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Fact-checking the Trump White House's claims about illegal immigration dropping sharply

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Summary
Nutrition label

77% Informative

The White House is touting the administrations' successes, including a sharp drop in illegal immigration.

Illegal immigration at the U.S. southern border has dropped since Trump entered the White House .

But the data use is misleading and overemphasize the data from a short time period.

History shows immigration trends ebb and flow no matter who is in office.

Fox News received gotaways statistics for fiscal year 2023 after submitting a Freedom of Information Act request.

But the White House pointed us to misleads by comparing a full year of data to a few days or weeks of data ( 132 per day under Trump ) The most recent publicly available data is from the Department of Homeland Security’s 2022 Metrics Report .

VR Score

78

Informative language

74

Neutral language

60

Article tone

formal

Language

English

Language complexity

46

Offensive language

not offensive

Hate speech

not hateful

Attention-grabbing headline

not detected

Known propaganda techniques

not detected

Time-value

short-lived

External references

17

https://www.politifact.com/article/2025/jan/24/what-trumps-first-week-immigration-orders-mean-in/https://www.politifact.com/article/2022/dec/09/nikki-haley-cites-unverified-number-of-border-got/https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2023/jan/06/joe-biden/illegal-immigration-dropped-after-new-venezuela-pr/https://www.politifact.com/article/2024/jun/07/ask-politifact-does-joe-bidens-asylum-order-shut-d/https://www.dhs.gov/archive/news/2025/01/17/fact-sheet-dhs-has-taken-unprecedented-steps-resulting-border-more-secure-it-was#:~:text=Additionally%2C%20the%20estimated%20number%20of,immigration%20court%20proceedings%20by%2089%25.https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/assets/documents/2019-Mar/bp-southwest-border-sector-apps-fy1960-fy2018.pdfhttps://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2024/jun/05/joe-biden/us-mexico-border-crossings-are-down-as-joe-biden-s/https://ohss.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/2023-12/2023_0703_plcy_fiscal_year_2022_border_security_metrics_report_2021_data_0.pdfhttps://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/nationwide-encountershttps://www.instagram.com/p/DGHI3dPR838/?igsh=M2dvZ2l1eXRlaXJs&img_index=2https://www.foxnews.com/us/daily-average-known-gotaways-southern-border-plummets-from-biden-administration-highshttps://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-era-southern-border-sees-migrant-encounters-plummet-over-60-new-policies-kick-inhttps://x.com/USBPChief/status/1884723200048693297https://www.politifact.com/article/2025/feb/20/the-white-house-exaggerated-how-sharply-illegal-im/https://ohss.dhs.gov/topics/immigration/immigration-enforcement/border-security-metrics-reporthttps://www.instagram.com/p/DF_fPzaOtUT/?img_index=3&igsh=NWxuenU4ZGV0aDhhhttps://www.politifact.com/article/2024/jan/03/key-facts-about-immigration-data-what-it-can-and-c/

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