AI video of troops at border spreads amid Trump immigration crackdown

Social media users are claiming a video shows US soldiers, military vehicles and drones patrolling a walled-off section of the southern border with Mexico after President Donald Trump declared a national emergency and dispatched additional troops to crack down on illegal immigration. But the clip is fake; it bears a watermark for an artificial intelligence website and originated with a TikTok creator whose bio says he posts AI-generated content.

“Our Military is now securing America’s Borders instead of foreign countries,” says a January 23, 2025 post from Juanita Broaddrick, a Trump supporter who accused former president Bill Clinton of rape decades ago and has repeatedly spread disinformation to her more than 1.6 million followers on X.

Derrick Evans, a former West Virginia state lawmaker who was convicted on charges related to the storming the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, also amplified the video on X, where he has more than 800,000 followers. The Republican was among the more than 1,500 rioters whom Trump pardoned on his first day of office.

Similar posts spread across X and other platforms after Trump announced severe new restrictions on immigration and asylum in the United States just hours after beginning his second stint in the White House.

The president declared a national emergency at the southern border and has since scaled up the US military’s footprint along the southern border while also using military planes to deport undocumented migrants to Latin America.

But the clip shared by Broaddrick, Evans and others is a digital fabrication, not authentic footage from the border.

A watermark in the upper right corner of the frame indicates that the clip was created using PixVerse.ai, which according to its YouTube bio is “a powerful generative AI model which lets you effortlessly transform multi-modal inputs (e.g., text prompts, images and videos) into stunning videos within minutes” (archived here and here).

The video originated with a TikTok account called “@bizaroearthling,” which posted it January 23 alongside a label saying: “Creator labeled as AI-generated” (archived here).

The account’s bio says: “AI Creater [SIC] – Positive & Dark Improvisation, Parody and Satire” (archived here).

The video shows clear signs of fakery, including one soldier who appears to be floating forward, rather than walking.

Another three soldiers suddenly and unrealistically appear on top of the foremost truck midway through the clip, as well.

The TikTok account has pinned other similar videos of apparent scenes from the border to the top of its profile (archived here and here). They also include the PixVerse.ai watermark and are labeled as AI-generated.

AFP has debunked other misinformation about migration here.