No, the U.S. government is not arming immigrants in the country illegally

The U.S. government is not giving weapons to immigrants in the country illegally, contrary to social media claims.

"When your government is paying illegal immigrants to invade your country, and they’re providing them with support, aid, comfort, arms and everything else, they’re no longer illegal immigrants, that is what you call mercenaries," a man says in a Sept. 23 Instagram Reel. 

The video includes a screenshot of a New York Post headline that reads, "Chicago gangbangers face off against newly arrived Venezuelan migrants: ‘City is going to go up in flames."

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The video presented no evidence to support the claim, and we found no evidence this is happening. Immigrants in the U.S. illegally are not allowed to own guns, per federal law.

Michelle Mittelstadt, a spokesperson for the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, told PolitiFact, "The U.S. government is not providing weapons to migrants who are living in the U.S. without authorization, whether they came as recent border arrivals or have lived in the U.S. for a longer period of time."

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Kamala Harris

stated on October 23, 2024 in a CNN town hall

"As of today, we have cut the flow of immigration by over half."

Mittelstadt said that unauthorized migrants also are not given cash or credit cards that they could use to purchase weapons.

The Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not respond to PolitiFact’s request for comment. In response to questions for another story, CBP told PolitiFact in a Sept. 11 emailed statement, "DHS and CBP do not provide financial assistance to undocumented families."

The Sept. 22 New York Post article referenced in the video says nothing about the government providing weapons to migrants. The article detailed frustrations from some Black Chicagoans over city resources being directed to newly arrived migrants, while they say their community is ignored by city officials. The article also repeated a claim PolitiFact debunked that 32 armed Venezuelans were showing their weapons at a Chicago building.

We searched Google and the Nexis news database and found no credible reports of the U.S. government supplying immigrants in the country illegally with weapons. We did find articles about immigrants illegally in the country being prosecuted for firearm possession. In one Aug. 15 article, 25-year-old Oscar Enrique Ruiz Rojas faced a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison for illegally owning a gun; he reportedly purchased it himself.

Migrants in the U.S. illegally are not allowed to possess guns or ammunition, according to federal law 18 U.S.C. 922. A U.S. appeals court upheld that law in a Aug. 27 decision, determining that the Second Amendment does not include immigrants in the country illegally.

PolitiFact previously debunked claims that migrants received $2,000 to enter the country illegally, and claims that unauthorized migrants received free flights, cellphones, prepaid debit cards, and gift cards.

We rate the claim that the government is arming "illegal immigrants" False.