Did illegal immigration drop 90% under Donald Trump?
Illegal immigration increased while Donald Trump was president. It did not decrease 90% as Wisconsin Republican Tony Wied claimed July 19, 2024.
Wied is running for the Green Bay-area U.S. House seat. His campaign cited a complicated chart on U.S.-Mexico border encounters that Trump has used at rallies, but did not identify what would back Wied’s claim.
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., has said his staff developed the chart and Trump modified it. Johnson’s office did not reply to questions.
News reports have repeatedly discredited Trump’s chart, noting the low point for border encounters is in April 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Southwest border encounters decreased 43% in 2017, the first year Trump was in office.
But they were higher in each of the next three years than in 2016, including 80% higher in 2019:
2016: 442,940
2017: 250,838
2018: 466,624
2019: 799,674
2020: 508,214