Does a social media post include an authentic photo of former New Mexico Magistrate Judge Joel Cano standing pantsless in flip-flops with Cristhian Ortega-Lopez, the Venezuelan man he is accused of hiding from U.S. immigration officials? No, that's not true: The original image, in which Cano is fully clothed, was included with documents filed March 28, 2025, in federal court by federal prosecutors. Online tools found evidence the pantsless version of the image was concocted by generative ai.
The image appeared in an April 25, 2025, post on X (archived here) on the @Patriot_N_Chief account under the title "What is going on between Judge Joel Cano and This Tren de Aragua member???".
This is what the X post looked like at the time this fact check was written:
(Source: X.com screenshot taken by Lead Stories.)
Lead Stories submitted a screengrab of the image to the University of Buffalo's Deep-Fake-O-Meter to see if the image showed evidence of being altered by generative ai. Though not as strong a signal as sometimes generated, three of the image analysis tools showed evidence of it was the product of generative ai:
(Source: cse.buffalo.edu/ubmdfl screenshot taken by Lead Stories.)
Seeking independent verification, Lead Stories contacted staff at the New Mexico Supreme Court, which acted April 22, 2025, to ban Cano from ever serving again in the New Mexico judiciary. Cano had resigned in March, 2025, when Department of Homeland Security agents arrested Ortega-Lopez, who was living on Cano's property. Federal agents allege Ortega-Lopez has been in the country illegally since 2023, was in possession of firearms and is a member of the Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang rated a threat by U.S. law enforcement.
They charged Cano with obstruction, (archived here) saying he and his wife hid the man from authorities.
Though the image of Cano is not in Supreme Court files, Barry Massey, the communications officer at the administrative offices of the New Mexico courts said the image appears to match a fully-clothed photo of Joel Cano that was found as an attachment to Justice Department filings in federal court. That filing was a request that Ortega-Lopez be detained to prevent him from fleeing. Massey directed Lead Stories to that file: case number 2:25-mj-00330-DLM. Readers need a PACER account to access federal court files, though some files can be viewed here.
Below is a side-by-side comparison of the doctored photo and the original it is based on:
(Source: X.com screenshot and screenshot of photo in U.S. Attorney filings in U.S. v. Cristhian Ortega-Lopez, taken by Lead Stories. Markup and collage by Lead Stories)
To read more Lead Stories fact checks on current events, start here.
