Donald Trump's Executive Order on Immigration Leads to Capture of ISIS Leader: Hoax

Story:

Donald Trump’s Executive Order on Immigration Leads to Capture of ISIS Leader, Rasheed Muhammad.

Other Versions

Executive Order Leads to Capture of ISIS Leader, Rasheed Muhammad

Analysis:

Certain stories shared heavily online since early February 2017 say that U.S. President Donald Trump’s Executive Order on Immigration has led to the Capture of an ISIS leader, Rasheed Muhammad. The claim garnered popularity in the wake of Trump issuing the Executive Order to protect the Nation from foreign Terrorist entry into the United States, but as a matter of fact, it is not true.

Origin of Story

The story in question originated from an article on The Times website times.com.mx published on 31 Jan. 2017, with a title that said “Executive Order Leads to Capture of ISIS Leader, Rasheed Muhammad“. The article reported the capture of a terror suspect Rasheed Muhammad at John F. Kennedy International Airport, as the first successful story following President Trump’s executive order. It is said that the 32 year old Rasheed Muhammad was questioned due to the heightened security measures that resulted from the Presidential executive order, while he attempted to enter the country with a tourist visa claiming to be visiting his family to attend this year’s Super Bowl LI.

Screenshot of article on The Times website

Actual Facts

The story, also carrying a picture of alleged arrest of the terrorist, was reported by several not so credible online outlets, some in slightly different variants. However, seen in the picture is not Rasheed Muhammad, but a terror suspect Najibullah Zazi who was arrested by FBI agents back in 2009. The article also mentioned that the Former Attorney General, Sally Yates, who was ousted by President Trump after failing to support the executive order, released a public apology via popular social media app Snapchat. This too cannot be verified as Snapchat is a self-deleting messaging application. Moreover, there are no credible news reports on the story. Notably, The Times website times.com.mx mimics the logo and appearance of Times website and is not associated with it; it does not even carry any about information.

So from the aforementioned facts, the claim that Donald Trump’s Executive Order on Immigration has led to the capture of an ISIS leader Rasheed Muhammad is certainly a hoax.