Trump: "The border city of El Paso, Texas, used to have extremely high rates of violent crime — one of the highest in the country, and considered one of our nation's most dangerous cities," Trump said in his State of the Union address Tuesday. “Now, with a powerful barrier in place, El Paso is one of our safest cities."
Trump: 'Defend our very dangerous southern border'
But the statistics don't back him up, even as he heads there on Monday to press his argument that walls work. According to law enforcement data, the city had low crime rates well before a border barrier was constructed between 2008 and mid-2009.
THE FACTS
Violent crime has been dropping in El Paso since its modern-day peak in 1993 and was at historic lows before a fence was authorized by Congress in 2006. Violent crime actually ticked up during the border fence's construction and after its completion, according to police data collected by the FBI.
Democratic officials immediately took issue with the picture Trump painted Tuesday night, saying the president was using their city to justify a pointless and unnecessary wall.
"The facts are clear. While it is true that El Paso is one of the safest cities in the nation, it has never been '...considered one of our Nation’s most dangerous cities,'" the city's sheriff, Richard Wiles, an Democrat, said in a statement after Trump concluded his address. "And, El Paso was a safe city long before any wall was built.”
The city's Republican mayor, Dee Margo, also sought to correct the record.
"I believe he was given some misinformation," Margo told CNN in an interview, adding the idea that El Paso was a lawless and dangerous place before fencing was built is "not factually correct."
Margo said he'd correct the president if he reiterated falsehoods about El Paso on Monday.
“The geography of Texas won’t allow a fence from El Paso to Brownsville even if you wanted to do it,” Margo said.
