Fox News host fact checks Sarah Huckabee Sanders over border wall claims

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Even Fox News is fact checking the Trump administration when it claims that a border wall is necessary because terrorists are coming into the US through a porous southern border.

Fox host Chris Wallace did as much on Sunday during an interview with White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who falsely implied that thousands of terrorists had been apprehended as they attempted to cross into the US from Mexico.

In reality, the data set Ms Sanders appeared to be citing showed that no terrorists were arrested at the southwest US border.

“We know that roughly, nearly 4,000 known or suspected terrorists come into our country illegally. And we know that our most vulnerable point of entry is at our southern border, Chris,” Ms Sanders said.

Ms Sanders, here, appears to be citing 2017 data, the last year for which data is available, which does show that 4,000 people were stopped by the US Department of Homeland Security that year on suspicion of being terrorists. Most of those stops occurred in airports.

“Wait. Wait. Wait. I know the statistic, I didn't know if you were going to use it, but I studied up on this. Do you know where those 4,000 people … where they’re captured? Airports,” Wallace said.

“Not always,” Ms Sanders interjected.

Wallace continued: “The State Department says there hasn’t been any terrorist that they’ve found coming across the border from Mexico”.

Ms Sanders doubled down, however, insisting: “It’s by air, it’s by land, and it’s by sea. It’s all of the above”.

President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress have overseen a shutdown of the US government that has entered its third week, fuelled by the presidents refusal to sign a funding bill that does not include more than $5bn to build a wall along the southern border.

Democrats, newly empowered in the House, have stated that they will not approve funding for a border wall. Instead, they have offered just over $1bn in funding for “border security”, with no allowance for the wall.