This week’s fact-checking video by CNN’s Jake Tapper concerns several claims by President Donald Trump to justify his national emergency declaration for a border wall.
Trump falsely claimed that the U.S. is “on track to APPREHEND more than one million people coming across the Southern Border this year.” In fact, U.S. Customs and Border Protection figures show there has been a monthly average of 53,609 apprehensions for the first five months of fiscal year 2019 — putting the U.S. on track for 643,306 apprehensions.
That would be 62 percent higher than last fiscal year and the highest total since fiscal year 2008, but it’s not “more than one million.”
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen M. Nielsen said at a March 6 congressional hearing that “we are on track to encounter close to 1 million illegal aliens at our southern border this year.” Those “encounters” include apprehensions and so-called “inadmissibles,” which are those seeking to enter the country lawfully through ports of entry “but are determined to be inadmissible,” as CBP explains on its website.
In the video, Tapper explains that the president also has been wrong about drug smuggling and human trafficking at the southern border.
For more on these claims, see our articles “Apprehensions Not ‘On Track’ to Exceed 1 Million” and “FactChecking Trump’s National Emergency Remarks.”
Our past video collaborations with CNN’s “State of the Union” are available on our website.