Aerial view of Honduran migrants heading in a caravan to the US, as the leave Arriaga on their way ... [+]
Have you seen photos recently purporting to show a “foreign invasion” of the U.S. by migrants entering the southern border from Mexico? Many of them aren’t recent. In fact, despite being shared by many fans of former president Donald Trump, some of the images are actually from his time at the White House.
One of the most popular photos circulating on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook right now claims to show a “foreign invasion” at the U.S.-Mexico border. The Liberty Lock podcast shared the photo on Sunday and Kingsley Cortes with the American First organization labeled it a “foreign invasion.”
But, in reality, the photo is from October 27, 2018, when President Trump was in office.
What does the photo actually show? According to the photographer who captured the image, it shows people from Honduras who were traveling in a so-called “caravan” with the hopes of making it to the United States. But the photo was taken near the city of Arriaga, roughly 1,700 miles from the U.S. border.
There’s no guarantee that most of these people in the photo actually made it to the U.S., given the reports of the time about how difficult the journey was. That being said, the caravan grew as it made its way through Central America and Mexico.
According to Vox, the migrant caravan in the photo started on October 12, 2018 from the town of San Pedro Sula, Honduras which is known as the murder capital of the world. It started with about 160 people, according to Vox, and grew to about 3,000 people once it got to Guatemala.
After the caravan made its way through Mexico, the total number of people who were able to reach the U.S. border in late November 2018 was about 7,000, according to the BBC.
President Joe Biden has received criticism for his immigration policy, which critics call an “open border.” But while it’s perfectly legal for someone to claim asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border, that’s not the same thing as an “open border.” People are processed and only allowed to stay in the U.S. temporarily while their case is heard if they don’t have a criminal record.
President Biden also recently sent 1,500 U.S. troops to the border in anticipation of a new surge of migrants after the expiration of Title 42, a public health measure imposed during the worst of the covid-19 pandemic that allowed immigration officials to send migrants back to Mexico.
“Don't listen to smugglers' lies about America's immigration laws. The U.S. border is not open to illegal or irregular migration and U.S. immigration laws will be tougher as the Title 42 public health Order ends,” the U.S. Department of Homeland Security tweeted on Tuesday.
Reasonable people can disagree on U.S. immigration policy, but the number of fake and misleading images currently circulating on social media platforms is concerning. Just recently I looked at a video that was being shared widely on TikTok and Twitter that supposedly showed people at the U.S.-Mexico border. It was actually from Africa.
