In brief
During a speech at the U.N. General Assembly, President Trump condemned European leaders for their management of irregular migration, claiming a crisis of illegal immigration. However, statistics reveal that irregular border crossings into Europe have actually decreased by approximately 20% from the previous year. With Europe investing significantly in immigration control and asylum applications also seeing a decline, the president’s statements appear at odds with the current situation. Furthermore, challenges regarding deportation effectiveness and inaccurate statistics cast doubt on Trump's assertions.
MADRID (AP) — President Donald Trump excoriated European leaders about their efforts to slow irregular migration, claiming they have done little to prevent an influx of outsiders that has transformed the continent.
However, Trump’s claims during an address to the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday come amid a decline in Europe’s irregular border crossings, which have largely been decreasing for a decade. European Union countries have spent billions of euros to stanch the flow of unauthorized migration, which includes people who came to or remained in the EU illegally or who applied for asylum in one of its member states.
Here’s a look at the facts:
Irregular migration to Europe isn’t on the rise
TRUMP: “Europe is in serious trouble. They’ve been invaded by a force of illegal aliens like nobody’s ever seen before.”
THE FACTS: Irregular border crossings from January through August were down roughly 20% compared to the same period last year, according to the EU’s border control agency Frontex. About 112,000 people were flagged trying to cross the EU’s external borders in the first eight months of this year, whereas nearly 140,000 were flagged from January through August of 2024, according to preliminary data.
Still, as was the case in the U.S. when Donald Trump first successfully ran for president, unauthorized immigration has weighed heavily on European politics since 2015, when droves of migrants and refugees arrived, including many who were fleeing Syria’s civil war.
Asylum applications to Europe fell last year but had been rising since 2020. More than 900,000 people applied for asylum in EU countries in 2024, which was 13% fewer than in 2023, according to EU data. Since 2008, the first year for which such figures exist, asylum requests peaked in 2015 at 1.2 million.
Europe struggles with deportation orders
TRUMP: “Illegal aliens are pouring into Europe, and nobody’s doing anything to change it, to get them out.”
THE FACTS: EU authorities have struggled to carry out deportation orders. Every year, more than 400,000 foreign nationals who aren’t legally in the EU are ordered to leave, but only about 20% are deported, according to the European Commission.
Some EU countries have large migrant and foreign-born populations in prisons
TRUMP: “According to the Council of Europe, in 2024, almost 50% of inmates in German prisons were foreign nationals or migrants…”
THE FACTS: This is largely true, but Trump’s numbers for Germany weren’t right. Last year, 37% of Germany’s inmates — not 50% — were foreign-born or migrants.
Trump says London’s mayor wants to implement Sharia law
TRUMP: “I look at London, where you have a terrible mayor…”
THE FACTS: London’s mayor Sadiq Khan has never suggested that he might try to introduce Sharia, or Islamic law, to London.
The U.K is home to several Sharia councils, which deal with marriage and family issues according to Islamic teachings.
