Along with other immigration GOP stories debunked
Trump speaking at campaign rally in Prairie du Chien, WI 9/28/24
AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall
Updated.. Oct 2024
As the polls tighten in a very close race, the Trump campaign ratchets up false immigration information in desperate hopes to influence independents and undecided voters in the key swing state races.
This all stems from a letter sent from Department of Homeland Security-Immigration Control and Enforcement [DSH-ICE] to Representative Tony Gonzales’ [R-TX] inquiry regarding statistics on the number of criminals entering the US over our borders became public, then FOX News started reporting on the numbers.
In this letter, Patrick J. Lechleitner, Deputy Director US Immigration and Customs Enforcement [ICE], writes to Rep. Gonzales:
V4C views this inquiry sent by Representative Gonzales, [R-TX]; as a GOP fishing trip looking for campaign material.
Shortly afterwards, Trump in a social media post, falsely attributes responsibility for these newly reported numbers to VP Harris and the Biden-Harris Administration.
Then while campaigning in Prairie du Chien Wisconsin, Trump launched a multitude of more false claims directed to VP Harris’ recent visit to the Southern Border.
“You gotta get these people back where they came from. You have no choice. You’re going to lose your culture, you’re going to lose your country, you’re going to have crime the likes of which nobody has ever seen before.”
He blamed Harris for migrants committing crimes after entering the U.S. illegally, alleging she was responsible for “erasing our border.”
“I will liberate Wisconsin from the mass migrant invasion,” he said. “We’re going to liberate the country.” He even attempted to create another "Springfield, Ohio" immigration scare stating Whitewater, Wisconsin a "small, verfy beautiful town being flooded by an influx of migrants" warning them that they soon will be victims of the migrant invasion. Trump 'selected' Whitewater most likely related to a number of positive stories depicting an large increase in the number of immigrants.
Then later on Truth Social, Trump posted Harris “allowed almost 14,000 MURDERERS to freely and openly roam our Country,” the “roam free to KILL AGAIN”
“Kamala should immediately cancel her News Conference because it was just revealed that 13,000 convicted murderers entered our Country during her three and a half year period as Border Czar,” in another social media post on September 27th.
FOX NEWS Reporter’s FACT CHECK on social media
On Friday, Bill Melugin, a LA based reporter from Fox News noted on social media that “not all of these criminals entered during the Biden admin, as some are claiming” and that “some of these criminals go back many years across multiple administrations.”
Multiple other main stream media outlets have fact checked or debunked the plethora of false immigration claims circulating after the release of the ICE data.
CNN’s article entitled Fact Check: To attack Harris, Trump falsely describes new stats on immigrants and homicide on September 28 opens with “Former President Donald Trump is wildly distorting new statistics on immigration and crime to attack Vice President Kamala Harris.”
Direct Excerpts [screen shots] from CNN Article written by Daniel Dale on 9/28/24
More From CNN Fact Check Responses to CNN from Department of Homeland Security.
Trump campaign surrogates hit the Sunday News Television circuit continuing to spread misinformation.
Senator Tom Cotton [R-AR] joins in..
A republican from Arkansas, a Trump acolyte repeated the same false claims on Face the Nation Sun September 28, 2024 From the transcript:
“But again, I just want to say the chaos that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have unleashed across this world, isn't limited to the other side of the world. It happens right here. The administration just acknowledged that they released more than 13,000 convicted murderers who illegally entered this country. More than 15,000 convicted sex offenders. That's 28,000 rapists and murderers who illegally entered our country who Kamala Harris and Joe Biden have let roam our streets. That's the kind of chaos that they have unleashed for the last four years, and that Donald Trump will put an end to. “
Senator Lindsey Graham [R-SC]
Newsweek reports, Graham appearing on CNN then repeated Trump's FALSE claims that only Harris was to blame for migrant crime. CNN’s Jake Tapper showed a clip of Trump at the Prairie du Chein rally, asking Senator Graham what he thought about Trump’s rhetoric.
Graham responded "Four hundred thousand people have been let loose in our country, 16,000 people convicted of being a rapist, 13,000 convicted murderers and 400,000 of people generally convicted of crimes were released on her watch." Senator Graham changes the topic to avoid responding.
Tapper challenges the Senator “ That statistic is actually over decades. So, some of those people you are talking about are people that came into the country during Trump”
So why is ICE detaining known criminals?
From CNN Fact Check article dated September 28, 2024
Under a 2001 Supreme Court decision, the US government is not allowed to indefinitely keep someone in immigration detention after they have been ordered removed from the country.
As for the ‘Border Czar’ claim….
At a campaign rally at the Bojangles Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina, on July 24, 2024… Trump started the false accusations that Kamala Harris was supposed to be the Border Czar… and continues to include this at all his rallies since then.
CNN Fact Checked his claim....
Harris was never made Biden’s “border czar,” a label the White House has always emphasized is inaccurate. In reality, Biden gave Harris [via Executive Order] a more limited immigration-related assignment in 2021, asking her to lead diplomacy with El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras in an attempt to address the conditions that prompted their citizens to try to migrate to the United States.
Check out details on President Biden’s executive order here as posted by Aaron Reichlin-Melnick a Senior Fellow from the American Immigration Council
The following is a list of what this diplomatic effort will entail. Contrary to the former president claims, none of the topics include or imply any responsibility for immigration laws enforcement.
Noncitizen immigrants do NOT commit more crimes?
An National Institute for Justice-funded study examining data from the Texas Department of Public Safety estimated the rate at which undocumented immigrants are arrested for committing crimes. The study found that undocumented immigrants are arrested at less than half the rate of native-born U.S. citizens for violent and drug crimes and a quarter the rate of native-born citizens for property crimes.
Stanford economist Ran Abramitzky released a study in 2023 that debunks the common misconception that immigrants drive up crime rates, which has NOT been the case for at least 140 years. The study showed that first generation immigrants have not been more likely to be imprisoned than US born citizens since 1880.
Finally, a study by Northwestern University economist Elisa Jacome has similar findings; over a 150 year period, immigrants have never been incarcerated at a greater rate than those born in the US.
Want to read more about Trump & Immigration...check out an earlier blog entitled: Is this Presidential - Trump on Immigration
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