Trump’s claim that illegal immigration was at its lowest when he left office is false

Former President Donald Trump has displayed a chart titled “Illegal Immigration Into the U.S.” multiple times while on the campaign trail this year. It shows the monthly number of migrant crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border during the Trump administration and President Joe Biden’s term.

Trump often credits the chart for saving his life since the assassination attempt at a July rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The former president had his head turned to the right to review the graphic on a projection screen when the gunfire began. He has said having his head turned “probably saved my life.” 

On Oct. 23, Trump referenced the chart again at a campaign rally in Duluth, Georgia.

“See that arrow on the bottom? That is the day I left office. Look what happened after that,” said Trump, while pointing at a red arrow. The words directly beside the arrow say: “Trump leaves office. Lowest illegal immigration in recorded history!”

THE QUESTION

Was illegal immigration at its lowest point on Trump’s last day in office?

THE SOURCES

THE ANSWER

No, illegal immigration was not at its lowest point on Trump’s last day in office.

WHAT WE FOUND

Illegal immigration was not at its lowest point on former President Donald Trump’s last day in office like he and the chart he often displays at his rallies incorrectly claim.

The chart contains accurate data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). However, the annotation beside the red arrow on the chart incorrectly identifies the month Trump left office as April 2020, when he still had more than 8 months left in his term, and migrant apprehensions at the U.S. southern border with Mexico were at a three-year low. In January 2021, the month Trump actually left office, migrant apprehensions at the border had more than quadrupled since April. 

According to CBP data, in April 2020, when the pandemic prompted travel restrictions and vastly lowered the number of arrivals, Border Patrol apprehended 16,182 people at the southern border. But on Jan. 20, 2021, Trump’s last day in office, migrant apprehensions at the border had more than quadrupled from that April 2020 low to 78,414.

The annotation beside the red arrow on Trump’s chart also claims that April 2020 marked the lowest number of attempted border crossings in U.S. history, but that’s also incorrect. The same chart shows apprehensions were actually at their lowest in April 2017, when 11,127 people were apprehended.

In September, Democratic Reps. Robert Garcia of California and Delia C. Ramirez of Illinois called out the inaccuracies in Trump’s chart during two separate congressional hearings.

“Right now, it says that Trump left office at this point in the chart. That’s actually not when Donald Trump left office. Donald Trump actually left office right here on this chart,” Garcia said on Sept. 18, while using a prop arrow to point out that border encounters had started to trend upwards in the months that followed and when Trump was still in office.

“Republicans and former President Trump do not even know when Trump was in office,” Ramirez said the next day. “Their chart says he left in April of 2020. Trump actually left office in January of 2021, when the numbers were on the rise and higher than at any point during Obama’s second term.”

Illegal border crossings hit record highs during the Biden administration, reaching nearly 250,000 arrests in December 2023, according to CBP data. But the numbers have fallen since Biden instituted a curb on asylum claims by executive order earlier this year.

VERIFY reached out to the Trump campaign for comment but did not hear back by the time of publication.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.