Fact-Checking Donald Trump’s Immigration Speech in Arizona

In a highly anticipated address on immigration Wednesday night in Arizona, Donald Trump lambasted the media for not reporting “the facts” he felt were relevant to the national conversation on immigration.

“But the facts aren’t known because the media won’t report on them, the politicians won’t talk about them, and the special interests spend a lot of money trying to cover them up. Today you will get the truth,” he said.

But many of Trump’s own facts were misleading and inaccurate, obscuring truth in a debate both parties agree is necessary. He cited research and statistics from special interests like the Center for Immigration Studies and the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) — groups that promote dramatically decreased rates of legal immigration.

Let’s take a look what Trump said about legal and illegal immigration.

WHAT TRUMP SAID: “The time has come for a new immigration commission to develop a new set of reforms to our legal immigration system in order to achieve the following goals,” Trump said, listing keeping immigration levels “within historical norms” and selecting immigrants based on their “likelihood of success.”

THE FACTS: Trump is largely describing existing legal immigration policy, which requires potential immigrants to petition for visas or green cards based on employment or family ties. Many of Trump’s proposals are not new: He’s said the U.S. should invest in border security (it has) and deport more undocumented immigrants than ever before (it is). Trump doesn’t explain what he means by historical norms, but the number of legal immigrants allowed in the United States has stayed the same, at around a million, for most recent years.

WHAT TRUMP SAID: “Countless innocent American lives have been stolen because our politicians have failed in their duty to secure our borders and enforce our laws.”

THE FACTS: The vast majority of undocumented immigrants do not meet Trump’s various demonizing descriptions, but the implication here is that undocumented immigrants are more criminal and threaten American lives routinely. However, two studies found that despite high poverty rates — which typically coincides with high crime rates — Latino immigrants in border towns and New York City respectively were more law abiding, with lower crime rates, than non-Latino white and black Americans.

What’s more, illegal immigration is at its lowest point since 1972. The only real rise? The flow of unaccompanied young children fleeing gang violence and poverty in Central America.

WHAT TRUMP SAID: “On top of that, illegal immigration costs our country more than $113 billion dollars a year. For the money we are going to spend on illegal immigration over the next ten years, we could provide one million at-risk students with a school voucher.”

THE FACTS: As the Washington Post notes in their lengthy fact-check, this large number comes from FAIR and includes estimates how much it costs to educate and provide medical care for the children of undocumented immigrants born here — in other words, legal citizens.

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