A caravan of residents from across the country is heading from Virginia to the U.S.-Mexico border to protest the migrant crisis overwhelming border communities. The convoy kicks off as the Senate is weighing a bipartisan border security bill and comes a week after the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling allowing federal border agents to cut razor wire Texas has installed along its shores of the Rio Grande to deter unauthorized immigration.
The “Take Our Border Back Convoy” is broken into three groups, with one heading from Virginia to Texas, another splitting in Texas to Arizona, and a third from California to Arizona. Each of the final rallies is scheduled for Saturday.
Here’s what we know about the group and its plan for Saturday:
Why is there a border protest? Convoy organizers allege border is open
In a news release from mid-January, Organizers said the convoy of “concerned Americans” would head to three states to protest the migrant crisis along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Citing its First Amendment right to peaceably assemble, the group inaccurately suggest the border is open in their outline of reasons for the trip. As Axios notes, the U.S. hasn’t had an open southern border for a century and almost 50 ports of entry staffed with Border Patrol officers are stationed along the southern border.