MSNBC’s Ali Velshi Fact-Checks Trump: MS-13 is Not the ‘Immigration Danger’ He Claims They Are

On Tuesday night, MSNBC host Ali Velshi challenged some of President Trump‘s claims about the ‘infestation” of MS-13 members throughout the country and ICE’s efforts of clearing them out.

Filling in for Brian Williams, Velshi began by say there’s “no evidence” to Trump’s repeated assertion that ICE has “liberated towns” from MS-13.  He then cited a statistic that shows that there are roughly 10,000 MS-13 members in the United States, which he said “sounds like a lot” but is “less than one percent” of the over one million gang members in the country. He did stress that he didn’t want to “minimize” the number of present MS-13 gang members.

Velshi did agree with Trump that MS-13 is “vicious” and pointed to the 27 murders that have taken place in Long Island by MS-13 members since 2013 and how they’re known to lure teens into isolated areas to kill them.

“They are as real and serious of a threat as many other lesser known U.S. gangs,” Velshi continued, “but they are not the immigration danger that Trump and others have held them up to be.”

He then pointed a statistic made U.S. Customs and Border Protection Rio Grande Sector Chief Manual Padilla Jr. that they capture about 180 MS-13 members and 187,000 illegal immigrants crossed the border last year, which makes up 0.096% of those entering the U.S. illegally.

“Ms-13 is a menace, but when it comes to immigration, it is not the infestation that Trump warns about,” Velshi concluded to his viewers.

Watch the clip above, via MSNBC.