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Thursday, January 10th, 2019

FactChecking Trump’s Immigration Address

Author:     Eugene Kiely, Lori Robertson, Robert Farley, Brooks Jackson and D'Angelo Gore
Source:     FactCheck.org
Publication Date:     January 9, 2019
 Link: FactChecking Trump’s Immigration Address
Stephan:   Tuesday night perhaps, like me, you watched the appalling Oval Office speech to the nation made by Trump. It was a chain of lies and fear engendering distortions; a black mold on the office of the Presidency. How bad was it? Well, here are the facts. Oh, and did you know that the whole event was actually a campaign fundraiser for Trump's reelection? He sent out two letters to his "base" trying to wring money out of them on false pretenses. Everything with Trump is a grift, from steaks, to universities, to the Oval office.

President Donald Trump speaks from the Oval Office of the White House as he gives a prime-time address about border security Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2018, in Washington.
Credit: Carlos Barria/Pool Photo/AP

In a national address, President Donald Trump called on Congress to provide $5.7 billion for a border wall to address what he called a “crisis” on the border. The president made some false and misleading claims, and provided some facts without context:

  • Despite the president’s claims of a “crisis,” the number of apprehensions at the Southwest border remains historically low.
  • Trump made the misleading claim that Customs and Border Protection agents “encounter thousands of illegal immigrants” every day trying to enter the U.S. The average number of apprehensions at the border is less than 2,000 a day.
  • Trump suggested that 20,000 children were illegally brought into the country last month by “vicious coyotes and ruthless gangs,” but there’s no evidence of that in the available statistics.
  • The president falsely claimed “the border wall would very quickly pay for itself” by stopping the flow of illegal drugs. But the majority […]
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