Video of Texas governor supporting deportation of Mexican flood volunteers is altered

"I support ICE deporting the Mexicans who helped during the floods. They didn't have authorization. I've confirmed it," Abbott appears to say at the start of a video shared July 12, 2025 to TikTok, where it amassed over 8 million views.

Text stamped over the video reads: "Mexican rescuers arrested in flood."

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Screenshot of a TikTok post taken July 14, 2025

The clip -- which circulated across platforms including X, Facebook and Threads -- then flashes between stock imagery and visuals from Texas as a voiceover claims Mexican volunteers who crossed the border to help rescue flood victims were stopped by gun-wielding immigration agents and handcuffed.

"They carried no weapons or drugs," the narrator says. "They came to help, but were treated liked criminals. Immigration agents aimed their guns at them, yelled that they had no authorization to be there, threw them to the ground and loaded them into a van as if they were criminals. It was all caught on video."

The speaker later adds: "The most outrageous part was the reaction of the Texas governor. Instead of condemning what happened, he supported it. He said anyone who crosses the border without permission, even to save lives, must be detained."

The video spread after more than 130 people, including at least 27 girls and counselors from a youth summer camp, were killed as catastrophic floods tore through Texas during the Fourth of July holiday.

The rescue efforts have included firefighters and other first responders from Mexico who traveled to Texas after the flooding to help, according to the groups, the US ambassador in Mexico and media reports (archived here, here, here, here, here, here and here).

Abbott, a staunch Republican ally of Donald Trump, has mobilized his state's resources toward supporting the US president's mass deportation policies -- and had stationed National Guard troops at a Texas border city even before Trump's election.

But the clip, appearing to show the governor urging deportations for the Mexican teams aiding the flood victim search, is altered.

The visual of Abbott was lifted from a July 8 press conference he held alongside other state officials, whose uniforms allowed AFP to match the footage (archived here and here).

At no point during the 45-minute briefing did Abbott say he supported the deportation of Mexican rescuers.

Andrew Mahaleris, Abbott's press secretary, confirmed in a July 14 email to AFP that the governor has never made such a comment.

The Hiya.com voice-cloning detection tool within the Verification Plugin, also known as InVID-WeVerify, assessed that the TikTok video's audio was "likely AI-generated."

Fundación 911, one of the groups lending assistance, posted to Facebook July 13 to dispel online rumors that US agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement or Customs and Border Patrol had arrested its personnel (archived here).

"We want to clarify that Fundación 911 and the heroic fire department of the city of Acuña have not been arrested nor detained by ICE or CBP agents," the organization wrote.

"The work we are doing is focused on supporting our community, and we regret that fake information is circulating."

Some volunteers with another recovery team were unable to enter Texas as they awaited visas or humanitarian permits, according to reports (archived here).

AFP has debunked other misinformation about the floods here, here and here.