PolitiFact.com
Statements about Border Security
Barack Obama

Barack Obama

Half-True

Muddier than said

Says "we" have put more boots on the U.S.-Mexico border "than at any time in our history, and illegal crossings are down by nearly 80 percent from their peak in 2000."

Rick Perry

Rick Perry

Pants on Fire!

Check 'in' box

Says he has "yet to get a response" from Barack Obama to his August 2010 letter making border security requests.

Louie Gohmert

Louie Gohmert

False

Speculative

Says al Qaeda has camps with the drug cartels in Mexico.

David Dewhurst

David Dewhurst

True

Brush country beacons

Says he has seen Border Patrol signs near the Mexico border in English, Spanish and Chinese.

Ted Cruz

Ted Cruz

Mostly True

Also mentioned border security

Says David Dewhurst "explicitly advocated" a guest worker program for all illegal immigrants.

Ryan Downton

Ryan Downton

Half-True

Work opportunity, no path to citizenship

Says Paul Workman authored legislation providing amnesty for illegal immigrants.

Chain email

Chain email

Pants on Fire!

Led by Admiral Ginger Rogers

Says Texas retained the right to have a navy when it joined the United States.

David Dewhurst

David Dewhurst

False

Guns were there, but ballistics report inconclusive

"Ballistic tests have confirmed that the death of at least one U.S. Border Patrol agent was caused by" weapons that were part of a federal arms trafficking operation.

Rick Perry

Rick Perry

Mostly False

$400 million isn't Rangers alone

"I have sent over $400 million to the border of Mexico in the form of Texas Ranger recon teams."

Jose Rodriguez

Jose Rodriguez

Mostly False

Two swinging strikes

Says El Paso was named America’s "Safest Large City" a year after San Antonio, Houston and Dallas had the nation’s highest crime rates.

Louie Gohmert

Louie Gohmert

False

No request to feds, no one on their knees

Says Gov. Rick Perry has been "begging" for the federal government to send the Coast Guard to patrol two lakes on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Rick Perry

Rick Perry

Half-True

Obama si, Calderon no

Says neither President Barack Obama nor Mexico President Felipe Calderon "have been on the border to see what's happening to the citizens of Mexico, and for that matter the citizens of Texas."

Greg Abbott

Greg Abbott

True

Since September 2009

There have been "at least four incidents where bullets from Mexico have crossed the border."

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