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
