President-elect Donald Trump shared anti-immigrant claims on social media surrounding the suspect involved in the fatal New Year's Day attack in New Orleans.
Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old U.S. Army veteran from Texas, has been identified as the suspect. The attack claimed the lives of at least 15 people and injured at least 35.
Jabbar, reportedly by officials to have been influenced by the Islamic State group (ISIS), drove his pickup into a crowd gathered on Bourbon Street to celebrate the new year before opening fire. Authorities responded swiftly and Jabbar was fatally shot by police.
Newsweek reached out to the Trump-Vance transition team for comment via email Thursday afternoon.
The Claim
Trump posted on Truth Social in the immediate aftermath of the attack, appearing to conflate it with President Joe Biden's immigration policies.
"Our Country is a disaster, a laughing stock all over the World! This is what happens when you have OPEN BORDERS, with weak, ineffective, and virtually nonexistent leadership," he posted.
"The DOJ, FBI, and Democrat state and local prosecutors have not done their job. They are incompetent and corrupt, having spent all of their waking hours unlawfully attacking their political opponent, ME, rather than focusing on protecting Americans from the outside and inside violent SCUM that has infiltrated all aspects of our government, and our Nation itself.
"Democrats should be ashamed of themselves for allowing this to happen to our Country. The CIA must get involved, NOW, before it is too late. The USA is breaking down - A violent erosion of Safety, National Security, and Democracy is taking place all across our Nation. Only strength and powerful leadership will stop it. See you on January 20th. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"
That post came as Fox News initially reported that the suspect in the car-ramming attack had crossed over the southern border two days prior. The network soon corrected that reporting to indicate that the suspect had not come across the border.
Trump still doubled down on the comments, posting later on Thursday that he had warned that Biden's "Open Border's Policy" would lead to more "Radical Islamic Terrorism, and other forms of violent crime" which would become "so bad."
Similar comments were also made by Republican Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene and House Speaker Mike Johnson.
The Facts
The suspect, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, was identified by law enforcement a 42-year-old U.S. Army veteran from Texas.
Police discovered an ISIS flag on the truck, along with improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and additional weapons. The suspect was reportedly carrying an assault rifle and a handgun. Officials said Thursday that Jabbar joined ISIS before the summer, but he was not an immigrant.
Christopher Raia, deputy assistant director of the FBI's counterterrorism division, said at a briefing that Jabbar acted alone.
"This was an act of terrorism. It was premeditated and an evil act," he said. "We do not assess, at this point, that anyone else is involved in this attack except Shamsud-Din Jabbar.
"Jabbar himself was born in the United States and was a U.S. military veteran."
Trump and others in the Republican Party have frequently claimed that illegal immigrants are behind a crime wave across the U.S.
That viewpoint has been debunked by the libertarian Cato Institute, which found that native-born Americans are more likely to commit violent crimes than migrants, legal or otherwise, when analyzing Texas crime statistics.
"Relative to native-born Americans, we found that illegal immigrants were 41 percent less likely to be incarcerated and legal immigrants were 74 percent less likely," Alex Nowrasteh, vice president for economic and social policy studies at Cato, wrote in October.
Still, illegal immigrants have been charged or convicted of high-profile violent crimes in the past year, including the murder of 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray in Texas and nursing student Laken Riley in Georgia.
The Ruling
False.
The claim made by President-elect Donald Trump and Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene regarding the suspect in the New Year's Day attack in New Orleans is not true.
There is no credible evidence or report indicating that Jabbar was an immigrant or that he crossed the border recently.
The claim that Jabbar "came across the border in Eagle Pass two days ago" does not align with the facts surrounding his identity or background.
FACT CHECK BY NEWSWEEK
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