WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), a member of the Judiciary Committee, today urged the Departments of Homeland Security and Justice to retract a misleading report from January 2018 that is underpinning many of the false arguments President Trump is currently making about the link between immigration and crime and terrorism. The January 2018 report is titled “Executive Order 13780: Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry into the U.S.” and was issued by the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice.

In a letter sent today to Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen and Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, Booker admonished the Administration for presenting false data and cherry-picking statistics in the report. For example, the report claims that between 2003 and 2009, immigrants were convicted of 69,929 sex offenses, when it reality, that figure represents the time period between 1955 and 2010. Despite admitting these clear and egregious errors, the Administration has refused to retract the report.

“The Report misleadingly connects terrorism and crime to immigration by presenting false data in order to generate fear regarding criminality among immigrants coming to the U.S.,” Booker said in the letter.  “Given the Trump Administration’s consistent misstatements and misleading characterizations, I ask you to reconsider your decision and correct or retract the Report. It is time the administration cease this troubling pattern of providing false and inaccurate information in an effort to justify its political agenda.”

The full letter can be viewed here.