A border convoy is going through Texas. What we know about 'Take Back Our Border' protest.

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.

More: Dripping Springs readies for rally from Take Our Border Back convoy bound for South Texas

But a surge in migrants has strained federal and state resources and overwhelmed border communities. U.S. President Joe Biden has requested more funding for the Homeland Security Department and green-lit border wall construction in Texas last year. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection Department reported having 3.2 million encounters with migrants in fiscal year 2023. The Homeland Security Department added that between May and December 2023, officials removed or returned over 472,000 migrants, a record number.

Convoy organizers also shared concerns over drug trafficking. Drugs like fentanyl, which are contributing to rising overdoes nationwide, are most often seized at official border crossings; though U.S. citizens make up more than half of those convictions, according to Border Patrol.

The organizers outlined key reasons for their peaceful protest, as outlined by the group's assembly:

• "To shed light on the obvious dangers posed by wide open Southern borders."

• "To request all laws of our U.S. Constitution be immediately upheld."

• "To slow and ultimately stop drug trafficking and human trafficking associated with open borders."

• "To call for immediate action to secure out borders before irreversible serious consequences befall our nation."

Are 700,000 people part of the Take Our Border Back Convoy?

As noted, there are three separate convoys heading to border communities. Organizer Kim Yeater told the New York Post that hundreds of thousands of people could gather for the protests.

“We’ve got Canadian truckers, moms and dads. We’ve got motorcycles. If people could bring horses they’d bring horses," Yeater suggested. "I know the numbers we are looking at are 700,000. I think it’ll possibly be bigger than that.”

Along their journey, organizers have said greater numbers will join them as their near the border. But only 20 vehicles reportedly finished the first day of driving in Jacksonville after a 14 hour trip from Virginia Beach. And the organizer of the event in Texas expects less than one percent of that crowd to come to his ranch.

Border convoy going to ranch in Quemado, not Eagle Pass, Texas

The co-director of a ranch in Texas said they signed off on plans to bring the convoy to their property north of Eagle Pass. Loraine Mercer told USA TODAY they allowed Anson Bills, who has run the Texas Independence Project from their property, to organize the event.

The project patrols nearby ranches and confronts migrants cutting through those properties, calling authorities and waiting until the migrants are hauled away. Bills said that after a man named Pete Chambers developed a plan for a convoy to come to the border, he helped the effort by making his ranch the destination for the group. He lauded Abbott's deployment of resources to address the surge in migrants.

“The state of Texas is technically at war," Bills said. "The federal government has failed us, and so has the Biden administration.”

He said he expects about 6,000 people to show up for the three-day event at Cornerstone Children's Ranch, which is about 20 miles north of Eagle Pass in Quemado.

Mercer said the ranch has provided underprivileged children along the border with food, clothing and medical supplies for more than 25 years.

Border convoy members told to avoid Eagle Pass, the site of a 'border standoff'

In a video shared on social media, Mike Forzano said the convoy should not head to Eagle Pass, citing the tense situation between state and federal officials in the city and the possibility of encountering counter protests. Yeater repeated this call to members on the communications app Zello, Vice reported.

“Nobody associated with this convoy is going to Eagle Pass, period,” she said. “There is no desire to conflict with the National Guard, or interrupt their operations or anything."

But the ranch hosting the convoy is near the Rio Grande, where downstream the state has installed razor wire and floating buoys to deter migrants. The Supreme Court ruled last week that federal agents could remove the razor wire after the Homeland Security Department testified that the wire has made apprehending migrants and rescuing migrants and officials in distress more difficult. Abbott, however, has said he instal more wire, leaving many residents in the city of 28,000 bracing for what could come next.

Forzano said that no long guns will be allowed at the ranch and that mainstream media won't be allowed on the property.

"This is going to be a peaceful situation that is going to be well outside the border limits and Eagle Pass," he said.

Pete Chambers, Kim Yeater and others promote Take Our Border Back Convoy; fundraiser brings in almost $160,000

In a declaration posted on the convoy's website, members of the steering committee included Yeater and other partisan internet personalities, such as Noel Roberts, Robert Agee, Mark Anthony, Scotty Saks, Robert Agee and Mark Istratoff.

The individuals have promoted the event on social media as has Chambers, a convoy organizer, who has spoken about the event with Tucker Carlson and Alex Jones on their online programs.

“What this is going to do is it could bring light to the situation,” Chambers told Tucker Carlson."

Organizers like Yeater have referred to the convoy as “God’s army.”

“God’s army is rising up,” Yeater said on a recent convoy planning call, according to Vice. “We all have been chosen for this time.”

The spiritual calls extend to the convoy's donation page, too. Linked from their website, the page features the option to submit prayers for the convoy, shares of the page and financial donations.

The page, which had raised almost $160,000 as of Thursday afternoon, says the funds will be used for "gas for lead busses and trucks, city permits, media-technology support, rally location expenses, communication equipment, staging at rally sites, lighting, supplies, etc."

The fundraiser lists "MISSION WTP HAGGAI 28" as the entity receiving the funds. It is not clear who owns the group, but the title is believed to reference a Bible verse in Haggai 2:8.

"'The silver is mine, and the gold is mine,' declares the LORD Almighty," the verse reads.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Border convoy heads to Texas-Mexico border near Eagle Pass