RNC 2024 Day 2: Fact-checking Kari Lake, Nikki Haley's claims on Biden's immigration record

MILWAUKEE — The Republican National Convention’s second night sounded false alarms about a Democratic plot to turn migrants into voters and invocations of divine intervention in preventing former President Donald Trump’s assassination.

The party offered a lineup of Senate candidates and Americans who said President Joe Biden’s immigration and crime policies contributed to their loved ones’ deaths. Some speakers swiped at Vice President Kamala Harris, often mispronouncing her first name by emphasizing its second syllable and mocking her as the "border czar," which exaggerated the scope of her authority.

With Democrats divided over whether Biden should remain as their nominee, Republicans displayed party unity, with speeches from former Trump primary rivals Nikki Haley, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy. Former Trump administration officials Dr. Ben Carson and Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders credited the hand of God in saving Trump’s life from an assassination attempt. 

Here are fact-checks of claims about immigration, national security and crime from Day 2.

Kari Lake, Arizona Senate candidate: "Just last week, Ruben Gallego voted to let the millions of people who poured into our country illegally cast a ballot in this upcoming election."

False.

U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego D-Ariz., did not vote to allow millions of people in the country illegally to vote in the 2024 election. Federal law already bans noncitizens from voting in federal elections.

Gallego voted against the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, which requires people to provide documentary proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections. 

When Gallego voted against the bill, he said in a statement, "Of course only U.S. citizens should vote." Gallego said the bill would create obstacles for Arizonans to vote because of the requirements to provide documentary proof of citizenship, such as a passport or birth certificate.

Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La.: "On the border, Biden and Harris opened it up to the entire world. Prisons are being emptied."

False. 

The U.S. southern border is not open. A combination of hundreds of physical barriers such as fences, surveillance technology, drones and about 20,000 U.S. Border Patrol agents help limit who and what comes into the United States. Additionally, immigration officials at the border continue to enforce immigration law. 

U.S. immigration officials have arrested people with criminal convictions at the border, but there is no evidence that prisons are being emptied or that foreign countries are sending prisoners to the U.S.

Immigration officials arrested about 110,000 noncitizens with criminal convictions (whether in the U.S. or abroad) from fiscal years 2021 to 2024, federal data shows. That accounts for people stopped at and between ports of entry. (This data includes about four months of Trump’s administration.)

Not everyone was let in. The term "noncitizens" includes people who may have had legal immigration status in the U.S. but were not U.S. citizens. The data reflects the people that the federal government knows about, but it’s inexhaustive. Some countries don’t share their criminal databases with the U.S. However, immigration experts previously told PolitiFact that despite the data’s limitations, there is no evidence to support the statement.

Former presidential candidate Nikki Haley addresses the Republican National Convention on July 16, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP)

Nikki Haley, former Republican presidential candidate: "Kamala had one job, one job. And that was to fix the border."

Mostly False. 

In March 2021, President Joe Biden tasked Harris to work with officials in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras to address the root causes motivating people to migrate to the United States.

"One of the ways we learned is that if you deal with the problems in a country, it benefits everyone. It benefits us, it benefits the people, and it grows the economies there," Biden said at a March 2021 meeting with Harris.

Republicans began calling Harris the "border czar" soon after that. 

In April 2021, when a reporter asked Harris whether she would visit the border, she clarified that her role was not managing the border.

"The president has asked (Homeland Security) Secretary (Alejandro) Mayorkas to address what is going on at the border. And he has been working very hard at that, and it’s showing some progress because of his hard work," Harris said at a roundtable. "I have been asked to lead the issue of dealing with root causes in the Northern Triangle (Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador), similar to what the then-vice president did many years ago."

Harris reiterated this duty in June 2021, when she visited the border in El Paso, Texas, with Mayorkas. In comments to reporters, Harris said she was addressing "the root causes of migration, predominantly out of Central America." Mayorkas, meanwhile, said, "It is my responsibility as the Secretary of Homeland Security to address the security and management of our border."

Sen. Tom Cotton, R- Ark.: "Joe Biden gave migrants welfare, free hotels."

Mostly False. 

Most immigrants living illegally in the U.S. are ineligible for benefits from federal programs. A valid Social Security number is needed to receive most federal benefits. 

Migrants are eligible for emergency medical care, and some women and children may qualify for food assistance. Additionally, certain immigrants in the U.S. illegally may qualify for state and local public assistance programs. But this type of medical and state assistance predates Biden’s presidency.

Certain nonprofit organizations provide shelter for migrants. These services can then be reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The use of hotels near the border to house migrants did not begin with Biden. Previous administrations, including Trump’s, have used hotel rooms to house children and families who enter the country illegally. 

FEMA has been reimbursing nonprofits for their services to migrants since 2019 when Trump’s administration, during an uptick in immigration apprehensions, requested funding to go to migrant support services. 

DHS coordinates with nonprofits "to avoid, to the greatest extent possible, releasing noncitizens directly into border communities without immediate support," a 2023 Government Accountability Office report said.

In 2021, the Biden administration entered a short-term contract with a Texas nonprofit organization to use hotel rooms to provide temporary shelter and case processing to migrant families. Under U.S. laws and a court settlement, immigration officials cannot detain minors, including those traveling with families.

Anne Fundner, California mother: "We have seen the highest number of fentanyl deaths during the Biden-Harris administration."

True.

Drug overdose deaths have reached new highs during the Biden administration, a continuation of a trend that started under Barack Obama and continued under Trump. Fundner’s 15-year-old son, Weston, died from a fentanyl overdose in February 2022, she told the crowd.

National Institute on Drug Abuse data shows more than 73,800 overdose deaths from nonmethadone synthetic opioids — mostly fentanyl — in 2022. In 2020, the year before Biden took office, 56,516 people died from these overdoses. There were 3,105 in 2013. 

Fundner blamed "open borders" for her son’s death. Fentanyl is smuggled mostly through official ports of entry, and not by immigrants at illegal crossing points. 

Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., speaks July 16, 2024, during the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. (AP)

Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind.: "I’ve never been more ashamed than when Joe Biden's disastrous withdrawal (of Afghanistan) left 13 American heroes dead, and then he lied about it."

Biden’s explanation about the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan was publicly contradicted by high-ranking military figures. (PolitiFact does not generally rate whether people "lie.")

Banks is referring to the 2021 suicide bombing that killed 13 U.S. service members and about 170 Afghan civilians at Hamid Karzai International Airport's Abbey Gate. It followed the fall of Afghanistan’s government under military pressure from the Taliban.

Biden ordered the U.S. withdrawal in August 2021, saying "the decision was based on "the unanimous recommendation" of civilian and military advisers — the secretary of state, the defense secretary, the Joint Chiefs of Staff chair, service chiefs and commanders in the field.

"Their recommendation was that the safest way to secure the passage of the remaining Americans and others out of the country was not to continue with 6,000 troops on the ground in harm’s way in Kabul, but rather to get them out through nonmilitary means," Biden said.

Biden added that his advisers agreed with his course. 

ABC’s George Stephanopoulos asked Biden in an Aug. 19, 2021, interview whether his military advisers "did not tell you, ‘No, we should just keep 2,500 troops. It’s been a stable situation for the last several years. We can do that. We can continue to do that?’"

Biden said, "No. No one said that to me that I can recall."

But when top generals testified under oath to Congress several weeks later, they said they had urged Biden to keep a few thousand troops in Afghanistan rather than withdrawing entirely. 

During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Gen. Kenneth (Frank) McKenzie, the commander of U.S. Central Command, didn’t specify his recommendation to Biden, but said his advice was guided by his "personal view" that withdrawing forces entirely "would lead inevitably to the collapse of the Afghan military forces and, eventually, the Afghan government."

Gen. Mark Milley, who chaired the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was asked whether he’d agreed with the 2,500-troop recommendation, and he said he did. Pressed to explain his interaction with Biden, Milley declined, saying, "I’m not going to characterize a statement of the president of the United States."

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla.: "Under Donald Trump, we weren’t at war."

False. 

The U.S. remained at war in Afghanistan throughout Trump’s presidency. There were about 2,500 service members left in Afghanistan and Iraq, respectively, at the end of his term in January 2021.

Trump didn’t enter the U.S. into a new, sustained armed conflict with another country, or seek a new congressional authorization to use military force. He frequently criticized American involvement in the Middle East and took steps to withdraw troops from Somalia, Iraq and Afghanistan.

But Trump used military force in other countries under the broad use-of-force authorization granted after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. For example, his administration ordered airstrikes and drone attacks, supplemented allied militaries with U.S. troops, deployed special operations forces in the Middle East and beyond, and ordered the killing of Iran’s Gen. Qassim Soleimani.

Trump increased commitments and resources in Iraq and Syria to fight the militant Islamic State group, which included sending additional service members.

Records show that, during Trump’s presidency, about 65 active-duty service members died in hostile action.

TV personality Savannah Chrisley: "Hunter Biden is roaming around free and attending classified meetings." 

The White House denies Biden’s son, Hunter, attends classified briefings. Although we found a recent NBC News report that said Biden had joined some of his father’s White House meetings after the June 27 presidential debate, it said nothing about him attending "classified meetings."

Hunter Biden was recently convicted of three felonies in a gun-related case. NBC News reported July 2 that Hunter Biden "joined meetings with President Joe Biden and his top aides since his father returned to the White House from Camp David, Maryland," citing "four people familiar with the matter."

White House spokesman Andrew Bates told NBC News, "Hunter came back with the President from their family weekend at Camp David and went with the president straight into speech prep," referring to Biden’s preparation with aides for remarks about the Supreme Court’s decision on presidential immunity.

After Chrisley’s accusation, Bates told PolitiFact that Hunter Biden "has not" attended classified briefings. Bates also told PolitiFact that Hunter Biden lacks a security clearance and therefore cannot legally attend classified meetings.

RNC video: "It’s not just big cities. Rising crime is a problem everywhere."

Mostly False.

Federal data shows the overall number of violent crimes, including homicide, has declined during Biden’s presidency. Property crimes have risen, mostly because of motor vehicle thefts.

The FBI data shows the overall violent crime rate — which includes homicide, rape, robbery and aggravated assault per 100,000 population — fell by about 2.9% from 2020, Trump’s final year as president, to 2021, Biden’s first year in office. It fell an additional 1.6%, between 2021 and 2022. 

The most recent year for which the FBI has released full-year data is 2022, but private-sector analyses show continued declines in crime. For instance, the Council on Criminal Justice, a nonpartisan think tank, samples reports from law enforcement agencies in several dozen cities to gauge crime data more quickly than the FBI. The council’s data shows the declining trend for violent crime continued into 2023.

Property crime has increased under Biden, though three of the four main categories the FBI tracks — larceny, burglary, and arson — were at or below their prepandemic level by 2022. The main exception has been motor vehicle theft, which rose 4% from 2020 to 2021 and 10.4% from 2021 to 2022.

Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., speaks July 16, 2024, during the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. (AP)

House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn.: Vice President Kamala Harris "even promoted a fund to release the criminals from jail. …  One criminal Kamala Harris freed in Minneapolis went on to murder a man in St. Paul, Minnesota."

Half True.

Shawn Michael Tillman was sentenced to life in prison for the May 2022 murder of Demitri Ellis Strong in St. Paul. 

Before the murder, Tillman committed multiple indecent exposure felonies in 2016 and 2017. He was convicted in November 2018 and was sentenced to 39 months in prison. The Minnesota Freedom Fund, which provides bail funding and immigration bonds to those who can’t afford it, paid Tillman’s $2,000 bail in April 2022. 

In June 2020, during the protests against the murder of George Floyd, Harris tweeted in support of the Minnesota Freedom Fund "to help post bail for those protesting on the ground in Minnesota." The organization raised $35 million amid widespread celebrity attention..

Harris did not "free" Tillman and does not have that power as vice president. Harris has not endorsed the organization since.

Savannah Chrisley: "My family was persecuted by rogue prosecutors in Fulton County due to our public profile. I know, Fulton County. They know how to do it, don't they?"

Chrisley’s statement about her parents’ court case could leave viewers with the false impression that she was referring to Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who is prosecuting Trump for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia. The case against "Chrisley Knows Best" stars Todd and Julie Chrisley was prosecuted by federal prosecutors in northern Georgia, not Willis.

A federal grand jury indicted the reality show stars in 2019 on multiple counts of conspiracy, bank fraud, wire fraud and tax evasion. Todd and Julie Chrisley were sentenced in 2022 and their sentences were later reduced to 10 and five years, respectively, but an appeals court sent Julie’s sentencing back to a lower court in June. 

Prosecutors said the couple conspired to defraud community banks in the Atlanta area to obtain more than $36 million in personal loans. The Chrisleys submitted false bank statements and other records to Georgia community banks to obtain the loans and then spent the money on luxury items and used new fraudulent loans to pay back old ones. After spending the money, Todd Chrisley filed for bankruptcy, and the couple failed to file tax returns for several years.

Trump nominated Byung J. "BJay" Pak, the U.S. attorney in northern Georgia who oversaw the prosecution. Pak resigned shortly before Joe Biden took office in 2021. 

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