The White Sands dates, if they hold, make such earlier arrivals more plausible by demonstrating that people were in the interior of North America during the Last Glacial Maximum — which implies they had arrived before the LGM began.

What the White Sands dates do not prove: they do not prove that the people who made these footprints were the first humans in the Americas.

They prove that humans were present at this specific location at this specific time.

Other sites might eventually demonstrate earlier presence elsewhere.

The White Sands footprints mark a moment in the deep human occupation of this hemisphere, not necessarily its beginning.

This distinction matters for how we understand the finding.