During an hours-long livestream at night time, Yarbery, Fulfer, and Felix all shouted on the migrants and accused them of human trafficking. Yarbery even tried to promote cigarettes to the migrants for $20 every. At one level, Fulfer threatened violence towards a migrant who was shining a torch at their cameras.

The trio additionally verbally attacked a volunteer who labored with the group, following her round as she phoned for assist from US Border Patrol, in keeping with livestreams of the incident considered by WIRED earlier than they have been taken offline.

Yarbery, Felix, and Fulfer didn’t reply to WIRED’s requests for remark about their actions on the border.

Laurie Cantillo, a board member from Humane Borders, says the group, which maintains water stations alongside migrant routes close to the border, is conscious of the allegations of harassment. “We have noticed an increase in vandalism of our permitted water stations along the border,” Cantillo tells WIRED. “Our 55-gallon barrels have been shot, stabbed, drained, and stolen. It’s a sad state of affairs when someone sabotages water that can save a human life.”

US Border Patrol and No More Deaths didn’t reply to a number of requests for remark in regards to the incident. One former volunteer with No More Deaths, who didn’t wish to be recognized on account of security issues, informed WIRED that they weren’t shocked nobody replied, because the group “may not want to draw extra attention to this event.”

After departing Arizona, the trio of livestreamers headed to California, the place they continued to attempt to monitor down migrant camps. On a number of days their searches have been fruitless, although they continued to broadcast and solicit donations via YouTube.

After Fulfer and Felix departed, Yarbery continued to “hunt,” as he known as it, and through one broadcast over the weekend, he livestreamed together with his companion and their child whereas driving towards the border in Jacumba Hot Springs.

While there, Yarbery met with locals to debate the migrant scenario, and in a single dialog a person may very well be heard on the livestream saying, “I say we shoot ’em all,” earlier than Yarbery informed him to be quiet as he was broadcasting stay on YouTube.

YouTube didn’t reply to WIRED’s a number of requests for remark in regards to the livestreams, however 24 hours after WIRED flagged the channels to the video platform, the streamers had their accounts eliminated.

However, inside hours, Yarbery created a backup channel, and informed his followers the place they may proceed to comply with him on YouTube.

For years, extremism consultants have been monitoring how violent rhetoric across the border and migrants has led on to violence, relationship again to the 2000s when fear-mongering assaults on immigrants led to the mobilization of far-right paramilitary teams, one in every of which brutally murdered Raul Flores and his 9-year-old daughter Brisenia.

“Sadly, this cycle of violence has become so common that it tends to go unnoticed outside of the communities targeted by far-right vigilantes,” Burghart stated. “This time around, the Black Mirror-like difference is that tech advances now allow [people like Yarbery, Fulfer, and Felix] to stream and monetize their cruelty to a far-right fanbase that craves more.”