5 Blatant Lies Immigration Hawks Want You To Believe

5 Blatant Lies Immigration Hawks Want You To Believe
Picture of the fence that divides Mexico and the US, in Tijuana, Baja California State, Mexico, taken on September 17, 2014. AFP PHOTO/RONALDO SCHEMIDT (Photo credit should read RONALDO SCHEMIDT/AFP/Getty Images)
Picture of the fence that divides Mexico and the US, in Tijuana, Baja California State, Mexico, taken on September 17, 2014. AFP PHOTO/RONALDO SCHEMIDT (Photo credit should read RONALDO SCHEMIDT/AFP/Getty Images)

With November's midterm elections fast approaching, the immigration issue is heating up once again. Politicians often debate immigration with little regard for the facts, and the recent child migrant crisis and the rise of the Islamic State terrorist organization have provided fodder for a new series of wildly inaccurate claims that play on Americans' fears.

Here are five flat-out untrue statements that immigration hawks want you to believe.

1
Obama has been lax on border enforcement
ASSOCIATED PRESS
This the the biggest immigration lie, upon which subsequent misinformation is usually based.

By any objective measure, the border is currently more secure than it's been in decades. That's largely because the scale of illegal immigration has declined dramatically. Last year, there were about 421,000 apprehensions for illegal crossings. That figure was down from a high of 1.7 million in 2000.

The U.S. spends more on border enforcement than on all other federal law enforcement agencies combined. The American obsession with border security, which persists even though illegal immigration has plummeted in the past decade, means that illegal entry and re-entry are now the most commonly prosecuted offenses on the federal docket.

After six years in office, President Barack Obama has deported more people than any other president in U.S. history, which explains his fractured relationship with immigrant rights advocates even though he supports reform.
2
The child migrant crisis proves that Obama is lax on border security
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Obama isn't lax on border security, so this argument doesn't hold water. It becomes even more clear that the crisis isn't about security when you consider that most of the 66,000 unaccompanied minors who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally this year promptly turned themselves over to U.S. immigration officials. It's hard to see that as much of a security breach.
3
The child migrant crisis constitutes a security crisis
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As noted, most of the children aren't even trying to avoid detection, much less commit crimes that threaten national security. And let's not forget that they are kids.

Still, some Republicans continue to stoke fear that the children might threaten national security.

At a hearing before the House Subcommittee on Border and Maritime Security this month, Rep. Lou Barletta (R-Pa.) raised concerns about unaccompanied minors apprehended at the border -- specifically, about the federal government moving these children and teens across the country "without states knowing who they are," according to The Arizona Republic.

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) responded to Barletta by asking, "Do you have documentation that unaccompanied children, age 2, 4, and 6, are in fact known terrorists that are being spread throughout the nation?" Barletta said he had no proof, but argued that his lack of evidence should be viewed as a reason to treat the kids with suspicion.

"Shouldn't we consider it a threat that we don't know anything about these individuals that are being sent around the United States?" Barletta said.

The fact that many public officials have painted the children as a security threat, rather than as victims of a humanitarian crisis, is one of the most perplexing aspects of this whole issue. Those public figures have offered little in the way of evidence that what's needed is a more militarized border.

In the words of former acting commissioner of Customs and Border Protection David Aguilar: "What we'd be doing by sending more enforcement resources -- if that's all we do -- is creating a larger glove to catch more unaccompanied children."
4
DACA caused the child migrant crisis
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In response to the child migrant crisis, the vast majority of House Republicans -- along with a handful of Democrats -- voted to overturn Obama's policy of granting deportation relief to undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children. In voting to adopt a policy of deporting Dreamers, House Republicans ignored that almost no evidence exists to substantiate the claim that the minors have been attracted to the United States because of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

Those who defend this argument, like Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), point out that the influx of child migrants rose at a time roughly coinciding with DACA and that Central American migrants sometimes say they expect to receive a "permiso," or permit, after entering illegally.

In fact, the number of unaccompanied minors from Central America was already climbing before DACA went into effect, and the so-called "permiso" almost certainly refers to a notice to appear in immigration court.

There's a good reason migrants would refer to such a notice as a "permit." By law, unaccompanied minors from Central America are not immediately repatriated. Instead, they usually receive a notice to appear in immigration court and are released to a family member based in the United States to fight their deportation case from outside of detention.

In reality, as we've written before, the child migrant crisis stems from a combination of poverty and violence in Central America and a legal loophole exploited by human traffickers that makes it easier for unaccompanied minors to stay in the United States after arriving illegally.
5
Islamic State terrorists are planning to invade the U.S. via the Mexican border
ASSOCIATED PRESS
This is a pet idea of Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) that both Department of Homeland Security officials and independent experts have disputed.

"There is no credible intelligence to suggest that there is an active plot by [the Islamic State] to attempt to cross the southern border," a DHS spokesperson said in a statement earlier this month. One Customs and Border Protection official said that if members of the Islamic State were planning an attack on the United States, they would most likely hop on a commercial plane to get here.

Nevertheless, some Republicans, like Georgia Senate candidate David Perdue, have featured this inaccurate talking point in their campaign ads.

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