Headline: Fact-Checking Trump and Biden’s Claims on Immigration and Border Security
Large numbers of migrant apprehensions at the southern border have vaulted immigration and border security onto the list of top concerns for voters. Public polling shows support for former President Donald J. Trump’s hard-line approach, and President Biden, who made overturning Mr. Trump’s immigration agenda part of his platform in 2020, has recently reversed course and issued a more restrictive border policy.
But some of Mr. Trump’s most-repeated statements are inaccurate, in warning about the level of illegal immigration, characterizing unauthorized migrants as criminals taking advantage of government handouts and touting the effectiveness of his own policies. Mr. Biden, too, has occasionally overstated his earlier proposals on border security.
Here is a fact check:
Mr. Trump mischaracterized the situation at the border under his administration and Mr. Biden’s.
False. During Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign, he promised to build a wall spanning at least 1,000 miles along the southern border and have Mexico pay for it. That did not happen. Overall, the Trump administration constructed 458 miles of border barriers — most of which reinforced or replaced existing structures. Officials put up new primary barriers where none previously existed along only 47 miles.
Contracts were awarded for a total of 631 miles of barriers through January 2021, according to a Government Accountability Office report. When Mr. Biden took office and halted all construction, the contracted projects were in various states of completion — not “all made” — as officials had run into difficulties with real estate availability, the report said. Some were expected to wrap up by September 2021 and others by September 2022.
It is true that the government has sold already procured border wall materials at a steep discount, but it is unlikely 200 miles’ worth. Moreover, it is not atypical for the government to take a loss on unwanted supplies.
When Mr. Biden ordered a pause on construction, the Pentagon had $262 million of already procured border wall material. For context, the Trump administration spent more than $6.6 billion and had earmarked $10.5 billion on the border wall, according to a Government Accountability Office report.
The Army Corps of Engineers retained some materials for other construction projects, a spokeswoman said, and transferred $202 million worth to the Defense Logistics Agency, which handles acquisitions for the Pentagon. Since December, the logistics agency has transferred about $60 million worth of supplies to other federal and state agencies, and put up about $40 million for sale, a spokesman said. It expects to make about 3.5 percent of the original acquisition value.
The agency, which first offers excess goods to federal and state agencies, also sells unwanted supplies, electronics and vehicles for a fraction of their original cost under the same agreement (Humvees at starting bids of $3,000, for example).
Mr. Trump’s assessment of border security under his administration as the “strongest” in history is a matter of opinion. Apprehensions in the 2020 fiscal year, even as the coronavirus pandemic ground global movement to a halt, were higher than in 2011, 2012 and 2015. Mr. Trump also faced a surge in migration at the border: In the 2019 fiscal year, apprehensions topped 800,000 and were the highest in a decade.
This is just a snippet of the full fact-checking article.
