It Could Happen Here - How A Butterfly Sanctuary Became The Center of a Border War, Part 3

Episode Date: May 27, 2022

The conclusion of the saga of the Butterfly Center at the border. For now.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You should probably keep your lights on for Nocturnal Tales from the Shadowbride. Join me, Danny Trejo, and step into the flames of fright. An anthology podcast of modern-day horror stories inspired by the most terrifying legends and lore of Latin America. Listen to Nocturnal on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Ed Zitron, host of the Better Offline podcast, and we're kicking off our second season digging into tech's elite and how they've turned Silicon Valley into a playground for billionaires. From the chaotic world of generative AI to the destruction of Google search, Better Offline is your unvarnished and at times unhinged look at the underbelly of tech

brought to you by an industry veteran with nothing to lose. Listen to Better Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever else you get your podcasts from. On Thanksgiving Day 1999, five-year-old Cuban boy Elian Gonzalez was found off the coast of Florida. And the question was, should the boy go back to his father in Cuba? Mr. Gonzalez wanted to go home and he wanted to take his son with him. Or stay with his relatives in Miami? Imagine that your mother died trying to get you to freedom. Listen to Chess Peace, the Elian Gonzalez story on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Jacqueline Thomas, the host of a brand new Black Effect original series, Black Lit.

The podcast for diving deep into the rich world of Black literature. Black Lit is for the page turners, for those who listen to audio books while running errands or at the end of a busy day. From thought provoking novels to powerful poetry, we'll explore the stories that shape our culture. Listen to Black Lit on the Black Effect podcast network, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. AT&T, connecting changes everything. On the day he was inaugurated, Biden signed an executive order rescinding Trump's emergency declaration at the southern border and ending some use of the DOD funding Trump had relied upon as an end-run around accountability. But he didn't, as he promised he would, stop building immediately. During the Biden-Obama administration, Trump campaigned on build that wall. Are you willing

to tear that wall down? No, there will not be another foot of wall constructed in my administration. Number one. Like so much else, Biden didn't live up to his promises on the border. There have been some small victories for basic decency, but Biden's record is deeply mixed. He's reunited hundreds of children with their families. The ended court negotiations about a financial settlement for them. Migrant apprehensions climbed to 1.7 million, a record in fiscal year 2021. But they also reflected an unusually high rate of adults attempting to cross the border multiple times. That's because Biden's administration defended Trump's use of Title 42,

part of a 77-year-old law called the Public Health Service Act, which has been interpreted to allow CBP to release migrants back into Mexico without booking them. Often, this means they turn right back around and cross again, in a more remote and often more deadly place. Biden hasn't lived up to his promises on the wall, either. Mariana showed us a pile of wall sections, essentially giant metal poles just a little shorter than Trump wall. You could be forgiven for thinking they're identical, but these, she explained, were not technically wall. And you see the border wall that was being constructed there, Some of it has the tall bollards with the anti-climb plate.

That's Trump. And then the short bollards are Biden. Because Biden is calling this levee repair and guardrail. Well, I snapped moody black and white photos of the wall from on top of a levee, as I have all along the hundreds of miles of landscape that it cuts through

like an open wound. Robert went down to see who made these new pieces of the Biden barrier, but we didn't have much luck finding a label. Welcome, I'm Danny Thrill. Won't you join me at the fire and dare enter? thrill. Won't you join me at the fire and dare enter? Nocturnum, Tales from the Shadows, presented by iHeart and Sonora. An anthology of modern day horror stories inspired by the legends of Latin America. From ghastly encounters with shapeshifters to bone-chilling brushes with supernatural creatures. I know you. Take a trip and experience the horrors that have haunted Latin America since the beginning of time. Listen to Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows

as part of my Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Ed Zitron, host of the Better Offline podcast, and we're kicking off our second season digging into how Tex Elite has turned Silicon Valley into a playground for billionaires. from the chaotic world of generative ai to the destruction of google search better offline is your unvarnished and at times unhinged look at the underbelly of

tech from an industry veteran with nothing to lose this season i'm going to be joined by everyone from nobel winning economists to leading journalists in the field and i'll be digging into why the products you love keep getting worse and naming and shaming those responsible. Don't get me wrong, though. I love technology. I just hate the people in charge and want them to get back to building things

that actually do things to help real people. I swear to God things can change if we're loud enough, so join me every week to understand what's happening in the tech industry and what could be done to make things better. Listen to Better Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever else you get your podcasts. Check out betteroffline.com. Hola mi gente, it's Honey German and I'm bringing you Gracias, Come Again. The podcast where we dive deep into the world of Latin culture, musica, peliculas, and entertainment with some of the biggest names in the game.

If you love hearing real conversations with your favorite Latin celebrities, artists, and culture shifters, this is the podcast for you. We're talking real conversations with our Latin stars, from actors and artists to musicians and creators sharing their stories, struggles, and successes. You know it's going to be filled with chisme laughs

and all the vibes that you love. Each week, we'll explore everything from music and pop culture to deeper topics like identity, community, and breaking down barriers in all sorts of industries. Don't miss out on the fun, el té caliente, and life stories. Join me for Gracias Come Again, a podcast by Honey German, where we get into todo lo actual y viral. Listen to Gracias Come Again on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On Thanksgiving Day, 1999, a five-year-old boy floated alone in the ocean.

He had lost his mother trying to reach Florida from Cuba. He looked like a little angel. I mean, he looked so fresh. And his name, Elian Gonzalez, will make headlines everywhere. Elian Gonzalez. Elian. Elian.

Elian. Elian. Elian. Elian Gonzalez. At the heart of the story is a young boy and the question of who he belongs with. His father in Cuba. Mr. Gonzalez wanted to go home

and he wanted to take his son with him. Or his relatives in Cuba. Mr. Gonzalez wanted to go home and he wanted to take his son with him. Or his relatives in Miami. Imagine that your mother died trying to get you to freedom. At the heart of it all is still this painful family separation. Something that as a Cuban, I know all too well.

Listen to Chess Peace, the Elian Gonzalez story, as part of the My Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The wall segments lay out in giant pallets surrounded by construction debris and dirt. Every pallet is labeled and so are all the shipping containers, but the wall materials themselves had no clear maker's mark on them. As we walked back along the dirt road, we asked Mariana about the video that brought us here in the first place.

If you haven't seen it, it's a video of Kimberly Lowe, a long-odds MAGA congressional candidate from Virginia. Kimberly is an interesting figure. She started out as a Sanders backer in 2016, and has radicalized since to such a degree that most of her local MAGA people want nothing to do with her. Some of them think she's some kind of double agent. Audio from the incident makes it clear why people might view Kimberly as unhinged. You're not here to cause any problems, I'm sorry. No, you are here to promote your agenda, and your agenda is not welcome here.

Okay, thank you so much. So you're not for keeping the illegals out? So you're not for helping all these poor people in the humanitarian crisis? That's what we're here for. So you're okay with children being sex trafficked and raped and murdered? That is not at all what this is about. We have Girl Scouts spend the night here. That's how safe it is yeah i have children in

the car i think it's safe here anyway we're not here to know you're here to make a show and to promote your agenda so you can leave now thank you for leaving now thank you so much but um i'm sorry that you're okay with children being raped. No, I'm not okay with any of that. It's fine, thank you. Your bullshit is a big problem. It's okay, I'm going to go help the world while you're a really nasty person. We'll let Mariana explain what happened. So I was sitting here actually at the conference table, and my son was at the front counter.

He doesn't work here, but he was covering for a staff member who was out sick. And as I was saying, you hear things that are like, hmm, you know? So I was on a conference call. I had my headphones in, but my son came over and he gave me a note and it said, you know, this woman says she's running for Congress and has her Secret Service

agent with her. And, you know, I thought that was strange. But then I, you know, I'm still on this call, but I, you know, I took my headphones out so I could hear them. And the one woman, Michelle, was claiming to be Secret Service. And I mean, I've had people like Beto O'Rourke when he was a congressman come visit. Michelle Beckley, who's a state representative. I mean, I've had people come visit and they don't have Secret Service, you know? So I knew that that was not true, that this woman was not Secret Service. And the congressional rep, I asked my son, get her name. And he did. And I just did, you know, literally like one or two minute internet search for her.

And it was immediately apparent that she was a MAGA candidate. And my son said, they want us to open the back 70 for them, but they don't want to pay admission. And on her Facebook page, I could see their Facebook live stream from just like five minutes earlier where they had driven down Sherbrooke to the gate where y'all have been and seen, you know, we have a great big private property, no trespassing sign. And then they went up on the levee and interacted with the Texas National Guard there. Her video ended before that, but a reporter with Stars and Stripes I know was on the levee with the National Guard and interacted with Kimberly and Michelle. So they trespassed onto our property. Then they came here demanding that they be granted access

without paying admission and declared just right up front, we want to go see the river and the illegals crossing on the rafts to the Butterfly Center. The rafts they were talking about were referencing a doctored image circulating around the right-wing conspiracy web. We stood at the dock in the image on that afternoon. There were no rafts. Mariana decided to try and talk the two women down. So, you know, I put my phone on record, carried it out there. I got two business cards because it is my job to be professional and greet these people when they come.

So I went out there and I said hello. And the rest of it is history, as they say. You have that audio or, you know, of me saying I know who you are and what you're up to. And I knew then it was a setup. Yeah. For someone to come here and say those things and be doing their own, you know, sort of Project Veritas, Facebook live stream,

border adventure from Virginia. As they say, none of it smelled right, you know. That didn't work, so she asked them to leave. Well, it was when I told them they needed to leave, and if they weren't going to leave, you know, we would call the police. And I told them, I gestured to my son, just do it, you know, go ahead and call the police, which he did. And they were like no no we're leaving we're leaving they went out the front doors but then they stopped so I opened the door behind them like keep it moving

ladies you know you have to leave and I was focused on Michelle who was on my left who was again saying she was secret service and laughing at her when I turned and Kimberly was on this side of me and had her phone up like this so I didn't know if she was taking photos or filming but we talk about how everybody now has their own triggers I do not want my photo taken. I do not want anyone filming me. I don't, I don't want any of that, uh, because of how Colfage and Bannon and their fake news outlets and everything else have used my image and, and have put a target on my back. So she's standing there going, we're here at the Butterfly Sanctuary or whatever she called it. And I'm with this not nice lady.

And I was like, oh, no. And I just put my hand up to block her from photographing or filming me or to swat it away. And then I immediately turned back toward the doors to retreat inside the building. But I didn't make it inside the building. I was flat on my ass on the ground. And I didn't know if Michelle had grabbed me from behind or if Kimberly had pushed me or whatever, but then my son busted out of the building

and was sort of over me. And I'm trying to get up off the ground and all this is caught on the video camera from the building. In a previous video, the women had indicated that they were armed, which is generally a safe assumption when MAGA types show up accusing you of child trafficking. The situation was rapidly growing more dangerous. My son feared for my life. He thought Michelle was going to stomp my face or my neck or my head.

And she's a big girl. And at that point, Kimberly ran to her car. Somewhere in the midst of all that, she fled to her car where she had her three children waiting. Because this place is so dangerous and lawless and everything. She brought her three children here for her opportunity to, you know, interact with cartel or whatever. I mean, it's just the whole thing just gets more bizarre. And Michelle at that point had taken my phone. And I was just telling her, you're not leaving with my phone give me my phone back while kimberly is again live streaming from her car

yelling at michelle to come get in the car uh michelle did walk to the car declare she's not bothering me about me um but my son had run to close the front gate because he didn't want them I mean he had just called 9-1-1 unbeknownst to us there was a visitor in the parking lot who had also dialed 9-1-1 and you guys have been here there's police on the corner there's police right I mean there's police everywhere so my son ran to close the gate one so they couldn't leave with my phone two so they would be here when the police got here but then the police didn't come and as she fled the property she's filming herself and she's gunning it the car as she races towards the gate screaming, get the fuck out of my way, get the fuck out of my way.

And then she swerves like this at my son, who had to leap to the ground out of the way to avoid being hit by her red Range Rover. The center was full of visitors. Some of them called 911, but no one stepped in to help. Prior to this experience, yes, I would have expected our visitors, any decent human being to respond to a woman screaming, help, help, help me, please, please help. But nobody did. Only my son. At first, they didn't fully grasp what was happening. But soon, Mariana had worked out who her attacker was. And so I relayed all of that to my boss and to the police.

And, you know, my boss was kind of like, well, do whatever you want. If you feel like you need to close next weekend, then close next weekend. So we did. We closed that Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. And then we came back in the next Monday. And that's when we saw and people started sending us the videos that Berkman and Hutcherson had filmed here, presumably on Sunday. And there's probably a lot more stuff out there that we haven't seen. Welcome. I'm Danny Thrill. Won't you join me at the fire and dare enter.

Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows, presented by iHeart and Sonora. An anthology of modern-day horror stories inspired by the legends of Latin America. From ghastly encounters with shapeshifters to bone-chilling brushes with supernatural creatures. I know. Take a trip and experience the horrors that have haunted Latin America since the beginning of time. Listen to Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows as part of my Cultura podcast network.

Available on the iHeartRadio app. Apple Podcasts. Or wherever you get your podcasts. Hola mi gente. It's Honey German. And I'm bringing you Gracias Come Again. The podcast where we dive deep into the world of Latin culture. Música, películas, and entertainment.

With some of the biggest names in the game. If you love hearing real conversations with your favorite Latin celebrities, artists, and culture shifters, this is the podcast for you. We're talking real conversations with our Latin stars, from actors and artists to musicians and creators sharing their stories, struggles, and successes. You know

it's going to be filled with chisme laughs and all the vibes that you love. Each week we'll explore everything from music and pop culture to deeper topics like identity, community, and breaking down barriers in all sorts of industries. Don't miss out on the fun, el té caliente, and life stories. Join me for Gracias Come Again, a podcast by Honey German, where we get into todo lo actual y viral. Listen to Gracias Come Again on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hi, I'm Ed Zitron, host of the Better Offline podcast, and we're kicking off our second season digging into how tech's elite has turned Silicon Valley into a playground for billionaires. From the chaotic world of generative AI to the destruction of Google search,

Better Offline is your unvarnished and at times unhinged look at the underbelly of tech from an industry veteran with nothing to lose. This season, I'm going to be joined by everyone from Nobel-winning economists to leading journalists in the field, and I'll be digging into why the products you love keep getting worse and naming and shaming those responsible. Don't get me wrong, though. I love technology. I just hate the people in charge

and want them to get back to building things that actually do things to help real people. I swear to God things can change if we're loud enough. So join me every week to understand what's happening in the tech industry and what could be done to make things better. Listen to Better Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever else you get your podcasts.

Check out betteroffline.com. On Thanksgiving Day, 1999, a five-year-old boy floated alone in the ocean. He had lost his mother trying to reach Florida from Cuba. He looked like a little angel. I mean, he looked so fresh. And his name, Elian Gonzalez, will make headlines everywhere. Elian Gonzalez. Elian. Elian.

Elian. Elian. Elian. Elian Gonzalez. At the heart of the story is a young boy and the question of who he belongs with. His father in Cuba. Mr. Gonzalez wanted to go home and he wanted to take his son with him. Or his relatives in Miami.

Imagine that your mother died trying to get you to freedom. At the heart of it all is still this painful family separation. Something that as a Cuban, I know all too well. Listen to Chess Peace, the Elian Gonzalez story, as part of the My Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. After leaving the Butterfly Center one day, we went for a walk towards some nearby trailer parks.

They're full of people who the locals call winter Texans. People from the colder parts of the U.S. who spend a few months in trailer homes on the border so they can wear shorts in March and not pay expensive heating bills. We bumped into some winter Texans who were on their way to a bird sanctuary we just visited. They said they'd missed their usual trip to the butterfly center. Their friends in Minnesota, they said, couldn't believe that they would go down to the border. That's good, because boy, the stuff you get in Minnesota is not reality as

to what's going on on the border down here. In what way? People don't understand. First of all, they wonder why are you coming down and putting yourself in such danger? Really, the idea is that it's just hordes of people attacking you. They do their best to help change perceptions, they say. And then we try to do as much as we can to get factual information back home to people with questions and stuff like that.

We've worked maybe, well, we haven't come the last few years because of COVID, but four or five years ago we were working with the respite center here with Catholic Charities when there were so many, they were working with the respite center here with Catholic Charities, when there were so many, they weren't allowing people to come over. The other thing I'd call it, I don't think that people realize, because of the river, there's not a straight line border. Yeah, it's not like that. That you can't just build a wall straight up.

Yeah. And that people live in their houses south of the wall. Yeah. You know, and people's farms houses south of the wall. Yeah. And people's farms are south of the wall. Yeah. Sometimes there's a wall and sometimes there isn't a wall. Everywhere we go along the border, we see division. Locals are losing places they love

and people from a long way away are performing a charade for personal and political gain. But it's not all that cut and dried. One taco shop we walked past has a special parking spot reserved for DHS employees. A trailer park we drive by has thin blue line flags flying. Despite my best attempts at pulling the clueless foreigner card when we call them, they won't tell me why they have the flags or what they mean. Some of the National Guard troops we spoke to had been out of work before they came down to the border. Actually, I didn't have a job before this. Oh, okay. It gave me a good opportunity and I'm planning to stay here like probably the next two years. Okay. Wow, yeah. Do you get active

duty pay while you're... Uh Somewhat, but it's like... It's different because it's state borders, so it's not better. Yeah, okay. Everyone on the border wants to feel safe, including Mariana. But the reason the border is remarkable at all is because so many people have to cross it. Some cross for work, some cross for fun, some cross to change their lives. But without people, the border doesn't have any significance. For Mariana, without people, she can't even enjoy the quiet and calm in the sanctuary.

She hopes, she says, they can reopen soon. I mean, honestly, I hope it doesn't last a whole lot longer because we all miss one another. We miss being here. You know, really, of all the jobs that a person can have in the world, one where you get to interact with wildlife and garden and breathe fresh air and, you know, feel the rain on your face. I mean, it's pretty awesome. Yeah. And interact with people who are absolutely thrilled and fascinated, especially the children, just delighted, gleeful about their interactions here. We want to get back to that. But we have to have more help before we can do that. We need professional guidance beyond what we've received three years ago when the first wave of community defense and mutual aid hit the ground here.

Mariana doesn't know when she'll feel safe. But even with the center poised to reopen, as we write this, she isn't secure yet. You know, I feel like it's a cat and mouse thing, and they're the cat and we're the mouse, and that they are going to continue to come back again and again until something really bad happens. I think it's almost a challenge maybe at this point from what I can tell about their, their

psyche, you know, um, it goes right back to that winning, you know, Steve Bannon's no loser. to that winning yeah you know steve bannon's no loser he's not used to losing and uh anything short of achieving his goal whatever that may be is not winning if you've made it this far you're probably wondering what you can do to help if like most americans you live a long way from the southern border and have never visited, it might seem strange to take up and travel there, to meet a nice lady and talk about butterflies, QAnon, while you have to drive past soldiers in fatigues with assault rifles to look at her pollinator garden. But Mariana says that even the small acts of solidarity make a huge

difference. Even people just sending really nice email or letters is so good. We'll probably have a wall of that when we get back because the flip side of that is the hate mail, the ugly messages, the death threats, the voicemails that are so horrible. So to hear from people that do support us and stand with us and feel like what's happening is horrible. People who write to say, you know, I told my quilting circle about what's happening at the Butterfly Center. Or, you know, I mean, and we're going to make a quilt for you or, you know, whatever it is, you know. It helps. It really does. And then they can share our story

because it's not just about the Butterfly Center. It's about what's happening to our democracy. It's about how these operations work to manipulate people with lies. I don't want to call it conspiracy theories or misinformation or any of that anymore. They're just lies. And people need to start to understand that whether it's about COVID or the trucker convoys or trans kids or the butterfly center. It Could Happen Here is a production of Cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from Cool Zone Media, visit our website, coolzonemedia.com, or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can find sources for It Could Happen Here updated monthly at coolzonemedia.com slash sources. Thanks for listening. You should probably keep your lights on for Nocturnal Tales from the Shadow.

Join me, Danny Trails, and step into the flames of riot. an anthology podcast of modern day horror stories inspired by the most terrifying legends and lore of Latin America. Listen to Nocturnum on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Ed Zitron, host of the Better Offline podcast, and we're kicking off our second season digging into tech's elite and how they've turned Silicon Valley into a playground for billionaires. From the chaotic world of generative AI to the destruction of Google search, Better Offline is your unvarnished and at times unhinged look at the underbelly of tech

brought to you by an industry veteran with nothing to lose. Listen to Better Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever else you get your podcasts from. On Thanksgiving Day, 1999, five-year-old Cuban boy Elian Gonzalez was found off the coast of Florida. And the question was, should the boy go back to his father in Cuba? Mr. Gonzalez wanted to go home and he wanted to take his son with him. Or stay with his relatives in Miami? Imagine that your mother died trying to get you to freedom.

Listen to Chess Peace, the Elian Gonzalez story, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Jacqueline Thomas, the host of a brand new Black Effect original series, Black Lit, the podcast for diving deep into the rich world of Black literature. Black Lit is for the page turners, for those who listen to audiobooks while running errands or at the end of a busy day. From thought-provoking novels to powerful poetry,

we'll explore the stories that shape our culture. Listen to Black Lit on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. AT&T, connecting changes everything.