A video posted in October authentically depicts a man leading a group of Arkansas farmers in praying for “more Mexicans” to keep farms running.
The visuals in the footage have an authentic origin, but the audio has been edited to significantly change the meaning of the prayer.
On Oct. 4, a social media user posted a video purportedly depicting a man leading a group of Arkansas farmers in prayer, asking “baby Jesus” for “more Mexicans” to replace the “Mexicans we had deported” to save their farms.
The user posted the footage to Facebook (archived) and Instagram (archived). The audio seemingly shows the man leading the prayer saying:
Dear Baby Jesus, please help us. We’re losing our farms. We know we sent all the Mexicans away. Dear Lord, please send us some more Mexicans to replace the Mexicans we had deported. We’re going to lose our farms; please, Baby Jesus and all things holy. Amen.
The clip spread amid numerous reports of rising prices and trade wars impacting U.S. farmers.
In short, the visuals in the video have an authentic origin, but the audio has been edited to significantly change the meaning of the prayer. Therefore, we rate the audio as fake.
The authentic footage originates from a broadcast by KATV 7, a TV news station in Little Rock, Arkansas. The channel posted the segment to YouTube on Sept. 2, 2025 (archived), more than a year earlier than when the edited clip was circulating. It shows hundreds of Arkansas farmers in a school gymnasium seeking the federal government’s help regarding their financial struggles.
At about 2:24, the video cuts to a man leading the farmers in prayer. He can be heard saying:
Farmers, in my opinion, dear Lord, and it’s only my opinion, are closer to you than anyone else on this Earth because we deal with your Earth every day. Dear Lord, we’re hurting, dear Lord. We can’t help what’s happened to us.
According to KATV 7’s article about the event, also published on Sept. 2, 2025, the farmer then said, “We need help, dear Lord.”
Another piece of evidence that the “more Mexicans” iteration of the clip is edited is the quality of its audio. The prayer in the edited version is sharp, clear and lacking an echo. Inside a school gymnasium, the audio of the farmers praying should, in reality, feature an echo, like the man’s voice does in the original footage.
Both Facebook and Instagram identified the audio as original to Aaron Beltrán, the person who appeared to first post the edited clip on both platforms.
Snopes reached out to Beltrán to ask whether he originally edited and posted the manipulated video, if the voice is his own and if the content was meant to be satirical. We will update this story if we receive a reply.
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