The Take Our Border Back convoy heading to Texas is expecting at least 700,000 people to turn out for their events on Feb. 3.
The organizers of the convoy left Virginia Monday and stopped overnight in Florida where they rallied for more people to join their cause and organized to try and push the Biden administration into taking action on border issues.
Pictures taken by The Post Tuesday morning show the painted vans and trucks who have joined the growing convoy in Jacksonville, Florida, as they prepared to head through Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana onto Quemado, Texas, near border security flashpoint Eagle Pass.
Organizer Kim Yeater told The Post: “To the naysayers: We’re just ordinary citizens, farmers, ranchers, retired police officers. Not crazy conspiracy theorists.
“It will be a peaceful assembly of Americans of all political classes and all ethnicities.
“We’ve got Canadian truckers, moms and dads. We’ve got motorcycles. If people could bring horses they’d bring horses. I know the numbers we are looking at are 700,000. I think it’ll possibly be bigger than that.”
A second convoy is leaving from California to Yuma, Arizona – another area where migrants have consistently overwhelmed the border, and where for months people were able to simply walk through open floodgates at Lukeville.
Yeater said the group is not against migration into the US, but argues things have got out of control, with over 2.4 million people encountered on the Southern border in the last fiscal year according to the Department of Homeland Security, and a record 300,000 in December alone.
She added: “The big open gates [along the wall] are all over the place. These were cut down from the inside out. There are huge openings …That cannot secure our border. That has got to be closed. We’re about taking a stand together to secure our borders.
“What’s really important is our goal, our mission is to shine the spotlight on open borders and educate Americans of imminent dangers to all Americans.
“We’re all about safe, legal, immigrations. By vetting the people coming in. I have moms [who will speak at the rallies on Saturday] speaking of children who died from fentanyl. I have one whose child was killed by an illegal immigrant who had crossed that border multiple times. She just left the cemetery yesterday, on what would have been his birthday.”
The mother, Anges Gibboney, will be speaking at the rally.
The convoy will not be putting up with “infiltrators” or “disruptors,” saying those who act up will be “handed over to authorities,” according to Yeater.
She also reiterated it was not a “political” event, saying: “This is not a right or left issue. It’s not. We’re the little guys we’re just standing up and saying ‘you’ve got to protect our home’. We put you in charge and now we’re holding them accountable.
“I have friends that are black, white, yellow. The full Vietnamese community (supports us),” she continued. “Any hate speech, any racists, any white supremacists, disruptors, provocations, infiltrators all not allowed.
“Anyone that is a three lettered agency or fed gov will need to show their badge to enter. All of that will be there. Making sure everyone is safe and this will remain peaceful.”
