As Conspiracy Theorists Intensify Attacks
Trump-allied operatives have baselessly accused the National Butterfly Center of being involved with child trafficking.
By Josephine Harvey
02/01/2022
A South Texas butterfly sanctuary will close indefinitely due to safety concerns after it was repeatedly targeted by right-wing conspiracy theorists who baselessly accused it of aiding human traffickers.
“[The] Board has decided to close the center, but continue to pay staff, for the immediate future,” National Butterfly Center Director Marianna Treviño-Wright told HuffPost Tuesday.
“The board’s paramount concern is the safety of staff, members and visitors,” she added. “So for that reason, they have made the decision to close the center for the immediate future while they seek expert advice and formulate a plan that will best serve our interests and public safety moving forward.”
The butterfly conservatory, which pushed back against Trump administration efforts to erect sections of a U.S.-Mexico border wall near its nature preserve in Mission, Texas, has been tied up in litigation for years with the former presidential administration and its allies at We Build The Wall, making it an ongoing target for harassment.
The sanctuary closed from Friday to Sunday for the duration of the We Stand America border security rally nearby, headlined by QAnon conspiracy theorists and supporters of former President Donald Trump. Treviño-Wright said she received a warning from an acquaintance involved with Republican politics to be “armed at all times or out of town” during the rally because she and the park would be a target for its attendees.
The park reopened on Monday and Tuesday to members only, but will now close to both members and the rest of the public amid ongoing fears for the safety of its staff and patrons.
The entrance to the National Butterfly Center on Jan. 15, 2019, in Mission, Texas.
SUZANNE CORDEIRO VIA GETTY IMAGES
On Monday, Treviño-Wright had told HuffPost that the board of the North American Butterfly Association, the National Butterfly Center’s parent organization, would have to “decide whether we’re going to stay open or not because of the stochastic terrorism that all of these political operatives are trying to stir up against us.”
A spokesperson for the Mission Police Department confirmed Treviño-Wright had been in touch with police about her concerns. He said police officers would continue to do standard community patrols. “Our response time is fast,” he said.
Following news reports about the butterfly center’s decision to shut down for the weekend, several attendees of the We Stand America event shot and posted footage near the National Butterfly Center’s sign.
A Republican congressional candidate from South Carolina, Lynz Piper-Loomis, posted a video of herself and Women Fighting for America founder Christie Hutcherson near the sign, saying they could see no evidence of a “threat” against the center.
And they seemed to suggest the perceived threat was against the butterflies, not the people at the park.
“We need to protect the butterflies. I agree with that. So Biden, why don’t you build the wall to protect the butterflies?” asked Hutcherson, who attended the Jan. 6, 2021 rally that preceded the Capitol riot and is described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as “a far-right religious zealot” who participates in border vigilante activities.
“Why are you more concerned about butterflies, than you are [about] little children who are being trafficked?” she added, claiming that human traffickers “use the butterfly land.”
Another clip was posted over the weekend by Ben Bergquam, a correspondent for Real America Voice, a far-right news site that also hosts Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast.
In it, he is holding a child’s shoe with the butterfly center’s sign in the background, claiming the shoe is from “one of the children that was trafficked.”
Marianna Treviño-Wright said this doctored image of rafts at the butterfly center's dock was shared online in 2019, when she was repeatedly targeted with defamatory and malicious lies by former Trump White House strategist Steve Bannon and We Build The Wall founder Brian Kolfage.
VIA NATIONAL BUTTERFLY CENTER
A spokesperson for the Mission Police Department said undocumented crossings take place at many junctions along the border and that he wasn’t aware of any reports that there is specific activity at the butterfly center’s premises.
U.S. Border Patrol did not return multiple requests for comment.
Attendees of the We Stand America rally were also pictured at a section of the border over the weekend, toting flags and singing “Amazing Grace.” At least one man was carrying an assault rifle. According to the event page, it included a “caravan” to the border.
A week prior to the rally, a right-wing congressional candidate from Virginia, Kimberly Lowe, had visited the center, shooting videos for social media and accusing staff of being “OK with children being trafficked and raped.”
The Mission Police Department was called to the premises. The department told HuffPost that its investigation into the matter is ongoing.
Lowe told HuffPost on Friday that following the publication of news reports about her, Hutcherson turned her away from the We Stand America rally. Lowe claimed she was told that she had endangered the event.
Trump-allied operatives have baselessly accused the National Butterfly Center of being involved with child trafficking.
By Josephine Harvey
02/01/2022
A South Texas butterfly sanctuary will close indefinitely due to safety concerns after it was repeatedly targeted by right-wing conspiracy theorists who baselessly accused it of aiding human traffickers.
“[The] Board has decided to close the center, but continue to pay staff, for the immediate future,” National Butterfly Center Director Marianna Treviño-Wright told HuffPost Tuesday.
“The board’s paramount concern is the safety of staff, members and visitors,” she added. “So for that reason, they have made the decision to close the center for the immediate future while they seek expert advice and formulate a plan that will best serve our interests and public safety moving forward.”
The butterfly conservatory, which pushed back against Trump administration efforts to erect sections of a U.S.-Mexico border wall near its nature preserve in Mission, Texas, has been tied up in litigation for years with the former presidential administration and its allies at We Build The Wall, making it an ongoing target for harassment.
The sanctuary closed from Friday to Sunday for the duration of the We Stand America border security rally nearby, headlined by QAnon conspiracy theorists and supporters of former President Donald Trump. Treviño-Wright said she received a warning from an acquaintance involved with Republican politics to be “armed at all times or out of town” during the rally because she and the park would be a target for its attendees.
The park reopened on Monday and Tuesday to members only, but will now close to both members and the rest of the public amid ongoing fears for the safety of its staff and patrons.
The entrance to the National Butterfly Center on Jan. 15, 2019, in Mission, Texas.
SUZANNE CORDEIRO VIA GETTY IMAGES
On Monday, Treviño-Wright had told HuffPost that the board of the North American Butterfly Association, the National Butterfly Center’s parent organization, would have to “decide whether we’re going to stay open or not because of the stochastic terrorism that all of these political operatives are trying to stir up against us.”
A spokesperson for the Mission Police Department confirmed Treviño-Wright had been in touch with police about her concerns. He said police officers would continue to do standard community patrols. “Our response time is fast,” he said.
Following news reports about the butterfly center’s decision to shut down for the weekend, several attendees of the We Stand America event shot and posted footage near the National Butterfly Center’s sign.
A Republican congressional candidate from South Carolina, Lynz Piper-Loomis, posted a video of herself and Women Fighting for America founder Christie Hutcherson near the sign, saying they could see no evidence of a “threat” against the center.
And they seemed to suggest the perceived threat was against the butterflies, not the people at the park.
“We need to protect the butterflies. I agree with that. So Biden, why don’t you build the wall to protect the butterflies?” asked Hutcherson, who attended the Jan. 6, 2021 rally that preceded the Capitol riot and is described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as “a far-right religious zealot” who participates in border vigilante activities.
“Why are you more concerned about butterflies, than you are [about] little children who are being trafficked?” she added, claiming that human traffickers “use the butterfly land.”
Another clip was posted over the weekend by Ben Bergquam, a correspondent for Real America Voice, a far-right news site that also hosts Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast.
In it, he is holding a child’s shoe with the butterfly center’s sign in the background, claiming the shoe is from “one of the children that was trafficked.”
Marianna Treviño-Wright said this doctored image of rafts at the butterfly center's dock was shared online in 2019, when she was repeatedly targeted with defamatory and malicious lies by former Trump White House strategist Steve Bannon and We Build The Wall founder Brian Kolfage.
VIA NATIONAL BUTTERFLY CENTER
A spokesperson for the Mission Police Department said undocumented crossings take place at many junctions along the border and that he wasn’t aware of any reports that there is specific activity at the butterfly center’s premises.
U.S. Border Patrol did not return multiple requests for comment.
Attendees of the We Stand America rally were also pictured at a section of the border over the weekend, toting flags and singing “Amazing Grace.” At least one man was carrying an assault rifle. According to the event page, it included a “caravan” to the border.
A week prior to the rally, a right-wing congressional candidate from Virginia, Kimberly Lowe, had visited the center, shooting videos for social media and accusing staff of being “OK with children being trafficked and raped.”
The Mission Police Department was called to the premises. The department told HuffPost that its investigation into the matter is ongoing.
Lowe told HuffPost on Friday that following the publication of news reports about her, Hutcherson turned her away from the We Stand America rally. Lowe claimed she was told that she had endangered the event.
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