Migrants “killing kittens”, immigrants who escaped from prisons… Three false statements about immigration

The first debate in the race for the White House was marked by fake news. CNN counted 31 of them, including 30 from Donald Trump. Franceinfo dissects three fake news stories on immigration, a favorite subject of the Republican candidate.

Donald Trump believes that the first debate for the American presidential election, on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday, was “rigged”, in favor of his competitor Kamala Harris. The Republican candidate denounces the attitude of the journalists of the ABC channel, who “fixed everything” what he was saying. The debate was indeed marked by false information. CNN counted no less than 31. 30 false information coming from Donald Trump and one from Kamala Harris. One subject in particular is conducive to false information: immigration. Franceinfo deciphers three statements from the former American president.

Haitian migrants ‘eat locals’ dogs and cats’

Donald Trump picked up on a rumor circulating on social media about Haitian migrants. In the middle of the debate, he said: “In Springfield, Ohio, the people who come, they eat the dogs, they eat the cats, they eat the pets of the people, that’s what’s happening in our country and it’s a shame.”

This is false information. This rumor has been denied by the city and local police of Springfield, as reported by CNN and CBS News. “We want to clarify that there is no credible information or accurate claims of pets being mistreated, injured or abused by the immigrant population.”local police wrote in a statement.

One of the journalists moderating the debate corrected Donald Trump, but the Republican candidate claims that there are “testimonies” who prove it. This hoax actually started from a publication on Facebook, as reported by TThe Springfield News-Sun. A user claims her neighbor told her that a friend of her daughters lost her cat and it was eaten by her neighbors, Haitian migrants.

The testimony was widely relayed on social networks, and in particular by the Republican camp. In a tweet seen more than 9 million times, Donald Trump’s running mate and vice-presidential candidate JD Vance assures that “Reports show that people have had their pets taken and eaten by people who should not be in this country”. Pro-Trump accounts also assure that their candidate will “deport” migrants who eat pets. X CEO Elon Musk even posted a photo of a duckling and a kitten with the words “Save them !”. A fake news story that started on social media and ended up on the television set.

“Millions” of migrants arriving in the United States “are being released from prison or psychiatric clinics”

“Millions of migrants are flocking to the United States from prisons, mental institutions and insane asylums”Donald Trump said during the debate. A statement he has repeated several times, at rallies and in interviews. There is no evidence to support what he says.

CNN has already looked into this issue, investigating and interviewing pro- and anti-immigration groups. They have never heard of migrants being released from prisons or psychiatric clinics and sent to the United States.

Faced with the contradiction, Donald Trump has already tried to argue in the past, assuring that there was indeed a decrease in the world prison population, and that it was not a coincidence. Except that there is no link between the prison population and immigration in the United States, and the number of prisoners in the world has not decreased, on the contrary it is increasing.

“21 million people cross the border every month” into the United States

Donald Trump has criticized Joe Biden’s immigration policy. He even gives a figure: according to him, 21 million people cross the border into the United States every month. “And I think it’s even higher.”he added.

This figure is false. According to data from US Customs and Border Protection, since the beginning of Joe Biden’s term, less than 10 million migrants have reached the border. This corresponds to approximately 218,000 migrants each month. A figure very far from that put forward by Donald Trump.

And not all of these people are necessarily allowed to enter the country. Moreover, even taking into account migrants “illegal”we do not reach the figure put forward by Donald Trump, as explained the Migration Policy Institute think tank, interviewed by CNN.