or incidents were reported.
“We slept in the car,” Dripping Springs resident George Barton told the New York Times. He came with his wife, Terrie, 71, who wrote along the side of their car: “Immigration is good! Invasion is bad!”
“I do know that there are laws, and they are not being upheld,” Terrie added.
The convoy has been portrayed by media channels as part of a right-wing effort to support Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s in his standoff with U.S. President Joe Biden over border and immigration policies. In the last two years, Abbott has expanded his program of state-level enforcement at the border through what he coined Operation Lone Star. Eagle Pass, a crossing point for large groups of migrants, became a focal point for the initiative, especially after state law enforcement officers unfurled miles of concertina wire and took over a municipal park. A still ongoing legal battle between Texas and the federal government ensued. After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against Texas, saying federal border agents could continue cutting or removing concertina wire, many Republican state leaders publicly expressed disapproval, some of them offering to send state troops to Texas.
Later this month, Abbott will return to court to defend his latest expansion of the program: a new law that will allow law enforcement officers across Texas to arrest migrants who cross without permission from Mexico. The Biden administration has sued, arguing that the act violates the federal government’s authority over immigration law.
