Fact-checking Donald Trump’s Univision town hall with Latino voters

At a Noticias Univision town hall in South Florida, former President Donald Trump faced undecided Latino voters who questioned him about the cause and effect of his immigration agenda, his response to the Capitol riots in United States of January 6, 2021 and whether he believed the things he has said about immigrants in Springfield, Ohio.

Trump often avoided direct answers.

Jorge Velázquez, a 64-year-old farmer who lives in California, asked Trump: “This hard work is mostly done by undocumented people, if you deport them, who would do the work and what price would we pay for food?”

Trump responded with bogus arguments at campaign rallies, saying people are coming in illegally, including from prisons and mental institutions.

Trump also avoided talking about his promise to carry out mass deportations or to revoke birthright citizenship. He also left out a rallying line about immigrants “poisoning the blood of our country.”

When Ramiro Gonzalez, a 56-year-old Tampa man, told Trump he was upset about Trump’s inaction on the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and how he lost the support of former advisers. , Trump downplayed Jan. 6 as a “day of love.”

Here, we checked out some of Trump’s statements. (We also fact-checked Vice President Kamala Harris’ Oct. 10 Univision town hall.)

Trump downplayed January 6, 2021 as a “day of love,” saying he “didn’t kill anybody” and that “there were no guns.” Video evidence, court documents and news coverage show this to be false. Four people died on January 6, 2021, when Trump supporters broke into the US Capitol; one woman was shot to death and three others died from medical emergencies suffered during the riot. Court records say several defendants brought firearms with them, and some were charged with having firearms on Capitol grounds.

Trump said he told supporters who marched through the Capitol to act “peacefully and patriotically.” Trump told supporters at a Jan. 6, 2021, Save America rally, “I know everyone here will soon be marching to the Capitol building to make your voices heard in a peaceful and patriotic way “. But in the days before the rights and also the rally, he told them to “fight.”

Legal experts dispute Trump’s claim that Biden dropping out of the race and Harris becoming the Democratic presidential nominee was a “coup.” A “coup d’état” is a French term for overthrowing a government. Biden dropped out of the race on July 21 and endorsed Harris, but remains in office. Experts said Democrats persuading him to drop out of the race and then using party rules to replace him on the ticket is neither illegal nor a “coup.”

Trump falsely said “it’s been in the papers and reported” that immigrants in Springfield, Ohio eat pets. This distorts reality. What has been reported, repeatedly, is that this claim is incorrect. Local officials have said it’s false that immigrants in Springfield eat cats and dogs. News coverage has largely focused on debunking the false narrative that Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, have pushed.

Trump exaggerates how many immigrants there are in Springfield, Ohio. “They added almost 30,000” immigrants, Trump told a member of the town hall audience. City officials have said that between 12,000 and 20,000 new migrants arrived in Springfield in the past four years, in a city of just under 60,000. Most of the immigrants are Haitian and are allowed to live and work temporarily in the country legally.

Audience members ask former President Donald Trump questions Oct. 16, 2024, during a Univision town hall in Doral, Fla. (AP)

Trump said that “under Biden and Harris, they allowed 13,099 convicted murderers” into the US, but that misrepresents the data. A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official said there were 13,099 noncitizens convicted of homicide who are not in immigration detention. This represents people who entered the country over the past 40 years, not exclusively under the Biden-Harris administration. Many people are not in immigration detention because they are in police custody serving sentences.

Trump said, “Democrats want men to play women’s sports.” There is no official count, but estimates show that the population of transgender athletes participating in school sports is very small. It is up to states to decide whether to allow transgender athletes to participate in school sports. In recent years, 25 states have passed laws regulating the eligibility of transgender students who want to participate in school sports. These restrictions often focus on limiting the eligibility of transgender girls to play on girls’ teams. The U.S. Department of Education is working on a proposal that would prohibit schools from adopting “uniform” policies that prohibit transgender students from participating on teams consistent with their gender identity.

Trump falsely said they “want transgender operations, to turn a man into a woman, and in some cases a child into a woman without parental consent.” We scored a similar claim from Trump Pants on Fire. Gender-affirming surgery in minors is rare, and laws and professional standards require parents and medical providers to be involved in these decisions.

Former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, speaks Oct. 16, 2024, during a Noticias Univision town hall in Doral, Fla. (AP)

Speaking about Roe v. Wade, Trump said that “every lawyer, every jurist, Democrat, Republican, conservative … everybody wanted it out.” This repetition is false. Before the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, numerous legal scholars wrote briefs urging the Supreme Court to uphold it. Some lawyers who favor abortion rights have criticized Roe’s legal underpinnings, saying that different constitutional arguments, based on equal protection, would have provided a stronger case. But legal experts, including some who took that view, said those scholars would not have advocated overturning Roe on that basis.

Trump exaggerated interest rate levels during his presidency and under Biden, saying “interest rates went from 2% to 10%.” The 30-year fixed mortgage rate hit a low of 2.65% shortly before Trump left office, but rates had fallen amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The top rate under Trump was 4.94% in November 2018. Mortgage rates are higher under Biden because the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates to curb inflation. But they never reached 10%. The peak rate under Biden was 7.79% in October 2023. It is now 6.32%.

Trump is wrong (again) to preside over the “biggest economy” in US history. The unemployment rate fell during Trump’s presidency to levels not seen in five decades. But Biden matched or exceeded those levels. Another measure, annual increases in gross domestic product (the monetary value of all the goods and services a country produces) were broadly similar under Trump to what they were over the past six years under President Barack Obama. And GDP growth under Trump was lower than under previous presidents. Wages rose under Trump, but began to rise during Obama’s presidency. Wage increases under Trump were modest compared to the 2% annual increase of the 1960s.

Trump offered a dubious view of the prosperity of farmers during his presidency. Trump said: “Farmers are doing very badly under this administration. Under my administration, farmers were doing very well.” Statistics from the Department of Agriculture paint a different picture. The last two editions of the department’s Census of Agriculture covered 2017 (Trump’s first year in office) and 2022 (Biden’s second). Net farm income increased by 85% from 2017 to 2022. The share of farms reporting in the top net income category ($50,000 or more per year) increased from 33% in 2017 to 40% in 2022 .

PolitiFact senior correspondent Amy Sherman, staff writer Maria Ramirez Uribe, Grace Abels and Samantha Putterman contributed to this report.

RELATED: Fact-checking Kamala Harris’ Univision town hall with Latino voters.