Barack Obama claim about low illegal immigration was our No. 9 fact check from 2016
On the Truth-O-Meter, Barack Obama fared well in Texas in 2016. Our fact check of Obama’s claim about immigration levels was our No. 9 most-clicked fact check from the year.
Barack Obama fired up supporters at a Democratic National Committee reception in Austin in March by insisting the country is “pretty darn great” toward the end of his eight years as president.
According to a White House transcript of Obama’s March 11, 2015, remarks, Obama said to applause: “You’ve got all these candidates on the other side tripping all over themselves to talk down the economy when it is the bright spot in the world economy. You’ve got folks talking about how weak America is when we’re the most powerful nation on Earth.”
Those two judgments, you might say, are not-fact-checkable opinions. But next Obama said: “You’ve got these folks saying immigration is our biggest crisis when illegal immigration is lower than it’s been in 40 years.”
There’s no direct indicator of illegal immigration. Folks don’t report in. But the best-available metric, Border Patrol apprehensions, reached a 44-year national low in 2015 — though apprehensions along the U.S.-Mexico border were even lower four years earlier. The previous Southwest sector low occurred in 1972.
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We’ll be posting more most-clicked fact checks soon.
