Reports about 32 Venezuelan armed migrants taking over a Chicago building are fake

Conservative commentators have shared posts online about migrants "taking over" neighborhoods in different parts of the country. One recent post included an audio recording claiming it as evidence.

"BREAKING: A group of 32 armed Venezualans took over an apartment building in Chicago tonight. Here’s the audio of the 911 dispatch call," a  Sep. 2 X post by conservative account Libs of TikTok wrote. X owner Elon Musk reshared Libs of TikTok’s post, which has more than 21 million views.

The post contains embedded audio on which a police dispatcher details a caller’s report. The Libs of TikTok account reshared the audio posted by the X account Windy City Weather and News, which posts weather information and reports from a Chicago police scanner. Multiple other X accounts shared the audio. 

"Caller says 32 Venezuelans are trespassing the building, showing guns in the courtyard and they have motorcycles in the courtyard as well," the dispatcher says. 

Libs of TikTok also shared the post on Instagram. The post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads.)

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stated on October 23, 2024 in a CNN town hall

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The Chicago Police Department did not confirm to PolitiFact whether the specific phone call embedded in the post was real. The department said someone made a service call about Venezuelans with guns trespassing, but the incident reported in the call was "not bona fide" or "not real."

Jeanette Taylor, the Chicago alderperson who represents the area where the incident was reported, told Block Club Chicago, a local Chicago news website, that the reports were untrue. Taylor said she received no calls related to the incident from neighbors in the area, but did receive calls from people responding to social media posts.

Migrants living in the building and residents from the area told the Chicago Tribune that the call was unfounded.

PolitiFact rated False a similar claim, also amplified by Musk, that migrants hijacked school buses in San Diego. News reports identified people who approached buses in San Diego as migrants, but no attempted hijacking or crimes occurred.

We rate the claim that a group of 32 armed Venezuelans took over a Chicago apartment building False.

PolitiFact Staff Writer Marta Campabadal Graus contributed to this report.