Fact Testing: Rep. Richard Hudson’s allegation of illegal border crossings ‘Half true’ | WFAE 90.7

This week, we are looking at allegations of an increase in illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border by Republican Congressman North Carolina Richard Hudson of the 8th District. On Fox News earlier this month, he said:

“And the reason we have this Biden frontier push is because he reversed this policy, as you say,” Hudson said. “He stopped building the wall. He stopped deportations and he brought back capture and release.”

Hudson later tweeted: “Illegal border crossings are 173% higher than a year ago and 28% since January.” WRAL’s Paul Specht joins us to judge it all.

Marshall Terry: Paul, Hudson’s claim therefore consists of two parts. Let’s start with the numbers. Is he correct when he said that the illegal border crossing is 173% higher than a year ago and 28% since January?

Paul Specht: In short, yes. And he got the number 173 by going to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection website. We have a link to this in our fact check. If you click on the page, there is a graph that opens, showing monthly intersections and who these immigrants encountered. And there are two different types of encounters that happen. There are those with Border Patrol and those who are through official field offices or gateways. These are legal gateways.

If you look at it all together, the intersections are exactly 173% higher. Now I’m going to get into the weeds for a moment. Experts we spoke to said that if you only want to look at illegal intersections and not legal intersections, just look at encounters with Border Patrol, especially since the offices, the field offices, are legal access points. People are supposed to go there to enter their affairs in this country.

So if we only look at encounters with Border Patrol, the numbers are even more than 173% higher. This is about 220% higher than in February. Look, like I said, Hudson’s number is a bit down in this regard, but it does not undermine his point. This actually reinforces this about how many illegal intersections there are.

Terry: Let’s now look at the other part of the claim where Hudson says the reason for the increase is because President Biden reversed the policy introduced by former President Trump. According to Hudson, there is, among other things, a stop with the construction of a boundary wall, a stop with deportations and what he calls ‘capture and release’. Is he right about the three things?

Woodpecker: He mostly does not miss here – according to the experts we spoke to. First the wall: No. Experts say the wall had nothing to do with this increase in intersections at the border. It’s true that Biden stopped the new construction on the boundary wall, but even if he continued to do so, two months’ construction would not make much difference. So you are not going to stop a hole somewhere that a lot of people are going through. That’s just not how it works.

He goes on to say that Biden stopped the deportations – and that is a great exaggeration. In the first place, the deportation did not stop. Anyone can Google and see that people are still being deported. Is this now to the extent that the Trump administration has done? No it is not. The biggest change that has happened is that President Biden has started letting more people stay while they are hearing their asylum cases in court. But as for deportations, Biden did not block them. In fact, there is still a federal law that allows border officials to turn people away because we are in a public health emergency.

And lastly, he says that Biden set up ‘catch and release’. It’s a vague term, but it’s true that Biden allows some people to stay while they wait for their asylum expectations. Now there is a lot to be read about capture and release and there is a lot of debate about whether it is possible to arrest and detain every person who crosses the border. People in the federal government have long said, no, it’s just not logistically feasible. The Trump administration has tried to do as much as possible.

But the experts we spoke to said that the capture and release policy is not the main reason people come from other countries. It’s a combination of things. In general, we can look back on previous years and see that the numbers tend to rise as the weather starts to warm up a bit. People do not want to come when it is too icy. They also do not want to wait until it burns hot. We do not attribute this increase in numbers to one or even two things. Experts believe it is more complicated than that. And there are some trends that are similar to previous years.

Terry: Did Hudson cite specific sources for the three reasons he gave?

Woodpecker: He has no sources for, for example, the wall or catch and release, even though he mentioned it in his tweet. When we asked him about it, he sent us links to news reports emphasizing the fact that there are many people who come to the border and say, “We expect Joe Biden to treat us better.” And the experts I spoke to said they were not surprised. And that may be true. But that does not mean that the specific reasons Hudson gave in his tweet are the reasons why they are coming.

Terry: Do you consider the analysis, opinion or fact regarding the experts you have reached?

Woodpecker: Of course, this is all to some extent opinion. But these experts, especially those I spoke to, have quoted PolitiFact several times over the years. But no, that’s their opinion. They look at previous years. They see when these numbers have risen. And then they analyze well, what happens here?

There are many things to consider. And one expert we spoke to pointed out that the numbers this year are not yet as high as in 2019.

Terry: How did you rate Richard Hudson’s claim?

Woodpecker: This is a two-part claim. In the first part, he said that the illegal border crossing is 173% higher. We found out they were up at least as much as a year ago, including that it has risen 28% since January.

But then, on his reasoning – the wall, capture and release, the deportation stop – he misrepresents the facts there, and experts said it’s an overgeneralization.

So on balance, here, we gave him a ‘half true’.

Terry: All right, Paul, thank you.

Woodpecker: Thank you.