Go Nakamura/Reuters
Former President Donald Trump visited the southern border with Texas Governor Greg Abbott on November 19 in Edinburg, Texas.
Washington
CNN
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There is no evidence for former President Donald Trump's repeated claim that “Congo” emptied its prisons to allow violent criminals to come to the U.S. border as immigrants, but the Democratic Republic of the Congo and neighboring Republic of Congo Both governments deny President Trump's claims. That claim is completely false.
“Everything he is saying is not true,” Democratic Republic of Congo spokesman Patrick Muyaya Katembwe told CNN in a text message on Thursday. Asked specifically about President Trump's claim that violent criminals are being removed from Congo's prisons, he said, “Absolutely not. That's not true.” And he said he would “please stop” from telling these stories because he is “very bad for the country.”
“There is no truth, no indication, no facts whatsoever to support such claims and statements,” Serge Montbri, the Republic of Congo's ambassador to the United States, said in an email to CNN on Friday.
CNN's fact check found the same thing.
facts first: Mr. Trump's claims are baseless. Experts from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of Congo, as well as pro-immigration and anti-immigration groups in the United States, told CNN they have seen no evidence that Congo's prisons have been emptied. Trump's campaign and allied super PACs did not respond to requests for evidence. CNN searched his two media databases and found no evidence. And federal government statistics show there is no “very large” influx of Congolese immigrants of any kind, especially former prisoners.
Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has continued to make claims about Congo's emptied prisons while criticizing President Joe Biden's handling of immigration. For example, President Trump said in a Fox News town hall in late February: They come from Congo. They interviewed some people last night. 'Where are you from? ''Congo. ' 'Where did you live? ''Prison. 'They are emptying prisons in our country. ”
During a visit to the border in late February, President Trump said, “Congo — we have a very large population coming in from prisons from Congo. Look at the prisons right now. Look at the prisons across the region. The point is, prisons around the world are empty because they're dumping them in the United States.”
However, media databases do not contain corroboration of these stories. And human rights groups monitoring the Democratic Republic of the Congo and neighboring Republic of the Congo say they are unaware of any evidence.
“I haven’t heard anything about emptying Congo’s prisons,” Lewis Mudge, Central Africa director at Human Rights Watch, said of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Abdoulaye Diarra, a senior researcher at Amnesty International who studies the Republic of Congo, told CNN in a text message on Friday: “To my knowledge, and according to other organizations in Congo, there have been no mass releases of prisoners from Congolese prisons in the Republic of Congo.” Congo.
Even if such a prisoner release were to occur, it would not prove President Trump's claim that “a large number” of former Congolese prisoners of war were arriving at the border. Congolese migrants in general, but not specifically former prisoners, make up only a small portion of all arrivals, according to official federal data.
According to official data provided to CNN by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Border Patrol encountered just 320 people from the Democratic Republic of Congo or from the Republic of Congo at the southern border in the first four months of fiscal year 2024 (through January). It was a matter. This week's amulet. That's just a fraction of the more than 753,000 total encounters Border Patrol agents have had with people around the world over the last four months.
CNN also reached out to two U.S. groups that advocate cutting immigration levels for evidence of President Trump's claims about hollowing out Congo's prisons. This is because these groups can serve as a source of information for President Trump's statements regarding the border. “We don't have any information on this one way or the other,” said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies.
The pro-immigration Institute for Immigration Policy also said it was unaware of any country that emptied its prisons in order to send people to the U.S., adding that President Trump's talk about “Congo” is a series of statements about foreign countries emptying prisons. This is just the latest in a series of unsubstantiated claims. Prisons and mental health facilities for nefarious immigration purposes. “This week it's Congo. It used to be Latin America.
Tomorrow it will probably be a different country,” Press Secretary Michel Mittelstadt said, ridiculing Trump's claims.
President Trump's evolving claims
In fact, Trump has a habit of making his false or baseless stories more dramatic or colorful over time.
His claims about “Congo” are part of a long-running series on the same subject. For years, he has made baseless claims that various foreign countries intentionally send violent and undesirable people to the United States as immigrants. For example, during the 2016 presidential campaign, he made such claims about Mexico.
And during his 2023 re-election campaign, Trump repeatedly told unsubstantiated stories that mental health facilities (including “insane hospitals”) in South America were being intentionally emptied for nefarious immigration purposes. The Trump campaign repeatedly cited what appeared to be media reports but could not provide any support for the story.
President Trump also made baseless claims that immigrants would be kicked out of foreign prisons in 2023. By January 2024, he be specific To the immigrants who were held captive in the Congo. And by February 2024, he claimed, the Congolese immigrant had admitted to being imprisoned for “murder.”
He did not provide any specific sources for these statements.
