Thanks to a Los Angeles researcher, efforts to paint the accused Florida shooter as a DACA recipient are going down in flames.
Nikolas Cruz — the 19-year-old former student of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland — is not a “Dreamer,” according to Bethania Palma Markus in a Snopes.com post.
“Almost immediately after his name was made public, social media users, apparently inspired by nothing more than a Spanish-sounding surname, began spreading an unfounded claim that he is an undocumented DACA recipient,” Palma wrote.
“Cruz was adopted at birth by a couple with that surname and is not undocumented.”
Many didn’t get the memo, and some are doubling down on the shooter-as-Dreamer narrative.
Mainstream news has now confirmed – the Cruz brothers (Nikolas/Zachary) were in the US illegally, they never knew their biological parents as they were abandoned as newborns.
Roger and Lynda Cruz adopted them and gave them names.
They were illegal childhood arrivals.
— Craig R. Brittain for US Senate (R-AZ 2018) ???? (@SenatorBrittain) February 15, 2018
Now sources pointing to Nicolas Cruz as being a DACA dreamer. What about the dreams of his victims?
— Harrison (@HarriDavidson) February 14, 2018
In her Snopes.com bio, Palma is described as a former daily newspaper reporter and freelancer for Los Angeles News Group, the LAist, LA School Report, the OC Weekly and Raw Story.
“She earned a B.A. in political science from the University of California at Irvine and an M.A. in history from California State University at Northridge,” the profile adds.
Others who perpetuated the false rumor:
The shooter, Nikolas De Jesus Cruz, is a DACA kid. Deport illegal aliens, problems solved.
— Samantha Harper (@Samantha55325) February 15, 2018
@seanhannity Was Florida shooter Nikolas De Jesus Cruz an illegal or a Dreamer! The left is screaming gun control, how about No DACA
— American Truth (@truth_american) February 15, 2018