Rick Perry recently claimed that "the federal government has not engaged in (border security) at all." He was speaking at the GOP debate hosted by Fox News and Google on September 22nd, 2011, in Orlando, Fla.

The Truthsquad community fact-checked this claim from September 28th to October 5th, 2011. Together, we reviewed over a dozen factual documents from multiple, credible sources reporting on this topic (see links to the right). We found overwhelming evidence that the federal government has devoted significant resources to stop illegal crossings of the U.S Mexico border, and has dramatically increased its border patrol efforts in recent years. Furthermore, trusted fact-checking organizations such as FactCheck and PolitiFact came to similar conclusions, after extensive research by their experienced journalists. Based on these results, we find this claim FALSE.

Here are some of the key facts which led us to reach this finding:
• The Department of Homeland Security has more than 20,000 border patrol agents (DHS)
• The number of border security agents has more than doubled over the last decade (CRS)
• Border patrol appropriations have tripled to 3.5 billion since 2000 (CRS)
• Obama’s proposed 2012 budget calls for even more border patrol increases (OMB)
• Deportation and criminal enforcement of illegal immigrants have also increased (TRAC)
• Perry's own office cites partnerships with federal agencies like the U.S. Border Patrol

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Rick Perry recently claimed that "the federal government has not engaged in (border security) at all." He was speaking at the GOP debate hosted by Fox News and Google on September 22nd, 2011, in Orlando, Fla.

The Truthsquad community fact-checked this claim from September 28th to October 5th, 2011. Together, we reviewed over a dozen factual documents from multiple, credible sources reporting on this topic (see links to the right). We found overwhelming evidence that the federal government has devoted significant resources to stop illegal crossings of the U.S Mexico border, and has dramatically increased its border patrol efforts in recent years. Furthermore, trusted fact-checking organizations such as FactCheck and PolitiFact came to similar conclusions, after extensive research by their experienced journalists. Based on these results, we find this claim FALSE.

Here are some of the key facts which led us to reach this finding:
• The Department of Homeland Security has more than 20,000 border patrol agents (DHS)
• The number of border security agents has more than doubled over the last decade (CRS)
• Border patrol appropriations have tripled to 3.5 billion since 2000 (CRS)
• Obama’s proposed 2012 budget calls for even more border patrol increases (OMB)
• Deportation and criminal enforcement of illegal immigrants have also increased (TRAC)
• Perry's own office cites partnerships with federal agencies like the U.S. Border Patrol

Community members who participated in this truthsquad are nearly unanimous in finding this claim false. Here are some observations, excerpted from the community findings below.

NewsTrust host and contributing editor Kristin Gorski wrote: "Article after article I found, representing multiple reliable media outlets, feature the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, part of the Department of Homeland Security. It is, without a doubt, a working federal entity actively engaged in protecting borders of the United States. "

Other members confirmed this finding, such as Colleen E Bushey, who wrote: "According to the statistics for CBP the number of "boots on the ground" have increased more each year since 2009." Edward Olson: "many news stories and video clips indicating the Border Patrol's activities in policing the border. US News and World Report and MSNBC to name two."

It's also worth noting that two of our members live on the border and provided eyewitness reports to confirm high federal activity levels in their area. Here's what Ben Schultz noted: "I live within sight of the border in Jacumba Ca. If you could see the number of border patrol vehicles, helicopter, horse, quads, etc. You would never say anything so foolish. They are everywhere …"

Overall, the factual evidence we found together overwhelmingly supports our 'false' rating, whether these findings originated from citizen reviewers or experienced journalists. To learn more, we invite you to read some of the other notes below, as well as the links in the right column of this page.

We would like to thank all of the NewsTrust members who have so generously contributed to this pilot so far. We really appreciate all of your great insights and hope that you learned as much from this experience as we did.

If you haven't participated in this pilot yet, give it a try. You'll be glad you did, as it's proving to be a really effective way for anyone to get better informed about important issues, by investigating them pro-actively in collaboration with other citizens and experienced journalists. The more we dig together, the more we learn as a community.

Can you join our next Truthsquad? This week, we're fact-checking Barack Obama's claim that construction workers are "paying a higher tax rate than somebody pulling in $50 million a year."
TRUE or FALSE?

Fabrice Florin, on behalf of Truthsquad editors