There are a number of ways immigrants enter the United States illegally. One of those includes flight.
During a discussion about President Donald Trump’s proposal to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio said, “In Florida, 70 percent of the people here illegally came on an airplane. They overstayed a visa."
PolitiFact Florida heard the claim and gave it a MOSTLY TRUE rating on its PolitiFact Truth-O-Meter.
Writer Josh Gillin said Senator Rubio, a Florida Republican, was talking in the context of how he didn't think Donald Trump's wall between the United States and Mexico was going to solve the illegal immigration problem.
“Now, Florida has a different kind of mix of immigrants. It is not all people from Mexico or Central America. They come from South America, they come from Europe, they come from all over,” Gillin said.
Gillin went on to say, while there's no government agency that really tracks visa overstays in this fashion, experts did calculate approximately 430,000 immigrants in Florida overstayed their visas. That amounts to about 61 percent, not 70 percent
For that reason, Rubio's claim received a MOSTLY TRUE rating.
SOURCES: Rubio says airplane immigrants overstay visas
- Fox 4, "Sen. Marco Rubio says border is critical for security," Jan. 27, 2017
- Migration Policy Institute, "Border metrics: how to effectively measure border security and immigration control," January 2016
- Congressional Research Service, Unauthorized Aliens in the United States: Policy Discussion
- General Accountability Office, Overstay enforcement, July 2013
- Pew Research Center, U.S. unauthorized immigration population estimates
- Department of Homeland Security, Estimates of the Unauthorized Immigrant Population Residing in the United States: January 2012
- Journal on Migration and Human Security, "Beyond DAPA and DACA: Revisiting Legislative Reform in Light of Long-Term Trends in Unauthorized Immigration to the United States," 2015
- Center for Migration Studies, A Review of the Declining Numbers of Visa Overstays in the U.S. from 2000 to 2009, March 28, 2013
- NBC 2, "Rubio meets with SWFL growers on immigration issues," Jan. 27, 2017
- Sun Sentinel, "Tourists from Cuba don't leave; More immigrants fly to Miami, overstay visas but face no penalties," Dec. 13, 2015
- PolitiFact Florida, Rubio says 40% of illegal immigrants stayed in the U.S. after their visas expired, July 29, 2015
- PunditFact, "Ramos: 40% of undocumented immigrants come by air," Sept. 8, 2015
- PolitiFact, "Mike Pence says 'no effort' made against visa overstays," Sept. 12, 2016
- PolitiFact, John Carter claim that 40 percent of nation's illegal residents came by plane and overstayed visas draws on 2006 estimate, Sept. 6, 2013
- Interview, Robert Warren, senior fellow, Center for Migration Studies, Jan. 31, 2017
- Interview, Jeffrey Passel, Pew Research Center senior demographer, Feb. 1, 2017
- Interview, Michelle Mittelstadt, Migration Policy Institute spokeswoman, Jan. 31, 2017
- Interview, Jessica M. Vaughan, Director of Policy Studies for the Center for Immigration Studies, Feb. 1, 2017
- Interview, Carissa Cutrell, Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman, Feb. 1, 2017