The Story of the Second X Thread in Heritage: What Happened to the Camp Camp? Howell, Zavala, and Melugin
The second X thread included an affidavit with a name and signature that is apparently redacted. The affidavit’s author claims to have seen forty copies of the flyer inside the shelter, which seems to be a reference to RCM. The author says that they took a flyer to their home and that the next day they saw a similar flyer inside the portable toilets at the camp and recorded a video.
In an interview with NPR, Howell added, “The counterattack [against the story] has provided absolutely zero evidence. Our international bombshell reporting has stood the test of all scrutiny and will withstand some more.”
Zavala had decided she wanted to say more publicly, by the time Heritage published its second social media thread. She agreed to talk to a reporter for The New York Times and then to NPR. Zavala denied the flyer, but said it wasn’t enough. I need to talk about my side of the story. People need to hear what actually happened.”
Bill Melugin, a Fox News national correspondent who covers border issues, was questioned about the Heritage thread. “I’m extremely skeptical of this, even though there’s lots of controversy with some NGOs, but this flyer looks fake or doctored,” wrote Melugin.
A migrant asylum seeker in a flooded park along the border: “Why would somebody want to intentionally create a fake flyer?”
She was “Victimized” and kept asking why someone would want to do this. Why would somebody want to intentionally create a fake flyer?”
There were some asylum-seekers who were stuck at the camp for a year because of the Trump administration’s policies. “All their hopes were riding on a new administration coming in,” she said. She said some migrants put up signs without being encouraged or influence by any organization.
Nobody who crosses illegally will be allowed to vote. He knows that it’s normal for people to make an appointment to enter through the U.S. port of entry.
But RCM has not staffed the site for years, which was also confirmed to NPR by people from other local nongovernmental organizations who work with migrants. Glady Cañas of Ayudándoles a Triunfar and Andrea Rudnik of Team Brownsville both told NPR that there is no longer a formal camp at that site.
NPR visited the site and saw an informal encampment with a small number of migrants staying there, but did not see any evidence of the flyers. Anyone can access the encampment, which is in a city park along the banks of the Rio Grande.
The X thread contains things that are not true. The resource center matamoras is where the video shows the flyers, according to the thread.
A Spanish flyer for the United States based on Google Translate and the website of the Research Council for International Trade and Science (RCIS)
The next two sentences that remind readers to vote for Biden when they get to the U.S. are written in a different style than the first two, and they are filled with more errors. That section translates “United States” as “estados unidos,” without the usual capitalization, while the previous section uses the abbreviation “los EE. UU.”
The first two sentences of the flyer appear to be an old description of the organization copied directly from the website and run through Google Translate into Spanish. It states that HIAS shared an office with both groups.
The flyer was made using the English-language website of the RCM. Zavala said she has not had the time or resources to update it.
It contains errors, such as “Bienvedinos” instead of “Bienvenidos” (Welcome). Zavala is not a native Spanish-speaker, but she said she checks the grammar and spelling of what she writes in Spanish.
The X Thread: Anti-deportation of Non-Citolic Candidates in the United States by the Chinese Communist Party or the Mexican Embassy
The X thread was published because it was in the public’s interest to know about the invasion of the United States. He added, “Would the United States reach out to the CCP How about the Chinese Communist Party to check out the intel on the drugs flooding into this country? Of course not.”
Rubin toldNPR that he asked for the flyer to be verified when he went there, but didn’t want to bring attention to himself since he had previously been kidnapped by the Gulf Cartel. I need to keep a low profile because I am in enemy territory. The cartel told me never to come back here again.
“They never cared to call me and find out whether it was true or not,” Zavala said. “That really is an attack on my character as a person.”
She was perturbed that no one had checked with her to see if she or anyone at RCM had written the flyer.
April 15 is a typical day for Zavala. Like usual, she was focused on juggling a busy family life with remotely running a small organization that helps asylum-seekers in Matamoros, Mexico.
Zavala showed NPR emails, some of which included racist language, that said, “Don’t think for one moment that we are not watching,” and “kill yourself.”
The first post says that flyers were distributed in Mexico to encourage illegals to vote for Biden. A video shows the flyer hanging in portable toilets at a migrant encampment in Matamoros, just across the Rio Grande from Brownsville, Texas.
Zavala’s group, Resource Center Matamoros, is focused on helping asylum-seekers and has nothing to do with politics. “We don’t encourage people to vote for anyone, even if they’re ineligible to do so,” said Zavala, who is aware that non citizens can’t vote. She said she wouldn’t tell a person that they can’t vote.
Both Rubin and Mike Howell, the executive director of Heritage’s Oversight Project, acknowledged to NPR that they did not ask RCM or Zavala if they had any connection to the flyer before they published the thread.
In addition to the false claims that have been made about non citizens in the election, the Heritage thread supports the fact that Donald Trump and his allies have been emphasizing the issue in the months before the flyer appeared online.
Trump enacted a series of escalating policies to chip away at the U.S. asylum system when he was in office, and he has pledged to continue if he is elected again. Biden was critical of Trump’s policies when he ran for president in 2020. During his time in office, Biden put in place new asylum restrictions as well as the border policies that Trump used to turn away many asylum-seekers until last May.
The Heritage Thread: Why Are the Flyers Leaving the U.S.? How Does Rubin Find Their Way? When Has Rubin Comes to the Rescue?
“If the ground is being seeded with claims like these,” said Holt, “Then that may very well be another possible avenue to try to delegitimize democratic processes in this country.”
The Heritage thread states that the flyer was discovered by a right-wing video site. Anthony Rubin, the site’s founder, often uses undercover tactics in his videos, which portray migration to the U.S. as an “invasion.”
The Heritage Foundation launched the Oversight Project in 2022 to investigate and provide “aggressive oversight” of the Biden administration. It was not possible to comment on whether Heritage was being paid for its content or whether they had a relationship.
“We’re going up against some very powerful and dangerous people to include the cartels, weaponized Biden administration, etc., and we’re not interested in giving an org chart out,” Howell said, adding that he was glad to work with “anybody across any ideological spectrum who’s willing to fight the invasion of the United States.”
The Heritage thread, in addition to publicizing the flyers, also includes posts that link RCM to HIAS, formerly known as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. It notes that Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas once sat on the board of HIAS, a Jewish organization with offices in 20 countries that aids migrants, asylum-seekers and refugees.
Other posts suggest a connection between Zavala and RCM and liberal billionaire George Soros and point out that he has given money to HIAS. The intent of the posts is unclear but George Soros, a Holocaust survivor and philanthropist, is the subject of many antisemitic conspiracy theories.
HIAS released a statement saying that it has no connection to the flyers and does not support their message. HIAS has become a target for misinformation online according to Beth Oppenheim, the organization’s chief advancement officer. The “great replacement” theory claims that Jews are bringing immigrants to replace whites in the U.S. Several mass shooters have cited the theory as justification for their acts.
It is not known who created the flyer. Zavala said one piece of the mystery behind the social media thread was comprehended right away.
Dialogue between HIAS and NPR: a story of two American men in flip-flops leaving RCM’s building in Matamoros
Earlier on April 15, the same day the thread appeared, two American men wearing flip-flops rang the bell at RCM’s building in Matamoros and said they wanted to volunteer. Security cameras captured the scene. NPR was given access to the footage.
Rubin says that they are trying to help as many people as possible before Trump gets reelected. Zavala replies, “Believe me, we’re in the same boat.”
He previously told The New York Times that he did not recall whether he had said he was with HIAS. Rubin has never been employed by the organization according to a spokesman for HIAS.
Terrones told NPR that Rubin had asked him unusual questions, including whether Terrones knew of organizations in the U.S. that help migrants vote for Biden. Terrones said he always kept saying no.
asylum-seekers can use a U.S. government app to make an appointment and avoid crossing the border illegally according to Biden. But appointment slots are scarce, so migrants arriving in Mexican border cities like Matamoros end up waiting weeks or months in dangerous and difficult conditions.
Changing the rules: Reply to Greene and Bishop’s flyer on noncitizen registration to vote in a close election
Just 12 hours after the flyer was posted to X, Republican Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Dan Bishop both brought posters of the flyer to a budget hearing with Mayorkas. This was shortly before they presented articles of impeachment against him.
How can Congress and the American people be sure that the votes of noncitizens who have registered will not be affected by a close election? Bishop asked.
The Daily Signal, the Heritage Foundation’s news site, later published a roundup of Republican lawmakers’ responses to the flyers, in which many of them called for stricter voting laws.
It is already illegal for noncitizens to cast ballots in federal elections, and studies have repeatedly shown it is rare. The topic gained new attention in April, when Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson promoted federal legislation that would implement new citizenship documentation requirements.
Gilda Daniels, an election law professor at the University of Baltimore, recently told NPR that requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote would make it much harder for many eligible U.S. citizens, including students, older adults and poor people, to vote.
The affidavits account is dated April 19 but NPR couldn’t verify it four days after the first thread was published. The affidavit can’t give a date for the events it describes.
Immigration-based conspiracies inspired by the 2018 Pittsburgh mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh and the 2019 Dallas, El Paso, Texas, Walmart shooting
Heritage’s X thread calls the migrant camp a “hotbed for political activity.” A photo of a sign for Biden’s presidential campaign hanging in the camp, as well as a photo of balloons at the camp after the election, are included.
During the time photos were taken, the camp and the RCM did not put up any campaign signs. Zavala didn’t attend the Biden visit.
Rudnik, of Team Brownsville, remembers a volunteer from the U.S., who was not affiliated with an NGO, put up the “Bye Trump” balloons on her own. Had anyone asked her about the balloons, she would have told them that it was not a good idea.
It weighs on her that acts of violence, like the 2018 mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh and the 2019 mass shooting at an El Paso, Texas, Walmart, have been inspired by immigration-themed conspiracy theories.
In an interview with The New York Times that Heritage shared online, Howell condemned death threats, saying he gets them “all the time.” He added, “No one should do it.”
“There’s people fleeing from extreme situations, extreme circumstances,” Zavala said. I can help them if I have the resources.
Source: A flyer in her name told migrants to vote for Biden. But she says she didn’t write it
Investigating a Mexican-American migrant worker exchange story: V. Crdenas, Anthony Rubin, and Gaby Zavala
Independent journalist Vernica Crdenas was among the people who contributed to the story. There were two people reporting from Matamoros, Mexico.
A flyer copy from a website that has not been updated in years has information that appears on the flyer such as a defunct phone number.
Anthony Rubin can be heard on security camera footage saying that he and his brother previously worked with migrants “in Colombia, in Panama” and they wanted to volunteer.
A fragment from that exchange is in the Heritage thread with a caption that says “RCM founder Gaby Zavala implied to Monet that she wants to help as many illegals as possible before Trump is reelected.”
Within 12 hours of the flyer appearing online, members of Congress raised it in hearings and used it to justify a push for more restrictive voting laws.