Did Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum say she thought Americans encouraged felons and rapists to come to the United States since "that's what they chose to be their president"? No, that's not true: There is no evidence Sheinbaum made such a statement. The quote originated on a TikTok site that describes itself as a place for "Awful Sports Takes, Brutal SportsBetting Picks, plus other Random Nonsense."
The claim reappeared in a post on Instagram on February 1, 2025. It included a photograph of Sheinbaum and an image of the Mexican flag. The text overlay read:
MEXICAN PRESIDENT CLAUDIA SHEINBAUM
'I'm confused. I keep hearing everyone from America saying that my country is sending Felons and Grapists into their Country. We thought that was encouraged ... Considering That's What They Chose To Be Their President.'
The post included a comment above the quote:
Welp 😮💨😮💨😮💨
Here is what the post looked like on Instagram at the time of writing:
(Source: Instagram screenshot taken on Fri Feb 7 16:44:13 2025 UTC)
The post does not mention when or where Sheinbaum supposedly made this comment.
Lead Stories searched for portions of the quote on the website Sheinbaumpedia (archived here), an independent search tool that uses artificial intelligence to examine Sheinbaum's regular news conferences. The search can be conducted in Spanish or English. Our search of the phrase "they chose to be their president" from the quote in question returned no results:
(Source: Sheinbaumpedia website screenshot taken on Fri Feb 7 16:40:57 2025 UTC)
Lead Stories searched news releases posted on the official Mexico President government website (archived here) for the quote "I keep hearing everyone from America saying," and received no results back:
(Source: Mexican presidency website screenshot taken on Fri Feb 7 17:04:11 2025 UTC)
Lead Stories also searched Google for the full quote (archived here). That search also returned no pertinent results:
(Source: Google screenshot taken on Fri Feb 7 17:04:11 2025 UTC)
Lead Stories also searched key phrases on Google News, such as "I'm confused. I keep hearing everyone from America saying that my country is sending felons" (archived here) and "considering that's what they chose to be their president." (archived here). The two searches returned no results supporting the quote's authenticity but did include fact checks debunking the claim.
The post on Instagram included a watermark for the TikTok account of @thebourbonmamaluke, where the same meme was posted January 30, 2025:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Fri Feb 7 18:55:29 2025 UTC)
That site described itself as "Awful Sports Takes, Brutal SportsBetting Picks, plus other Random Nonsense."
Lead Stories contacted Sheinbaum's office and will update this fact check with any response.
At the time this was written, other fact checking outlets such as USA Today and PolitiFact had also reviewed this claim.
Read more
For more Lead Stories fact checks about claims involving Claudia Sheinbaum, click here.
For more Lead Stories fact checks about claims involving Donald Trump's felony cases, click here.
