by Tina Alvey Dale (tdale@talkbusiness.net)

The City of Fort Smith released a statement Monday (Sept. 30) to refute numerous unfounded social media reports suggesting the city is bringing illegal immigrants into the area. The statement also said the city is not incentivizing illegal immigrants to move into the city.

Over the weekend, a Facebook post from a Fort Smith Realtor that Talk Business & Politics has decided to not identify stated that her flight from Dallas to Fort Smith was filled with “a group of adult men all migrxxts.” She stated on the post that was shared more than 300 times that none of the men spoke English and that many were wearing new clothes with tags on them. She did not state how she knew the men were migrants.

“They all got off the plane and stood out in the front of the airport waiting to be picked up in Fort Smith. If anybody in our community thinks that this will not reach us in our area, think again. This group was intentionally flown here, and I’m assuming provided airfare to get here in this group,” the post states.

Fort Smith officials push back against ‘misinformation’ with immigration rumors