Donald Trump’s claim that illegal border crossings are out of control — which was among the reasons he cited for the tariffs he said Monday he plans to enact against Mexico, Canada and China — is contradicted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection data showing lower levels of crossings this fall than during the final months of Trump’s first term.
The president-elect’s Monday-evening announcement tied together two of his top campaign pledges — to slash immigration and impose high tariffs on U.S. trading partners — and he threatened that the tariffs would be lifted only when drugs and immigrants are no longer illegally entering the United States.
Beyond the expected price hikes for American consumers, the tariffs could have massive economic effects on the targeted countries. But whether they apply the type of political pressure on Mexican and Canadian leaders that Trump hopes for — and whether those leaders can “easily solve” the complex problems, as Trump claimed — is far less certain. Neither his claim that border crossings constitute an unchecked “invasion” nor his depiction of drugs pouring across an “open” and unguarded border has any basis in federal data.