Border Patrol says the object Marjorie Taylor Greene described as an “explosive” was a ball of sand

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) was fact-checked by the US Border Patrol chief after she claimed agents found an “explosive” near the southern border in January.

Highlighted in green her claim about that so-called threat in a question to Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz during a Homeland Security Committee hearing Wednesday in Texas. However, Ortiz did not clarify the matter when speaking with lawmakers. After that, Greene repeated her claim via a tweetalong with an image of the alleged device that accuses “the cartel” of “planting bombs” and “murdering Americans through drugs and crime on a daily basis.”

Fox News national correspondent Bill Melugin shared the tweet, adding that he spoke to a “senior CBP source” who said the object was a fake. “Although it looked disgraceful, I was told it contained no explosives,” he tweeted.

Shortly thereafter, Ortiz chimed in with a tweet.

“Today I testified before the Homeland Security Committee and it was alleged that agents found an explosive device near the border,” he wrote, sharing the same image Greene posted. “During a January briefing, leadership was informed that agents had found a taped ball filled with sand that was not considered a threat to the agents/public.”

NEW: A senior CBP source tells me this was fake and was in fact filled with dirt. It was discovered in the RGV by Border Patrol agents in Rio Grande City, and while it appeared nefarious, I was told it contained no explosives. https://t.co/x1iWUQ4scZ

— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) March 15, 2023

Today I testified before the Homeland Security Committee and it was alleged that agents found an explosive device near the border. During a January briefing, leadership was informed that agents had found a taped sphere filled with sand that was not considered a threat to the agents/public. pic.twitter.com/SXV9qK8uo1

— Chief Raul Ortiz (@USBPChief) March 15, 2023

Green refused to give inand insisted that unnamed border guards had told her otherwise.

“I’m just explaining what I was told today,” she said.

When approached by HuffPost for comment, Greene’s rep did not explain Greene’s sources or provide any evidence, instead writing, “Stop being a state-sponsored propagandist.”

Thank you for your testimony today, Chief Ortiz, and I know you explain what you were told when you inquired about the situation after the hearing.
Unfortunately, several border guards say it was some kind of IED and there is CCTV and images from… https://t.co/xQeBqXajZ6

— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) March 15, 2023

Greene, an anti-immigration hardliner, has hammered the Biden administration over undocumented US border crossings out of Mexico, often using false numbers. Last month she was ridiculed after accusing the government of allowing “6 billion” people to enter the US illegally (she later updated the number to 6 million – which is still dubious).

Weeks ago, she used the deaths of two brothers from fentanyl poisoning to attack the Biden administration for its “refusal to secure our border and stop the cartel’s.” [sic] from murdering Americans every day.” When a fact-checker pointed out that these men died in 2020, when Donald Trump and not Biden was president, Greene’s spokesman told him that many people died from drugs under Biden and “believe it that they care about your bullshit fact checking?'”

Greene has also embarked on the controversial white supremacist “invasion” and
“Substitute” language in their quest for border security. On Wednesday she has tweeted a graphic about illegal migrant encounters, which said: “We have no idea who or what is crossing our southern border. But we know we are being systematically and intentionally replaced by Joe Biden and the Democrats’ open borders policies.”