Butterfly center that fought border wall temporarily closes after staff attacked by extremists

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The National Butterfly Center near Mission, Texas, released a shocking statement this week, announcing it would be forced to shut down for the weekend due to credible threats. “We simply cannot risk the safety and lives of our staff and visitors during this dangerous time,” the organization said in a statement Thursday.

You may be asking yourself what in the world anyone could have against a butterfly center. Well, the organization is located along the Rio Grande and has spent years fighting the previous administration on border wall construction. It fought the corrupt, privately funded border wall, too. 

It’s since become a target of the right, now, unfortunately, closing for the weekend due to a MAGA-related rally scheduled to take place nearby. But there’s more. The email said a Virginia candidate arrived at the center with someone who claimed to be Secret Service and demanded access to the property, apparently enraged over a conspiracy theory that the center is aiding in human trafficking. When the center’s staff demanded they leave, the email said the candidate tried to run down director Marianna Treviño-Wright’s son in her vehicle.

“As the Virginia candidate fled the center, she tried to run over Marianna’s son, who was filling in at the visitor’s pavilion,” the center wrote in the email, noting the candidate had taken Treviño-Wright’s phone after knocking her to the ground. 

“All of this was caught on our security cameras, and the visitor who witnessed the attempted aggravated assault with a deadly weapon on Nick called 911. It took Mission Police Department more than an hour to respond …”

”At present, we are still waiting to see whether Mission PD will be pursuing prosecution of the candidate and her friend, who has also been reported to the Secret Service for impersonating a federal law enforcement officer,” the center continued.

BuzzFeed News reports that the political candidate is a woman named Kimberly Lowe. The outlet said it heard audio in which Lowe accuses Treviño-Wright of being “okay with children being sex trafficked and raped and murdered” after being asked to leave. When she was asked yet again, Lowe responded that she was “sorry that you’re okay with children being raped and murdered.”

The report further notes that the witness who called 911 “confirmed many of the details provided by Treviño-Wright and her son.” Bob Axford said Nick “probably did” have to jump to the side for his life. “Axford said he spoke to police about the altercation and repeatedly called Lowe’s driving ‘completely reckless,’” BuzzFeed News reported.

While Lowe claimed to BuzzFeed News that police cleared her, they issued no statement saying that. Meanwhile, she’s planning to return to the region, adding to the terror that the center has already had to deal with, BuzzFeed News said. “Lowe said she is planning to join a ‘private border tour’ this weekend featuring Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser and one of the biggest proponents of 2020 election conspiracy theories, as part of the pro-Trump events near the butterfly center.”

“As if we needed further confirmation of the violent sentiment being stirred up against us, this morning, as we drove to work, we found someone had ripped down the National Butterfly Center sign, erected by the Texas Department of Transportation,” the center continued in the email. It noted that it even if is being forced to shut down for three days, it doesn’t want to see its staffers suffer economically, and will pay them for their lost hours. The center has in recent days also documented border agents trespassing on its property.

The Daily Beast reports that Lowe has claimed that the center revealed her name, but the email sent to supporters does no such thing. The report said that Lowe also claimed she had video footage showing she didn’t try to run over anyone, but cited technical issues in trying to send that proof.

Sure. Read the entire account for yourself here. “We truly appreciate your support and understanding at this time,” the center continued in the email to supporters. “We still cannot believe we are at the center of this maelstrom of malevolence rising in the United States.”