Jones posted a photo of himself wearing the same vest before another segment on Thursday. When commentator Roland Martin criticised it, Jones tweeted: "Did I say it was a war zone or did you ignorantly assume that because I was wearing a vest?"
Other people who have done similar segments called out Jones.
"This is totally ridiculous. I have never once worn a bulletproof vest at the border, nor has CBP ever asked me to - even while on a chase with Border Patrol to apprehend migrants in remote Arizona desert in the middle of the night," said Jacob Soboroff, an MSNBC correspondent. "Because. The. Border. Is. Not. A. War. Zone."
Images matter when they convey an idea to an audience of millions, on a network the president's surrogates have used as a platform to argue for stricter immigration policies and the wall. And Trump has portrayed the border as a frontier marked by unrelenting violence, while more often the opposite is true.
Jones wore what appears to be a carrier vest used to house a ballistic armour plate to protect vital organs. There does not appear to be a plate inserted, and it is possible the inside has soft armour typically rated for smaller, handgun-type ammunition.
A Customs and Border Protection patch or bade is affixed alongside empty pouches, and it is possible the vest was provided to help border agents identify Jones as a vetted reporter.
It's not clear if that was a safety regulation or what kind of safety a plate carrier with minimal ballistic protection but no helmet is meant to provide. Jones appeared in other segments in dress shirts. The plate carrier would take less than half a minute to put on.
A Fox News spokeswoman declined to comment on the segment.
Jones was dispatched to Laredo, Texas, a border town that has seen falling violence in the past decade and that, in 2016, had a lower violent crime rate than the state average, the Laredo Morning Times reported, citing FBI data.
In fact, crime rates in US border counties are lower than the average for similarly sized inland counties, with one exception out of 23 total, according to the Mexico Institute at the Wilson Center, a Washington think tank.
Laredo's Webb County, from where Jones filed his report, is safer than 80 percent of comparable counties nationwide, the institute said, using FBI crime statistics.
"There is no doubt, the US side (of the border) is a very safe place," Christopher Wilson, deputy director of the institute, told The Washington Post last year.
There are a few general conclusions as to why this is the case. There is a substantial federal law enforcement presence in towns and along highways in the border counties, as the flashing border agent vehicle lights in Jones's segment indicates.
There are some exceptions. Ranchers in southern Arizona have encountered drug traffickers on their property, though traffickers are more likely to settle problems with violence in Mexico, where police and the rule of law are barriers they can more easily overcome.
But on Wednesday's show, the segment ended with some artfully created tension of "breaking news," Jones said, as he was about to describe a common occurrence.
"We just got word from the agents that are with us, keeping us safe: There is an attempt to cross the border right now," Jones said.
