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  • 2019-07-03 (xsd:date)
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  • No, migrants aren’t being quarantined with an unknown disease at the U.S.-Mexico border (en)
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  • An unsubstantiated article from a conservative political website claimed that migrants at United States’ southern border with Mexico are being quarantined with an unknown disease. In the June 26 article , Big League Politics wrote that there are three individuals now quarantined at a privately-owned hospital in El Paso with an unknown disease. The outlet also said, without evidence, that a 10-year-old girl was found with 20 types of semen in her. The Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has not even been able to identify the disease the three migrants have, as the military guards the quarantine area, author Patrick Howley wrote. Those claims were attributed to a medical professional on the border. The article was picked up by at least two other sites and had also been shared in posts on Twitter and Facebook , racking up thousands of likes and shares. The posts were flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook .) That’s because they’re not substantiated with facts. Big League Politics’ article, which fact-checking site Lead Stories debunked July 1 , consists mostly of quotes from the anonymous health professional. The lead photo is a stock image that the CDC frequently uses in its tweets. PolitiFact asked Howley for more evidence to back up his article, but he did not provide any beyond the anonymous source. He pointed to an old article that claimed a 6-year-old girl had been raped by 30 men at the U.S.-Mexico border as the basis for the claims. We rated that story False in December. U.S. Customs and Border Protection told PolitiFact that it has no record of any outbreaks of an unknown disease that has led to the quarantine of migrants in El Paso. The agency has previously researched that claim and found no evidence to back it up. CDC spokesman Bert Kelly told PolitiFact that the agency does not have anyone quarantined and is not aware of any ‘unknown disease’ along the border. The Big League Politics story piggybacks off a legitimate recent news story. CNN reported last month that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had placed 5,200 adult migrants in quarantine after they were exposed to mumps or chicken pox. But false claims about migrants with diseases at the U.S. border are common. In an April fact check , we debunked a photo that has been repeatedly taken out of context to stoke fears about immigrants. Disease-Ridden Congolese Migrants Dumped in San Antonio, the Conservative Daily Post website claimed in a headline last month — a claim that Big League Politics’ story reiterated. We rated that False . Big League Politics’ about page states that its only goal is to tell the truth and that its staffers do not belong to the Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Green, or even Bull Moose parties. The website has more than 12,000 followers on its Facebook page and more than 90,000 on Twitter . But the site has published false and misleading political content in the past. Our ruling Big League Politics claimed migrants were being quarantined at a private hospital in El Paso with an unknown disease. That article was based on quotes from one anonymous source. Both U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told PolitiFact that they have no record of quarantines for an unknown disease affecting migrants on the U.S. southern border. Without evidence, we rate the claim False. (en)
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