美国国家公共电台 NPR FACT CHECK: Trump's Oval Office Pitch For A Border Wall

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

We're taking some time this morning to dive into President Trump¹'s first primetime address from the Oval Office. He spoke² last night for about 9 1/2 minutes, making his case for a multibillion-dollar border wall with Mexico.

(SOUNDBITE OF OVAL OFFICE ADDRESS)

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I am speaking to you because there is a growing humanitarian³ and security crisis at our southern border.

GREENE: The president spoke about drugs coming across that border.

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TRUMP: Our southern border is a pipeline⁴ for vast quantities of illegal drugs, including meth, heroin⁵, cocaine⁶ and fentanyl.

GREENE: And Trump repeatedly said criminals have been crossing that border.

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TRUMP: In the last two years, ICE officers made 266,000 arrests of aliens with criminal records, including those charged or convicted of 100,000 assaults, 30,000 sex crimes and 4,000 violent killings⁷.

GREENE: OK, let's spend some time doing some fact-checking here with NPR's Joel Rose, who covers immigration. Joel, good morning.

JOEL ROSE, BYLINE⁸: Hey, David.

GREENE: All right, so let's start with that last bit we heard from the president, 266,000 immigrants with criminal records over the past few years.

ROSE: That number is basically right, but it does not tell you the whole story.

GREENE: OK.

ROSE: Many of those immigrants were convicted of nonviolent offenses⁹ - things like traffic violations¹⁰, immigration offenses, including illegal entry. And also, keep in mind those are immigrants who were targeted for arrest by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The folks who are showing up at the border are actually much less likely to have criminal records. And in general, immigrants are less likely than native-born people to commit crimes.

I mean, the president likes to point out individual anecdotes¹¹ with sympathetic victims, which is something he did again last night. But by focusing on these gruesome examples, his critics say he's exaggerating the overall threat of immigrants and is really playing to fears about immigration that are just not warranted by the facts.

GREENE: OK, let's move on to what the president said about drugs flowing across the southern border. Interesting, I found, that he talked a lot about drugs but didn't return to an argument that he's been making recently, which is that terrorists have been crossing into the U.S. from Mexico. So what did you make of all that?

ROSE: Right. You know, there are drugs passing through the southern border - right? - a lot of them. But the majority of them come through in cars and trucks that pass through legal ports of entry. And it's not clear that a border wall would do a lot to slow or stop them.

GREENE: You're not going to put a border wall on a legal checkpoint, where cars are coming through.

ROSE: Exactly. And you're also right that Trump did not mention terror or terrorists last night. His press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, was challenged in an interview with Fox News over the weekend when she implied that the administration has caught thousands of terrorists trying to sneak¹² over the southern border. In fact, Homeland Security has intercepted¹³ thousands of suspected terrorists. But nearly all of them were trying to get into the country through airports, not - not across the border.

GREENE: Well, give us a sense of who is crossing the southern border into the U.S.

ROSE: Well, overall illegal immigration is way down from decades ago. What has changed, really, is the makeup¹⁴ of the migrant flow. We've seen record numbers of families coming from Central America, kids and parents showing up at the border together - also large numbers of unaccompanied children, who often turn themselves in - all of these people - and ask for asylum¹⁵.

Customs and Border Protection says its facilities are just largely unprepared to deal with families and kids. And we saw two deaths of young migrant children in CBP custody¹⁶ last month for the first time in 10 years.

GREENE: Yeah, something we've been reporting on and exploring a lot. So after the president spoke, we heard from Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi giving the Democrats¹⁷' response. What did you make of that after seeing it?

ROSE: Well, you know, they accused the president of misleading the country and playing on people's fears to try to make a case for the wall. Here's a clip from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

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NANCY PELOSI: The fact is the women and children at the border are not a security threat. They are a humanitarian challenge, a challenge that President Trump's own cruel and counterproductive policies have only deepened.

ROSE: And Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said that Democrats also want stronger borders. They just disagree with the president about how to do it. However, as the president pointed¹⁸ out last night, Schumer and other Democrats have supported border barriers at other moments in the past.

GREENE: Oh, so that's a valid¹⁹ point that Trump made about Democrats supporting...

ROSE: Exactly.

GREENE: ...Border barriers at times in the past.

ROSE: Exactly.

GREENE: All right, NPR's Joel Rose covers immigration for NPR, helping²⁰ us doing some fact-checking after the speeches from the president and also from Democrats last night. Joel, thanks.

ROSE: Hey, you're welcome.

1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

3 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

4 pipeline   

n.管道，管线

参考例句：

• The pipeline supplies Jordan with 15 per cent of its crude oil.该管道供给约旦15%的原油。
• A single pipeline serves all the houses with water.一条单管路给所有的房子供水。

5 heroin   

n.海洛因

参考例句：

• Customs have made their biggest ever seizure of heroin.海关查获了有史以来最大的一批海洛因。
• Heroin has been smuggled out by sea.海洛因已从海上偷运出境。

6 cocaine   

n.可卡因，古柯碱（用作局部麻醉剂）

参考例句：

• That young man is a cocaine addict.那个年轻人吸食可卡因成瘾。
• Don't have cocaine abusively.不可滥服古柯碱。

7 killings   

谋杀( killing的名词复数 )； 突然发大财，暴发

参考例句：

• His statement was seen as an allusion to the recent drug-related killings. 他的声明被视为暗指最近与毒品有关的多起凶杀案。
• The government issued a statement condemning the killings. 政府发表声明谴责这些凶杀事件。

8 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

9 offenses   

n.进攻( offense的名词复数 )；（球队的）前锋；进攻方法；攻势

参考例句：

• It's wrong of you to take the child to task for such trifling offenses. 因这类小毛病责备那孩子是你的不对。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Thus, Congress cannot remove an executive official except for impeachable offenses. 因此，除非有可弹劾的行为，否则国会不能罢免行政官员。 来自英汉非文学 - 行政法

10 violations   

违反( violation的名词复数 )； 冒犯； 违反（行为、事例）； 强奸

参考例句：

• This is one of the commonest traffic violations. 这是常见的违反交通规则之例。
• These violations of the code must cease forthwith. 这些违犯法规的行为必须立即停止。

11 anecdotes   

n.掌故，趣闻，轶事( anecdote的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• amusing anecdotes about his brief career as an actor 关于他短暂演员生涯的趣闻逸事
• He related several anecdotes about his first years as a congressman. 他讲述自己初任议员那几年的几则轶事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 sneak   

vt.潜行(隐藏,填石缝)；偷偷摸摸做；n.潜行；adj.暗中进行

参考例句：

• He raised his spear and sneak forward.他提起长矛悄悄地前进。
• I saw him sneak away from us.我看见他悄悄地从我们身边走开。

13 intercepted   

拦截( intercept的过去式和过去分词 )； 截住； 截击； 拦阻

参考例句：

• Reporters intercepted him as he tried to leave the hotel. 他正要离开旅馆，记者们把他拦截住了。
• Reporters intercepted him as he tried to leave by the rear entrance. 他想从后门溜走，记者把他截住了。

14 makeup   

n.组织；性格；化装品

参考例句：

• Those who failed the exam take a makeup exam.这次考试不及格的人必须参加补考。
• Do you think her beauty could makeup for her stupidity?你认为她的美丽能弥补她的愚蠢吗？

15 asylum   

n.避难所，庇护所，避难

参考例句：

• The people ask for political asylum.人们请求政治避难。
• Having sought asylum in the West for many years,they were eventually granted it.他们最终获得了在西方寻求多年的避难权。

16 custody   

n.监护，照看，羁押，拘留

参考例句：

• He spent a week in custody on remand awaiting sentence.等候判决期间他被还押候审一个星期。
• He was taken into custody immediately after the robbery.抢劫案发生后，他立即被押了起来。

17 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

18 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

19 valid   

adj.有确实根据的；有效的；正当的，合法的

参考例句：

• His claim to own the house is valid.他主张对此屋的所有权有效。
• Do you have valid reasons for your absence?你的缺席有正当理由吗？

20 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。