Trump ad shows footage of migrants in Morocco, not at ‘southern border’

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump’s new television ad shows footage of dozens of people crossing a fence as the narrator mentions the U.S.’s “southern border” with Mexico. 

{mosads}The footage, however, is actually of Moroccans crossing the border into Melilla, one of two enclaves on the Moroccan coast held by Spain, according to Politifact. 

The narrator says the billionaire will “stop illegal immigration by building a wall on our southern border that Mexico will pay for,” as the footage plays.

Politifact traced the images to an Italian television network, Repubblica TV, which posted the video on May 3, 2014. About 800 migrants tried to cross the Moroccan border on May 1, according to the network. 

The network’s logo and the 2014 timestamp were erased from the footage in Trump’s ad. 

“The use of this footage was intentional and selected to demonstrate the severe impact of an open border and the very real threat Americans face if we do not immediately build a wall and stop illegal immigration,” Hope Hicks, a Trump spokeswoman, said in a statement. “The biased main stream media doesn’t understand, but Americans who want to protect their jobs and their families do.” 

A campaign manager for Trump also defended the use of the footage, according to NBC reporter Katy Tur. 

“No shit it’s not the Mexican border but that’s what our country is going to look like if we don’t do anything,” Tur tweeted Trump’s campaign manager as saying.

TRUMP CAMPAIGN MNGR: “No shit its not the Mexican border but thats what our country is going to look like if we don’t do anything.”

— Katy Tur (@KatyTurNBC) January 4, 2016

Politifact rated the claim, based on the footage from Morocco, that Mexicans are swarming over “our southern border” as “Pants on fire.” 

This story was updated at 4:10 p.m.