During a speech in South Carolina on Feb. 27, Joe Biden touted his record as president while criticizing his successor, President Donald Trump. But during his remarks, Biden made a number of false, misleading or exaggerated claims.
In the first State of the Union address of his second term, President Donald Trump proclaimed that “our nation is back, bigger, better, richer and stronger than ever before.” But our review of his speech found that he distorted a number of facts about the state of the economy, health care, immigration and other topics.
One of the sticking points in the standoff between Democrats and Republicans over funding for the Department of Homeland Security has been the Trump administration’s expanded use of administrative warrants to forcibly enter people’s homes to make immigration arrests. Democrats argue the new DHS policy runs afoul of the Constitution and have demanded immigration officers obtain judicial warrants — a higher legal bar that requires a judge’s approval — to forcibly enter a home.
Q: Is it true that ICE agents are financially rewarded for the number of people taken into custody?
A: The Department of Homeland Security has said there is no such policy, and an immigration think tank told us it is unaware of any payments per arrest. The Wall Street Journal reported that agents “are rewarded for making arrests” but didn’t say how they are rewarded. Immigration and Customs Enforcement quickly scrapped a proposed program to pay bonuses to speed up deportations.
While the Trump administration insists that it is targeting the “worst of the worst” in its immigration enforcement, it has not provided information to substantiate that, and the data that is available suggests the claim has become less accurate over time.
The Department of Homeland Security hasn’t provided evidence for some statements administration officials made within hours of the Jan. 24 fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis, and some of those statements appear to be contradicted by bystander video shared publicly so far.
At the one-year mark of Trump’s second term, we launch our “numbers” series, providing various statistical measures of his presidency thus far.
Nearly eight years ago, President Donald Trump denied using the word “shitholes” to describe African countries during an Oval Office meeting on immigration. But now he has fessed up.
In a disparaging attack on Somalia in which he said he didn’t want people of Somali descent in the United States, President Donald Trump said Somalis “ripped off” Minnesota “every year” for “billions of dollars,” an apparent reference to a fraud investigation, and suggested that “like 88%” of Somalis receive “welfare” benefits. But the White House didn’t provide us with evidence for either of those figures.
In the aftermath of the deadly ambush shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., President Donald Trump and others in his administration immediately blamed Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, for failing to vet the Afghan national accused of the attack. Here, we’ll answer some questions about what we know so far about the suspect and the vetting process.