Trump’s 10 Terrorists: The evolution of a statistic
WASHINGTON — For some time now, President Donald Trump has been encouraging people to think of Mexico as a portal for international terrorists who “pour” into the U.S. Except, he says, for 10 who were recently caught by the U.S.: “These are very serious people.”
These 10 do not exist, except as a federal statistic that Trump and his vice-president put through a rhetorical grinder in service of describing emigrants from Mexico as a menace.
There is, in fact, genuine concern about the potential for Islamic extremists to make their way across the border into the U.S. But that concern applies more to the Canadian border, where Trump is not planning to put up a wall.
Here is how the myth of the “very serious” 10 developed over the months, culminating this week in Trump’s assertion that “we caught 10 terrorists. These are over the last very short period of time — 10.”