In an era marked by rapid globalization and digital connectivity, the movement of people across borders has become both a defining feature of our time and a flashpoint for social and political tensions. Amid this landscape, disinformation has emerged as a powerful tool often targeting the most vulnerable: immigrants.
The impact of disinformation on immigrants is multifaceted and severe, creating barriers to integration, undermining trust in institutions, exacerbating social isolation, and even leading to policy decisions based on inaccurate information.
President Donald Trump knows how important his words about immigrants are and the value of repetition to get his misstatements believed. Moreover, his falsehoods have reshaped public discourse so that the frequency, degree, and impact of lying in politics are now unprecedented.
The Marshall Project used text analysis to identify 13 major claims about immigration in Trump’s public statements, some of which he has made 500 times or more. Millions of Americans and people worldwide have heard these claims.; all of them are untrue or deeply misleading.
Following the terrorist attack on Jan.1, 2025, in New Orleans, which claimed the lives of 15 people and wounded many others, Trump, Fox News, and other Republican figures immediately blamed immigrants and the immigration system. Fox News even reported that the attacker had crossed from Mexico days before the attack.
But the attacker, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, who died from police bullets, was a U.S. citizen from Texas, and an Army veteran. Did Trump and Fox News retract their declarations? Of course not.
During the 43-day government shutdown from Oct. 1 to Nov. 12, disinformation around the nation’s largest nutrition assistance program (SNAP) percolated from the White House and social media with false claims that the program overwhelmingly benefited unauthorized immigrants, not Americans.
“Fifty-nine percent of all illegal aliens are collecting food stamps, meaning that most of the people getting food stamps from the U.S. government and the U.S. taxpayer are not even Americans,” said Rob Finnerty, Newsmax host, on Oct. 27.
Fox News joined with a blanket claim that SNAP benefits are being given to “illegals” and immigrants with a pending immigration case. Those false statements were spread in tens of thousands of posts and viewed millions of times.
Nearly 90 percent of SNAP recipients are native-born American citizens and 96 percent are citizens, according to the latest data from the Agriculture Department. Undocumented immigrants are not eligible for SNAP benefits and never have been.
Over the course of the shutdown, President Trump made the false claim that Democrats “want $1.5 trillion for healthcare for illegal aliens that come into our country” in an Oct. 19 interview with Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo. He repeated those claims in a “60 Minutes” interview on Nov. 2 and at a bilateral meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orbán on Nov. 7.
The $1.5 trillion is the total estimated cost over 10 years of the spending bill that Democrats had put forward at the beginning of the shutdown for healthcare subsidy extensions and reversing Medicaid cuts, not immigration.
Pro-Trump streamer Nick Shirley’s recent video claiming to expose widespread financial fraud by Somali-run childcare centers in Minnesota, which state officials have refuted, has drawn attention and support — and even a flurry of copycat efforts — from some online shows and right-wing media outlets.
Although the video has already been debunked by investigators, the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress have seized on it. Vice President JD Vance said Shirley “has done far more useful journalism than any of the winners of the 2024 Pulitzer Prizes.”
Disinformation and misconceptions about immigrants amplified by powerful politicians have shaped significant government policies in recent years, often resulting in harmful consequences for affected individuals and communities.
Examples include the “zero tolerance” policy implemented by the first Trump administration that resulted in the separation of thousands of immigrant children from their parents. The justification for this policy was partly based on exaggerated claims about immigrants posing a major security threat and being involved in criminal activities at higher rates than native-born Americans. Research and publicly accessible data have shown this to be blatantly false.
Decisions to terminate Temporary Protected Status for hundreds of thousands of immigrants from countries like El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Afghanistan, and Sudan are often justified using misleading claims about conditions in those countries and the supposed economic burden of TPS holders. This is despite ample evidence to the contrary that they bolster our economy, provide vital services and enrich our culture.
Navigating the political landscape can feel like wading through murky water made fetid by half-truths, manipulated facts, or outright lies that threaten to drown out truth and erode public trust. This is particularly dangerous for immigrant communities in the United States who are already vulnerable to being politicized through the spread of disinformation. Lies about immigrants inflames social division and harms the lives of real people.
To build a society rooted in truth, we must listen to the lived experiences of immigrants and counter the harms of disinformation. We all play a crucial role in providing and accessing accurate data and narratives and by challenging misconceptions. By rooting out disinformation, we foster a climate where truth prevails and a more inclusive and respectful society thrives.
Dr. William Kolbe, an Andover resident, is a retired high school and college teacher and former Peace Corps volunteer in Tonga and El Salvador. He can be reached at [email protected]
