DHS warns American trucker protests could kick off as soon as Super Bowl Sunday

In the wake of the Canadian "Freedom Convoy" in which thousands of truckers descended on Ottawa to protest vaccine mandates, many other nations have seen similar protests take shape.

The Department of Homeland Security said on Wednesday that an American version in which truckers from all over the nation would make their way to Washington, DC is imminent.

According to Yahoo News, the DHS "has received reports of a convoy of truckers planning to potentially block roads in major metropolitan cities in the United States in protest of, among other things, vaccine mandates for truck drivers."

"The group intends to start in California as early as mid-February," the DHS document notes, adding that it will likely coincide with Super Bowl Sunday, "and travel to Washington, DC, as late as mid-March, reportedly gathering truckers as they travel across the country."

The proposed convoy "appears to be purely aspirational because the event is only being discussed online," according to the DHS, but many within the department are warning it could easily take shape.

One DHS official told Yahoo News that if the truckers do begin to congregate, "they are definitely going to follow the Canadian model and shut down Washington."

There have been reports that American truckers may be joined by those currently in Ottawa.

While acknowledging that they "have no indication that individuals discussing participating in these activities in the United States are engaged in anything other than First Amendment–protected activity," the DHS warned that they "don't want a lot of angry people storming DC," adding, "we've seen that before."

DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas discussed the possibility of protest in an interview with CBS. "Individuals have a perfect right to exercise their First Amendment rights," Mayorkas said, adding that, "Once they intervene in other people's freedoms and liberties, it becomes a more complicated landscape, but we're working with law enforcement to address any eventualities."