Glenn Beck Claims Without Evidence That Migrant 'Wave' At The Border Is Being Backed By George Soros And American Communists

Conservative commentator and radio host Glenn Beck returned to Fox News on Wednesday, appearing on the network's primetime show Hannity to discuss the ongoing crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Beck wasted no time in explaining his position regarding the thousands of immigrants entering into the United States each month, saying he feels bad for President Donald Trump "because he is trying to fight something at the border, but that's not where the problem is."

"The problem is actually coming from Chicago," Beck said after explaining that he and others had spent a year researching the information. "There is a group, a family that has a United Methodist Church, they are preachers, they are the ones that started the sanctuary city. They are directly getting money from George Soros and others."

Beck went on to quote a December 2018 article from the Associated Press, saying "they are the ones that help charter the routes, arrange bus transportations, and negotiate with Mexican officials to provide protection." The group referenced in the article is Pueblo Sin Fronteras, or People Without Borders, an activist organization that has been leading caravans to the United States for over 15 years.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Pueblo Sin Fronteras works to "help protect migrants from rape, kidnapping and other perils while drawing attention to the reasons they flee and their treatment on the journey north."

Right-wing pundits and conservative media have long stated that the organization is directing the caravans regarding where to go and how to protest on their way from Central America to Mexico and the U.S. border, but Pueblo Sin Fronteras has denied those allegations, telling the Times that they only help guide and protect the caravans. However, activists who work for the organization have been arrested while leading migrants to gain entry into Mexico from Guatemala.

On his YouTube channel, Beck published a 23-minute video highlighting the alleged connections between Pueblo Sin Fronteras, Adalberto Methodist Church in Chicago and another activist group, Familia Latina Unita. In the video, he connects Pueblo Sin Fronteras founder Emma Lozano to the church and the church to the asylum case of Elvira Arellano.

Arellano, who was deported from the United States in 2006 after a year of claiming sanctuary at Adalberto Methodist Church, is reported by Beck to have founded Familia Latina Unita.

According to the website for both Pueblo Sin Fronteras and Familia Latina Unita, the latter was formed sometime during or after 2001. While the site states that Familia Latina Unita was organized after Arellano became involved with Sin Fronteras, she is not credited with founding the group. In the video, Beck also credits Arellano with the idea of Pueblo Sin Fronteras organizing migrant caravans.

The video goes on to cite the Catholic Legal Immigration Network as a donor to Pueblo Sin Fronteras, adding that Soros — via the Open Society Foundation, a philanthropic organization he founded — donates to the network. A search of the OSF's grant database returns no results for active or expired grants to the network.

"The Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. does not financially support the work of Pueblo Sin Fronteras," CLINIC Communications Director Patricia Zapor said in a statement to Newsweek.

During his Hannity segment, Beck addressed Trump directly, saying, "Mr. President, please, you are not going to solve the problem at the border. I know that seems rational, but when you look at the evidence – we can't fight the enemy if we won't call them by name, and these are communists. American communists in Chicago, that are taking loads of money from George Soros and others, they are orchestrating this."

Despite allegations from Beck that Soros, a stout Democrat, is paying migrants to come to the U.S. border, fact-checking articles from The New York Times and Snopes indicate that the rumor began in October 2018 after a tweet was posted by Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz.

The New York Times debunked Gaetz's tweet, placing the business in the background as being located in Guatemala rather than Honduras and the congressman later tweeted to explain that a Honduran official sent him the video, leaving Gaetz to assume it had been filmed in Honduras.

Gaetz told the Times that he believes that the men passing out money in the video are drug cartel members and expressed worry that American activists — such as those from Pueblo Sin Fronteras — had helped to organize the caravan.

In response to Gaetz's initial tweet, OSF denied any involvement with Pueblo Sin Fronteras or any other caravan, saying, "We can save you the trouble, Congressman: Neither Mr. Soros nor Open Society are funding this effort. We do support the historic U.S. commitment to welcoming people fleeing oppression and violence in their homelands. Maybe you could investigate why they feel the need to flee."

In his segment, Beck continued to say that the "human wave" being utilized at the border was a tactic used by China against the U.S. during the Korean War.

"They just throw wave after wave after wave of people until you just can't fight it anymore. And Chuck Schumer and all of the others, they know about it, and they are covering and encouraging this. This is an assault on the republic," Beck added before Hannity interjected to say that walls work.

Correction (04/11/19, 1:30 p.m.): The headline for this story initially failed to state that Glenn Beck's claims were made without evidence. The claim that George Soros has funded migrant caravans has been debunked by multiple fact-checking sites. This has been corrected. The story has also been updated with a statement from CLINIC to deny allegations from Beck.