The following article by Meg Kelly was posted on the Washington Post website July 6, 2018:
The president has made this claim for over two years — but there is still no evidence. (Meg Kelly/The Washington Post)
“So here are just a few statistics on the human toll of illegal immigration. According to a 2011 government report, the arrests attached to the criminal alien population included an estimated 25,000 people for homicide, 42,000 for robbery, nearly 70,000 for sex offenses, and nearly 15,000 for kidnapping. In Texas alone, within the last seven years, more than a quarter-million criminal aliens have been arrested and charged with over 600,000 criminal offenses. … Sixty-three thousand Americans since 9/11 have been killed by illegal aliens. This isn’t a problem that’s going away; it’s getting bigger.”
— President Trump, remarks at the White House, June 22, 2018
In the midst of uproar over his administration’s family separation policy, President Trump highlighted the stories of families who have been “permanently separated” because a loved one was killed by an undocumented immigrant. This theme is nothing new. The president has claimed without evidence that undocumented immigrants bring “tremendous crime” since he announced he was running for office.
We’ve looked at the overarching claim here, here and here — but what caught our eye in these comments were all the specific numbers Trump used. It’s rare for the president support his case with statistics.