LAREDO, Texas — Victor D. Treviño, mayor of the border city of Laredo, Texas, on Thursday rejected claims made by former President Donald Trump during his visit to the border that migrants entering the U.S. are terrorists coming from prisons and mental institutions.

What You Need To Know

  • During his visit to Eagle Pass, Texas, on Thursday, former President Donald Trump said that migrants are terrorists coming from prisons and mental institutions

  • Trump's claims echoed those he used in campaign speeches during his 2016 presidential campaign, in which the former president said Mexico is bringing drugs, crime and rapists to the U.S.

  • In an interview with CNN, Laredo Mayor Victor D. Treviño said this is not what he’s seeing in his city 

  • A Stanford University report published in 2023 found that immigrants are 30% less likely to be incarcerated than white, U.S.-born people

Trump visited Shelby Park in Eagle Pass on Thursday, a park on the Rio Grande where migrants have died trying to cross into the U.S. The area has garnered national attention after Gov. Abbott seized control of it and barred Border Patrol agents from entering.

During a press conference in Eagle Pass, Trump's claims echoed those he used in campaign speeches during his 2016 presidential campaign, in which the former president said Mexico is bringing drugs, crime and rapists to the U.S.

“These are the people that are coming into our country and they’re coming from jails and they’re coming from prisons and they’re coming from mental institutions and they’re coming from insane asylums and they’re terrorists and they’re being led into our country and it’s horrible,” Trump said.

In an interview with CNN, Treviño said this is not what he’s seeing in Laredo, which borders Nuevo Laredo, a city in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas.

“We don’t see what he’s saying. I mean, this is not the reality. We live and work here, I was born and raised in Laredo all my life and I know that this is not the facts,” Treviño said.

A Stanford University report published in 2023 found that immigrants are 30% less likely to be incarcerated than white, U.S.-born people.

“Recent waves of immigrants are more likely to be employed, married with children, and in good health,” Ran Abramitzky, author of the report and economics professor at Stanford said. “Far from the rapists and drug dealers that anti-immigrant politicians claim them to be, immigrants today are doing relatively well and have largely been shielded from the social and economic forces that have negatively affected low-educated U.S.-born men.”

During the visit, Trump also called the situation on the border a "war" and said the influx of migrants attempting to enter the U.S. is an "invasion" orchestrated by President Joe Biden.