Cato Institute official pushes back after Trump touts its immigration data

The Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, is pushing back on President Trump’s claim that its immigration research shows the Trump administration’s handling of the southern border is “the best in the History of the U.S.A.”

The president on Tuesday posted a graph on his Truth Social platform tracking a 99.9 percent decline of legal entries of asylum seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border once Trump took office in January 2025.

“This was put out by the CATO Institute, who hates ‘TRUMP,’ but they can’t hide the facts,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Tuesday.

“The Democrats were a DISASTER on the Border, and we were the best in the History of the U.S.A.!” he added.

But in a blog post later on Tuesday, Cato’s director of immigration studies, David Bier, pushed back on Trump’s labeling of Democrats as the “disaster.” He noted that the chart, which only shows legal entries by immigrants, does not say anything about either party’s handling of illegal immigration.

“The people in that chart were going to official........

© The Hill