Quick summary:
• Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a U.S.-born citizen and Army veteran, killed 14 people in a vehicle-ramming attack on New Year’s Day in New Orleans.
• Despite law enforcement confirming Jabbar’s U.S. citizenship, President-elect Trump falsely blamed the attack on Biden’s immigration policies.
• Trump’s claims originated from an erroneous Fox News report that incorrectly suggested Jabbar crossed the Texas-Mexico border; Fox later corrected the story.
• Republican lawmakers, including House Speaker Mike Johnson and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, echoed Trump’s false narrative about immigration.
• The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) condemned Jabbar’s actions and expressed solidarity with the people of New Orleans.
• Sen. Chris Murphy and MSNBC host Jonathan Lemire criticized Trump for intentionally spreading lies to push an anti-immigrant agenda.
• Studies show that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than U.S.-born citizens, debunking the myth that immigration leads to higher crime rates.
Following a deadly vehicle-ramming attack on New Year’s Day in New Orleans, President-elect Donald Trump falsely blamed the tragedy on immigration policies under President Joe Biden, despite the fact that the suspect was a U.S.-born citizen. The incident, which left at least 14 people dead and dozens more injured, sparked widespread condemnation of Trump’s comments, which have since been debunked by law enforcement and fact-checkers.
In the early hours of January 1, 2025, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a U.S. citizen and Army veteran, drove his vehicle into a crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, killing 14 people and injuring over 30 others. Jabbar was shot and killed by police after he exited his vehicle and engaged in a shootout with officers.
Much attention has been placed on Jabbar’s alleged support for ISIS, with reports of an ISIS flag found inside his vehicle. However, his motivations appear to be more complex. Jabbar had recorded messages detailing his frustrations with family members and financial struggles before changing his initial plan to harm his family and instead traveling to New Orleans.
The FBI initially speculated that Jabbar may have had accomplices, but later confirmed that he acted alone.
Just hours after the attack, Trump took to Truth Social to claim that Biden’s immigration policies were responsible for the violence, falsely suggesting that the attacker was an immigrant.
“When I said that the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country, that statement was constantly refuted by Democrats and the Fake News Media, but it turned out to be true,” Trump wrote.
In a subsequent post, Trump claimed that the attack was evidence of a crime wave sweeping the country due to Biden’s “open borders” policy. “This is what happens when you have OPEN BORDERS, with weak, ineffective, and virtually nonexistent leadership,” Trump wrote.
These statements were entirely false. Law enforcement confirmed that Jabbar was born in the United States and was not a migrant or recent border crosser.
Trump’s misinformation appears to have originated from an erroneous report by Fox News, which initially claimed that Jabbar had crossed the Texas-Mexico border before carrying out the attack. Fox News later corrected the report, clarifying that Jabbar was a U.S.-born citizen.
Despite the correction, Trump and other right-wing figures continued to spread the false narrative.
Donald Trump Jr. amplified the misinformation by sharing an article referencing the false report and writing, “Biden’s parting gift to America—migrant terrorists.”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) also echoed the false claims, tweeting, “New Orleans terrorist attacker is said to have come across the border in Eagle Pass TWO DAYS AGO!!! Shut the border down!!!”
Fox News acknowledged its error, stating, “To be clear, the suspect was born in the United States.” However, the damage was already done.
Several prominent Republicans repeated Trump’s false claims, using the attack to push anti-immigrant rhetoric.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) appeared on Fox News, portraying the attack as a failure of border security. “We’ve been ringing the alarms about the idea that dangerous people were coming here in droves and setting up potentially terrorist cells around the country,” Johnson said.
Other GOP lawmakers, including Rep. Eli Crane (R-Ariz.) and Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-Fla.), also blamed the attack on Biden’s immigration policies, despite knowing that the suspect was a U.S. citizen.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) released a statement condemning Jabbar’s actions.
“If reports that the perpetrator was a man with a history of drunk driving and spousal abuse who plotted to kill his family before supposedly experiencing dreams telling him to join Daesh are true, then his crime is the latest example of why cruel, merciless, bottom-feeding extremist groups have been rejected by the overwhelming majority of the Muslim world—from Islamic scholars, to mosques, to organizations, and to individual Muslims,” CAIR said. “We stand in solidarity with the people of New Orleans.”
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) criticized Trump’s comments on social media.
“Trump is intentionally lying about the attacker being an immigrant—he wasn’t,” Murphy wrote. “Why does it matter? Because he is going to use episodes of violence to justify his crackdown on immigrants and his attack on dissent—whether the facts line up or not.”
The false narrative that immigrants are more likely to commit crimes has been thoroughly debunked by numerous studies. Research consistently shows that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than U.S.-born citizens.
NBC News reported earlier this year that fewer than 0.014 percent of migrants attempting to cross the border in fiscal year 2024 were on the terrorist watchlist. This equates to fewer than 2 out of every 10,000 migrants.
In fact, during the Trump administration, the number of migrants flagged on the terrorist watchlist was slightly higher than under Biden. The narrative that terrorists are entering the U.S. en masse through the southern border has no basis in fact.
Trump’s repeated use of misinformation to push anti-immigrant policies has dangerous consequences. The spread of false narratives can lead to increased hate crimes, discriminatory policies, and the erosion of civil liberties.
MSNBC host Jonathan Lemire criticized Trump for “trolling the American people with outright misinformation and lies.” He warned that Trump’s false statements could have lasting effects on public perception and policymaking.
As Sen. Chris Murphy pointed out, Trump’s misinformation campaign is part of a broader strategy to justify harsh policies and attacks on dissent. “Trump is intentionally lying… because he is going to use episodes of violence to justify his crackdown on immigrants and his attack on dissent—whether the facts line up or not.”
To read more about immigration and debunk the myths, visit Learning for Justice.
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