Skip to main content

No, Mexico’s president did not make statement about ‘sending felons’ to US | Fact check

Chris Mueller   Paste BN
play
Show Caption

The claim: Mexico’s president said she thought sending criminals to US was encouraged ‘considering that’s what they chose to be their president’

A Feb. 1 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) includes a purported quote from Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum.

“I’m confused. I keep hearing everyone from America saying that my country is sending Felons & Grapists (sic) into their Country,” reads the statement attributed to Sheinbaum. “We thought that was encouraged Considering That’s What They Chose To Be Their President.”

The post was liked more than 10,000 times in three days. A similar post on X was reposted more than 100 times in two days.

More from the Fact-Check Team: How we pick and research claims | Email newsletter | Facebook page

Our rating: False

There is no evidence Sheinbaum made the statement attributed to her in the post.

No evidence Sheinbaum made statement about ‘sending felons’ to US

Sheinbaum, the first woman to be Mexico’s president, has already been involved in several exchanges with President Donald Trump – from pushing back on his effort to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to negotiating a deal that prevented Trump's 25% tariffs on Mexico from going into effect for at least a month. 

But there’s no evidence Sheinbaum made the statement in the Instagram post. Nothing similar appears on Sheinbaum’s social media accounts or news releases, nor are there any credible news reports about such a statement.

The image in the post shows Sheinbaum at a press conference in Mexico City on Oct. 2, 2024, a day after she was inaugurated.

Fact check: Bishop who asked Trump to ‘have mercy’ not removed. That’s satire

The statement attributed to Sheinbaum in the Instagram post echoes the remark Trump made while announcing his first run for president on June 16, 2015, when he said Mexico was “sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with us. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people."

Sheinbaum is a Nobel Prize-winning scientist and the former mayor of Mexico City who won Mexico's presidential election in a landslide in June 2024, as Paste BN reported.

Paste BN reached out to the social media user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Our fact-check sources

Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or e-newspaper here.

Paste BN is a verified signatory of the International Fact-Checking Network, which requires a demonstrated commitment to nonpartisanship, fairness and transparency. Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Meta.

Facebook Twitter Email