Thread: Paper does Fact Check on Monday's Speech

Fact check
The Arizona Daily Star researched some of the factual statements made by President Bush during his speech here on Monday. It found:
The president said that since he took office, more than 350,000 illegal border entrants with criminal records have been removed from the country.
Although figures for his entire tenure weren't immediately available, federal deportation figures for the last three years indicate nearly 250,000 criminal illegal entrants were removed, indicating the president's figures were probably on target.
The president said more than 85 percent of illegal entrants are from Mexico.
While that many may enter through Mexico, research indicates only about 57 percent are from Mexico. Another 24 percent are from other Latin American countries, 9 percent are Asian, 6 percent are European or Canadian, and 4 percent are from Africa.
The president said only 8 percent of illegal entrants who are returned to the interior of Mexico are caught re-entering the United States.
A government evaluation of the "interior repatriation" program put the figure slightly higher, at 10 percent.
The president said about four of five non-Mexican illegal entrants are released and asked to appear in court later on their own, and 75 percent of them don't show up.
News and other reports put the numbers even higher, at about 85 percent released on their own recognizance, with the no-show rate even higher than 75 percent - as high as 98 percent in some jurisdictions.
The president said a new program this summer cut Brazilian illegal immigration by 50 percent.
News reports this month citing federal reports indicated illegal immigration from Brazil this year was actually triple what it was last year.
The president said the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declared illegal immigrants have a right to re-litigate in immigration court as many times as they want.
The 9th Circuit last year did strike down a provision allowing previously deported entrants to be summarily removed from the country without a court hearing. The ruling applies only in the nine states within the 9th Circuit.

And, WHERE do they purport to get their "FACTS"??? If you can't even ASK an IMMIGRANT IF THEY ARE LEGAL, sounds to me like they are shooting in the dark.

I'd like to know where the 4.5 million aliens removed from the country in the last five years number came from.

I keep hearing the OBL people saying that would be impossible.

I just have NO EARTHLY IDEA where they came up with those so-called FACTS. Probably Karl Rove.