Donald Trump’s repeated assertions that foreign countries emptied their jails and mental asylums, and those people are illegal migrabts to the United States.

The claim can be broken down into two main components: first, that foreign countries have emptied their jails and mental institutions, sending those individuals to the U.S.; second, that these individuals constitute millions of illegal immigrants currently entering the United States. Multiple fact-checking sources and data analyses show that while some undocumented immigrants have criminal records or mental health issues, the numbers are far smaller than Trump’s assertions.

Official data and investigations reveal no evidence of a coordinated or large-scale effort by foreign countries to release prisoners or mental patients en masse to send them to the U.S. Border. For example, The Marshall Project explicitly debunks the notion that South American countries are dumping prisoners into the U.S.themarshallproject.orgthemarshallproject.orgSouth America Isn’t Dumping Prisoners Into the U.S., Despite Trump’s Claims Similarly, Politifact notes that although some immigrants have criminal records, it is nowhere near the millions claimed by Trump.politifact.compolitifact.comFormer President Donald Trump often says that “millions” of immigrants who came...

Newsweek also fact-checked Trump’s claim about asylum seekers coming from 'insane asylums' and found it to be unsubstantiated.newsweek.comnewsweek.comFact Check: Trump Claims Patients From 'Insane Asylums' Emptied Into U.S These claims appear to be part of a broader political rhetoric aimed at portraying immigration as a crisis involving dangerous individuals, but they lack empirical support. While it is true that immigration enforcement encounters include some individuals with criminal histories or mental health challenges, this is not unique or unprecedented, nor does it approach the scale Trump suggests.

The exaggeration and lack of evidence lead to a conclusion that the claim is mostly false rather than entirely fabricated because there is a kernel of truth in that some immigrants have such backgrounds, but the scale and causation implied by Trump are incorrect.