During the 90-minute heated CNN debate, former US President Donald Trump criticized President Joe Biden over the issue of illegal immigration, particularly focusing on “terrorists” migrants who have committed crimes after crossing the border.
Trump accused Biden of having lax border policies that allowed dangerous individuals to enter the United States.
“He decided to open up our border, open up our country to people that are from prisons, people that are from mental institutions, insane asylums, terrorists. We have the largest number of terrorists coming into our country right now, all terrorists, all over the world, not just in South America, they come from the Middle East, everywhere,” Trump said.
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Trump also claimed that the US had the “safest border in history” during his presidency.
He boasted, “There's never been anything like it, and people are dying all over the place, including the people that are coming up in caravans.”
Biden gives Trump a fact-check over ‘terrorist’ remark
{{/usCountry}}He boasted, “There's never been anything like it, and people are dying all over the place, including the people that are coming up in caravans.”
Biden gives Trump a fact-check over ‘terrorist’ remark
{{/usCountry}}President Biden swiftly defended his administration's handling of border security and pushed back against Trump's assertions. He highlighted what he saw as inaccuracies in Trump's statements and sought to clarify the situation regarding border-crossing terrorists.
“The only terrorist who has done anything crossing the border is one who came along and killed three — in his administration — an al Qaeda person in his administration — killed three American soldiers,” Biden said.
“Killed three American soldiers. That's the only terrorist that's — I'm not saying no terrorist ever got through, but the idea they're emptying their prisons, we're welcoming these people, that's simply not true, there is no data to support what he said. Once again, he's exaggerating, he's lying,” and there is no shred of evidence to support the claim that large numbers of terrorists are entering the country through the southern border.
He accused Trump of using fear-mongering tactics to mislead the public and score political points.
Fact-checking Trump's claim over immigrants
Trump's remarks about the “open border” have been a central theme in his criticisms of Biden's administration. He frequently portrays Biden's policies as weak and detrimental to national security.
However, while debunking the myth the immigrants are mainly behind the soaring crime rate in US, Brennan Center for Justice said in their survey report that “immigrants commit crime or are incarcerated at higher rates than native-born Americans. In fact, immigrants might have less law enforcement contact compared to nonimmigrants.”
“One study found that undocumented immigrants are 33 percent less likely to be incarcerated than people born in the United States. Indications of a negative relationship between immigration and crime also emerge when looking at conviction rates. In a Texas study, undocumented immigrants were found to be 47 percent less likely to be convicted of a crime in 2017 than native-born Americans,” they added.
Following Georgia nursing student Laken Riley's murder, Economist Ran Abramitzky said that since the 1960s, immigrants are 60% less likely to be incarcerated than US natives.