Amid a historic surge of migrants attempting to enter the U.S. along the southern border, Congress’ recent efforts to pass immigration reform have failed. On Feb. 13, House Republicans voted to impeach U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. In a statement following the impeachment vote, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said Mayorkas is responsible for "fueling the worst border catastrophe in American history."
On Feb. 13, Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-N.C.) shared a photo on X appearing to show a migrant caravan, with a meme sticker of Biden pointing with text that says “I DID THAT,” implying the Biden administration’s border policies have led to the influx of migrants headed toward the U.S.
People commented on the post and added a community note claiming the picture was actually taken when former President Donald Trump was in office.
THE QUESTION
Was this viral photo of a migrant caravan taken during Biden’s presidency?
THE SOURCES
THE ANSWER
No, this viral photo of a migrant caravan wasn’t taken during Biden’s presidency.
WHAT WE FOUND
While there have been confirmed reports of large groups of migrants headed toward the U. S. border during Biden’s tenure in office, this photo doesn’t show such a group.
The photo was actually taken in October 2018, when Donald Trump was president.
VERIFY used RevEye, a reverse image search tool, and found the photo was originally published by the Associated Press on Oct. 27, 2018. The caption of the image says it shows a U.S.-bound migrant caravan standing on a road outside Arriaga, in the Mexican state of Chiapas, in southern Mexico. The caravan of roughly 1,000 migrants was traveling to the U.S. border from Honduras, the AP reported.
On Oct. 29, 2018, then-President Trump also acknowledged a caravan was headed to the U.S.
So we can VERIFY the photo shared by Rep. Chuck Edwards was taken while Trump was president, not Biden.
Several X users called out Edwards for posting the old photo. In a response to one reply to his original post, Edwards seemingly acknowledged the error and shared another picture of migrants and wrote: “Satisfied?”
That photo was taken on Dec. 24, 2023, and shows a group of migrants heading north from Tapachula, Mexico.
Neither picture shared by Edwards shows migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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