Hundreds of protesters gathered for prayer-filled rallies in three border states Saturday to demand an end to illegal immigration — capping a cross-country convoy that dubbed itself “God’s Army” as it rolled from Virginia to Texas this week.
“This is a national security crisis,” organizer Scotty Saks told a crowd of about 200 in San Ysidro, Calif., at the first of three “Take Our Border Back” demonstrations in the Golden State, Arizona and Texas.
“We have a human trafficking problem on the border in proportions that we’ve never imagined,” he said.
“The United States is the largest sponsor of human trafficking, and that’s not something we’re proud of.”
In Texas, rallygoers at the Cornerstone Children’s Ranch in Quemado waved American flags and banners supporting former President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign.
About 300 vehicles — from 18-wheelers and buses to motorcycles — had joined the “Take Our Border Back Convoy” by the time it reached the Texas site late Friday, the Kinney County sheriff told NewsNation.
Hundreds more cars arrived on Saturday, lining the rural roads outside the ranch.
The rally was held just 500 feet from the Rio Grande and 10 miles north of Eagle Pass, the border security flashpoint that has been overwhelmed by illegal immigrants in recent months.
The grassroots group bills itself as “a peaceful assembly of Americans from all political classes and ethnicities … praying for an end to the immigration crisis.”
Its GiveSendGo fundraising campaign has raised nearly $165,000 to cover gas, permits, rally stages and other expenses.
“We’re just ordinary citizens, farmers, ranchers, retired police officers,” organizer Kim Yeater told The Post Tuesday.
“Not crazy conspiracy theorists.”
But turnout was far short of the 700,000 protesters that Yeater said she expected.
More than 2.4 million people were encountered at the US-Mexico border in the last fiscal year, according to the Department of Homeland Security, with a record-breaking 302,000 in December.