Donald Trump skews truth ~ Arizona Daily sun echo

WASHINGTON, DC — Donald Trump distorts the truth when it comes to the impact of his administration's failed policy regarding separating children from their parents at the U.S. border.

Echo!

By Hope Yen and Christopher Rugaber, AP

He falsely suggests that a newly signed executive order will permanently solve the problem of separations by keeping families together when they are detained for illegally crossing the border and exaggerates the number of immigration judges available to process their claims while they're held in custody. 

A growing backlog of claims could mean that people will be held longer in detention until their cases are heard.

Among other questionable statements this past week, Trump declared that total denuclearization in North Korea had already begun and that the media didn't tell the full story about the creation of new U.S. jobs.

A look at some of his statements and the reality behind them:

TRUMP: "And ultimately, we have to have a real border — not judges. Thousands and thousands of judges they want to hire. Who are these people? When we vet a single federal judge, it goes through a big process. Now we're hiring thousands and thousands. ... And it got so crazy that all of these thousands — we now have thousands of judges — border judges — thousands and thousands." — remarks Tuesday to the National Federation of Independent Business.

TRUMP: "We shouldn't be hiring judges by the thousands, as our ridiculous immigration laws demand, we should be changing our laws, building the Wall, hire Border Agents and Ice and not let people come into our country based on the legal phrase they are told to say as their password." — tweet Thursday.

THE FACTS: He's incorrect about the U.S. having "thousands and thousands" of immigration judges and about thousands more judges being hired. The Justice Department's immigration courts division has about 335 judges currently on staff nationwide, with the budget for 150 additional judges.

Dana Leigh Marks, past president of the National Association of Immigration Judges who also works in the Justice Department's executive office for immigration review, said funding for immigration courts has increased modestly amid a growing backlog of cases. With a backlog of 700,000, each judge would have to take on more than 2,000 cases apiece to clear the docket.

The figures also don't take into account a wave of expected retirements that would shrink the ranks of judges. A June 2017 Government Accountability Office report determined that 39 percent of immigration judges are now eligible for retirement. Congressional investigators blamed the mounting caseload in part on the slow hiring of immigration judges and said the federal government needed to do a better job to address staffing needs.

PROBLEM NOT SOLVED

TRUMP: "We're keeping families together, and this will solve that problem." — remarks Wednesday at signing of order to halt his administration's policy of separating children from their parents when they are detained illegally crossing the U.S. border.

THE FACTS: It doesn't solve the problem.

Trump's executive order will continue his "zero tolerance policy" of criminally prosecuting all adults caught crossing the border illegally, and will now seek to keep families together in detention instead of separating them while their legal cases are heard by the courts.

But a 1997 landmark settlement known as the Flores agreement that generally bars the government from keeping children in immigration detention for more than 20 days remains in place. Trump is seeking to have the settlement overturned, but his Justice Department says the 20-day policy remains in effect until Congress or the courts take action to change that.

That means without further action from Congress or the courts, the Trump administration could be forced to again separate the immigrant children from their parents in three weeks.

'TOTAL DENUCLEARIZATION'

TRUMP: "The big thing is, it will be a total denuclearization, which has already started taking place." — remarks Thursday at Cabinet meeting.

THE FACTS: That's not what his Pentagon chief, Jim Mattis, says. When asked by a reporter on Wednesday whether he had seen any sign that North Korea had begun steps toward denuclearization, Mattis replied, "I'm not aware of any. Obviously, we're at the very front end of the process. Detailed negotiations have not begun."

At a Singapore summit with Trump earlier this month, North Korea's leader committed to "complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," but no details were worked out.

In May, prior to the summit, North Korea demolished tunnels at its sole underground nuclear test site, although outsiders have not inspected the result. Its nuclear program has many other elements, including nuclear materials production facilities, nuclear warheads, ballistic missiles and missile launchers.

JOBS???

TRUMP: "We have created more than 3.4 million new jobs since Election Day. 3.4 million. Think of what that means." — remarks Tuesday to the National Federation of Independent Business.

THE FACTS: Well, one thing it means is that job creation has slowed a bit compared to its previous pace. Trump is right that U.S. companies have added 3.4 million jobs in the 18 months since his election, a healthy total. But in the previous 18 months, 3.7 million jobs were added. 

That's not entirely surprising or a sign of a weakening economy — job gains typically decline as the unemployment rate falls and there are fewer people to hire. The unemployment rate is currently at an 18-year low of 3.8 percent. 

But Trump's remarks suggest there has been a turnaround in job creation, when there hasn't.