After Fox News retracted its reporting about Texan terrorist Shamsud-Din Jabbar being an immigrant, anchor Sandra Smith tried to make his attack in New Orleans about immigration anyway.

Yesterday, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas visited Fox’s Your World show in order to update the situations in both New Orleans and Las Vegas. Both suffered what appeared to be terror attacks on New Year’s Day. Each were committed by Americans. The Las Vegas incident, a truck explosion, now appears to have been a suicide, committed shortly after his wife left him.

As Ellen previously wrote, Fox wrongly suggested that the New Orleans attack was committed by a newly-arrived immigrant, based on faulty reporting the network eventually walked back. But that didn’t stop Trump and his allies from exploiting the American-caused violence for the sake of ratcheting up anti-immigrant and anti-Democrat hostility.

Guest host Sandra Smith used her interview with Mayorkas to further make MAGA, immigrant-hating hay out of the New Year's tragedies. Jabbar was an ISIS supporter and that was all that Smith needed to frighten viewers into thinking ISIS might be crossing the border at any minute.

Midway through her interview with Mayorkas, a graphic showing terror-watchlist encounters at the border since 2021 was displayed. Smith “asked,” "How can we be sure that ISIS won't find a safe harbor here?"

Mayorkas replied, "It's our highest responsibility to ensure the safety and security of the American people. And in the service of that responsibility, we screen and vet individuals and individuals who pose a threat to public safety or national security are prioritized for immigration detention and removal."

Mayorkas added that with Jabbar, "We're dealing with a United States citizen, born in the state of Texas, who's radicalized to violence by a foreign terrorist ideology."

Smith kept pushing the phony connection. "There are going to be many who are going to hear you say that and wonder why more hasn't been done to stop people from illegally coming into the country, Mr. Secretary." She referred to FBI Director Christopher Wray saying that “the terror level in this country has reached a whole new level, worried about those who are here who will inspire acts like, by the way, the one that just happened in New Orleans. He said the terror level threat is higher than before October 7. So, one might wonder why there hasn't been a change in policy that has led to that?"

"There has been a change in policy,” Mayorkas said. “Quite frankly, the number of individuals encountered at our southern border on a daily basis now is lower than what it was in 2019."

FACT CHECK: Border crossings are below 100,000 for the first time since Joe Biden became President.

Mayorkas continued by noting that foreign terrorism is a persistent threat, one which gave rise to the Department of Homeland Security after the 9/11 attacks. Then he said, “We have the individuals already resident in the United States, radicalized to violence by a foreign terrorist ideology or over the last eight years, what we've seen anti-government sentiment, false narratives spread online, personal grievances."

Too bad he didn’t call out Fox News’ role in ginning up any of that, nor the fact that Trump and his toady Republican senators killed their own very tough border security deal.

You can watch Smith exploit the New Orleans tragedy for political gain below, from the January 2, 2025 Your World.

(Note: Ellen contributed to this post.)