TRUMP: “Our Southern Border is now Secure and will remain that way.” — tweet.
TRUMP: “We need border security. People are pouring into our country, including terrorists. We have terrorists. But we caught 10 terrorists. These are over the last very short period of time — 10. These are very serious people.” ″Drugs are pouring into our country. People with tremendous medical difficulty and medical problems are pouring in, and in many — in many cases it’s contagious. They’re pouring into our country. We have to have border security.” — statements in Oval Office meeting.
THE FACTS: The fact is, Trump contradicted himself, declaring the border secure and insecure on the same day.
Moreover, the government has not announced the arrests of 10 terrorists. Trump’s statement appeared to be a clunky rendering of federal statistics showing that U.S. Customs and Border Protection stopped an average of 10 people a day in the 2017 budget year who were trying to enter the U.S. from countries with suspected links to terrorism. That average applied to all points of entry, not just the southern border. And the primary points of entry for people coming from overseas are airports, not the two land borders.
As well Trump provided no evidence that people coming into the country are carrying contagious diseases at a higher rate than the U.S. population. He repeated the point at a bill signing, saying there’s a “tremendous medical problem coming in.” Medical screening is part of the process for vetting people who seek asylum.
As for the state of border security, U.S. arrests on the Mexican border jumped 78 percent in November from a year earlier to the highest level in Trump’s presidency. Increased arrests indicate that more people are trying to cross the border illegally.
