CNN Undercard Republican Debate: Live Coverage

Ben, you’re right about illegal immigration overall, but Santorum was talking specifically about unaccompanied minors, whose immigration has spiked in recent months, which is worrying since it usually slows in the fall and winter. Not only does that create a burden on shelters, it will also add to the growing backlog of pending cases in U.S. immigration courts.

Lots of talk about how we can’t screen refugees, which isn’t quite true. Here’s a look at an overview of the process of vetting refugees who come to the United States — it’s a pretty rigorous look. That said, right now, the U.S. doesn’t look at the social media presence of say, people who come to the country on a tourist visa. There are certainly gaps in intelligence. But back on the point of refugees, as I wrote a couple of weeks ago, there’s no real connection or historical evidence that being a refugee means that you’re going to be a terrorist once you come to the U.S. It’s pretty unlikely.

Rick Santorum says we’ve “created a magnet” for illegal immigration. But the real magnet was the strong labor market of the 1990s and 2000s — and once that ended, immigration slowed dramatically. According to the Pew Research Center, more Mexicans are now leaving the U.S. than entering it. And net illegal immigration has fallen more or less to zero in recent years.