Arrival of Right-Wing Activists in Baltimore Prompts Meeting Cancellations, Local Warnings
Residents are advised to avoid any verbal or physical confrontations with the individuals.
Conservative media personalities Ben Bergquam and Josh Fulfer were removed from a Baltimore public library event Thursday after their presence prompted organizers to cancel a meeting about immigration enforcement. A separate incident, posted to social media this morning, saw Utah YouTuber Nick Shirley enter a Penn North church, drawing immediate confrontation from community members.
Bergquam, host of “Law & Border” on Real America’s Voice News and founder of Frontline America, and Fulfer, who operates under the name “Oreo Express,” attended a People’s Power Assembly meeting at the Enoch Pratt Free Library Southeast Anchor Branch. The meeting, titled “Declaring Baltimore a Zone of Peace against ICE,” was canceled after the two arrived.
Video shared by Fulfer on TikTok shows the pair surrounded by a crowd at the library. In a post on X, Bergquam wrote that he and Fulfer were “physically deported” from the library after security escorted them out. “The meeting was canceled because they couldn’t cope with our presence there,” he said.
The People’s Power Assembly, a Baltimore grassroots organization, has organized multiple protests in recent weeks calling for an end to cooperation between local police and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The group has been active since at least 2015, organizing demonstrations following the death of Freddie Gray and other social justice issues.
Bergquam has built a following documenting immigration enforcement operations. The California-based activist has embedded with ICE agents during deportation operations in Chicago and other cities. He co-founded the Central Valley Tea Party in 2008 and has appeared alongside figures such as Steve Bannon.
His work has drawn criticism from immigration advocates. In Chicago, researchers noted concerns about his confrontational approach potentially escalating tense situations during federal enforcement operations.
Fulfer, a Clovis, California resident, became a full-time activist after becoming a parent and noticing what he described as corruption in schools, according to the Frontline America Foundation website. He runs the Oreo Express media company and podcast. In May 2025, he was involved in an altercation at a California track championship where a protester struck Fulfer with a flag pole. The protester was arrested on assault charges.
Meanwhile, Nick Shirley, a 23-year-old YouTube creator from Utah, entered a church in Baltimore’s Penn North neighborhood. Urban Reads Bookstore, a Black-owned business that specializes in books by Black and imprisoned authors, posted a warning about Shirley on Instagram.
“I just spotted & immediately confronted Nick Shirley in Baltimore’s Penn North area both outside & inside a Black church,” wrote Sima Lee RBG in the post. She said Shirley approached with his phone filming without asking, claiming he wanted to interview people about the “fentanyl crisis” and warn about “fraud.”
The post noted that Shirley was accompanied by someone wearing a 7th Special Forces Group Airborne insignia. Urban Reads urged community members not to speak with Shirley, warning that footage would be “edited, chopped up & used against the people of Baltimore.”
Shirley gained national attention in December 2025 with a viral video alleging fraud at Somali-run childcare centers in Minnesota. In the 42-minute video, Shirley and a man identified only as “David” visited various daycare centers, filming from outside and attempting to enter facilities by claiming they wanted to enroll children. When staff refused entry, Shirley presented the locked doors and lack of visible children as evidence of fraud.
Subsequent reporting revealed problems with Shirley’s methods and conclusions. Security footage from ABC Learning Center showed families dropping off children throughout the day on December 16, the same day Shirley visited around noon and claimed the facility was empty. The center’s director said staff refused Shirley entry because he arrived with a group of masked men, raising concerns about Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents given recent ICE activity in the area.
State officials who conducted unannounced visits to the 10 facilities featured in Shirley’s video found children present at nine of them. The tenth had not yet opened when inspectors arrived, as it serves children of second-shift workers and opens later in the day. All facilities with active licenses had been visited by state regulators within the previous six months.
Legal experts noted that Shirley’s allegations conflated two separate federal programs with different oversight mechanisms. The fraud he described would not be possible under the Child Care Assistance Program’s structure, which requires licensed facilities and pays based on verified attendance rather than enrollment claims.
Following the video’s release, Somali-run daycares reported harassment, including threatening phone calls and at least one break-in. The Trump administration froze childcare funding to Minnesota and four other Democratic-led states, though state officials said investigations found no evidence of fraud at the sites Shirley visited.
The Utah native started creating YouTube content in high school with prank videos before shifting to political content. He filmed himself outside the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, though he said he did not enter the building.
Shirley was named “Citizen Journalist of the Year” at Mar-a-Lago in November 2025 by James O’Keefe, founder of Project Veritas. He participated in a White House roundtable in October focused on antifascist activism.
Media law professors and news organizations have questioned Shirley’s methods. University of Minnesota professor Jane Kirtley told Minnesota Public Radio that many news influencers “have a narrative, and they do everything they can to advance that narrative, but they seem to spend little to no time looking for the other side of the story.”
The incidents in Baltimore come as immigration enforcement has intensified under the Trump administration, with activist groups organizing resistance efforts in cities across the country. The simultaneous arrival of three prominent conservative activists in Baltimore is concerning, as community organizers say their presence is a harassment tactic designed to fuel anti-immigrant sentiment.
I don’t know what they think they’re going to accomplish, but it’s pretty funny that they’re being immediately ejected
THANK YOU RESTACKED. doing vids. alerting networks