The Washington Post reports that President Trump and his staff LIED about the numbers.
“Only 109 people out of 325,000 were detained and held for questioning.”
— President Trump, tweet, Jan, 30, 2017
“Remember we’re talking about a universe of 109 people. There were 325,000 people that came into this country over a 24 hour period from another country. 109 of them were stopped for additional screening.”
— White House press secretary Sean Spicer, press briefing, Jan. 30, 2017
President Trump and his aides love to cite a small number and a big number in order to minimize the impact of the president’s executive order suspending the visas of citizens of seven countries.
But these figures are incredibly misleading, so let’s go through the math.
The Facts
First of all, the “325,000” figure is pretty meaningless because the number of people who arrive in the United States on a given day is not the issue. The question is how many people from these countries have been affected.
The “109” number is old, and rather dubious. For instance, it does not reflect how many people were prevented from even boarding a plane. According to the Department of Homeland Security, 348 people were denied boarding from the issuance of the executive order on Friday through 6 p.m. on Sunday.
An additional 392 green-card holders have been processed and admitted to the United States, the agency says. Originally, the White House had said that green-card holders would also be blocked from entering, but it reversed itself on Sunday under political pressure.
Officials have not responded to repeated requests for an updated number on the number of people detained at U.S. airports.
A Google spreadsheet tracking the experience of Iranian travelers has documented the travails of nearly 300 people, with many describing significant delays or negotiation even if they were allowed into the United States.
But all of these numbers fail to provide the full picture. The real number is about 90,000.
According to State Department statistics, that’s how many people received either nonimmigrant or immigrant visas from the seven affected countries in fiscal year 2015. That’s the most recent data available, and different types of visas are available for different lengths of time, but it serves as a usable proxy for the likely universe of people affected by Trump’s travel ban. (Moreover, the data does not include people who are dual-citizens, such as Canadian-Iranians, who also are impacted by the order.)
The executive order means that visa holders will not be able to travel to the United States for at least 90 days. Or, if they are in the United States currently, they will not be able to leave and assume that they can return before the travel suspension ends.
Here’s the breakdown by country:
Iran: 34,819 nonimmigrant visas, 7,179 immigrant visas
Iraq: 13,335 nonimmigrant visas, 2,010 immigrant visas
Syria: 9,770 nonimmigrant visas, 1,901 immigrant visas
Sudan: 5,039 nonimmigrant visas, 1,642 immigrant visas
Yemen: 4,472 nonimmigrant visas, 3,143 immigrant visas
Somalia: 399 nonimmigrant visas, 1,078 immigrant visas
Met, how you shock seh di man a big liad suh? You nuh memba seh him is a cheater? Anybody who cheats in dem personal relationships have to be a liar as well. Him is also a tax cheat, a business cheat. He has to be a consummate liar fi get weh wid all DAT. On top of it, him of the race weh lying is an art form, why you tink dem could a conquer so many different groups a ppl? Nuh because a di lie and di deceptions. Dem ppl deh speak wid forked tongues.
Everytime him tell a lie mi shocked cause he speaks very bold like him really tek people fi fool
Met you don’t see it that he fired the acting Atty General because she is against his Muslim ban! Jesus wept and I hope his blood cover us….what a stress we have coming.
Yessssssss but they gonna get him
Met and Anon only the RP believe him. Remember in 1998 he said if he should run for president he would run as a republican because, they are the dumbest set of voters (his words) and he says he could lie and they’d still eat it up (his exact words).
His press secretary had print out of tweets about the orange man this morning and was saying the man is upset over the mean tweets!!! For all the years I’ve been in this country, I’ve never seen any president do the things he’s doing. Him dish it and can’t tek it. So are they going to try and silence people?
This was only first week this demon in office kmft
Dutty donald is ah threat to safety everywhere. Him ah run Merika like ah Apprentice him deh pon. Lies, lies, and even more lies. Him ah anger more people dan di Bush administration and people ah guh retaliate. It ah guh brutal….
All those countries which are so called banned have been on a travel restriction list from Obama’s presidency so nothing new there…
You black people need to stay out of this and mind your own business cause the Muslim not sticking up for you when fire de under oonu skin…
Trump is just trying to protect USA from ter ror ism…
It was those same Muslims who captured your for-parents and sold you to the Americas. . Leave Trump alone mek him deal wid dem and shut up….
lieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees stop tell lie pan obama stop it bout shut up u sound so stupid a repeat everything like a robot..stop following trump’s lies.. obama said those countries NEEDED extra security not travel ban..stop tell lie pan di man bout fire and di only thing burning a u lying ass pants
Thats why Obama did haffi come out todeh because dem nuh stop use people name and lie from left to right. Mek him gwaan when di approval go below 40 the republicans dem shall see him out and that shall be by the end of the week
A think this mutt de pon observer and the PM IG with this damn lie.
Dat mi sey, go suck you self! You lying house nigger.
PP Obama come out and comment pan di people dem demonstrating but a di lie whey trump a use him name and a run wid why he had to come out..Even in the English parliament they were saying a obama list which is a big LIE..that is why him haffi put out statement and release the information as to what was said about the countries. Trump a one a di wickedest liyadddddddddddddd him mother womb mus purple cause him neva have no light no time during those months him did inside a she. LIE BAD
Met, that lie was manufactored to put Obama in a bad light within the muslim nations.
Then you have FOOLS running with the phuckry. If Obama did create such a list the Syrian rrefugee in Texas wouldn’t have been here from when…ignorance is a sin.