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Did illegal immigration drop 90% under Donald Trump?

By Tom Kertscher
NO

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

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
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Wisconsin Watch, the news arm of the nonpartisan, nonprofit Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, increases the quality and quantity of investigative reporting in Wisconsin, while training current and future investigative journalists. Its work fosters an informed citizenry and strengthens democracy.
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