Nation’s Largest & Oldest Civil Rights Organization Says Experts & Facts Disprove President’s Claim on Border Security

Washington, DC - The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) said President Trump’s nationwide address Tuesday night about the U.S. - Mexico border was nothing more than another campaign speech using misinformation to stir fear and anger.

“Trump is like Humpty-Dumpty whining on about his wall,” says Domingo Garcia, National President. “His claims are so far-fetched, he’s the laughing stock of experts and anybody who’s seen the facts, something he apparently doesn’t think he needs,” adds Garcia.

Statements made by the President and the Department of Homeland Security since the start of 2019 include:
 

• “In the last two years, ICE officers arrested 235,000 criminals who were able to come in over the years through the United States.” 1/2/2019
   
• “This group has apprehended, last year, 17,000 criminals trying to get across the border. Seventeen thousand. And that’s one category. There are plenty of others.” 1/3/2019
   
• “3,755 Known or suspected terrorists prevented from traveling to or entering the U.S. by DHS (FY17)” 1/4/2019
   

“The fact is very few of those apprehended at the border have any criminal record other than illegal entry or re-entry into the United States,” says Garcia. “The vast majority of those who are arrested are caught at legal points of entry like sea and airports, not running across the border from Mexico in the dark of night. As for the thousands of terrorists, the biggest number of these are people flagged for simply traveling to certain countries, not because of known ties to any terrorist acts or organizations,” he adds.

Garcia says LULAC will hold a media action and make a rebuttal statement in McAllen, Texas on Thursday in response to the President’s trip to the border. Also, the organization is working with Congressional representatives for a bipartisan solution to the lingering immigration impasse which has led to a government shutdown since December 21, 2018, now the third longest in U.S. history.

“The President may do well to remember,” says Garcia,”that after Humpty-Dumpty had his great fall, no one, not all the king’s horses or all the king’s men could put Humpty Dumpty together again and it will take years for America to mend its image worldwide after he’s gone,” he adds.