The liberal media was hell bent on fact-checking Trump’s speech last night even though they never gave a damn about fact-checking Obama. There were a few here and there, but they never made a big deal about like they do with Trump. And Obama lied all the time!
In any event, the Washington Post threw up a fact check of Trump’s big stat of the night. Here’s what Trump said…
In the last two years, ICE officers made 266,000 arrests of aliens with criminal records including those charged or convicted of 100,000 assaults, 30,000 sex crimes, and 4,000 violent killings. Over the years, thousands of Americans have been brutally killed by those who illegally entered our country, and thousands more lives will be lost if we don’t act right now.
And here’s the Washington Post’s complaint via Fox News…
It’s important to keep in mind that this figure includes all types of crimes, including nonviolent offenses such as illegal entry or reentry.
All types of crime? WHAT A MONSTER!
WAPO – In fiscal 2018, ICE conducted 158,581 administrative arrests for civil immigration violations. The agency’s year-end report says 105,140 of those (66 percent) involved people with criminal convictions and 32,977 with pending criminal charges. Of the 143,470 administrative arrests in 2017, 74 percent involved people with criminal records and 15.5 percent who had pending charges.
So the numbers add up, but they’re misleading. The total covers all types of offenses, including illegal entry or reentry. ICE does not break down arrests by type of crime, but 16 percent of the total charges and convictions (not arrests) in 2016 were strictly immigration offenses.
Ok first of all if you’re arrested for entering illegally or, even worse, reentering illegally, that’s serious! They can call it civil all they want, but that’s still a big deal. It’s still a crime!
But even more to the point, what the Washington Post is really demonstrating here is that a very high percentage of those cited by Trump had criminal convictions and pending criminal charges. In 2018 that’s 86 percent and in 2017 that’s almost 90 percent. And in 2016 they site a similar percent, reversed, being 84 percent.
And they call this misleading? C’mon. Out of the 266,000 arrests, Trump only cited 134,000 violent crimes in his speech. But violent crimes aren’t the only kind of crimes that matter. All crime matters and it ALL takes money and resources to process through our legal system.