Giant numbers of migrant apprehensions on the southern border have vaulted immigration and border safety onto the checklist of prime issues for voters.
Public polling reveals assist for former President Donald J. Trump’s hard-line method, and President Biden, who made overturning Mr. Trump’s immigration agenda a part of his platform in 2020, has just lately reversed course and issued a extra restrictive border coverage.
However a few of Mr. Trump’s most-repeated statements are inaccurate, in warning in regards to the stage of unlawful immigration, characterizing unauthorized migrants as criminals benefiting from authorities handouts and touting the effectiveness of his personal insurance policies. Mr. Biden, too, has sometimes overstated his earlier proposals on border safety.
Here’s a reality test.
Mr. Trump mischaracterized the state of affairs on the border underneath his administration and Mr. Biden’s.
What Was Mentioned
“We had the strongest border ever. I constructed 571 miles of wall. We’re going so as to add one other 200 in three weeks. It was all made, all fabricated. They offered it for 5 cents on the greenback. The wall was all fabricated. I constructed far more wall than I stated I used to be going to construct.”
— in a Could radio interview
False. Throughout Mr. Trump’s 2016 marketing campaign, he promised to construct a wall spanning a minimum of 1,000 miles alongside the southern border and have Mexico pay for it. That didn’t occur. General, the Trump administration constructed 458 miles of border boundaries — most of which bolstered or changed present constructions. Officers put up new major boundaries the place none beforehand existed alongside solely 47 miles.
Contracts had been awarded for a complete of 631 miles of boundaries by January 2021, in keeping with a Authorities Accountability Workplace report. When Mr. Biden took workplace and halted all development, the contracted tasks had been in numerous states of completion — not “all made” — as officers had run into difficulties with actual property availability, the report stated. Some had been anticipated to wrap up by September 2021 and others by September 2022.
It’s true that the federal government has offered already procured border wall supplies at a steep low cost, however it’s unlikely 200 miles’ value. Furthermore, it isn’t atypical for the federal government to take a loss on undesirable provides.
When Mr. Biden ordered a pause on development, the Pentagon had $262 million of already procured border wall materials. For context, the Trump administration spent greater than $6.6 billion and had earmarked $10.5 billion on the border wall, in keeping with a Authorities Accountability Workplace report.
The Military Corps of Engineers retained some supplies for different development tasks, a spokeswoman stated, and transferred $202 million value to the Protection Logistics Company, which handles acquisitions for the Pentagon. Since December, the logistics company has transferred about $60 million value of provides to different federal and state businesses, and put up about $40 million on the market, a spokesman stated. It expects to make about 3.5 % of the unique acquisition worth.
The company, which first provides extra items to federal and state businesses, additionally sells undesirable provides, electronics and automobiles for a fraction of their authentic value underneath the identical settlement (Humvees at beginning bids of $3,000, for instance).
Mr. Trump’s evaluation of border safety underneath his administration because the “strongest” in historical past is a matter of opinion. Apprehensions within the 2020 fiscal yr, even because the coronavirus pandemic floor world motion to a halt, had been greater than in 2011, 2012 and 2015. Mr. Trump additionally confronted a surge in migration on the border: Within the 2019 fiscal yr, apprehensions topped 800,000 and had been the very best in a decade.
What Was Mentioned
“And the numbers are in all probability 16 million, 17 million or 18 million folks. You’re going to have over 20 million folks, I believe, I consider, and a variety of different folks do, too, by the point he hopefully will get out.”
— in an interview on Fox Information in June
That is exaggerated. It’s inconceivable to know the precise variety of migrants which have entered the USA, however Mr. Trump’s estimates are hyperbolic.
Since February 2021, the primary full month of Mr. Biden’s presidency, Customs and Border Safety has recorded 9.6 million migrant encounters nationwide. This doesn’t essentially imply that almost 10 million migrants have tried to enter the nation, as one migrant might be “encountered” a number of instances. Authorities and unbiased analyses have estimated that repeat offenders account for 1 / 4 to greater than half of all encounters.
Outdoors of official encounters, border officers estimated about 1.7 million migrants evaded seize and entered the USA because the 2021 fiscal yr, in keeping with authorities information obtained by Fox Information by a Freedom of Info Act request.
Karoline Leavitt, a Trump marketing campaign spokeswoman, argued that official numbers of evasions are vastly undercounted. However whereas officers have stated that the precise quantity may very well be 20 % greater, Mr. Trump’s estimates would require the quantity to be a number of instances greater.
Greater than 4 million migrants have been turned away or deported underneath Mr. Biden. About 3 million had been shortly expelled underneath a public well being legislation, had been positioned into “expedited removing” proceedings or voluntarily left.
Mr. Trump has baselessly claimed that latest migrants are criminals “dumped” by different international locations and receiving a number of U.S. authorities advantages.
What Was Mentioned
“Jail inhabitants everywhere in the world is down, and no person is aware of why apart from us. We all know why. As a result of the prisons are being emptied into the USA, and the psychological establishments are being emptied into the USA of America, like we’re a dumping floor.”
— in a Could rally in Michigan
“He’s letting hundreds of thousands of individuals from jails, from prisons, from insane asylums, from psychological establishments, drug sellers, pour in. Venezuela, in case you have a look at their crime statistics, they’ve gone down 72 % in crime as a result of they’re releasing all their criminals into our nation due to this horrible president that we now have.”
— in remarks to reporters in Could
This lacks proof. Jail populations everywhere in the world have been rising, not reducing. Penal Reform Worldwide, a Netherlands-based nonprofit, estimated that the worldwide jail inhabitants was a file 11.5 million in 2023, a rise of 500,000 folks since 2020.
Concerning Venezuela, Ms. Leavitt, the Trump marketing campaign spokeswoman, cited a September 2022 article in Breitbart, a conservative web site. One unnamed supply advised Breitbart that officers believed an unspecified variety of Venezuelan jail inmates had been headed for the USA’ southern border with Mexico. (No different information group or authorities supply has verified this report.)
Ms. Leavitt additionally pointed to studies warning that Tren de Aragua, a transnational prison gang based in Venezuela, was rising in the USA.
However none of that is proof that “hundreds of thousands” of criminals are infiltrating the southern border.
Customs and Border Safety reported apprehending 47 members of Tren de Aragua alongside the southern border underneath Mr. Biden.
Ms. Leavitt pointed to a Bloomberg article in December 2023 a couple of Caracas-based analysis group reporting the bottom murder charge in 22 years. Annual studies from that group, the Venezuelan Violence Observatory, present a 25 % decline within the nation’s murder charge from 2022 to 2023, and a 41 % decline since 2020. Compared, the murder charge declined much more precipitously whereas Mr. Trump was president, by nearly 50 % from 2016.
The Venezuelan Jail Observatory advised Univision in 2022, when Mr. Trump first made the declare, that the prisons within the nation had not been emptied and moderately had been at 170 % capability. Based on the group’s newest annual report, Venezuela’s jail inhabitants stood at 33,558 in 2022, about stage with its 2021 inhabitants of 33,710.
What Was Mentioned
“If the Biden invasion just isn’t stopped, it should additionally demolish Medicare and Social Safety. It can’t survive, but it surely can’t survive 20 million folks coming into the nation.”
“It was just lately introduced that crooked Joe is now giving Obamacare and all free authorities well being care to unlawful aliens.”
— in a Could rally in New Jersey
False. Unauthorized immigrants really enhance the monetary well being of each Social Safety and Medicare. And the Biden administration’s announcement in Could that sure migrants may buy — not obtain without cost — doubtlessly backed medical health insurance utilized solely to those that had been delivered to the USA as kids.
Federal legislation bars unauthorized immigrants from receiving Social Safety or Medicare advantages, however they pay into each applications. In a 2013 report, the Social Safety Administration estimated that 3.1 million unauthorized immigrants had been working and paying Social Safety taxes. They contributed about $12 billion to the belief in 2010 and about $100 billion over a decade. A 2016 research estimated that unauthorized immigrants contributed about $35.1 billion to Medicare from 2000 to 2011.
The Heart for Immigration Research, a assume tank that helps curbs on immigration, famous that “unlawful immigration unambiguously advantages the Social Safety and Medicare belief funds,” however added that giving migrants authorized standing would reverse these positive factors. The Trump marketing campaign argued that Democrats had been pushing for simply that.
Unauthorized immigrants are additionally typically barred from buying medical health insurance by the federal government exchanges established by the Inexpensive Care Act and receiving subsidies.
In Could, a brand new federal regulation made eligible these enrolled within the Deferred Motion for Childhood Arrivals program. Officers estimated that about 100,000 of those migrants, so-called Dreamers who had been delivered to the USA as kids, may get hold of medical health insurance because of the brand new rule.
Current arrivals don’t qualify for this system, which is open to those that had been in the USA on June 15, 2012, and have resided there since a minimum of 2007. Nor do unauthorized migrants qualify for Medicaid or the Kids’s Well being Insurance coverage Program, the federal government well being care applications for low-income folks and youngsters, although they will obtain emergency Medicaid companies.
The Trump marketing campaign additionally pointed to a handful of states which have prolonged eligibility for presidency well being care applications, together with Medicaid, to unauthorized immigrants. However that protection is state-funded.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden have each described Mr. Biden’s border insurance policies inaccurately.
What Was Mentioned
“What he signed means nothing. The truth is, it makes it simpler. For my part, it opens the border nonetheless additional.”
— Mr. Trump at a rally in Las Vegas in June
That is deceptive. Mr. Biden issued an government order in June that prevented migrants from looking for asylum on the border.
Underneath the order, migrants can’t ask for asylum if the seven-day common for every day unlawful crossings reaches 2,500. The order lifts as soon as the quantity falls under 1,500 for seven days in a row. The restrictions don’t apply to unaccompanied minors, victims of human trafficking, these dealing with medical emergencies or legitimate visa holders.
The Heart for Immigration Research criticized the asylum exceptions and different “loopholes” within the coverage, however stated it “will probably drive unlawful entries down within the brief run.”
Ms. Leavitt argued, misleadingly, that the coverage “allowed” migrants to enter if the brink was not met, and that it really expanded asylum by routing them to ports of entry, referring to a smartphone app border officers have inspired migrants to make use of. However even when crossings fell under 1,500, migrants would nonetheless be apprehended and processed, and face deportation.
What Was Mentioned
“People, on my first day as president, I launched a invoice I despatched to Congress: a complete plan to repair the damaged immigration system and to safe the border. However no motion was taken.”
— Mr. Biden in a speech on the border in February
“The primary invoice I ever launched as a president of the USA was basically what acquired handed this day trip, led by the conservative Republican who they’re vilifying now for having labored out this deal.”
— Mr. Biden in a go to to a marketing campaign workplace in New Hampshire in March
That is exaggerated.
On Mr. Biden’s first day in workplace, the White Home launched its framework for the “U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021” and Democrats within the Home and Senate formally launched the laws a couple of month later in February. It largely targeted on making a pathway to citizenship for all undocumented immigrants and increasing authorized immigration.
The invoice did embrace border safety measures like directing the Division of Homeland Safety to create a plan to deploy new applied sciences at and between ports of entry and including sources to legally course of migrants. It didn’t embrace funding to rent extra border patrol brokers or modifications to the asylum course of.
In distinction, the bipartisan border deal that Congress rejected this spring — negotiated by Senator James Lankford, Republican of Oklahoma — targeted on border safety.
The laws included funding for 1,500 further Customs and Border Safety brokers and a provision that will have routinely triggered an emergency authority to extra simply expel migrants when crossings attain a sure threshold. Whereas it expanded the variety of immigration judges and asylum officers, and awarded extra family- and employment-based visas, it additionally made it harder for migrants to say asylum.
Angelo Hernandez, a White Home spokesman, argued that each items of laws had border safety and immigration reform measures and that Mr. Biden “believes we should safe our border and repair our damaged immigration system.”
However there’s a main cut up between the 2 payments: Mr. Biden’s laws features a pathway to citizenship whereas the bipartisan invoice has a provision to close down the border.
Mr. Biden and Democrats have advanced on the difficulty of unlawful crossings. The president has at instances acknowledged the shift. For instance, in saying his new asylum coverage in June, Mr. Biden stated that whereas he was “nonetheless combating” for complete immigration reform, “we should first safe the border.”
