DONALD TRUMP

Fact Checking the Administration's Border Crisis

During the past two years, President Donald Trump and his administration have made misleading or false claims about the United States’ southern border and the need for a new border wall or barrier. NBC 7 looks closer into those claims.

During the past two years, President Donald Trump and his administration have made misleading or false claims about the United States’ southern border and the need for a new border wall or barrier. NBC 7 looks closer into those claims and the facts surrounding them.

CLAIM:
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FACT: Trade experts said no, Mexico will not pay for the wall or a border barrier through the new U.S. Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) trade deal, according to a report in Politico. At this point, the USMCA is not in effect yet, nor has Congress approved it. The deal includes no language about a barrier along the border. Trade experts also say there is no connection between the size of the country’s trade deficit with Mexico and the total costs to build the wall.

In regards to the completed work on the wall: On October 26, 2018, DHS Secretary Nielsen unveiled a renovated portion of a “border barrier” in Calexico.

CLAIM:
“Nearly 4,000 known or suspected terrorists come into our country illegally, and we know that our most vulnerable point of entry is at our southern border,” - Sarah Huckabee Sanders, January 6, 2019 

FACTS: The figure used is for suspected terrorists that were detained across the globe and not just at the southern border with Mexico. 

In addition, as reported by NBC News, Customs and Border Protection found only six immigrants who were suspected terrorists were arrested on the U.S. Mexico Border. 

CLAIM:
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FACT: According to the DEA’s 2018 Threat Assessment, a majority of drugs coming into the country are hidden inside cars and trucks that pass through Ports of Entry. “The [southwest border] remains the primary entry point for heroin into the United States...A small percentage of all heroin seized by CBP along the land border was between Ports of Entry,” the report read. 

CLAIM:
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FACT: The number of undocumented immigrants arrested along the southern border has decreased since 2000, according to Customs and Border Protection data. 

FACT: Since 2007, the majority of illegal immigrants in the United States have allowed their visas and permits to expire, according to the Center for Migration Studies.

CLAIM:
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FACT: The number of Mexican immigrants living in the United States illegally has declined by more than one-million since 2007, according to a recent Pew Research Study. The study also found there were more apprehensions of non-Mexicans than Mexicans at U.S. borders in the fiscal year 2017. 

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