“JUST IN: A MASSIVE CARAVAN of illegal aliens is forcing their way into the US!”
Dash for the border on video was months before Title 42 ended
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A video of migrants entering the U.S. and shared as if it was from May 12, 2023, was from March. It was not a result of the lifting of Title 42, public health rule.
A video posted on Twitter claimed to share a chaotic scene from the U.S.-Mexico border after the U.S. dropped a pandemic-era policy that allowed border officials to quickly turn away migrants.
The video shows a group of people breaking down a barbed wire fence and running by border officials to cross a bridge into the U.S.
“JUST IN: A MASSIVE CARAVAN of illegal aliens is forcing their way into the US!” claimed a tweet with a video from the account @ProudElephantUS.
The tweet says, “Joe Biden and the Democrats need to do their jobs and work with Republicans to REINSTATE TITLE 42 and SECURE OUR BORDER.”
This video is authentic, but it was shared out of context. It was taken in March 2023 and shows people crossing the Paso del Norte International Bridge, which goes from Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico, into El Paso, Texas.
PolitiFact found several posts with the same footage from months ago.
“With the arrival of the migrant caravan, thousands of people forced their way across the border between Ciudad Juarez and El Paso to demand asylum,” said the original TikTok post, published in Spanish by the TikTok account “migracion noticias” March 13, 2023. Other accounts also published it around the same dates.
The March event was also reported by Reuters and El País. Hundreds of migrants, mostly Venezuelans, tried in vain to enter the U.S. crossing the bridge toward El Paso, and then returned to Mexico once they could not break through, Reuters and Agence France-Presse reported.
The rush across the bridge may have been sparked by false rumors that border officials would let them cross massively, particularly people who arrived with children, as Camilo Cruz, an employee in Ciudad Juarez’s U.N. migration office, told KXAS-TV in Dallas-Fort Worth.
This happened two months before the expiration of Title 42, a policy the Trump and Biden administrations used for three years to block many migrants at the southern U.S. border from seeking asylum.
We rate the claim False.
Our Sources
TikTok, Post, March 13, 2023
The Washington Post, Crossing jungle and desert, migrants navigate a sea of misinformation, May 14, 2023
Los Angeles Times, Sale caravana migrante en sur de México para exigir justicia, April 24, 2023
Reuters, Fact Check-Video of migrants rushing back to Ciudad Juárez at border dates to at least March 2023, May 10, 2023
El País, Cientos de migrantes cruzan a la fuerza la frontera entre Ciudad Juárez y El Paso para exigir asilo, March 13, 2023
KXAS-TV, Migrants Rush El Paso Border Crossing After False Rumor Claims US Officials Would Let Families In, March 13, 2023
Reuters, Hundreds of migrants try to force their way into US at Mexico border, March 13, 2023
Reuters, Hundreds of migrants try to force their way into US at Mexico border, March 13, 2023
CNN News 18, Hundreds Of Migrants Attempt To Storm The US-Mexico Border | US Mexico Border, March 13, 2023
PolitiFact, Image showing thousands of bridge-crossing migrants was from 2018, not 2023, May 8, 2023
TikTok, Post, March 14, 2023
PolitiFact, Donald Trump's first TV ad shows migrants 'at the southern border,' but they're actually in Morocco, January 4, 2016
