周四晚上，唐纳德·特朗普总统在共和党全国代表大会上发表演讲，就美国移民政策发表了几项声明，延续了他长期以来对南部边境的关注。他还对乔·拜登的移民提案大肆渲染。
下面美国广播公司新闻的事实核实了特朗普在RNC的获奖感言中对边界墙和移民的评论。
特朗普表示，美国已经修建了300英里的边境隔离墙
特朗普周四晚表示:“我们已经修建了300英里长的边境线——而且我们每周都在增加10英里。”“长城很快就要完工了，它的工作超出了我们最大的期望。”
特朗普最近去了亚利桑那州的尤马，在那里他还吹嘘完成了300英里。但这远非西南边境线的完全设防。
根据美国陆军工程兵部队的数据，特朗普政府监督建造了6英里多一点的屏障，而此前这些屏障并不存在，而特朗普所指的300英里中的绝大多数已经用高耸的钢结构取代了现有的屏障。
根据USACE的说法，另外25英里以前不存在的障碍物在离边界线更远的地方被分层为“次要”层。
上个月，一家联邦监管机构发现，美国海关和边境保护局没有一个“健全的、有据可查的”方法来规划边境隔离墙的建设，也没有考虑可以提供更好安全保障的替代措施。
监察主任办公室的审查是在CBP正在决定隔离墙的造价时开始的。国土安全部官员将这道墙描述为他们计划附加额外监控技术的基线措施，而特朗普本人长期以来一直将这道物理屏障吹捧为阻止西南地区犯罪的关键。
亚历克斯·布兰登/美联社
2020年8月27日，华盛顿，共和党全国代表大会第四天，唐纳德·特朗普总统在白宫南草坪发表演讲。
但该报告发现，CBP仅依靠一年的非法边境活动数据来确定最需要额外安全措施的地方，而不是依靠多年趋势来描绘更全面的安全需求图景。
国土安全部拒绝了OIG提出的启动新审查程序的建议。负责回应监督调查结果的DHS官员吉姆·克伦巴克(Jim Crumpacker)表示，该报告包含“严重缺陷和不准确的事实陈述”，并表示监管机构没有正确定义对边境进行“行动控制”的含义。
尽管特朗普继续成功捍卫长城，但据报道，走私者已经在圣地亚哥开辟了新的路段。据《华盛顿邮报》报道，去年市场上可以买到的电动工具被用来切割钢梁，这样就可以将钢梁推到足够远的地方让一个人通过。
另外，CBP最近呼吁人们考虑建造一个漂浮的“浮标屏障”，部署在格兰德河中心，或者将边境防御工事延伸到太平洋。
特朗普的壁垒只是移民限制的物理表现。奥巴马政府一直在努力收紧对多种出国旅游的人的入境限制，包括那些寻求绿卡、临时职业工作签证和低收入移民的人。
特朗普表示，拜登将停止驱逐无证移民，实施“抓了就放”
特朗普在讲话中表示:“拜登/伯尼宣言呼吁暂停驱逐所有非法移民，在全国范围内实施抓捕和释放，并为非法移民提供由纳税人出资的免费律师。”
特朗普在谈论结束驱逐出境和广泛释放移民罪犯时，采取了大幅度的跳跃，夸大了拜登的立场。然而，他关于希望为移民律师增加资金的说法部分属实。
在拜登最近的一篇博客文章“拉美裔社区议程”中，候选人明确表示要“建立基金，为移民提供法律代表。”联邦移民法院是行政部门的一个行政裁决部门，面临驱逐的移民被告不能保证有律师。
拜登的计划包括扩大法律援助团体的覆盖范围，这些团体致力于支持那些试图为人道主义救济和避难辩护的人。目前，对移民法律援助的大部分支持来自非营利组织网络，这些网络有一些政府拨款以及私人公司的公益律师。
拜登计划还呼吁扩大合法移民的途径，理论上，这将需要更多的法律服务。特朗普似乎暗示了这一点的负面影响，但没有更具体的说明。
拜登的计划写道:“人道主义需求最好通过一个组织网络来满足，如基于信仰的庇护所，非政府援助组织，法律非营利组织和难民援助机构合作。”
正如特朗普所描述的那样，虽然拜登的计划中没有任何内容要求“抓了就放”，但这位民主党候选人计划进一步探索美国移民和海关执法局管理的民事拘留中心的替代方案。这些项目中的一些目前已经到位，当被拘留者被假释时，包括脚踝监控跟踪。
拜登的移民计划并没有要求停止驱逐，而是明确指出前副总统承诺“优先”驱逐那些被发现威胁国家安全的人。
正如拜登扭转特朗普移民政策变化的计划所写，“……奥巴马-拜登政府采取措施，将执法资源优先用于消除对国家安全和公共安全的威胁，而不是家庭。”
特朗普和他的最大盟友通常将他们的移民政策视为与民主党和“开放边境”的斗争，这将允许不太受欢迎或缺乏技能的海外人士移居美国。
与特朗普自己的议程和对手的特征形成对比的是，民主党政纲概述了一些合法和永久增加移民的措施。
平台声明中写道:“我们的家庭、人道主义和多样性道路对美国社会的活力和生产力做出了不可估量的贡献，应该继续成为我们移民制度的核心。”
特朗普表示，特殊利益集团试图阻止“亲美移民”政策
特朗普周四晚间表示:“华盛顿的特殊利益集团在任何方面都没有像我的亲美移民政策那样努力阻止我们。”
很难理解特朗普在这里所说的“特殊利益”。他的移民政策的主要挑战者是人权倡导者和移民律师，他们代表他们所帮助的人工作，其中许多人正在寻求庇护。
这些团体对特朗普试图将美国移民的人口特征塑造成一种过度偏向高学历和富裕签证申请人的模式提出了挑战。
奥巴马政府实施的“极端审查”措施、可能取消绿卡申请人资格的公共福利清单的扩大，以及公众对各州和地方强制执行联邦法律的直接压力，为低收入移民群体制造了新的障碍。
Fact Check: Trump gives incomplete border wall update, misstates Biden's immigration plan
President Donald Trump made several claims about U.S. immigration policy during his Republican National Convention speech Thursday night, continuing his long-time focus on the southern border. He also dived into exaggerations about Joe Biden’s immigration proposals.
Below ABC News fact checks what Trump said about the border wall and immigration during his acceptance speech at the RNC.
Trump says US has built 300 miles of border wall
"We have already built 300 miles of border wall -- and we are adding 10 new miles every single week," Trump said Thursday night. "The Wall will soon be complete, and it is working beyond our wildest expectations."
Trump recently traveled to Yuma, Arizona, where he also touted the completion of the 300 miles. But it’s far from a complete fortification of the southwestern boundary line.
The Trump administration has overseen the construction of just over six miles of barrier where none previously existed, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, while the vast majority of those 300 miles Trump is referencing have replaced existing barriers with towering steel structures.
An additional 25 miles of barriers where none previously existed are layered farther from the borderline as a “secondary” layer, according to USACE.
Last month, a federal watchdog found that U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not have a “sound, well-documented” approach to planning border wall construction and failed to consider alternative measures that could have provided better security.
The Office of Inspector General review started when CBP was in the middle of determining how much the border wall might cost. Homeland Security officials have characterized the wall as the base-line measure from which they plan to attach additional surveillance technology while Trump himself has long touted the physical barrier as the key to stopping crime in the southwest.
President Donald Trump speaks from the South Lawn of the White House on the fourth day of the Republican National Convention, Aug. 27, 2020, in Washington.
But the report found CBP relied on just a single year’s worth of illegal border activity data to determine where extra security measures were most needed instead of relying on multi-year trends that could have painted a more fulsome picture of security needs.
The Department of Homeland Security rejected the OIG recommendations to start a new review process. Jim Crumpacker, a DHS official responsible for responding to oversight findings, said the report included “significantly flawed and inaccurate factual representations” and said the watchdog office did not properly define what it means to have “operational control” over the border.
While Trump continues to champion the wall as a success, smugglers have reportedly cut through new sections in San Diego. Commercially available power tools were used to cut through the steel beams last year, according to the Washington Post, allowing them to be pushed aside far enough for a person to fit through.
Separately, CBP recently put out a call for ideas to construct a floating “buoy barrier” to be deployed in the center of the Rio Grande or to extend the border fortifications into the Pacific Ocean.
Trump’s barriers are only the physical representations of immigration limits. The administration has fought to tighten entry restrictions on many types of people traveling from abroad, including those seeking green cards, temporary professional work visas and low-income migrants.
Trump says Biden will stop deportations of undocumented immigrants, implement 'catch and release'
“The Biden/Bernie manifesto calls for suspending all removal of illegal aliens, implementing nationwide catch and release, and providing illegal aliens with free taxpayer-funded lawyers," Trump said during his speech.
Trump is taking broad leaps and exaggerating Biden’s position when he talks about ending deportations and broadly releasing immigration offenders. However, his claims about the desire to boost funds for immigration lawyers ring partially true.
In a recent blog post on Biden’s “Agenda for the Latino Community,” one of the candidate’s expressed initiatives is to “establish funding to provide legal representation” for immigrants. Federal immigration courts are an administration adjudication arm of the executive branch where immigrant defendants facing deportation are not guaranteed a lawyer.
Biden’s plan involves bolstering the reach of legal aid groups, which work to support those attempting to make a case for humanitarian relief and refuge. Currently, much of the support for migrant legal aid comes through networks of nonprofit organizations with some government grant funding as well as pro-bono lawyers from private firms.
The Biden plan also calls for an expansion of paths to legal immigration that, in theory, would require more access to legal services. Trump seems to imply a negative impact of this but was not more specific.
“Humanitarian needs are best met through a network of organizations, such as faith-based shelters, non-governmental aid organizations, legal nonprofits, and refugee assistance agencies working together,” the Biden plan reads.
While nothing in Biden’s plan demands summary “catch and release,” as Trump describes, the Democratic candidate plans to further explore alternatives to the civil detention centers run through the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Some of these programs are currently in place and involve ankle-monitored tracking when detainees are released on parole.
Biden’s immigration plan does not demand an end to deportations and it explicitly notes the former vice president’s commitment to “prioritizing” removals of individuals found to be a threat to national security.
As written in the Biden plan to reverse Trump’s immigration changes, “… the Obama-Biden administration took steps to prioritize enforcement resources on removing threats to national security and public safety, not families.”
Trump and his top allies have routinely framed their immigration approach as a battle against Democrats and “open borders” that would allow less desirable or unskilled people from overseas to move to the country.
In contrast to Trump’s own agenda and the characterization of his opponent’s, the Democratic Party Platform outlines steps to increase immigration legally and permanently for some.
“Our family, humanitarian, and diversity pathways have contributed immeasurably to the vibrancy and productivity of American society and should continue to be the centerpiece of our immigration system,” the platform statement reads.
Trump says special interests tried to stop 'pro-American immigration' policy
“In perhaps no area did the Washington special interests try harder to stop us than on my policy of pro-American immigration," Trump said Thursday night.
It’s difficult to understand what “special interests” Trump’s talking about here. The primary challengers to his immigration policies are the human rights advocates and immigration lawyers working on behalf of the people they assist, many of whom are pursuing asylum.
These groups have challenged Trump’s attempts to shape the demographic profile of American immigrants into one that disproportionately favors highly educated and wealthy visa applicants.
The administration’s implementation of “extreme vetting” measures, expansions of the list of public benefits that could disqualify green card applicants and direct public pressure on states and localities to enforce federal law have created new hurdles for lower-income immigrant groups.
