In declaring a national emergency at the Southwest border, President Donald Trump strung together a long list of false, misleading and unsupported claims on illegal immigration, drug smuggling, human trafficking, trade deficits and other issues.
Q: Did an FDA-approved form of “synthetic marijuana” lead to recent deaths in Illinois?
A: No. The drugs that have killed four people in the last two months are unregulated and illegal.
In our latest fact-checking collaboration with CNN’s “State of the Union,” Jake Tapper looks at President Donald Trump’s repeated claim that a proposed wall at the U.S.-Mexico border will stop the illegal flow of drugs into the U.S.
Q: Did former President Barack Obama pardon Wendell Callahan, who was later accused of killing three people after his early release?
A: No. Congress unanimously passed a bill changing drug sentencing laws and Obama signed it. Callahan petitioned for early release under the new law and it was approved by a federal judge.
President Donald Trump says that his proposed wall along the Mexico border “will stop much of the drugs from pouring into this country.” We cannot predict the future, but the fact is that most illicit drugs pass undetected through legal ports of entry.
President Donald Trump misleadingly cited a 23 percent decline in federal drug prosecutions between 2011 and 2016 to claim that the Obama administration ignored the opioid crisis.