Elon Musk shared a video of Barack Obama on Monday, through which the previous president mentioned the US “can’t have a half million individuals pouring” illegally into the nation.
Musk mentioned on X, “Now, 10 instances as many individuals per yr are ‘pouring over the border,’ to make use of Obama’s phrases.”
Truth Test: ‘Appropriate Attribution’
Some questioned the validity of the clip. They questioned if it was actual or possibly taken out of context.
So Snopes fact-checked it.
It’s legit.
From Snopes, “On March 10, 2024, an archival video of former U.S. President Barack Obama talking on immigration points, purportedly from 2009, went viral. The captions highlighted Obama’s phrases, ‘We are able to’t have half one million individuals pouring over the border.”
“The video was shared by Elon Musk and extra,” Snopes famous. “One consumer on X mentioned, ‘About 7 years later these similar positions have been thought-about racist and xenophobic by Democrats.”
The story continued, “Obama did certainly say the above phrases. Whereas the caption focuses on him speaking in regards to the ‘half one million individuals pouring over the border,’ Obama did have extra so as to add. He mentioned new migrants must study English and must ‘earn’ their citizenship, including that the federal government has to ‘deal’ with present undocumented immigrants in a ‘humane vogue.’”
“We thus charge this declare as a ‘Appropriate Attribution,” Snopes concluded.
Obama’s Border Declare
Listed here are Obama’s phrases in context utilizing their emphasis.
Within the video, Obama will be overheard saying the next (emphasis ours):
So this isn’t going to be a free trip. It’s not going to be some on the spot amnesty. What’s going to occur is you will pay a big high quality. You’re going to study English. You’re going to — you will go to the again of the road so that you just don’t get forward of someone who was in Mexico Metropolis making use of legally. However after you’ve achieved these items over a sure time period you possibly can earn your citizenship, in order that it’s not — it’s not one thing that’s assured or computerized. You’ve bought to earn it. However over time you give individuals a chance.
Now, it solely works although if you happen to do all of the items. I believe the American individuals, they admire and imagine in immigration. However they will’t have a scenario the place you simply have half one million individuals pouring over the border with none type of mechanism to regulate it. So we’ve bought to take care of that similtaneously we deal in a humane vogue with people who’re placing down roots right here, have change into our neighbors, have change into our associates, they might have kids who’re U.S. residents. That’s the type of complete method that we’ve got to take.
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Musk Has a Level
As for Musk’s declare about there being extra unlawful immigration at present, the Related Press reported in January, “Arrests for unlawful border crossings from Mexico reached an all-time excessive in December since month-to-month numbers have been launched, authorities mentioned Friday, exposing a rising vulnerability for President Joe Biden in his marketing campaign for a second time period.”
“The Border Patrol tallied 249,785 arrests on the Mexican border in December, up 31% from 191,112 in November and up 13% from 222,018 in December 2022, the earlier all-time excessive,” AP added.
And that’s simply the quantity of unlawful migrants that have been encountered or arrested. What number of others broke into the nation undetected?
We’ve bought a critical border downside, one thing Barack Obama was proper about all these years in the past.