Politico:

President Donald Trump on Friday sought to prop up his administration’s claims that migrants who enter the U.S. illegally at the southern border don’t come from only Mexico and Central America, in an attempt to justify his demands for a border wall.

Trump cited a story from conservative news outlet the Washington Examiner in which an unnamed rancher living in New Mexico claimed to have found “prayer rugs,” or pieces of carpet used by Muslims for prayer, near her property.

The story does not include any first-person accounts of seeing such migrants, however. U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Arizona said recently that it had arrested migrants from seven countries trying to enter the U.S. illegally there, but none of the countries it named were majority Muslim.

Trump, however, indicated the story supports his administration’s argument that people are crossing the southern border from many countries.

He has also claimed that terrorists are crossing the border there, though he did not mention it in the tweet Friday. The State Department has said there is no credible evidence terrorist groups send operatives across the Mexican border.

“Border rancher: 'We’ve found prayer rugs out here. It’s unreal.' Washington Examiner People coming across the Southern Border from many countries, some of which would be a big surprise,” Trump wrote in the tweet, appearing to use it as evidence to support his claims.

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