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An image purportedly showing a border sign informing travelers that they would receive lots of free stuff, including abortions, phones, and cash, once they crossed over into the United States has been making its away around the Internet for several years, receiving new life during a flurry of disinformation about asylum-seekers in April 2018: This image was created during the Obama administration, and it is frequently shared along with anti-immigrant (and anti-Democrat) rhetoric. Different digital alterations of this sign (and none that are done particularly well) have also been used to malign another group of people: Muslims. A popular version contains a message warning Muslims that the United States is a sharia-free zone and that travelers should set their watches forward 1400 years. The same joke has been repeated in a variety of languages on signs ostensibly sitting on the borders of the United Kingdom, Greece, and the Czech Republic: These images were all created by digitally adding a message over a genuine sign that truly does sit on the United States border. The original sign is aimed at travelers from the United States and appears near or at nearly every land crossing; it warns not about sharia law or free stuff but informs travelers about bringing weapons into Mexico, where guns are strictly illegal: This photograph was taken in San Luis, Arizona by reporter Molly O'Toole, and was included in a 2010 photo essay about the Southwest border: As mentioned, similar signs warning against bringing guns into Mexico can be found at various places along the border: A report from NPR stated that about 70 percent of weapons seized by Mexican authorities between 2009 and 2014 came directly from the United States:
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