Video from 2022 misrepresented to make southern border convoy look larger than it is
FILE - Concertina wire lines the path as members of Congress tour an area near the Texas-Mexico border, Jan. 3, 2024, in Eagle Pass, Texas. Social media users are misrepresenting a video from 2022 to make a convoy headed to the southern border look larger than it actually is. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)
CLAIM: A video shows a convoy made up of thousands of truckers, including many driving tractor-trailers, on its way to Texas to support the state in its escalating standoff with the Biden administration over immigration enforcement along the U.S.-Mexico border.
AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The video shows a 2022 convoy of truckers who drove from California to the Washington, D.C., area to demand an end to COVID-19 restrictions. It is made up of clips from three news reports on the convoy and aerial footage from a local television station. A convoy calling to secure the southern border left Norfolk, Virginia, on Monday, their final destination Texas. However, a livestream by one of the participants showed about 40 vehicles participating as they left Jacksonville, Florida, on Tuesday morning.
THE FACTS: Following the Supreme Court’s decision last week to allow Border Patrol agents to resume cutting razor wire that Texas installed along a stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border, some on social media are misrepresenting footage of the 2022 convoy to falsely claim thousands of truckers are on their way to help protect the Lone Star State.
In the misrepresented video, which is set to Survivor’s 1982 hit “Eye of the Tiger,” a long line of trucks — many of them tractor-trailer rigs — can be seen driving along highways and other roads, cheered on by crowds of supporters waving American flags.
“5,000 truckers are headed to the Texas border in support of Texas,” reads one post on X, formerly Twitter, that shared the video, misrepresenting what it shows. “Who else supports Texas? The mainstream media does not want you to SHARE this!”
As of Tuesday, the post had received approximately 27,000 likes and 10,000 shares.
Another popular X post reads: “TEXAS!!! Truckers are rollin in and rollin up!! If these CORRUPT MOTHERFIJCKERS were looking to play a game of chicken they picked THE WRONG DAMN STATE!! WE WON’T BACK DOWN!!!”
But the footage in the video is nearly two years old — it is from 2022 and shows a convoy protesting against COVID-19 restrictions, not immigration policies.
Clips from news reports produced by Business Insider, KTVI in St. Louis and KTTV in Los Angeles, as well as aerial footage posted online by WFAA in Dallas, were combined to create the video spreading online.
A group of about 20 vehicles calling to secure the U.S.-Mexico border, none of which were tractor-trailers, left Norfolk, Virginia, on Monday, as seen in footage of the launch. Dubbed the “Take Our Border Back Convoy” by organizers, the group is on its way to the border town of Quemado, Texas, with multiple stops planned along the way. A livestream of the convoy filmed by a participant shows that it began its second day on the road Tuesday morning from Jacksonville, Florida, with about 40 vehicles.
Organizers have planned two other concurrent convoys. One is scheduled to depart on Feb. 1 from Dripping Springs, Texas, and end in the border city of Yuma, Arizona. The other, which also ends in Yuma, will leave from San Ysidro, California, another area situated near the U.S.-Mexico border. Three rallies are scheduled for Feb. 3.
Organizers of the 2022 convoy against COVID-19 restrictions, called “The People’s Convoy,” wrote in a statement on Facebook that they “are not involved or have helped in any way up to this point” with the “Take Our Border Back Convoy,” but “cheer them on and wish them the best!”
The razor wire at the center of the Supreme Court’s recent decision was installed by Texas along the banks of the Rio Grande to deter migrants from entering the U.S. illegally. It stretches for roughly 30 miles (48 kilometers) near the border city of Eagle Pass, which is approximately 18 miles (29 kilometers) from Quemado.
Some migrants have been injured by the sharp wire and the Justice Department has argued the barrier impedes the U.S. government’s ability to patrol the border, including coming to the aid of migrants in need of help.
In an attempt to salvage a border deal in Congress that would also unlock money for Ukraine, President Joe Biden said on Saturday that he would be willing to shut down the U.S.-Mexico border if lawmakers send him a bill to sign.
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This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.