RNC 2024 Day 4 updates: Trump pitches unity, but revives old grievances

If you’re able to look at the immigration chart that Trump credits with saving his life, you’ll see a big red arrow that points to April 2020, when immigrant encounters at the southwest border dipped to 17,110.

Words next to the arrow read, "Trump leaves office. Lowest illegal immigration in recorded history."
But the arrow points to a decline in immigration encounters at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, when migration overall significantly dropped as nations imposed lockdowns. Trump left office nine months later, when Biden took over Jan. 20, 2021. Recorded encounters at the southwest border rose each month after April 2020, reaching 73,990 in December, Trump’s last full month in office.

The steady rise in border encounters in Trump’s last year reflects the reality that the Migrant Protection Protocols (aka "Remain in Mexico") and other border policies were not as effective in reducing irregular migration, according to the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank.

The Remain in Mexico program sent some migrants seeking asylum to Mexico to await their immigration court proceedings.

The chart is also wrong about April 2020 having the lowest illegal immigration in recorded history.

Looking at yearly totals dating to 1925, no year in Trump’s tenure had the lowest number of encounters in history. The lowest yearly total was 10,319 in 1934, when Franklin D. Roosevelt was president, CBP data shows. Total illegal immigration during Trump’s administration was higher than under each of former President Barack Obama’s terms, which ran from January 2009 to January 2017.

—PolitiFact’s Maria Ramirez-Uribe

While discussing the border and immigration, Trump said his administration "ended all catch-and-release."

Though Trump attempted to end the catch-and-release practice under his presidency, migrants were more likely to be “released” through this process under Trump compared to Biden, according to the libertarian Cato Institute. The Cato analysis found that Biden’s immigration authorities released 48.6% of those apprehended at the border, while the Trump administration released 52.2% over roughly a two-year period.

"Of course, the absolute numbers of releases have been higher under President Biden, but that reflects much higher arrivals, not any meaningful change in policy," Cato's David J. Bier wrote.

Trump argued dangerous criminals "are coming from prisons and jails, from mental institutions and insane asylums, and terrorists at levels never seen before."

Trump was likely referring to the latest statistics released by ICE, which reported that of the 170,590 administrative arrests made in the 2023 fiscal year and 43% had criminal convictions or pending criminal charges.

These were administrative arrests conducted by ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) which primarily focuses on removing people who already have some sort of charge or conviction.

-ABC News' Armando Garcia

Trump said of Biden's administration, “This is the only administration that said we're going to raise your taxes by four times what you're paying now.”

False.

Biden proposes a tax increase of roughly 7% over the next decade, not 300%, as Trump claims. About 83% of the proposed Biden tax increase would be borne by the top 1% of taxpayers, who earn just under $1 million a year in income.

—PolitiFact’s Sara Swann