McALLEN, Texas (AP) — A humanitarian organization in northeastern Mexico said it has not created flyers urging migrants to vote for the president Joe Biden who were filmed at the shelter in a viral video that set off a firestorm of conservative outrage this week.
Allegations that Resource Center Matamoros encouraged noncitizens to vote gained momentum after online posts showed Spanish-language flyers telling migrants to illegally vote for Biden once they arrived in the US. The flyers contained the organization’s logo, but it was not clear who founded the organization or posted them. Video footage showed them on the inside walls of portable toilets at the center’s shelter near Mexico’s border with Texas.
Resource Center Matamoros founder Gaby Zavala told The Associated Press that the organization does not know who created the flyers and said her group “does not encourage immigrants to register to vote or vote in the U.S.”
The origin of the flyers was still unknown on Wednesday. They contained errors in spelling and grammar, and appeared to contain verbatim paragraphs from the organization’s English-language website that had been translated into Spanish using online translation software.
Despite the uncertain provenance of the flyers, unverified claims about them have spread online this week and emerged during a congressional hearing on Tuesday, when House Republicans raised them in their questioning of Interior Secretary Safety, Alejandro Mayorkas.
The episode reflects how quickly claims related to the migrant surge at the border can spread and influence political debate as the presidential election approaches. Former President Donald Trump and his allies have used the wave to say, without evidence, that Democrats are allowing migrants into the country as a way to boost Biden’s re-election chances. Only U.S. citizens are allowed to vote in federal elections, and historically the number of noncitizens caught attempting to vote illegally has been extremely small.
Images and videos of the flyers at the Matamoros center appeared online after the Heritage Foundation’s oversight department posted them to the social platform X Monday evening.
The conservative think tank shared an image of one of the flyers, which was labeled as coming from Zavala and featured both the Resource Center Matamoros logo and another logo in the Spanish literature, “all featuring Biden.” It also shared a video showing several flyers posted in portable toilets where migrants might see them.
The letter misspelled the Spanish word for welcome, “bienvenidos,” as “bienvedinos.” It also contained minor grammatical errors in Spanish, including incorrect tense (“mientras esperan” should be “mientras esperen”) and lowercase United States (“estados unidos”).
The text appeared to copy a paragraph from the English-language website of Resource Center Matamoros, in which the first two sentences were recited verbatim but translated into Spanish. The flyer added two sentences — which do not appear on the group’s website — saying immigrants should vote for Biden.
“This flyer is clearly designed to prey on unsophisticated illegals and encourages them to vote illegally,” the Heritage Foundation wrote on one of its social posts.
Heritage also published a short audio clip of Zavala having a conversation with an unknown man. After the man says he is trying to help as many people as possible before Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, is re-elected, Zavala is heard saying: “Trust me, we are in this together.” There was no further discussion of voting or elections in the nine-second exchange.
Zavala did not answer detailed questions about the exchange and told the AP that her organization does not support political campaigns for or against candidates. She said such activities would be “beyond the scope of our mission.”
The Heritage Foundation did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
As of Wednesday, it was not clear when the video was recorded, who created and posted the flyers, how long they stayed in the portable toilets or whether migrants saw them. The think tank attributed the discovery of the flyers to a website that regularly posts about border issues, and whose founder regularly appears on streaming programs that promote conspiracy theories.
The claims that Resource Center Matamoros was behind the flyers were shared widely online and were viewed millions of times on social media platforms. Threats appeared on a pro-Trump website calling for Zavala’s neck to be broken and members of her organization to be hanged.
A flurry of partisan researchers dug into the group’s background online, trying to identify potential links to a variety of American and left-wing campaigns and causes. The flyers briefly mentioned the Jewish humanitarian organization HIAS, on whose board Mayorkas once sat. That connection led to additional claims that both HIAS and the Biden administration used the flyers to manipulate the election.
HIAS told AP that it did not produce the flyers, does not support their message and has not rented space from or had ties to Resource Center Matamoros since 2022.
“These flyers are a clear attempt to spread misinformation about HIAS’s work in supporting refugees,” the statement said.
Biden campaign spokesman Ammar Moussa called the flyers disinformation and said they should be labeled that way on social platforms and websites.
Republican Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Dan Bishop of North Carolina brought up the flyers during a congressional hearing with Mayorkas on Tuesday, the same day the House of Representatives sent articles of impeachment against him to the Senate.
Greene accused Mayorkas of “helping NGOs (non-governmental organizations) steal our elections through your budget.” She didn’t pause to give him a chance to respond.
Mayorkas did not immediately respond to the AP’s request for comment on Wednesday.
The claims exploded online as Trump and other Republicans argued that the surge of migrants at the country’s southern border increases the risk that some of those living in the country without documentation will vote illegally.
When people in the US register to vote, they affirm under penalty of perjury that they are US citizens. Several states also verify that registration against federal and state databases.
While there have been anecdotal examples of non-citizens casting ballots, several states have examined their voter rolls and found no evidence that significant numbers of non-citizens would vote in federal elections. Studies have also shown that the incidence is extremely rare.
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Associated Press immigration writer Elliot Spagat contributed to this report.
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