SIERRA VISTA, AZ (AZFamily) — Arizona’s Family Investigates fact-checked a number of Donald Trump’s claims made during a news conference at the U.S.-Mexico border during his visit to Arizona on Thursday. A majority of those claims were false or lacked necessary context.

Arizona’s Family is fact-checking political candidates and elected officials as they make public appearances as part of our commitment to hold politicians accountable, regardless of political party, before, during, and after the election cycle.

Claim: The U.S. jobs report has “fake numbers”

Fact-Check: Needs Context ⚠️

New figures released by the U.S. Labor Department showed that total employment had about 818,000 fewer jobs than previously reported. The number is the largest downward revision since 2009, according to several outlets including CNN. The finalized report is expected to be released sometime in 2025, according to Politico.

According to CNBC, fake job listings are on the rise in the United States. This could be what Trump is referring to as “fake numbers,” but numbers are frequently revised by the agency as new data becomes available.

“The rise of ghost jobs is muddying the jobs report. It’s making it harder for the Fed to make decisions and understand what the labor market looks like,” Dan Kaplan, senior partner at HR consulting firm Korn Ferry, told CNBC.

Despite the revision, about two million jobs were added to the U.S. economy over the 12-month period.

Claim: Black and Hispanic citizens are losing jobs to illegal immigrants

Fact-Check: False ❌

It is not the first time that Trump has claimed that undocumented migrants are taking “Black jobs” and “Hispanic jobs.”

Economic research by the National Bureau of Economic Research, a nonpartisan firm, shows that Immigration had a positive effect on wages between 2000 and 2019 and more recent data shows similar trends.

However, the same firm found that the influx of immigration between 1980 and 2000 “generally explains” a decline in employment and a rise of incarceration rates among Blacks with a high school diploma or less education.

Venezuela and other countries are sending criminals to the U.S.

Fact-Check: Needs Context ⚠️

According to PolitiFact, about 103,700 criminal noncitizens were arrested by immigration officials from fiscal year 2021 to fiscal year 2024. He has previously exaggerated this claim by stating that millions are pouring into the country and committing crimes.

A study by co-led by a Northwestern university economist showcased that the “immigrants are 60% less likely to be incarcerated than U.S. born citizens, and 30% less likely relative to U.S. born white,” in recent decades. Trump’s claim has also been debunked by the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.

Claim: Violent crime has skyrocketed under Biden administration

Fact-Check: False ❌

FBI data released earlier this year shows that violent crime fell by 15.2% from January to March compared to the same time last year. CNN reported, using FBI data, that murders and reported rapes fell by about 25%.

Trump’s claims during his news conference that the FBI is using misleading numbers because not every agency is reporting also doesn’t hold up.

The FBI and the U.S. Justice Department estimate crime data by non-reporting agencies using a statistical weight from similarly sized and populated cities. Federal officials have done so since the 1960s, according to a federal document dated from 2022.

Claim: Harris wants to “defund the police”

Fact-Check: False ❌

PolitiFact reached out to the Trump and Harris campaigns about claims that Harris would defund police. Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung told PolitiFact that Harris “ran on a platform dedicated to defunding the police” and that “there is no question that she will implement these horrible policies if she has the chance.” The Harris campaign told PolitiFact that she does not support police defunding and pointed them to statements in which she spoke in favor of police funding.

In 2020, Harris did call for “reimagining” public safety. In a radio interview, Harris said, “Defund the police, the issue behind it is we need to reimagine how we are creating safety. When you have many cities that have one-third of their entire city budget focused on policing, we know that is not the smart way and the best way or the right way to achieve safety. For too long, the status quo thinking has been you get more safety by putting more cops on the street. Well, that’s wrong.”

Harris said suburban communities “don’t have that patrol car, they don’t have those police walking those streets,” but what they do have is well-funded schools, high homeownership rates, thriving small businesses and access to health care.

Claim: Harris has allowed millions of illegal immigrants into the country

Fact-Check: False ❌

The latest data from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security estimates that as of early 2022, there are an estimated 10.9 million undocumented migrants living in the country—a number that has dropped slightly from 11.5 million in 2018, when Trump was in office.

However, it is true there appears to be an increase in the immigrant population among newcomers, meaning those who came in 2010 or later. Unauthorized migrants who entered on or after 2019 grew from 1.96 million in 2018 to 2.310 million in 2022. Data for 2023 and 2024 have not yet been released.

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