Trump Speech To Nation: What You Need To Know

President Donald Trump addressed the nation on Tuesday night in order to address what he believes to be a national security crisis on the southwest border. He wants to make a case for his longtime goal of putting up a border wall with Mexico. The border wall issue has already forced a partial shutdown of the United States federal government.

The "crisis" Trump believes is happening has already been proven to be exaggerated, if not completely nonexistent. While pushing for the border wall, Trump has claimed that there are terrorists entering the U.S. through the border and that immigrants are causing a rise in the crime rate.

Update:

In his nationwide address, Trump highlighted some of his reasons for pushing for the border wall. Here's what he said, and how his statements actually stack up against facts.

• "Every week, 300 of our citizens are killed by heroin alone, 90 percent of which flows across our southern border."

According to the Drug Enforcement Administration’s latest National Drug Assessment report, most heroin smuggled into the U.S. does enter through the southwest border. However, most fentanyl gets smuggled into the country through traditional ports of entry in packages mailed directly from China. It is more difficult for law enforcement to detect fentanyl sent via conventional mail packages. For fentanyl coming from Mexico, it is usually hidden car compartments as is the case for most drug smuggling incidents.

• “In the last two years, I.C.E. officers made 266,000 arrests of aliens with criminal records.”

Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested 210,876 people with previous criminal convictions in the 2017 and 2018 fiscal years. The agency apprehended another 55,233 people with pending criminal charges in the same period.

However, many of the criminals arrested had nonviolent offenses. Among the most common charges in these cases were for traffic violations, possession or sale of drugs and immigration offenses like illegal entry.

• “The wall will also be paid for, indirectly by the great new trade deal we have made with Mexico.”

Trump's claim that the new trade deal will fund his proposed border wall is not true. The revised North American Free Trade Agreement has not yet passed in Congress. And even if it passes, this would not be enough to pay for a massive project like a border wall. The economic benefits from the United States-Canada-Mexico-Agreement will probably come in the form of lower tariffs for companies in the U.S. or higher salaries for American workers.

See the tweets below for more highlights and statements from Trump's speech:

In his speech, Trump mentioned the case of police officer Ronil Singh, who was shot and killed in Stanislaus County, California last month. The president cited his death as one reason to push for better immigration enforcement in the U.S.

“America’s heart broke the day after Christmas, when a young police officer in California was savagely murdered in cold blood by an illegal alien ...,” Trump said. “The life of an American hero was stolen by someone who had no right to be in our country.”

Singh hailed from Fiji and joined the Newman Police Department in 2011. Singh, who was survived by his wife and 1-year-old son, also previously served at the Merced County Sheriff’s Office. He was laid to rest in Modesto over the weekend.

Meanwhile, Trump also said he will not halt the government shutdown until an agreement on the border wall has been reached. "The government remains shut down for one reason and one reason only: the Democrats will not fund border security," the president said.

Trump added that he will open discussions with the Democrats once more on Wednesday.

"This situation could be resolved in a 45-minute meeting," he said. "I have invited congressional leadership to the White House tomorrow to get this done."