The Quote Below—More Misinformation from the Media
“Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump made big headlines with his false claim that Haitian immigrants are eating Americans’ dogs and cats. But, unfortunately, several other equally ridiculous statements about immigrants that he delivered at the presidential debate drew very little public attention. . . .
“But the media focus on Trump’s Haitians-eating-pets story eclipsed several other ridiculous things that Trump said during the debate which neither Democratic candidate Kamala Harris nor the ABC moderators had the time or willingness to rebut that night. Among others:
- Trump said that there are a record ’21 million’ undocumented people in the United States. This is not true. According to the nonpartisan Pew Research Center, there were 11 million unauthorized immigrants in 2022, the most recent year for which figures are available. . . .
- Trump said there are ‘millions of people pouring into our country from prisons and jails, from mental institutions and insane asylums.’ Really? ‘Millions’? That’s nonsense. There is no serious report saying anything even close to that.
- Trump said that undocumented immigrants “are criminals” who are “destroying our country” and driving up crime rates. That’s false. According to FBI figures, violent crimes are near their lowest level in 50 years in the United States. . . .
- Trump said that immigrants ‘are coming in and they’re taking jobs that are occupied right now by African Americans and Hispanics.” That’s not true. Most undocumented immigrants fill jobs in agriculture, construction, hospitality and other industries that native-born Americans don’t want to do. . . .
“What Trump is doing is using the same old fear-mongering tactic he has used since his 2016 campaign: using immigrants as scapegoats in order to create the fiction of a terrible crisis and present himself as the ‘only-I-can-fix-it’ savior. Trouble is, it’s getting to be repetitive, boring, and increasingly crazier.’ ” – Trump’s Pet Eating Haitian Story Was Just One of His Many Crazy Immigration Claims. Andres Oppenheimer, Miami Herald [link]
Fact Check of Above Quote: The Establishment media have had a raging hissy fit over Donald Trump’s claim that Haitian migrants have eaten pets in Springfield, Ohio. It doesn’t matter to them that a number of Springfield residents have confirmed these incidents. In the view of our elite media, the beliefs and experiences of local “deplorables” are irrelevant.
Actually, the fate of dogs and cats is just a minor detail of the culture clash that happens when 20,000 Third World migrants are dumped on an American community of 60,000. The American residents are seeing the ties of their community and finances strained to the limit. Their concerns are legitimate. The author of this Miami Herald article, Andres Oppenheimer, mocks Trump for saying that migrants are destroying our country. Without a doubt this is happening in places like Springfield. And it will happen in a lot more places if current policies don’t change.
Oppenheimer says Trump is wrong to claim that twenty-one million illegal aliens reside in the U.S., and that the accurate figure is around 11 million. This is the figure most authorities have cited for years, though the total today must certainly be higher due to the massive surge of border crossings since 2020. The general consensus still remains that the total is less than twenty million, but some legitimate research maintains that the true number is within the range of Trump’s estimate.
The author seems bothered that Trump called illegal aliens criminals. Well, as people who have broken our laws, that’s exactly what they are. He cites FBI statistics to claim that violent crime is down is the U.S. Those statistics, however, only record crimes reported to the police. The problem with those figures is that a very high percentage of crimes aren’t reported. Probably a better source for statistics is the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) by the Department of Justice which asks people if they have suffered crimes, even if they didn’t call the police. According to the NCVS, violent crime rose significantly between 2020 and 2023.
It is not true that migrants always do jobs that native born Americans refuse to do. In almost every job category in this country the native-born are the majority of workers. When migrants take those jobs, they’re competing with Americans.
Trump, however, is almost certainly wrong to claim that “millions” of criminals have come here after being released from jails and asylums in their home countries. Certainly, it’s possible that some countries have followed the example of Fidel Castro who sent us his undesirables during the Mariel boatlift. Yet Trump has offered no real proof that this has happened, most particularly involving millions of people.
Nevertheless, criminals are coming here, perhaps in significant numbers. Recently the crime rate in Venezuela, a source of many migrants, has gone down. One possible reason is that Venezuelan criminals are moving here seek a better life of crime. To cite one example, the notorious Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua, is showing up around the country. In a case which drew national attention, one of its associates was arrested for the murder of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley.
Donald Trump may not be completely right on everything he says about immigration, but generally speaking he is more right than wrong.