As predicted, Trump lied repeatedly at his El Paso, Texas rally tonight to justify his ineffective, unnecessary and unwanted border wall. Here\u2019s the truth:<\/p>\n
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TRUMP\u2019S LIE: \u201cI spoke to people that have been here a long time. They said when that wall went up, it\u2019s a whole different ballgame. Is that a correct statement? Whole different ballgame\u2026and I don\u2019t care whether the mayor is a Republican or a Democrat, they\u2019re full of crap when they say it hasn\u2019t made a big difference.\u201d<\/p>\n
FACT: Numerous metrics rated El Paso as one of the country\u2019s safest cities for the past 20 years.<\/p>\n
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Washington Post<\/a>: \u201cFor the past 20 years, a number of published ratings have listed El Paso as one of the nation\u2019s safest cities, and FBI statistics show that, like most major U.S. cities, El Paso\u2019s crime rate has been dropping since the mid-1990s.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n NBC News<\/a>: \u201cEl Paso does currently enjoy a relatively low rate of crime: There were 19 murders and 1,819 aggravated assaults in the city in 2017, according to FBI crime data. The city\u2019s murder rate is about half that of the national average, and a fraction of more dangerous cities. In the similarly sized city of Detroit, there were 267 murders and 10,193 aggravated assaults, for instance.\u201d<\/p>\n FACT: Violent crime in El Paso actually increased following the construction of a border barrier.<\/p>\n NBC News<\/a>: \u201cViolent crime has been dropping in El Paso since its modern-day peak in 1993 and was at historic lows before a fence was authorized by Congress in 2006. Violent crime actually ticked up during the border fence’s construction and after its completion, according to police data collected by the FBI.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n TRUMP\u2019S LIE: \u201cWalls work. Actually, there\u2019s nothing like them for what we\u2019re talking about. We want to stop drugs, we want to stop traffickers, we want to stop criminals from coming in. Walls save lives. Walls save tremendous numbers of lives.\u201d<\/p>\n FACT: Border patrol agents said a wall would not prevent the formation of underground tunnels used for smuggling operations.<\/p>\n NBC News<\/a>: \u201cWhile standing 70 feet underground in the Galvez smuggling tunnel between Tijuana and San Diego, Border Patrol agent Lance Lenoir told NBC News last year that border fencing will not stop drug smugglers. \u2018As long as they get from point A to point B in secret, they’re going to do it,\u2019 Lenoir said. \u2018They’re always tunneling somewhere.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Associated Press<\/a>: \u201cCritics say the \u2018water-balloon effect\u2019 \u2014 build a wall in one spot and migrants will find an opening elsewhere \u2014 undermines Trump\u2019s argument, though proponents say it only demonstrates that walls should be extended.\u201d<\/p>\n FACT: Experts said a border wall would not prevent the flow of illicit drugs.<\/p>\n Associated Press<\/a>: \u201cThe Drug Enforcement Administration says \u2018only a small percentage\u2019 of heroin seized by U.S. authorities comes across on territory between ports of entry. The same is true of drugs generally. In a 2018 report , the agency said the most common trafficking technique by transnational criminal organizations is to hide drugs in passenger vehicles or tractor-trailers as they drive into the U.S. though entry ports, where they are stopped and subject to inspection. They also employ buses, cargo trains and tunnels, the report says, citing other smuggling methods that also would not be choked off by a border wall.\u201d<\/p>\n FACT: Experts said a border wall was not an effective method to stop human trafficking.<\/p>\n Associated Press<\/a>: \u201cTHE FACTS: His administration has not supplied evidence that women and girls are smuggled by the \u2018thousands\u2019 across remote areas of the border for these purposes. What has been established is nearly 80 percent of international trafficking victims cross through legal ports of entry, a flow that would not be stopped by a border wall.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Washington Post<\/a>: \u201cBut the women she has represented have never talked about being tied up with tape, she said, noting that a border wall would not have saved them from traffickers. \u2018It\u2019s clear that he just doesn\u2019t have an understanding of what happens at the border,\u2019 Yang said.\u201d<\/p>\n FACT: Trump\u2019s own top intelligence officials said a border wall was not necessary to protect national security.<\/p>\n New York Times<\/a>: \u201cPerhaps the strongest rebuke of Mr. Trump\u2019s security priorities comes in what is missing from the report: Any rationale for building a wall along the southwest border, which Mr. Trump has advertised as among the most critical security threats facing the United States. The first mention of Mexico and drug cartels comes on page 18 of the 42-page assessment, well after a range of other, more pressing threats are reviewed.\u201d<\/p>\n TRUMP\u2019S LIE: \u201cYou really mean finish that wall because we\u2019ve built a lot of it.\u201d<\/p>\n \n FACT: Congress has not passed any appropriations for construction of a border wall.<\/p>\n