BORDER/IMMIGRATION/MEXICO/TEXAS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “During a trip to the U.S-Mexico border on Thursday [1-10-19], President Donald Trump twice claimed that more people are being caught illegally crossing the southern border than ever before. ‘We’re apprehending more people than ever apprehended before,’ Trump told a group of law enforcement officials and local leaders during a round-table discussion in McAllen, Texas. ‘Never so many apprehensions ever in our history,’ he said later during a briefing from Border Patrol agents. That’s wrong. In fact, apprehensions at the southern border are at historic lows. Border Patrol agents caught just under 400,000 people trying to illegally cross the border in 2017, and just over 300,000 in 2016. Yet from 1983 to 2006, border apprehensions topped one million 19 times, with the agency setting a record in 2000 with 1,643,679 apprehensions, according to Customs and Border Patrol data. Trump’s error was one of several he uttered during a high-profile tour of the border to push for funding for his border wall, a battle that has led to a 20-day partial government shutdown and driven him to consider declaring a national emergency to build his border wall without congressional approval.”
–USA Today Staff, “Donald Trump makes several misstatements during tour of U.S.-Mexico border in Texas,” USA Today, January 10, 2019 4:30 pm