That was Trump's claim on January 14th. He repeated the claim yesterday. He wants Americans to believe that the building of the 57 miles wall in 2008 significantly reduced violent crime in El Paso. There's only one problem with his statement. It is NOT true.
I made the chart above using data from city-dat.com. It compares the murder rate (per 100,000 people) in El Paso to two other American cities roughly the same size as El Paso -- Denver and Boston (neither of which are known as high crime cities).
Note that El Paso is indeed a very safe city, with a murder rate significantly below that of both Denver and Boston for the years 2002 through 2016.
But more important than that is the rate has not changed since the wall was built in 2008. It was low before the wall was built, and has remained low after the wall was finished. The wall did NOT make El Paso a safer city.
Trump has told lie after lie to try and convince Americans that a border wall is needed. His claim about El Paso is just another one of those lies.
You can go to FactCheck.org for a more in depth look at the El Paso issue.
