AUDIT OF FACTS AP: Trump's fabrications on Medicare, immigrants

WASHINGTON (AP) – In the final days leading up to the mid-term election, President Donald Trump paints a distorted picture of immigration while exaggerating his record of realizing economic gains for non-whites and immigrants. 39, improve health care for veterans.

He insists that Republicans will be able to attract the vote of non-whites to Tuesday's elections because he has achieved "the best median income figure for all of these groups". In fact, the incomes of African Americans and Americans of Asian descent had reached their highest level before administration.

In terms of immigration, Trump inflates the number of foreigners living illegally in the United States and is distorting Democratic legislation in the Senate in favor of "opening the borders."

Meanwhile, on health care, Trump falsely suggests that Democrats would seek to destroy Medicare if they control Congress and overestimate improvements at Veterans Affairs.

Look at his campaign rhetoric and reality:

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MEDICARE

TRUMP: "The plan of the democrats would erase the health insurance." – Florida Rally Saturday.

THE FACTS: It is wrong to think that Democrats would seek to "erase Medicare". Trump seems to be referring to democratic proposals aimed at providing "Medicare for all", but options allowing younger people to subscribe to a similar plan to Medicare do not involve a redesign of the current program.

Senator Bernie Sanders' plan, independent of Vermont, would be a fundamental change in extending Medicare to almost the whole country. But current Medicare beneficiaries would benefit from better benefits. Sanders would eliminate Medicare franchises, limit copays and provide coverage for dental and eye care, as well as for hearing aids. A single-payer bill asks for long-term care coverage.

The question is whether the United States can afford to convert to a new government-run health care system, without the older Americans being left behind. Democratic proposals call for new taxes to help finance expanded Medicare coverage.

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VETERANS

TRUMP: "What we did for the military and veterinarians – we gave them the choice, where they can now see a doctor and where the US is paying for it instead of queuing for two months and three months and not being able to see a doctor and dying literally – dying while waiting online to see a doctor.After 44 years of work, I have approved it.This is a choice for veterans. "- remarks Friday to reporters.

IN FACT: No, he is not the first president in 44 years to have Congress pass a private sector health program for veterans. More generally, he exaggerates the improvements made to the VA under his mandate by suggesting that the recently expanded program will have an immediate effect.

Congress first approved the Veterans Choice program in 2014, under the Obama administration, following a scandal at the Phoenix Medical Center in Phoenix, in which veterans died while they were there. waited for appointments for months. The program allows veterans to see doctors outside the VA system if they have to wait more than 30 days for an appointment or they have to travel more than 40 km to get to a VA facility. .

Trump signed legislation in June to expand the Choice program by providing veterans with even greater access to private sector physicians at government expense, subject to compliance with rules that will determine eligibility and funds available . The VA has not yet solved long-term funding because of congressional budget ceilings that could jeopardize funding for the VA or other national programs next year.

The key to the success of the program is a redesign of the VA's electronic medical records to enable seamless sharing of medical records with private physicians, which should take up to 10 years. VA Secretary General Robert Wilkie said that the implementation of the program would be "in years".

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MEDIAN INCOME

TRUMP, to attract the non-white vote of the Democrats: "We have the best unemployment figures, the best median income figures for all these groups, we have the best figures we have ever had … They should be concerned of the African-American situation, because they're going to lose them. "- Fox interview on Oct. 29.

THE FACTS: He did not get the best median income figures for all non-white groups. African Americans and Americans of Asian origin had higher incomes before the Trump administration.

According to the Census Bureau, last year's median income for a black household was $ 40,258. This figure is lower than the peak of $ 42,348 attained in 2000 and, statistically, at a level higher than that of 2016, last year of President Barack Obama.

Many economists consider continued economic growth since mid-2009, during Obama's first term, as the main explanation for recent recruitments and earnings gains. More importantly, there are many signs that the gap in racial wealth is widening now, even as unemployment rates have declined.

As for Americans of Asian descent, the median income of a typical household last year was $ 81,331. It was $ 83,182 in 2016.

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ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

TRUMP, on Montana Democrat Senator Jon Tester: "The tester has joined with all Democratic Senators to support the legislation on the open border of the now-legendary Dianne Feinstein." – Montana Rally Saturday.

THE FACTS: It distorts a bill that does not require borders to be more porous than today.

Senator Democrat Dianne Feinstein of California is sponsoring a bill supported by all Democratic senators, including Tester. The purpose of the bill is to end the Trump government's "zero tolerance" policy of prosecuting all adults caught crossing the border illegally and placing their children in the care and custody of the Ministry of Education. Health and Social Services.

The purpose of the bill is to limit family separation by prohibiting federal officers and officers from removing a child from a parent within 100 miles of US borders. Exceptions would apply in cases where a child is at risk of being trafficked, abused or neglected, or where there is a high probability that the adult will not be not the parent.

Although Trump asserts that the bill would promote open borders and amend the immigration law, nothing in the legislation would prohibit the removal or detention of illegal immigrants. in the United States if families are reunited.

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TRUMP, on the practice that allows captured immigrants to illegally cross the border to stay in American communities while they wait for immigration hearings: "We do not release. What's been going on for years is that they come in, free up show up for their lawsuit. And we now have 25 or 30 million people illegally in this country, because of what has been happening for many years. "- remarks Wednesday to reporters.

THE FACTS: There is nowhere between 25 and 30 million euros, and their number has not increased much in recent years.

The Pew Research Center, a non-partisan organization, estimates that there were 11.3 million illegal immigrants to the United States in 2016, the most recent data available. This number has hardly changed compared to 2009. The estimates are similar for claim groups on both sides of the immigration issue.

The number of these immigrants had reached 12.2 million in 2007, which represented about 4% of the US population, before decreasing in part due to the slowdown in the US economy.

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TRUMP, after tweeting a video blaming the Democrats authorizing a man to enter the United States who killed two policemen: "I'm just telling the truth." – talk to reporters on Friday.

THE FACTS: The video that he broadcast does not tell the truth. It is written that the Democrats let Luis Bracamontes enter the country and "let him stay".

Bracamontes entered the United States illegally in 1996 under the Democratic administration of President Bill Clinton, but he was also deported by that administration the following year after being caught buying from the United States. cocaine crack and serve his sentence. He came back several times. By the time he was sentenced to death in California for the murder of police officers in 2014, he had been deported four times, according to Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones.

No evidence of clemency on the part of Democrats emerged from this episode. Democratic and republican administrations have expelled hundreds of thousands of people every year, and no administration, including Trump's administration, surprised everyone trying to enter illegally.

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TRUMP on what American troops should do if they meet migrants trying to get to the Mexican border: "I did not say shoot, I did not say shoot." – remarks to journalists on Friday.

THE FACTS: A day earlier, he said about the migrants: "They want to throw stones at our soldiers, our soldiers will defend themselves, and I told them, consider this a rifle."

The procession was largely peaceful. Some caravan migrants clashed with the Mexican police on the Mexico-Guatemala border, throwing stones.

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TRUMP: "President Obama separated the children from their parents and no one complained, when we applied exactly the same law, the country went crazy." – Thursday's immigration speech.

THE FACTS: In fact, Obama did not act the same way in politics.

While it is true that the underlying laws were the same, the Trump administration imposed on anyone arrested to cross the border illegally to be the subject of criminal prosecution. This policy means that adults are brought to court for criminal prosecution and that their children are separated and entrusted to the Department of Health and Social Services, which is responsible for the care of unaccompanied migrant children. Trump's zero tolerance policy remains in effect, but he signed a decree on June 20 that ends separations.

Jeh Johnson, Obama's secretary for homeland security, recently told NPR that exceptional children may have been abducted from their parents, but that unusual or urgent circumstances may have been observed.

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TRUMP: "Right now, large, well-organized migrant caravans are marching towards our southern border, some call it an invasion … They are difficult people in many cases. 39 strong men and many men that we may not want in our country (…) .This is not a group of innocent people.This is a large number of people who are harsh, they hurt, they attacked. "- Thursday's speech.

THE FACTS: He has not provided any evidence that the people in the caravans are, on the whole, dangerous and hardened criminals – after recognizing at one point that it does not exist. did not have any.

Migrants in caravans come mainly from Honduras, country of origin, from El Salvador and Guatemala. Overall, they are poor, carrying their belongings in a backpack and fleeing gang violence or poverty.

There may be some criminals mingling with the crowd, given the large numbers of migrants. Trump did not substantiate his claim that members of the MS-13 gang, in particular, were part of it. The Department of Homeland Security has issued a sheet stating that "more than 270 people along the caravan route have criminal histories, including known gang membership." But he did not specify how he arrived at this figure.

Some migrants in one of the caravans clashed with the Mexican police on the border between Mexico and Guatemala, throwing stones and other objects while they were trying to cross the international bridge. A migrant has died; we do not know how it happened. The leaders of the caravan said they had excluded a number of procession-related troublemakers, self-disciplined. In the end, most of them entered Guatemala – and later Mexico – illegally bypassing immigration checkpoints.

Otherwise, the caravan was extremely peaceful: it received applause and the food offered by the inhabitants of the cities they cross. The Mexican police have not yet tried to stop them.

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CITIZENSHIP ANNIVERSARY

TRUMP: "I've always been told that you needed a constitutional amendment, guess what, you do not do it … You can do it with a congressional law, but now they say that I can do it just with an executive order. "- interview published Tuesday with" Axios on HBO ".

THE FACTS: Experts widely believe that Trump could unilaterally change the rules governing the identity of the citizen. It is highly questionable whether an act of Congress could do so, although it is conceivable that lawmakers could change the rules for children born in the United States to parents who live illegally in the country.

Peter Schuck is perhaps the most prominent advocate of the idea that the Constitution does not confer citizenship to the children of parents living illegally in the United States. Even according to him, "Trump clearly can not act by executive order".

"I am convinced that no competent lawyer will tell him otherwise," he said by e-mail on Tuesday. "It is only pre-election policy and misrepresentation and should be strongly criticized as such".

Schuck, of Yale, and his colleague Rogers Smith, of the University of Pennsylvania, have been arguing since the mid-1980s that Congress can set the rules for granting citizenship to children of parents born illegally in the United States.

But most scholars on the left and right share the view that there should be a constitutional amendment to deny automatic citizenship to children born in the United States to parents who live illegally in the country.

James Ho, conservative judge at the Federal Appeals Court appointed by Trump, wrote in the legal journal Green Bag in 2006 that birthright citizenship "is no less protected for the children of people without papers only for the descendants of Mayflower's passengers ".

Stephen Yale-Loehr, an immigration expert from Cornell University, said that the complaint against Trump's authority was "not open and closed, but it's best to think that it's not safe." there should be a constitutional amendment ".

The citizenship clause of the Constitution was part of the post-Civil War amendments that enshrined the rights of African Americans. The citizenship clause, in particular, aimed to overturn the notorious Supreme Court decision in the 1857 Dred Scott case that African Americans were not citizens.

The Supreme Court has never ruled unequivocally on the application of the clause to the children of immigrants who live illegally in the United States. Trump did not distinguish between legal status and illegal status in his remarks. A 1898 Supreme Court ruling ruled that the son of legal Chinese immigrants born in the United States was a citizen of the 14th amendment; a footnote in a 1982 decision suggests that there should be no difference between the children of parents born abroad, that they are in the United States legally or illegally .

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TRUMP: "We are the only country in the world where a person comes in, has a baby and the baby is basically a citizen of the United States for 85 years with all these benefits.It's ridiculous.It's ridiculous . finish." – interview with "Axios on HBO".

THE FACTS: It's wrong.

The United States is part of the 30 or so countries where citizenship – the principle of jus soli or "droit du sol" – is applied, according to the World Atlas and other sources. Most are in the Americas. Canada and Mexico are part of it. Most other countries confer citizenship on the basis of at least one parent – the jus sanguinis or "blood entitlement" – or have some form of modified citizenship that may limit automatic citizenship to children of parents who legally reside on their behalf. territory.

More generally, Trump's view that children of foreigners born in the United States live all their lives with "all these benefits" ignores the taxes they pay, their work, and their other contributions to society.

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ELECTION 2016

SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, press secretary of the White House: Trump "was elected by an overwhelming majority of 63 million Americans who came to support him and who wanted to see his policy implemented." – press point on October 29

THE FACTS: Trump did not get a majority of votes in the 2016 election. He won the constituency, which allowed him to win the presidency.

Trump has won nearly 63 million votes, against more than 65 million for the Democrat Hillary Clinton, who has accumulated unbalanced victories in large states like New York and California, according to electoral data compiled by The Associated Press. But she lost the presidency due to Trump's margin of gain in the Electoral College, which came after narrowly winning the less populated Midwestern states, including Michigan and Wisconsin.

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Associate Press Editors Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Colleen Long and Mark Sherman in Washington, and Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed to this report.

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EDITOR'S NOTE _ Look at the veracity of statements by political figures