Texas Sen. Ted Cruz made a bold claim about undocumented immigrants Friday after touring the Arizona border.
Cruz, in town rounding up support ahead of Tuesday's Presidential Preference Election, claimed President Barack Obama's administration released 196 undocumented immigrants with murder convictions.
"Just a couple years ago, the Obama administration released over 104,000 criminal illegal aliens, released 196 murderers," Cruz said at a presser in Douglas.
PolitiFact truth-checked this same statement from Sen. Cruz back in August 2015.
They found that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did release 104,000 criminal undocumented aliens in 2013, but 68,000 of those were never detained by the agency.
Plus, while ICE did release 169 people with murder convictions, 72 percent were mandatory. In most cases, because of pending deportation proceedings.
They also noted that the Obama administration does not have full decision-making authority as court decisions and federal laws also have an impact on the release of criminal undocumented aliens.
PolitiFact rated this claim Half True.
