Suddenly, this Saturday, a ranch in a tiny Texas border town became the temporary capital of Trumpism. Hundreds of white men and women with American and Texas flags; Posters against the Black Lives Matter movement or gays, slogans from the current Republican candidate's campaign such as “Let's take back America” or “Let's take back our border” and hats in support of former President Donald Trump went to the Cornerstone Children Ranch, in Quemado. It was the last stop of a convoy that traveled for a week across half the United States to reach this border area with Mexico, Eagle Pass. The reason for this caravan, which called itself the “Army of God,” was to show support for Gov. Greg Abbott, who had deployed the National Guard to try to wrest immigration control from federal authorities. Despite fears of possible incidents, the gathering was peaceful under strict police surveillance. But extremism experts warn that the dispute gives rise to conspiracy theories, white supremacy and the same rhetoric that inspired the violence in Congress.
“We are here to demand the return of our land,” said Sandy, a 71-year-old retired teacher originally from New York who lives in Florida. A former Barack Obama voter, she is now a passionate Trump supporter and says she traveled from home specifically to support his program. “It's not enough to talk, we also have to act, and here we are. These border states are being flooded with all the illegal immigrants. And they do it because they know that the current government will offer them all possible relief. But soon this country will be great again,” he emphasizes, referring to the November elections.
Just a few miles beyond the ranch where the gathering is taking place, the atmosphere is much more volatile. Eagle Pass, a population of 28,000 people, has become the epicenter of a confrontation between Abbott and the federal government over control of the border in the last month.
Abbott, of the hardline Republican wing, declares the entry of migrants an “invasion” and has taken what he calls “unprecedented measures” against the flow of irregular migrants, which accounted for 2.4 million entries in 2023, 14% more than in Year 2022, and more than 300,000 of them in December. In the Del Río Sector, which includes Eagle Pass, there were 15,833 interceptions in fiscal year 2018 and more than 152,000 in the first three months of this budget cycle, which began in October.
With the arrival of Democratic President Joe Biden's administration, Abbott launched his Operation Lone Star to combat irregular immigration with soldiers from his and the Florida National Guard sent by governor and former Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis. It has also sent buses carrying irregular migrants to cities under Democratic control and last year placed bladed buoys in the Rio Grande that marks the border to prevent crossings. In January of that year, he had the Texas National Guard take control of Shelby Park in Eagle Pass on the riverfront, blocking the passage of the Federal Border Patrol, which until then had been using the site as one of its operations centers.
Since then, the federal and Texas governments have been locked in a battle in which neither wants to give in: the Supreme Court has ruled in favor of Washington, which remembers that border control is its responsibility, but Abbott has chosen to assert it The state has the right to self-defense. Instead of removing the concertina wires and barbed wire, he assures that he will install more, although his critics denounce that this endangers lives and violates the US Constitution: along Main Street, the street that leads to the bridges , which the city is connected to in Mexico, ambulances often drive by to treat migrants injured by buoys or wire fences. What was once a place where neighbors fished, organized picnics or listened to concerts is now a militarized post where soldiers with machine guns control access, golfers must dodge military trucks and the baseball field represents the days of the helipad.
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Fears that extremists attracted by the concentration in Quemado could approach Shelby Park and cause unrest led this Saturday to local police blocking access. A man who identifies himself as Max and a former soldier attacks the agents because they couldn't pass: “You're violating my civil rights!” Shame on them for protecting illegals instead of patriots!”
Up to 25 Republican governors have sided with Abbott. Former President Trump also wrote on his social network Truth Social that Texas “must receive full support to repel the invasion.”
Calls of this kind go hand in hand with increasingly tough positions on border control, which Republicans want to make a major campaign issue this election year. A bill negotiated by Republicans and Democrats in Congress that would tighten control measures – it stipulates that Biden can close the border if an average of 5,000 illegal border crossings are detected daily for a week – is on the verge of failure due to the opposition of the hard wing first.
This rhetoric and Abbott's rebellion only exacerbate divisions in an already deeply divided society and normalize violent language and ideas – including the so-called “grand substitution theory,” which posits that there is a grand plan to replace the white American population with minorities – which Until a few years ago, extremism experts were considered marginal. “The confrontation between Texas and the federal government has become a magnet for vigilantism [corriente que propugna la autodefensa cuando el Estado falla] rightmost. A perfect example of this troubling issue is the “Reclaim Our Border” convoy that arrived at the Eagle Pass conflict site this weekend,” said Devin Burghart, president of the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights (IREHR).
“From the caravan organizers down, the protest includes the same dangerous elements that participated in the January 6 insurrection (which stormed the Capitol to prevent Joe Biden from becoming president in 2021): militia members, election deniers.” Results , QAnon conspiracy theorists, Covid negotiators and other right-wing extremists,” says the expert.
Groups like the Proud Boys, which played a major role in the January 6 riots, have been very vocal in their support of Abbott and his positions and have not hesitated to use violent language. A member of this militia in South Texas urged his followers on the social network Telegram to “take up their weapons.” Supporters of the neo-Nazi group Aryan Network called on white men to “resist.”
“Everyone in power, from the White House to hedge fund managers to the Supreme Court of the United States, has decided to destroy this country by allowing an invasion. This means that the population has to defend itself. Where are the men from Texas? “Why aren’t they protecting their state and the country?” Former Fox network commentator Tucker Carlson tweeted last week.
Congressmen like Verónica Escobar, Democrat of Texas, recall that this kind of rhetoric led to the 2019 massacre in El Paso – this congresswoman's district – when a white supremacist opened fire at a Walmart chain store, killing 23 people and one another injured 22 in retaliation for what he viewed as a “Hispanic invasion.” “We cannot accept the status quo and we cannot accept the normalization of this language because it is normalizing and we must stop it,” Escobar warned in a telephone press conference last Thursday.
Regarding the Army of God caravan, Burghart nevertheless says: “I am less worried about this particular episode (…) and more about the impact that this kind of rhetoric will have on reality.”
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