Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders lied and overinflated the number of Hispanic migrants on the terror watch list.
The White House official's recent appearance on Fox News Sunday was an exercise in alternative facts and half-truths. Sanders told host Chris Wallace an estimated 4,000 migrants coming from the southern border in 2017 were allegedly on the terror watch list, according to HuffPost.
But data and reports from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) show that figure isn't remotely true.
Even Fox News is calling out Sarah Huckabee Sanders on her border wall lies pic.twitter.com/LGKMXx5mWf
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) January 8, 2019
In an interview focusing on the ongoing federal government shutdown, Sanders discussed the Trump administration's insistence on a southern border wall to curb Hispanic immigration.
Proposed funding has the wall costing the American taxpayers $5.7 billion, and if Congress fails to include the large sum in a spending bill, President Donald Trump will not sign it, USA Today reports. The move will further push the federal government shutdown well into day 19.
The number even seemed a bit too high for Wallace, who questioned where she obtained that bit of data.
“Wait, wait … I know this statistic,” Wallace said. “Do you know where those 4,000 people come or where they’re captured? Airports.”
It was closer to 2,554 “encounters.” Many —about 2,100— came via airplane and about 350 by sea. These figures included global numbers, not just Mexico.
According to the DHS, some 41 people, were stopped at the U.S.-Canadian border. Reports found only six people were tied to Mexico. A State Department report also found there were no other connections between terrorists and Mexico despite Sanders' claims.
For example, it looks like @PolitiFact has fact-checked Sarah Huckabee Sanders and myself the *same* amount of times: 6.
She’s been serving for almost 2 years. I’ve served 4 days.
Why is she fact-checked so little? Is she adhering to some standard we don’t know about?
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 7, 2019
Since the midterms, the Trump administration has touted claims terrorists and criminals were among a caravan of Central American asylum seekers. Those claims have yet to be proven.
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