Facebook rejects controversial Trump immigration ad

Facebook on Monday said it would not run President Trump’s controversial immigration ad, which critics have labeled racist, on its website.

“This ad violates Facebook’s advertising policy against sensational content so we are rejecting it,” a Facebook spokesperson told The Hill in a statement. “While the video is allowed to be posted on Facebook, it cannot receive paid distribution.”

{mosads}While Facebook won’t let the video run as a paid ad, it will be allowed on the social media giant’s platform under the company’s community standards.

The spokesman confirmed that Facebook initially approved the ad.

According to a review of Facebook political ad data, the Trump campaign spent between $28,000 and $100,000 to run the ad, which was displayed on the platform between 2.8 million to 5 million times.

The ad focuses on an undocumented immigrant who was deported several times before coming back into the U.S. and killing two police officers.

The man, Luis Bracamontes, was arrested and released in 1998 by Republican Maricopa County, Ariz., Sheriff Joe Arpaio and then deported twice, once during a GOP president’s administration and once during a Democrat’s, despite the video’s claim that Democrats allowed Bracamontes to stay in the U.S.

“America cannot allow this invasion. The migrant caravan must be stopped,” the Trump campaign ad says. “President Trump and his allies will protect our border and keep our families safe.”

Trump has focused on a caravan of migrants moving toward the U.S. border in the closing days of the midterm elections, calling it an “invasion.”

Facebook’s move came after NBC and Fox News both pulled the campaign ad and after CNN said it refused the ad buy.

NBC aired the ad during a Sunday night NFL game, but said it would stop airing it after it received backlash over the video.

Updated at 2:52 p.m.