Does this video show a large crowd of migrants scaling the fence at the U.S. border with Mexico? No, that's not true: This scene was filmed in North Africa in March 2022 as migrants from sub-Saharan Africa climbed the border fence of the Spanish enclave Melilla in a large coordinated group from the Moroccan side of the barrier.
One recent posting of the video was uploaded on TikTok on April 28, 2023. Another copy of the video (archived here) was posted on Twitter on May 2, 2023. It was captioned:
We are being invaded
Dont let them lie about it
It is a constant flow, and with what is about to expire...the real flood is coming
Title 42 expires May 11, 2023.
This is what the post looked like on Twitter at the time of writing:
This video footage was included in two articles (here and here) on the website of the Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia on March 2, 2022, (archived here) and March 3, 2022.
Versions of the video circulating on social media in late April and early May 2023 were edited to various lengths. The 12-second Twitter video is made with two clips. It begins with a panning shot showing many people scaling a fence. Seven seconds in, a second clip, filmed from the passenger seat of a moving vehicle, shows people scaling the fence on the left side of the road. The driver is wearing a disposable face mask, a blue uniform polo shirt, and his vehicle is equipped with a radio and a display screen. This video is dubbed with a loud music track, "Wake Up" by Rage Against the Machine.
Some copies of this video are a few seconds longer, and show a glimpse of the terrain and the architecture of a town on the other side of the fence. One example on TikTok, posted on May 2, 2023, is 23 seconds long and also has the "Wake Up" music track. At the 13-second mark the camera is turned to view the road ahead. This video has captioning that says:
May 11, 2023: Coming to a border near you
On May 4, 2023, @davidper posted another copy of this video on Twitter. Although unlabeled, the video has not been edited to intentionally hide its context. This 16-second video only features one continuous take filmed from the vehicle with no music track dubbed over the original audio. The sound of an emergency vehicle's siren can be heard, and the driver and woman filming are speaking to each other in Spanish. As @davidper notes, the vehicles on the side of the road bear the markings of the Civil Guard, La Guardia Civil. In response to Elon Musk asking, "Is this real?" @davidper replied:
No, it's Melilla.
You can see Guardia Civil cars in the original video.
The Vanguardia articles describe a coordinated movement of unprecedented numbers. An estimated 2,500 migrants gathered at 8 a.m. on March 2, 2022, and moved together to the fence, which they began to jump at approximately 9:30 a.m. The Google translation of the March 2, 2022, Spanish language article says:
Some 500 immigrants of sub-Saharan origin have managed to jump over the Melilla border fence in the largest attempt -- up to 2,500 people have attempted it -- in years. The attempt to enter Spain occurred at around 9:30 in the morning in the vicinity of the Villa Pilar stream, a fairly long section of the fence.
(Image source: lavanguardia.com screenshot taken on Thu May 04 19:18:31 2023 UTC)
This is not the only time that this border fence of the 5-square-mile Spanish enclave, Melilla, has been scaled in a large coordinated effort. The New York Times reported another notable incident that involved approximately 2,000 migrants trying to cross the border fence on June 24, 2022, which resulted in the deaths of at least 23 people.
In the United States, Title 42 is set to expire on May 11, 2023. This is a public health order that has been in place since March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic that allows border agents to turn away migrants automatically at the border.
