Washington
CNN
—
There isn’t any proof for former President Donald Trump’s repeated claims that “the Congo” has emptied prisons to permit violent criminals to come back to the US border as migrants – and the governments of each the Democratic Republic of Congo and the neighboring Republic of Congo say Trump’s assertions are totally false.
“The whole lot he’s saying isn’t true,” Democratic Republic of Congo spokesperson Patrick Muyaya Katembwe informed CNN in a textual content message on Thursday. Requested particularly about Trump’s claims about Congolese prisons being emptied of violent criminals, he mentioned, “By no means ever, it’s not true.” And, he mentioned, “we wish him to cease” telling these tales, since “it’s very unhealthy for the nation.”
Serge Mombouli, the Republic of Congo’s ambassador to the US, mentioned in an e mail to CNN on Friday: “There isn’t any reality or any signal nor a single truth supporting such a declare or assertion.”
A CNN truth examine discovered the identical.
Information First: Trump’s claims are baseless. Specialists on the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Republic of Congo, plus each pro-immigration and anti-immigration organizations within the US, informed CNN they haven’t seen any proof of Congolese prisons being emptied. Trump’s presidential marketing campaign and an allied tremendous PAC didn’t reply to requests to offer any proof. A CNN search of two media databases turned up no proof. And federal figures present that there isn’t any “very huge” inflow of Congolese migrants of any sort, not to mention former prisoners particularly.
Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, retains making claims about emptied Congolese prisons as he criticizes President Joe Biden’s dealing with of immigration. For instance, Trump said throughout a Fox Information city corridor in late February: “We have now individuals coming in from all over the place. They’re coming in from the Congo. They interviewed some individuals final night time. ‘The place are you from?’ ‘Congo.’ ‘The place did you reside?’ ‘Jail.’ They’re emptying out their prisons into our nation.”
Throughout a go to to the border later in February, Trump said, “The Congo – a really huge inhabitants coming in from jails from the Congo. You take a look at the jails now, you check out the jails all through the area, however extra importantly, all through the world. They’re emptying out as a result of they’re dumping them into america.”
However media databases comprise no corroboration for these tales. And human rights organizations that monitor the Democratic Republic of Congo and neighboring Republic of Congo say they know of no proof for them.
“I’ve not heard something about emptying of Congolese prisons,” Lewis Mudge, Central Africa director for Human Rights Watch, mentioned of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Amnesty Worldwide senior researcher Abdoulaye Diarra, who research the Republic of Congo, informed CNN in a textual content message on Friday: “To my data and based on different Congolese organisations, there was no mass launch of prisoners from Congolese prisons” within the Republic of Congo.
Even when there had been such a prisoner launch, it will not show Trump’s declare a few “very huge inhabitants” of Congolese former prisoners arriving on the border. Official federal information reveals that Congolese migrants usually, not ex-prisoners particularly, signify a tiny fraction of general arrivals.
Within the first 4 months of the 2024 fiscal yr, by means of January, there have been simply 320 Border Patrol encounters on the southern border with individuals from the Democratic Republic of Congo or Republic of Congo, based on official information supplied to CNN by US Customs and Border Safety this week. That could be a minuscule fraction of the greater than 753,000 complete Border Patrol encounters with individuals from world wide in these 4 months
CNN additionally reached out to 2 US organizations that advocate diminished immigration ranges seeking any proof for Trump’s claims about emptied Congolese prisons, since these teams generally function sources for Trump’s rhetoric in regards to the border. One responded: “We don’t have any details about this someway,” mentioned Mark Krikorian, government director of the Heart for Immigration Research.
And the pro-immigration Migration Coverage Institute, which mentioned it’s unaware of any nation emptying prisons to ship individuals to the US, famous that Trump’s tales about “the Congo” are simply the newest in his series of unsubstantiated claims about overseas nations supposedly emptying prisons and psychological well being amenities for nefarious migration functions. “This week, the Congo. Previously, Latin America.
Tomorrow, possible one other nation,” spokesperson Michelle Mittelstadt scoffed of Trump’s claims.
Trump’s evolving claims
Certainly, Trump has a habit of constructing his false or unsubstantiated tales extra dramatic or colourful over time.
His claims about “the Congo” are a part of a long-running collection on the identical theme. He has for years made baseless claims that varied overseas nations are deliberately sending violent and in any other case undesirable individuals to the US as migrants. Throughout his 2016 presidential marketing campaign, for instance, he made such claims about Mexico.
Then, whereas working once more in 2023, Trump repeatedly informed an unsubstantiated story about psychological well being establishments in South America, together with “insane asylums,” being intentionally emptied for nefarious migration functions. Trump’s marketing campaign was unable to provide any corroboration for that story, although he had repeatedly cited a supposed media report.
Trump additionally made unproven claims in 2023 about migrants being emptied out of overseas prisons. By January 2024, he was referring specifically to migrants who had been prisoners in “the Congo.” Then, by February 2024, he was claiming that the Congolese migrants acknowledged having been incarcerated for “homicide.”
He has by no means supplied a selected supply for any of those remarks.