Would-be participants are expressing fears that the demonstration could be a “psyop” or “honeypot,” spearheaded by the federal government.
By Tess A. Owen
VICE
January 29, 2024
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AN AERIAL VIEW OF THE AREA AS MIGRANTS WALKING ALONG RAZOR WIRE AFTER CROSSING THE RIO GRANDE INTO THE UNITED STATES ON JANUARY 28, 2024 IN EAGLE PASS, TEXAS. (LOKMAN VURAL ELIBOL/ANADOLU VIA GETTY IMAGES)
Paranoia about federal entrapment is looming large over the “Take Our Border Back” convoy, which departed Virginia Beach Monday morning and plans to arrive in Texas later this week.
By noon Monday, after a few hours on the road, the convoy had amassed just a few dozen participants—so far, predominantly men over the age of 60. The convoy’s promoters promised over 700,000 participants.
The low numbers could be due, in part, to conspiracy theories riddling Telegram channels for the convoy. Would-be participants are expressing fears that the demonstration could be a “psyop” or “honeypot,” spearheaded by the federal government and undercover agents with the goal of ensnaring right-wingers into a violent event. This is the basis of the Jan. 6 “fedsurrection” conspiracy theory, which around a quarter of Americans believe, according to recent polling.
“I have 3 former associates doing lengthy prison sentences because of the J6 setup,” one person wrote in the Telegram channel for the Texas contingent of the convoy. “I know first hand, even if they don’t have charges they can pin on you, they will make some up.”
One of the organizers, former military commander Pete Chambers, who says he was a green beret, put out a video message in which he appears to directly appeal to supposed undercover federal agents.
“If you start going after these people, trying to trap them, you’re going to be found out,” Chambers said. “There’s too much momentum on the other side bro, so just let it go. Stop working for that entity. They’re just going to tear you down, they’re going to use you like a kleenex, just like they did to me.”
The convoy is expected to stop over in Jacksonville, Florida, before making its way along the southern border. Three separate rallies are planned for Feb 3, in locations near Eagle Pass, Texas, Yuma, Arizona, and a third in San Ysidro, California.
All eyes are on Eagle Pass in particular, which is the epicenter of the standoff between the Biden Administration and Texas over border enforcement. Earlier this month, the Texas National Guard seized control of Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, which abuts a stretch of the Rio Grande that’s a popular point for unauthorized border crossings, and surrounded it with razor wire. The Biden Administration said that Texas’ actions had severely limited Border Patrol’s ability to survey the area—and prevented them from conducting rescue operations, which likely resulted in a migrant woman and two children drowning. Texas denied the allegation.
The Supreme Court ruled last week that the federal government—not Texas—had ultimate authority over the border. But Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has since doubled down on the state’s actions and blew past the Friday deadline set by the Biden Administration to allow Border Patrol access to Shelby Park. Governors of twenty-five red states have since signed onto statements supporting Texas, and some have sent reinforcements to the border after Donald Trump called on them to do so.
The escalating standoff has inspired civil war fantasies of a feds versus states showdown.
Organizers of the convoy, who include QAnon-world influencers and anti-vaxxers, characterized the demonstration as an “army of god,” and have spent the last couple days putting out PR fires—and trying to distance themself from any possible future unrest or bad optics. “No we are not militia friendly,” wrote Christina Holbrook aka “Thought Criminals,” who is an admin for the convoy’s Texas Telegram channel. Holbrook has also asked participants to leave their long guns at home.
Organizers are also trying to assuage fears that the convoy is a “false flag” or “psy-op,” trying to suggest that the government is sowing paranoia intentionally. “They are trying to scare the ppl with all their “fed” “Jan 6th” crap,” wrote Holbrook.
Last week on a planning call, one of the organizers also waved off concerns about entrapment. “When J6 happened, that’s DC, that has nothing to do with the United States. It’s its own continent,” said Mark Anthony. “This is a whole different ball game. We’re out in our country, not a foreign territory. Each state and county has been strategically thought through.”
Still, one person on the Telegram channel suggested that convoy participants bring zip ties with them so they can arrest anyone they believe to be “instigating.” “Basically make-shift cuffs and put them in time out,” she wrote. “You can’t fight them, you know they’re a paid fed or paid actor.” Another said that they’ve heard rumors of plain-clothed FBI agents stationed in Eagle Pass “to create unrest” and have decided to reroute to a different rally location.
Others are suggesting that people avoid the convoy altogether. In a YouTube broadcast on Sunday night, the channel LoveTravelAdventure, which is run by a trucking husband and wife influencer duo with nearly 100,000 subscribers, warned viewers about possible traps ahead. “You're being set up, and you’re advertising every move you’re making to the people who want to know the most,” the husband, who goes by “Red Viking,” said. “There is no 1776 happening so put that out of your mind.”
Red Viking also raised suspicions about organizer Pete Chambers. Green berets are “masters of psyops,” said Red Viking. “I’d love to believe he’s not a part of this,” he said, alluding to a government conspiracy to ensnare conservatives.
“All i’m gonna say to the people who are going to the border: don’t get caught in another January 6th event and do dumb shit to get entrapped by your corrupt government,” warned the Telegram Channel Woke Societies. Patriots.win
Far-right commentator Charlie Kirk also weighed in. “Please do not fall for obvious traps at the border,” Kirk wrote on X. “Let law enforcement handle this. Don’t create or join some ad-hoc “citizen militia.” Don’t be a one-man hero. Learn the lessons from the last 3 years.”
The last multi-state convoy in the U.S., in Jan. 2022, was an utter disaster—in part because of infighting about federal infiltration. Inspired by a relatively more successful event in Canada, truckers and their counterparts drove across the country to Washington, D.C. to protest vaccine mandates that didn’t exist. Big promises to “barricade” or “occupy” DC were quickly revealed to be bluster, and the convoy ended up parked at the Hagerstown Speedway in Maryland, just outside of the District, for over a week, before heading home.
January 29, 2024
AN AERIAL VIEW OF THE AREA AS MIGRANTS WALKING ALONG RAZOR WIRE AFTER CROSSING THE RIO GRANDE INTO THE UNITED STATES ON JANUARY 28, 2024 IN EAGLE PASS, TEXAS. (LOKMAN VURAL ELIBOL/ANADOLU VIA GETTY IMAGES)
Paranoia about federal entrapment is looming large over the “Take Our Border Back” convoy, which departed Virginia Beach Monday morning and plans to arrive in Texas later this week.
By noon Monday, after a few hours on the road, the convoy had amassed just a few dozen participants—so far, predominantly men over the age of 60. The convoy’s promoters promised over 700,000 participants.
The low numbers could be due, in part, to conspiracy theories riddling Telegram channels for the convoy. Would-be participants are expressing fears that the demonstration could be a “psyop” or “honeypot,” spearheaded by the federal government and undercover agents with the goal of ensnaring right-wingers into a violent event. This is the basis of the Jan. 6 “fedsurrection” conspiracy theory, which around a quarter of Americans believe, according to recent polling.
“I have 3 former associates doing lengthy prison sentences because of the J6 setup,” one person wrote in the Telegram channel for the Texas contingent of the convoy. “I know first hand, even if they don’t have charges they can pin on you, they will make some up.”
One of the organizers, former military commander Pete Chambers, who says he was a green beret, put out a video message in which he appears to directly appeal to supposed undercover federal agents.
“If you start going after these people, trying to trap them, you’re going to be found out,” Chambers said. “There’s too much momentum on the other side bro, so just let it go. Stop working for that entity. They’re just going to tear you down, they’re going to use you like a kleenex, just like they did to me.”
The convoy is expected to stop over in Jacksonville, Florida, before making its way along the southern border. Three separate rallies are planned for Feb 3, in locations near Eagle Pass, Texas, Yuma, Arizona, and a third in San Ysidro, California.
All eyes are on Eagle Pass in particular, which is the epicenter of the standoff between the Biden Administration and Texas over border enforcement. Earlier this month, the Texas National Guard seized control of Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, which abuts a stretch of the Rio Grande that’s a popular point for unauthorized border crossings, and surrounded it with razor wire. The Biden Administration said that Texas’ actions had severely limited Border Patrol’s ability to survey the area—and prevented them from conducting rescue operations, which likely resulted in a migrant woman and two children drowning. Texas denied the allegation.
The Supreme Court ruled last week that the federal government—not Texas—had ultimate authority over the border. But Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has since doubled down on the state’s actions and blew past the Friday deadline set by the Biden Administration to allow Border Patrol access to Shelby Park. Governors of twenty-five red states have since signed onto statements supporting Texas, and some have sent reinforcements to the border after Donald Trump called on them to do so.
The escalating standoff has inspired civil war fantasies of a feds versus states showdown.
Organizers of the convoy, who include QAnon-world influencers and anti-vaxxers, characterized the demonstration as an “army of god,” and have spent the last couple days putting out PR fires—and trying to distance themself from any possible future unrest or bad optics. “No we are not militia friendly,” wrote Christina Holbrook aka “Thought Criminals,” who is an admin for the convoy’s Texas Telegram channel. Holbrook has also asked participants to leave their long guns at home.
Organizers are also trying to assuage fears that the convoy is a “false flag” or “psy-op,” trying to suggest that the government is sowing paranoia intentionally. “They are trying to scare the ppl with all their “fed” “Jan 6th” crap,” wrote Holbrook.
Last week on a planning call, one of the organizers also waved off concerns about entrapment. “When J6 happened, that’s DC, that has nothing to do with the United States. It’s its own continent,” said Mark Anthony. “This is a whole different ball game. We’re out in our country, not a foreign territory. Each state and county has been strategically thought through.”
Still, one person on the Telegram channel suggested that convoy participants bring zip ties with them so they can arrest anyone they believe to be “instigating.” “Basically make-shift cuffs and put them in time out,” she wrote. “You can’t fight them, you know they’re a paid fed or paid actor.” Another said that they’ve heard rumors of plain-clothed FBI agents stationed in Eagle Pass “to create unrest” and have decided to reroute to a different rally location.
Others are suggesting that people avoid the convoy altogether. In a YouTube broadcast on Sunday night, the channel LoveTravelAdventure, which is run by a trucking husband and wife influencer duo with nearly 100,000 subscribers, warned viewers about possible traps ahead. “You're being set up, and you’re advertising every move you’re making to the people who want to know the most,” the husband, who goes by “Red Viking,” said. “There is no 1776 happening so put that out of your mind.”
Red Viking also raised suspicions about organizer Pete Chambers. Green berets are “masters of psyops,” said Red Viking. “I’d love to believe he’s not a part of this,” he said, alluding to a government conspiracy to ensnare conservatives.
“All i’m gonna say to the people who are going to the border: don’t get caught in another January 6th event and do dumb shit to get entrapped by your corrupt government,” warned the Telegram Channel Woke Societies. Patriots.win
Far-right commentator Charlie Kirk also weighed in. “Please do not fall for obvious traps at the border,” Kirk wrote on X. “Let law enforcement handle this. Don’t create or join some ad-hoc “citizen militia.” Don’t be a one-man hero. Learn the lessons from the last 3 years.”
The last multi-state convoy in the U.S., in Jan. 2022, was an utter disaster—in part because of infighting about federal infiltration. Inspired by a relatively more successful event in Canada, truckers and their counterparts drove across the country to Washington, D.C. to protest vaccine mandates that didn’t exist. Big promises to “barricade” or “occupy” DC were quickly revealed to be bluster, and the convoy ended up parked at the Hagerstown Speedway in Maryland, just outside of the District, for over a week, before heading home.
The ‘Take Our Border Back’ Convoy Is Already a Complete Mess
Instead of immigrants, the group of extremists mostly battled each other, paranoia, and their GPS systems.
DAVID GILBERT
JAN 30, 2024
Wire spikes on the border are viewed in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on January 29, 2024.PHOTOGRAPH: DAVID PEINADO/ANADOLU VIA GETTY IMAGES
On Monday morning, the organizers of the Take Our Border Back convoy kicked off their road trip to the Texas–Mexico border in Virginia Beach. Though they claimed that up to 40,000 trucks would be joining, only 20 vehicles made up the convoy as it rolled into Jacksonville, Florida, 14 hours later. The promised support had not materialized—not a single truck showed up, tires were reportedly slashed, participants got lost, and paranoia struck the group. In short, the convoy was a complete mess.
The convoy was organized last week as a show of support for Texas governor Greg Abbott and his decision to defy the federal government and President Joe Biden about the installation of razor wire along the Texas–Mexico border in Eagle Pass, Texas. While at least one organizer initially said they planned to hunt down migrants along the border in collaboration with sympathetic members of law enforcement, the group appeared to walk back that assertion on Monday, issuing a statement that the convoy would not be heading to the border at all but instead going to Quemado, a tiny town in Catron County, Texas. The group’s website, however, still lists the route of the convoy as “Virginia Beach, VA, to Eagle Pass,” and members of the planning group on Telegram still say they are going to the Texas border.
The organizers also repeatedly stated that the event was peaceful, though online chats in a related Telegram group show members discussing “exterminating” migrants. A known white nationalist who was kicked out of the People’s Convoy in 2022, Ryan Sanchez, is among those most active in the group. Sanchez was previously a Marine Corp reservist who says he was kicked out after he was reported to have been demonstrating alongside the Rise Above Movement, an alt-right street-fighting group that took part in the neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, which led to the death of one counterprotester.
“I think the Eagle Pass rally is going to be the ’main event,’” Sanchez wrote in the convoy Telegram channel. “We need to think strategically and concentrate our limited resources where they will have the greatest effect.”
But on the first day of the convoy, some attendees woke up to find their tires slashed, according to one of the main livestreamers who posted pictures on X of the cars outside a motel. The meeting point also had to be hastily rearranged on Monday morning when the owners of the original location told the organizers they couldn’t gather there.
When the convoy did finally come together in a hotel parking lot in Norfolk, Virginia, there were a few dozen people and around 20 vehicles, based on video footage reviewed by WIRED and comments made by the livestreamers responding to questions from supporters.
The day began with a speech from Craig Hudgins, one of the organizers, who stressed that the event was a "peaceful, peaceable demonstration.” Hudgins also claimed—without evidence—that he had heard that up to “40,000 truckers from all over the country and Canada” would be joining the convoy—although not a single one of those trucks managed to join the group during the first day. The convoy members also heard from Ivan Raiklin, who was involved in the efforts to block Joe Biden’s election win and is an ally of disgraced national security adviser Michael Flynn.
Finally, after a prayer from a pastor linked to the Church Militant, a far-right religious website, the convoy rolled out an hour later than scheduled and headed down I-95. It was spearheaded by a bus covered in MAGA slogans.
Almost immediately, one of the vehicles in the convoy got lost, according to messages posted in the Zello walkie-talkie app that the group is using to communicate while on the road. Later, when the convoy linked up to discuss evening plans, the meeting quickly descended into an argument about where they were going to be staying. Even trying to meet up at a gas station was difficult: Due to the size of a Buc-ee’s in South Carolina, convoy members couldn’t locate each other.
A few hours into the trip, the lead bus pulled over onto the highway shoulder and kicked out one of the people onboard, who had traveled on his own from Washington, DC. It was unclear exactly why he was ejected, but the man, who is part of a group that protests daily in support of people jailed for rioting at the Capitol on January 6, was left stranded in Florence, South Carolina, without his wallet, according to details discussed on a livestream of someone in contact with the man.
Throughout the day, the half-dozen people livestreaming the convoy spent much of their time responding to questions from some of the thousands of people watching.
Most of the questions were about the conspiracy that the convoy is a “setup” by the federal government to “entrap patriots.” That sense of paranoia has been present in the group from the very beginning, according to leaks of the group’s chats on Discord: “This will end up loaded with trolls and feds in no time,” one member wrote a week ago.
Paranoia was also prevalent on the Telegram channels used to coordinate the convoy in different parts of the country. “I hope it’s not another J6 trap. People need to pray for discernment about this. But after 3 years of this people are sick of it,” one member wrote, referring to the widely debunked conspiracy that the Capitol insurrection was a left-wing plan to trap Trump supporters.
On Monday, after the cars had started on the road, organizers issued a press release, claiming “groups are forming to infiltrate the convoy.” The statement also claims that “nowhere on the website does it say anything about the convoy going to the border,” which is inaccurate, as the route for the main convoy clearly states the final destination is Eagle Pass.
Additionally, one of the organizers of the convoy, Pete Chambers, told Alex Jones last week that his plan included traveling to the border to hunt migrants and work with local law enforcement to capture them. Among those traveling with the convoy, multiple people on Monday mentioned going to Eagle Pass. “We’re all going to the border,” one member declared on the livestream on Monday night.
Though the convoy’s start was full of mishaps, others planning to join the convoy still appear to be taking their plans seriously. Online, a number of people are openly talking about going to the border: “Those going to Eagle Pass on Saturday, message me,” one member of the Texas-focused Take Our Border Back Telegram channel wrote. “I'm organizing level 2 security detail composed of veterans and prior law enforcement guys. We're not going to engage any threats or go in guns blazing. We'll just keep a watchful eye and report any suspicious behavior.”
As the convoy has gained some media attention, the Telegram channels have been scrubbed of a lot of the more virulent, racist, and violent language used by members. However, leaks of the Telegram chat detail clearly how members spoke openly about “exterminating” migrants.
Since Abbott issued his letter in defiance of the Biden administration, he has seen support flow in from dozens of GOP governors and former president Donald Trump, who has urged other states to send troops to Texas. The convoy has been portrayed in right-wing media in recent days as part of a wider right-wing effort to support Abbott and resist Biden’s immigration policies, and as a result, its organizers have been able to raise over $140,000 on a Christian-focused crowdfunding website.
On Tuesday morning, the convoy departed Jacksonville for Baton Rouge, Louisiana, with a few more vehicles joining the group—but still no trucks.
David Gilbert is a reporter at WIRED who is covering disinformation and online extremism, and how these two online trends will impact people's lives across the globe, with a special focus on the 2024 US presidential election. Prior to WIRED, he worked at VICE News. He lives in Ireland.
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