Q: Did the Obama administration separate “72,410 Children From Their Families in 2013”?
A: That’s the number of immigrants removed that year who had U.S.-born children. But viral stories wrongly conflate removals with President Trump’s zero tolerance policy.
CNN’s Jake Tapper and FactCheck.org offer two fact-checking videos this week covering claims made by Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
In the final debate in Las Vegas, we found the deck was still stacked against the facts.
Donald Trump’s new TV ad on immigration creates a misleading comparison, saying that under Hillary Clinton, “illegal immigrants convicted of committing crimes get to stay” but under Trump, “terrorists and dangerous criminals” are “kept out.”
Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann wrongly suggested that Obama is granting citizenship and voting privileges to immigrants who are in the country illegally. His executive actions do neither of those.
It ain’t over till it’s over. Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu and her Republican challenger, Rep. Bill Cassidy, are now headed to a Dec. 6 runoff in Louisiana.
In discussing his decision to send the National Guard to the Mexico border, Texas Gov. Rick Perry repeatedly has misused data on “criminal aliens” arrested in Texas.
Q: Did the Obama administration advertise in January to transport 65,000 foreign children apprehended at the border? Did it expect a surge of illegal immigration?
A: Yes. There’s been a sharp increase in unaccompanied children from Central America since FY 2012, and the U.S. projected a bigger increase this year.
Q: Does the IRS pay billions in tax refunds to workers who are in the U.S. illegally?
A: Yes. The Treasury Department’s Inspector General determined that $4.2 billion was paid in 2010, up from less than $1 billion in 2005. Leading Democrats are resisting a bill that would stop future payments.
The latest GOP debate was thin on memorable moments or major factual bloopers, but we do have some leftover claims to dispute before we shut down for the Thanksgiving holiday. We wouldn’t want anybody’s turkey dinner to be spoiled by worries that terrorists have come over the border with Mexico, for example. We also found misstatements about an oil pipeline, presidential contacts with Iran and cuts to the defense budget.
The two-hour debate was held in Washington,