Fact vs. Spin: Is Trump's Border Fix "a Different Kind of Extremism"? Here Is What CBP's Own Numbers Say
Texas Democrat James Talarico now admits Joe Biden "failed us" on the border. In the same breath, he called what came next "extremism." We checked his words against the government's own data.
By Clara Hughes
ALTAS WORLD NEWS ANALYSIS | MIDTERM FACT VS. SPIN | By Clara Hughes, Chief Opinion Editor | 6-min read Midterm Fact vs. Spin #2. Altas World News is independent and not affiliated with any campaign or party. No campaign reviewed or directed this piece. James Talarico wants to be the next U.S. senator from Texas. At a CNN town hall in Fort Worth on Wednesday, Oct. 14, he said something few Democrats will say out loud: Joe Biden failed on the border [1][2]. Then he pivoted. The President who fixed it, he suggested, has gone too far. You'll hear that line a lot between now and Nov. 3. So we tested it against the official numbers from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Both are part of the Department of Homeland Security. Key Takeaways Talarico is right about Biden. The Border Patrol made 249,740 apprehensions at the southwest border in December 2023 alone. CBP calls that month the peak of the Biden administration [3][4]. The fix is working. For all of fiscal year 2026, the Border Patrol made 98,708 southwest border apprehensions, according to preliminary figures released Oct. 16 [3]. That's about 60% below the Border Patrol's count for Biden's single worst month [3]. "Moms and babies" is mostly spin. In ICE's latest posted count, 209 of the 65,765 people in ICE detention were in family facilities. About 6 in 10 had a criminal conviction or pending criminal