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By Billal Rahman
Immigration Reporter
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Former President Donald Trump made several bold claims during his interview with Elon Musk as he launched a series of attacks at Vice President Kamala Harris over her record on immigration and border security.
Among the most striking claims made by the GOP presidential nominee were around the number of illegal border crossings under President Joe Biden's administration and the effect on crime rates.
Newsweek has contacted the Trump campaign by email for comment.
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Illegal Migration Numbers
The former Republican president claimed that 20 million people had illegally crossed the southern border under Biden.
While critics have pointed out that the true number of crossings is impossible to know for certain, Trump's figure does not align with official statistics.
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According to data gathered by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, there have been about 8.1 million encounters with migrants at the southern border since Biden's inauguration. Official figures show the total number of "encounters" nationwide from February 2021 through June 2024 is about 10 million nationwide.
Trump also claimed under the Biden-Harris administration "millions of people" are entering the country every month. However, this does not align with official figures, as there were 205,019 nationwide encounters in June, according to the CBP.
He said, again without presenting evidence, that other countries take unauthorized immigrants "out of jails, prisons" and "bring them to the United States."
"A variety of Harris-Biden agencies give official statistics citing at least 10 million illegal immigrant crossings," Brian Hughes, senior advisor to the Trump campaign, told Newsweek Tuesday.
"Like unreported crimes, there is no way to know for certain the number and there is political motivation by the Harris-Biden bureaucrats to under report estimates. Remember, these are the same folks who told us Joe Biden was fit to run for President, until they could no longer get away with lying to the nation."
Illegal Immigration Chart
Trump once again credited a chart he displayed at the Pennsylvania rally where he was shot with saving his life, claiming it showed "we had the best illegal immigration numbers" during his final week in office.
In reality, the chart was misleading, because unauthorized border crossings were not at their lowest when he left office. In January 2021, his final month in office, there were around 75,000 encounters on the Southwest border, according to official figures. There were around 57,000 encounters in July 2024 under the Biden administration.
The chart was titled "Illegal Immigration into the U.S.", and included data stretching back to 2012. It showed illegal crossings peaking in 2023 and was heavily annotated to show policy changes over the years, including the introduction of DACA by President Barack Obama and tariffs on Mexico by Trump.
While the numbers fell sharply at the start of the pandemic in 2020, toward the end of Trump's presidency, the numbers of illegal crossings were indeed shown as relatively low compared to the Biden administration.
Trump cited the immigration chart he turned to at his rally in Pennsylvania as the reason he survived an assassination attempt, with the graphic later displayed behind him at the Republican National Convention as he accepted the nomination.
Trump had turned to glance at the graphic showing illegal border crossings on a large screen behind him in the split second before the shot was fired, with the bullet grazing his ear.
"That was the chart that saved my life," Trump told delegates in Milwaukee.
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Border Czar
Trump again described Harris as Biden's "border czar," despite her never officially holding the title—though she was indeed involved in immigration policy. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is officially in charge of matters relating to border security.
Trump said to Musk during the interview: "She was the border czar, and people can't allow them to get away with their disinformation campaign. Now, she's saying she wasn't really involved—she was totally in charge."
While not the "border czar" that Republicans have framed her as during the presidential campaign, Harris' record concerning immigration policy is under the microscope by the GOP and others.
Biden had given Harris the task of coordinating diplomatic relationships in the hopes of improving conditions in countries like El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras that would encourage potential migrants to remain in their home country.
Venezuela Crime Rates
Trump said that crime in Venezuela had declined 72 percent because of an exodus of criminals moving north. He said that the Venezuelan government purged criminals from the country and sent them to the United States.
Trump said this has resulted in a decline in crime in Venezuela; he did not provide evidence to support his claim.
However, there is evidence that crime has been falling in Venezuela. According to the Venezuelan Observatory of Violence, part of the Laboratory of Social Sciences (LACSO) of Venezuela, violent deaths have been declining. It found that in 2023 the death rate was 26.8 per 100,000 inhabitants.
"This represents a significant reduction of 8.5 points compared to those recorded during 2021 and 2022, which stood at 34.9 and 35.3 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, respectively," it said in a report.
The report concluded: "In 2023, a reduction in violence could be observed in Venezuela, which we attribute to the decrease in crime that we can describe as 'disorganized' and the concentration and monopolization of violence linked to powerful criminal organizations and their focus on some niches of opportunities.
"The decline in 'disorganized' violence, which causes high lethality, has been reduced by the loss of opportunities for crime, with the consequent departure from the country of criminals and criminal gangs, and the high emigration rates of young people, who have historically been the main victims of crime."
However, studies have also shown that, overall, American citizens are more likely to commit crimes than immigrants.
Trump's most repeated statements concerning illegal immigration are inaccurate, according to one expert.
Professor William Hurst, Co-Director at the Centre for Geopolitics at Cambridge University, told Newsweek that Trump is trying to "foment fear and angers over immigration."
"A high percentage of everything Trump says is exaggerated, misleading, or false. It seems this interview, in that sense, was true to form. I don't know how much it might sway voters, as many who'd be likely to believe such claims probably already do.
"What I think Trump's trying to do, probably more than to convince anyone of specific claims, is to foment and sustain general sentiments of fear and anger over immigration, as well as distrust in Harris to handle the issue.
"I think he's somewhat successful. What surprises me is that the Democrat's counterpoint—that Trump used his influence with Republican congressmen to torpedo bipartisan border legislation that would have enacted much stricter controls—has gained little political traction."
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