FEAR AND LOATHING:... ...Migrant Hunting...Convoy Heads For Mexican Border... Hoped For 40,000 Truckers... Got 20 Cars & Three Buses...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas |...They left the east coast after a few days of online humping, word grindings that fueled an emotional response. Stopping the so-called migrant invasion at the Mexican Border; that was their mission. To cement their commitment, the loose-knit group named itself "God's Army."

Things have not gone well so far.

News reports have it that the convoy never really materialized, that some group members were fighting each other for leadership, that tires had been slashed at a motel where they spent the first night on the road and that at least one rider had been expelled and left to fend for himself on and East Texas highway.

But they're still headed for defenseless Eagle Pass, Texas, where migrants continue to cross the Rio Grande from Mexico and where Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has staked his claim to being El Grande De Coca-Cola.

It's all a silly mirage.

Some early arrivals even took to their websites online to report not seeing "any sort of invasion," a few angrily bitching at Texas "for lying to all of us."

The news website wired.com had sketchy info, but it was about problems the convoy people were encountering on the road and the apparent disinterest on the part of the "40,000 truckers" the group said would be joining the convoy.

Nothing was posted on the New York Times website, perhaps because editors there saw the early fizzle as the leading edge of a failing effort. The Associated Press posted a story about this yesterday, but we could not find it on its website today.

Still, the first few are on the road, seemingly headed for a rendezvous in Eagle Pass. What exactly they mean by "hunting migrants" is yet to be explained. Normally, state law enforcement and the Feds (U.S. Border Patrol) tolerate this sort of thing for a day or two before things get serious and the citizens are told to go home.

Much of the breathless chatter online about this has generous criticism, with commenters asking about the group's reasoning, their employment and mental status also questioned and some saying most truckers are hard at work and won't join this particular effort.

If anything, the convoy (if it ever grows to any meaningful size) will likely be a boon to highway gas stations, fast food eateries and cheap motels.

This much-ballyhooed citizen uprising, we say, will end with a whimper...

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