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  • 2021-09-23 (xsd:date)
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  • No, Louisiana Did Not Send 2,000 Alligators to Texas Border (en)
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  • Since at least 2018, a Facebook meme about the U.S.-Mexico border has been shared that claimed: Louisiana Cajun Navy sends 2,000 gators to Texas to secure the Rio Grande river border. It was still being posted as of September 2021. At the time, it appeared to be shared in response to then-recent news in regard to thousands of Haitian migrants who were seeking U.S. asylum at the Mexico border near Del Rio, Texas. After some basic searches, we found that the meme about alligators purportedly being sent at the border was shared by multiple Facebook accounts and pages. On the Piracy1Radio Facebook page, a user named Carol commented on the post: Is this TRUE? I never know what is and isn't anymore. Bertie added: [That's] one way to stop people. Another commenter named Christina said: If it's true, [that's] awesome. The meme was also posted on the Tiger Droppings message board and The Columbian Post Facebook page. The oldest post with the meme that we found was from Nov. 24, 2018. It was captioned with: The Great State Of Louisiana Sent 2000 Alligators To The Rio Grande!!! ? it. #AmericanFirst #Buildthatwall ??. The meme was not labeled as being satire, nor did we find that it was an old April Fools' joke. Further, a majority of social media commenters appeared to believe it was genuine news. While the picture of the alligators was real, the story about the border presented in the meme was not. The misleading and political caption on the picture appeared to be adapted from a nonpolitical news story. In 2017, Louisiana's volunteer force known as the Cajun Navy traveled from Louisiana to Texas to help in the recovery efforts after Hurricane Harvey. According to The Washington Post, Houston officials described a vast rescue effort and said about 2,000 people had been brought to safety with more still in need of help. This might be where the creator of the alligator meme found the number 2,000 to use in the image. In reality, the photograph showed upwards of 200 (not 2,000) alligators at a giant sinkhole in Florida. The 2017 picture was credited to Lee Dalton, who posted more photographs on Facebook. This video shows the picture from the meme as well as aerial footage of the same alligators. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brudIkGrV1UOn March 10, 2017, CBS News reported on the terrifying, yet breathtaking display of nature: In sum, the meme falsely claimed that the Louisiana Cajun Navy sent 2,000 alligators to Texas to secure the Rio Grande crossing at the U.S.-Mexico border. The picture in the meme had nothing to do with immigration or politics. (en)
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