False claims circulate regarding Marco Rubio and Abdul El-Sayed

Social media claims alleging that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio intended to investigate the immigration status of Abdul El-Sayed have been identified as false. The claims, which circulated on Facebook and Instagram, suggested that authorities were looking into whether El-Sayed had committed fraud.

Abdul El-Sayed, a candidate running for a Senate seat in Michigan, was born in Rochester Hills, Michigan, making him a U.S. citizen by birth. There is no evidence that Rubio or the State Department has launched any investigation into El-Sayed’s citizenship or immigration status. The misinformation appears to have originated from a Facebook account that describes some of its content as satire.