MARY ALEXANDER • 15 JULY 2024

“Biden just gave citizenship to 1 MILLION illegal aliens by Executive Order,” reads a claim circulating on social media since late June 2024.*

Joe Biden is the president of the United States.

The claim adds that this is “an ILLEGAL ACT that violates the Constitution’s Separation of Powers”.

“If this is allowed, we do not have a Republic of laws, we have a DICTATORSHIP. If this is allowed, our Republic is DEAD.”

The US is headed for a presidential election in November, likely to pit Biden of the Democratic Party against former president Donald Trump of the Republican Party.

Immigration is a hot topic in the campaign. Trump is strongly against it, while Biden has promised a more “humane” approach, leading to accusations that he is “soft” on the topic.

There are an estimated 2.1 million African immigrants in the US, a number that has risen dramatically since the 1990s. The exact figure is difficult to determine as it was previously so low authorities classified African migrants as “other”.

In 2015, the top four countries of origin for African immigrants into the US were Nigeria, Ethiopia, Egypt and Kenya.

But has Biden recently granted US citizenship to 1 million people who are living in the US illegally?

New process to ‘keep families together’

The claim appeared online on 18 June, the day Biden announced a new process to allow the noncitizen spouses and children of US citizens to apply for legal permanent resident status without leaving the country – and to protect them from deportation.

The process was clarified in a White House fact sheet titled “President Biden Announces New Actions to Keep Families Together.” It will be implemented by the Department of Homeland Security.

Previously, the undocumented spouses of US citizens were required to return to their home countries to apply for legal status, a process that could take years.

“In order to be eligible, noncitizens must – as of June 17, 2024 – have resided in the United States for 10 or more years and be legally married to a US citizen, while satisfying all applicable legal requirements,” the fact sheet reads. “On average, those who are eligible for this process have resided in the US for 23 years.”

The requirements are stringent. Each case will be individually assessed by the DHS, and if approved the noncitizens will be given three years to apply for permanent residency.

It’s estimated that 500,000 noncitizen spouses and 50,000 noncitizen children will benefit from the process, not 1 million. And the beneficiaries may only apply for permanent residence, not citizenship.

There has been no credible news that Biden recently “gave citizenship to 1 million illegal aliens by executive order”. The claim is false.

* Some Facebook and Instagram users may have deleted their posts after Meta’s Third-Party Fact-Checking Program rated their claims as untrue.

Published by Africa Check on 13 August 2024

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MARY ALEXANDER • 14 MAY 2024
Published by Africa Check on 20 May 2024

“Venus Williams forfeits match against trans woman,” reads text on a graphic circulating on social media in Nigeria, South Africa and elsewhere since late April 2024.*

“I’m not playing a man,” it quotes US tennis champion Williams as saying.

The graphic includes two photos, one supposedly of Venus Williams and the other of another female tennis player.

The graphic has been posted with comments such as:

• He should go and play with his fellow men or transgender. They should have their own category. They need to stop pitching them against biological women.
• Well said all women should do this.
• Venus is absolutely right on this. These people should stop forcing themselves on others.

The graphic can also be seen here, here, here, here, here and here.

But it’s false. Before we look into why, some definitions.

What is trans?

As categories, gender and sex are different things. Gender refers to socially accepted ideas of girlhood and womanhood, on the one hand, and boyhood and manhood on the other. Sex is based on biology and physiology, usually female and male but with some variations in between.

Trans or transgender people are born biologically male or female but have a different sense of themselves, unrelated to their biological sex. A trans woman was labelled male at birth but identifies as female. A trans man was labelled female at birth but identifies as male.

Trans encompasses a broad range of human experience. Some trans people simply dress and act according to their gender identity. Others choose to undergo hormone therapy or even medical procedures to make their bodies reflect their gender.

Trans is different to intersex, people whose bodies don’t fit neatly into the sex categories of male and female. Intersex people can be born with a range of differences in their chromosomes, genitals, genetic features or other parts of their bodies. South African athletics champion Caster Semenya is widely understood to be intersex.

Trans is the T in the acronym LGBTQIA+ and intersex is the I. The other letters stand for lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer or questioning, and asexual.

The rights of trans people have become an issue in the 2024 US presidential election. Likely Republican candidate Donald Trump has said he will roll back protections for trans people put in place by current Democratic president Joe Biden.

Back to the graphic.

Serena Williams and Amelie Mauresmo

Africa Check cropped the photos out of the graphic and ran them through reverse image searches.

We found the first photo, supposedly of Venus Williams, in a September 2022 article by the Japan Times. It’s headlined: “Serena Williams ends magical run at U.S. Open in what was likely her final tournament.”

Serena Williams is Venus Williams’s younger sister. She’s also a tennis champion.

In the article, the photo’s caption reads: “Serena Williams leaves the court after losing her third-round match to Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic.” It’s attributed to the news service Reuters.

Other photos – here, here, here, here and here – show Serena Williams at the same September 2022 tournament, wearing the same outfit.

We found the second photo – claimed to be a “trans woman” – on the stock image site Flickr. It was uploaded 10 years ago in June 2014 and is titled “Amelie Mauresmo”.

Amelie Mauresmo is a retired professional tennis player based in France. She is not trans.

The photo can also be seen here, here and here, in each instance identified as Mauresmo.

Venus Williams is a famous, record-breaking athlete, and transgender issues have become a hot social and political topic. But there are no credible news reports of Williams forfeiting a match against a trans woman because she “refused to play a man”. If she had, it would have made global headlines.

The claim is false.

* Some claims posted on Facebook and Instagram may have been deleted by users after being rated via Meta’s Third-Party Fact-Checking Program.

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MARY ALEXANDER • 15 APRIL 2024

“Happening: Africa invades Haiti.”

That’s the breathless text added to what seems to be a screenshot of an X/Twitter post by CNN,  circulating on social media.*

The post is dated 12 March 2024 and uses the @CNN handle. It reads: “Kenyan present William Ruto reportedly called president Joe Biden to organize the purchase of ‘several dozen’ WW2 era amphibious landing crafts for a naval invasion of the Haitian coast.”

Text below adds: “African nations are about to launch a D-day style invasion on Haiti. Holy fuck.”

The D-Day naval invasion of France was a turning point in the second world war.

On 11 March, the troubled Caribbean island country of Haiti was plunged into fresh turmoil when unelected prime minister Ariel Henry resigned as organised criminal gangs tightened their grip on the country. Earlier in the month a state of emergency was declared after the gangs freed some 3,500 inmates from a prison in Port au Prince, the capital.

Henry came to power after the assassination of president Jovenel Moïse in 2021. In January 2024 he left Haiti to visit, among other countries, Kenya. There he signed a deal to fast-track a long-delayed agreement to send paramilitary police to help tackle Haiti’s gang violence.

He has been stranded outside the country ever since.

The Kenya-led international policing mission to Haiti was approved by the UN security council in October 2023. But the day after Henry’s resignation, Kenyan president William Ruto announced that the mission would be “paused”.

Did CNN really tweet that Ruto then asked US president Joe Biden to organise the purchase of “WW2 era amphibious landing crafts” for a “naval invasion” of Haiti?

Ways to spot a fake

There are several signs that the X post is fake.

• On CNN’s verified X account, the profile pic is square with the CNN logo in normal proportions. On the viral image the pic is round and the logo squashed horizontally.
• The post ends with “Twitter for iPhone”. X (then Twitter) removed identification of the app used to make a post – “Twitter for iPhone” or “Twitter for Android” – more than a year ago, in December 2022.
• It uses language that wouldn’t be posted by an international news organisation. Ruto’s title of “president” is misspelled as “present”, and “landing crafts” written instead of “landing craft”.

Several advanced searches for the post on the @CNN X account returned no results. The account hasn’t mentioned, for example, “William Ruto”, “amphibious landing crafts” or “naval invasion” since at least 1 March 2024.

No news of Kenya planning to invade Haiti could be found on any CNN website, or reported by any other media organisation. The X post is fake.

On 13 April Ruto welcomed the establishment of a transitional presidential council in Haiti, a move intended to begin the restoration of order in the country.

* Some claims posted on Facebook and Instagram may have been deleted by users after being rated via Meta’s Third-Party Fact-Checking Program.

Published by Africa Check on 19 April 2024

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MARY ALEXANDER • 22 MARCH 2024

On 4 March 2024 US president Joe Biden signed an executive order ending the “emergency with respect to the situation in Zimbabwe”.

It withdrew three previous presidential orders – from 2003, 2005 and 2008 – that imposed sanctions on members of the Zimbabwean government, military and civil service.

The orders said these individuals were responsible for undermining democracy in Zimbabwe, contributing to the “deliberate breakdown in the rule of law” in the country, as well as “politically motivated violence and intimidation”.

Executive order 3288 of 2003 imposed sanctions on a list of 77 high-ranking officials, including Zimbabwe’s then-president Robert Mugabe.

This kicked off what became known as the US government’s Zimbabwe sanctions programme, implemented by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (Ofac). It was expanded by the executive orders 3391 of 2005 and 13469 of 2008 to include more officials, their immediate family and their businesses.

In his March 2024 order, Biden said that while he remained “concerned with the situation in Zimbabwe”, executive order 3288 was “no longer needed”.

‘Why Zimbabweans must go back home’

Soon after news of Biden’s order broke, social media users began to claim that it meant the US had lifted sanctions “on Zimbabwe”.*

In neighbouring South Africa, some versions of the claim have overtones of xenophobia.

A 13 March X/Twitter post by Dudula News reads:

WHY ZIMBABWEANS MUST GO BACK HOME. The US has lifted sanctions on Zimbabwe and investors are looking to pour money into the country. ZEPs must be terminated with immediate effect so that Zimbabweans can go back home to rebuild their country.

Operation Dudula is a South African anti-migrant movement widely considered to be xenophobic. ZEPs or the Zimbabwean Exemption Permit allows people from Zimbabwe to live and work in South Africa.

Other versions of the claim include:

• Zimbabwe sanctions are lifted then zambabwean go home. USA lifted them so burn us South African when we come looking for jobs.
• Now that the United States has lifted the decades long of sanctions on Zimbabwe there is a very big speculation that there are somr countries that will be the next targets, and South Africa looks like the likely candidate …
• Recently, America lifted sanctions that were imposed on Zimbabwe. That is the hand of the Jews. Sooner or later, the Jews will move their economy from South Africa to Zimbabwe …
• The United States has lifted sanctions against Zimbabwe after 20 years, meaning that Zimbabwe can now access loans from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to grow its economy.
• Good news for Zimbabwe. US sanctions have been lifted all together according to informants… What a time. I’m going there to invest.

The claim can also be seen here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

Biden’s order did repeal the sanctions imposed in 2003, 2005 and 2008. But a new set of sanctions on individuals and companies was introduced at the same time.

And sanctions against the country of Zimbabwe have not been lifted.

Sanctions moved to different regime – and Zidera remains

On 4 March, the day Biden signed the executive order, the US treasury’s Ofac imposed fresh sanctions on 11 Zimbabwean individuals and three businesses for “involvement in corruption or serious human rights abuse”.

The new sanctions list includes president Emmerson Mnangagwa and his wife Auxillia Mnangagwa, businessperson Kudakwashe Tagwirei and his wife Sandra Mpunga, as well as vice-president Constantino Chiwenga and defence minister Oppah Muchinguri.

The sanctioned firms are Tagwirei and Mpunga’s Sakunda Holdings, its subsidiary Fossil Agro, and the linked company Fossil Contracting.

The new sanctions were quickly condemned by government officials in Zimbabwe.

Targeted Ofac sanctions on high-ranking Zimbabweans now fall under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, instead of presidential executive orders. Under the act, the US penalises foreign government officials for what it determines are human rights offences by freezing their US-held assets and barring them from entering the country.

More than this, the main thrust of US sanctions against Zimbabwe as a country, the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of 2001, is still in place.

Known as Zidera or Zdera and amended in 2018, the act – among other things – prevents Zimbabwe from accessing funds from global financial institutions. These include the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank’s International Development Association and International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

On 7 March US state department official David Gainer clarified Biden’s order:

Our policy toward Zimbabwe has not changed, but our sanction tools have. We continue to have serious concerns about human rights abuses and corruption. Key individuals … bear responsibility for these actions … With the Global Magnitsky programme, we’ll better be able to promote accountability for persons who engage in that conduct in Zimbabwe.

While the order removed one sanctions regime, it was replaced with another. And Zidera remains. US sanctions on Zimbabwe – the country – have not been lifted.

* Some Facebook and Instagram users may have deleted their posts after Meta’s Third-Party Fact-Checking Program rated their claims as untrue.

Published by Africa Check on 28 March 2024

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