World
FACT FOCUS: Videos of empty store aisles are unrelated to Florida’s immigration bill
A sweeping immigration bill recently signed into law by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is sparking fears of deserted workplaces – and barren grocery shelves.
The new law, set to take effect in July, will require businesses with more than 25 staffers to verify that their employees can legally work in the U.S. through a federal system, among other restrictions. Critics have said the change could lead to a shortage of workers on farms and construction sites.
Amid outcry, a pair of videos circulating widely on social media are claiming to show empty supermarkets in the Sunshine State, purportedly due to truck drivers boycotting deliveries to the state in protest of the immigration overhaul.
But the footage is unrelated. And while some truckers have posted on social media calling on drivers to curb deliveries to Florida, immigration advocates say it’s too soon to tell if there will be any widespread action.
Here are the facts.
CLAIM: Videos show empty grocery store shelves in Florida because truckers are boycotting the state over a new immigration law.
THE FACTS: While both clips show Florida stores, neither has anything to do with the new law or a boycott. One is from October and shows shortages during Hurricane Ian, while another shows a recent refrigeration issue at a single Walmart Supercenter.
The first video shows a shopper panning their camera around the refrigerators and freezers at a Winn-Dixie, while saying “Supermarkets are empty in Florida. There’s nothing, nothing, look.”
“Undocumented workers are leaving Florida in droves. It’s affecting farmers, hotels, restaurants, construction, lawn companies, & especially grocery stores w perishables,” reads one Twitter post of the footage, which had received more than 6,000 likes as of Wednesday. “Understandably many Hispanic truck drivers are refusing to enter the state. Nicely done DeSantis!”
However, the video was originally posted on TikTok in Oct. 2, 2022, after Hurricane Ian made landfall. The caption on the original post includes the hashtag “hurricaneian” and says, “no food in the Winn-Dixie in Florida on 17 and 92,” referring to a store in Fern Park, a suburb of Orlando.
The second video shared on social media platforms shows a large sign that reads “Packaged Deli” and above a partially empty refrigerated aisle. “No groceries smh sad these truckers weren’t playing when they said they were not delivering anything to Florida !!!” reads the caption on a TikTok post tagging the location as Palmetto, Florida, with more than 800,000 likes.
The signage in the video matches a Walmart store in Palmetto, but the grocery chain said the lack of groceries in the clip was unrelated to any supply issues.
Charles Crowson, a spokesperson for Walmart, said in an email that it was a result of a refrigerator malfunction and should be repaired within the next few days.
While the videos are unrelated to the recent legislation, there have been posts on social media from Latino truck drivers responding to the new laws by threatening to boycott deliveries to the state and calling on others to do so.
In addition to the new rules around E-Verify, the law would provide $12 million for DeSantis’ migrant relocation initiative, require hospitals that accept Medicaid to include a citizenship question on its intake forms and prohibit local governments from providing money to organizations that issue identification cards to immigrants lacking permanent legal status in the country. It would also invalidate out-of-state driver’s licenses for that same group.
Immigration advocacy groups tell the AP it’s too early to have data on the impacts of the law since it was only signed last week and does not go into effect until July 1.
Thomas Kennedy, a spokesperson with the Florida Immigrant Coalition, said he was aware of the truckers’ boycott threats, but said it is too soon to say if there will be large-scale scale actions.
“It remains to be seen, I mean, you know, boycotts and strikes and work stoppages take a lot of time, a lot of a lot of organization. And this is bubbling up. But again, the law hasn’t even gone into effect,” said Kennedy. “There’s definitely the ingredients and some energy there.”
Kennedy said the coalition has heard anecdotal reports that many migrants are afraid to show up to work since the law was signed and there was apprehension in the community.
The new legislation will impact construction and factory workers, according to Bethzaida Olivera Vazquez, who is the national director of policy and legislation for The League of United Latin American Citizens, which is the oldest Latino civil rights group in the U.S.
“This law would have a very harmful effect for businesses,” said Vazquez. “If there were to be a boycott among truckers the impacts could be significant.”
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This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.
Russian forces launched a barrage of 367 drones and missiles at Ukrainian cities overnight, including the capital Kyiv, in the largest aerial attack of the war so far, killing at least 12 people and injuring dozens more, officials said.
The dead included three children in the northern region of Zhytomyr, local officials there said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on the United States, which has taken a softer public line on Russia and its leader, Vladimir Putin, since President Donald Trump took office, to speak out.
“The silence of America, the silence of others in the world only encourages Putin,” he wrote on Telegram.
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Overnight, Russia launched its largest aerial assault on Ukraine since the war started. (Reuters/Gleb Garanich)
“Every such terrorist Russian strike is reason enough for new sanctions against Russia.”
Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said 12 people had been killed and 60 more wounded. Earlier death tolls given separately by regional authorities and rescuers had put the number of dead at 13.
“This was a combined, ruthless strike aimed at civilians. The enemy once again showed that its goal is fear and death,” he wrote on Telegram.
The assault comes as Ukraine and Russia prepare to conduct the third and final day of a prisoner swap in which both sides will exchange a total of 1000 people each.
U.S. Special Envoy to Ukraine Keith Kellogg said on Sunday the attack was “a clear violation” of the 1977 Geneva Peace Protocols and called for an immediate ceasefire.
Some 347 drones and missiles were reportedly used in the attack. (Reuters/Thomas Peter)
Ceasefire Efforts
Ukraine and its European allies have sought to push Moscow into signing a 30-day ceasefire as a first step to negotiating an end to the three-year war.
Their efforts suffered a blow earlier this week when Trump declined to place further sanctions on Moscow for not agreeing to an immediate pause in fighting, as Kyiv had wanted.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia had launched 298 drones and 69 missiles in its overnight assault, although it said it was able to down 266 drones and 45 missiles.
Damage extended to a string of regional centers, including Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, as well as Mykolaiv in the south and Ternopil in the west.
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In Kyiv, Tymur Tkachenko, head of the city’s military administration, said 11 people were injured in drone strikes. No deaths were reported in the capital, although four were killed in the region around the city, according to officials.
This was the second large aerial attack in two days. On Friday evening, Russia launched dozens of drones and ballistic missiles at Kyiv in waves that continued through the night.
In northeastern Ukraine, Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said early on Sunday that drones hit three city districts and injured three people. Blasts shattered windows in high-rise apartment blocks.
Strikes were reported in Kyiv, Kharkiv, and other cities. (Reuters/Thomas Peter)
Drone strikes killed a 77-year-old man and injured five people in the southern city of Mykolaiv, the regional governor said. He published a picture of a residential apartment block with a large hole from an explosion and rubble scattered over the ground.
In the western region of Khmelnytskyi, many hundreds of kilometers away from the frontlines of fighting, four people were killed, and five others wounded, according to the governor.
“Without pressure, nothing will change and Russia and its allies will only build up forces for such murders in Western countries,” the Ukrainian president’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak wrote on Telegram.
“Moscow will fight as long as it has the ability to produce weapons.”
Russia’s Defence Ministry reported that its air defence units had intercepted or destroyed 95 Ukrainian drones over a four-hour period. The Mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, said 12 Ukrainian drones had been intercepted on their way to the capital.
Joseph Neumeyer, who is also a German citizen, approached the building on May 19 with Molotov cocktails, officials say.
A dual United States and German citizen has been arrested on charges that he travelled to Israel and attempted to firebomb the branch office of the US Embassy in Tel Aviv, federal prosecutors in New York have said.
Israeli officials deported Joseph Neumeyer to New York on Saturday and he had an initial court appearance before a federal judge in Brooklyn on Sunday. His criminal complaint was unsealed on Sunday.
Prosecutors say Neumeyer walked up to the embassy building on May 19 with a backpack containing Molotov cocktails, but got into a confrontation with a guard and eventually ran away, dropping his backpack as the guard tried to detain him.
Law enforcement then tracked Neumeyer down to a hotel a few blocks away from the embassy and arrested him, according to a criminal complaint filed in the Eastern District of New York.
“This defendant is charged with planning a devastating attack targeting our embassy in Israel, threatening death to Americans, and [US] President [Donald] Trump’s life,” US Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. “The Department will not tolerate such violence and will prosecute this defendant to the fullest extent of the law.”
Neumeyer’s court-appointed attorney, Jeff Dahlberg, declined to comment.
The attack took place against the backdrop of Israel’s ongoing deadly war on Gaza, now in its 19th month. Nearly 54,000 Palestinians have been killed in the blockaded enclave, where a famine is now looming as Israeli forces continue to seal vital border crossings and uphold a crippling blockade on humanitarian aid including food, medicine, and fuel.
Neumeyer, 28, who is originally from Colorado and has dual US and German citizenship, had travelled from the US to Canada in early February and then arrived in Israel in late April, according to court records.
He had made a series of threatening social media posts before attempting the attack, prosecutors said.
During his first term, Trump recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital despite Palestinian objections, in a move that has not been recognised by the international community. He also moved the US Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The Ukrainian capital Kyiv and other regions came under a massive Russian drone-and-missile attack Sunday that killed at least 12 people and injured dozens.
A view of residential houses destroyed by a Russian strike in Korostyshiv, Zhytomyr region, Ukraine, Sunday, May 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
People clear the rubble of residential houses destroyed by a Russian strike in Korostyshiv, Zhytomyr region, Ukraine, Sunday, May 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
A woman reacts inside a house damaged by a Russian strike in Korostyshiv, Zhytomyr region, Ukraine, Sunday, May 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
People use plastic to cover a roof of a house damaged by a Russian strike in Korostyshiv, Zhytomyr region, Ukraine, Sunday, May 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Ukrainian officials described it as the largest aerial assault since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
A man stands on the rubble of a destroyed house where three children were killed by a Russian strike in Korostyshiv, Zhytomyr region, Ukraine, Sunday, May 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
A man clears the rubble of a destroyed house where three children were killed by a Russian strike in Korostyshiv, Zhytomyr region, Ukraine, Sunday, May 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
People clear the rubble of a house destroyed by a Russian strike in Korostyshiv, Zhytomyr region, Ukraine, Sunday, May 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
People carry flowers to the rubble of a destroyed house where three children were killed by a Russian strike in Korostyshiv, Zhytomyr region, Ukraine, Sunday, May 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Women put flowers to the rubble of a destroyed house where three children were killed by a Russian strike in Korostyshiv, Zhytomyr region, Ukraine, Sunday, May 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
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This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.
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