Fact Checker: War is peace. Fence is wall

April 06, 2018

Democracy Dies in Darkness

The truth behind the rhetoric

War is peace. Fence is wall.

In George Orwell’s “1984,” the ruling party works to convince the masses that war is actually peace. For his part, President Trump claims that 100 miles of fencing for the U.S.-Mexico border is actually the first tract of his wall.

But war is not peace, and a fence is not a wall. Although the $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill Trump signed in March includes $1.57 billion to fortify the border, that money comes with strings attached. It can be used only to build fences or replace existing fencing, primarily in the San Diego area and the Rio Grande Valley. Parts of this all-fence, no-wall project have been in the works since 2009, long before Trump took office. “Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them,” Orwell wrote. In this case, it earned the president Three Pinocchios.

‘Catch and release’: A bipartisan tradition

Trump argues the country is less safe because U.S. officials release some undocumented immigrants into the community while they wait for immigration hearings before judges. He grouses that he inherited these “catch and release” policies from Democrats. But the history shows catch and release is as much a Republican creation. The courts have weighed in, too. And Trump’s own administration continues to release undocumented children and asylum-seekers.

It’s probably not as politically useful to blame the George W. Bush administration, but the bottom line is that Trump’s beef is primarily with Bush-era policies. It was under Bush that the practice of releasing immigrants gained notoriety. The Trump administration specifically cites a law Bush signed to prevent human trafficking as one of the obstacles to ending catch and release. For ignoring Republicans’ contributions, Trump received Three Pinocchios.