U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is claiming 40,000 Brazilians are “headed for Connecticut wearing designer clothes and Gucci bags.” The U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) regularly releases statements on its work and has said nothing about “40,000 Brazilians.”
Graham last year was photographed, smiling, with a leader of the white nationalist group, the Proud Boys, apparently dining at a restaurant. One year earlier Graham appeared in a photo with far right wing politician Geert Wilders, “a controversial Dutch parliamentary leader with anti-Islam and anti-immigrant views.”
And just months ago according to a pro-immigration group Graham appeared on Fox News “using talking points peddled by white nationalists.”
In August U.S. Customs and Border Patrol issued a statement saying its San Diego agents “have encountered an unprecedented number of Brazilian nationals,” putting that number at “more than 7,300 Brazilian nationals,” a far cry from 40,000.
There was no mention of “designer clothes and Gucci bags.”
Watch Senator Graham:
He was quickly mocked for his claims: