Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-TX) falsely claimed during the third 2020 Democrat presidential primary debate that physical barriers at the U.S.-Mexico border built under the Bush and Obama administrations have killed “thousands” of border crossers and illegal aliens.
“Democrats and Republicans, alike, voted to build a wall that has produced thousands of deaths of people trying to cross to join family or to work a job,” O’Rourke claimed when pressed on what he would do about the at least 4.5 to six million visa overstays living in the U.S.
O’Rourke’s claim that existing physical barriers at the southern border, of which there is nearly 700 miles, are responsible for the deaths of border crossers and illegal aliens is false.
While nearly 3,000 border crossers and illegal aliens died after crossing the southern border under the Obama administration’s eight years, existing physical barriers did not “produce” those deaths as suggested by O’Rourke. – READ MORE