Shams al-Din JabbarThe 42-year-old suspected driver in the New Orleans New Year’s truck attack was a US citizen and US Army veteran.

But within hours of the attack — which killed 15 people and is being investigated as an act of terrorism — President-elect Donald Trump, Republican leaders and social media influencers speculated that Jabbar had entered the United States illegally.

Citing Fox News, social media accounts said on January 1 that Jabbar “crossed the US-Mexico border at the Eagle Pass crossing just two days ago” and that there was “blood on the hands of the Biden administration.”

Georgia American actress Marjorie Taylor Greene shared a 38-second clip on Fox News and wrote On X That Jabbar “reportedly came across the border at Eagle Pass two days ago!!! Close the border!!!”

The New Orleans terrorist attacker reportedly crossed the border at Eagle Pass two days ago!!!

Close the borders!!!

Who has our government recently bombed and is targeting innocent Americans?

pic.twitter.com/EsD2UVuR5J

– Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (@RepMTG) January 1, 2025

Donald Trump Jr He said on X That Biden’s “parting gift” to the United States was “immigrant terrorists.”

Biden’s parting gift to America – immigrant terrorists. https://t.co/PQBr8A6KDt

– Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) January 1, 2025

The president-elect referred to the attack On social truth On the morning of January 1, he wrote that “the criminals coming are much worse than the criminals we have in our country.”

At around 3 a.m. in New Orleans on New Year’s Day, law enforcement officials say Jabbar plowed into Bourbon Street crowds with a rented Ford F-150 pickup truck before dying in a shootout with police.

Fox News reported at least on January 1 that the truck had crossed the southern US border two days earlier and was being driven by Jabbar, citing “federal sources.”

Reporters went over this within minutes on the air. The network issued a correction within an hour, saying that the truck had entered the country in mid-November and that Jabbar was not driving it.

But it is too late to contain false allegations that Jabbar is in the United States illegally. PolitiFact contacted Fox News but did not receive a response by publication.

Here’s how misinformation about the suspect spreads.

Fox news reporting schedule

While officials were working to confirm details of the attack, Fox News reported that the pickup truck rented by Jabbar entered the United States at the Eagle Pass crossing in Texas.

At 10:40 a.m. ET (15:40 GMT) on January 1, a Fox News reporter said federal sources had license plate data showing the suspect and the truck at the southern border days before the attack:

“According to federal sources, the suspect drove a truck with a Texas license plate on it – well, this just came into our newsroom, and this is from Griff Jenkins and David Spont who are working with their federal sources on this, the suspect drove that truck with a Texas license plate on it. Via Bourbon Street According to their sources, Spont and Jenkins, this person came via Eagle Pass, Texas, two days ago.

At approximately 10:47 a.m. ET (15:47 GMT), Fox News correspondent David Spont explained that reporters did not know if Jabbar was driving the truck.

“We heard that the car was tracked coming from Mexico into the United States in Eagle Pass, Texas, two days ago. To be clear, we don’t know 100 percent that this man, and we know that the suspect is a man, is the person who drove that car across the border.” “That’s not clear at this point,” Spont said.

“We only know that the actual license plate was picked up by the reader at one of the border crossings. That’s two federal law enforcement sources telling Fox News — that it was picked up at the crossing at that border station in Eagle Pass, Texas, two days ago. I know that raises questions More than answers but we provide information to our viewers as we get it, which is the most accurate information, so this is what we know now.

Trump sent out his Social Truth post about “criminals coming in” at 10:48 a.m. ET (15:48 GMT).

11:55 AM ET (16:55 GMT), Fox News has corrected the schedule He said on air that the truck crossed the border in mid-November, and confirmed that Jabbar was not driving it.

“Our sources tell Fox Now that that truck from Eagle Pass, Texas, did not cross the border two days ago. “I crossed the border on November 16, and it does not appear that the driver who crossed the border was the shooter,” Fox News correspondent Brian Lynas said.

PolitiFact found no instances of on-air Fox News personalities repeating the original misreporting in subsequent segments throughout the day.

Despite Fox’s correction, many of these false posts remain online without clarification.

Trump continued to bring up the inaccurate immigration angle in another corner Truth is a social function on January 2, long after law enforcement had confirmed that Jabbar was a US citizen.

“With Biden’s open borders policy I have said, many times during rallies and elsewhere, that radical Islamic terrorism, and other forms of violent crime, will become so bad in America that it will become difficult to even imagine or believe.” Trump wrote. “That time has come, and it is worse than we ever imagined.”

In a press conference on January 2, Christopher Raya, deputy assistant director of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division, said that Jabbar boarded the F-150 in Houston on December 30 and flew to New Orleans on the evening of December 31. December.