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Count on Donald Trump to repeat his talking points. The Republican presidential debate in Houston, Texas, on Feb. 25, 2016, opened with a discussion about illegal immigration. Trump, Sen. Marco Rubio and Sen. Ted Cruz sparred over how to deal with people living here illegally and how to secure the southern U.S. border. In the middle of the back-and-forth, Trump made the blanket statement that we wouldn’t be talking about illegal immigration if not for him. If it weren’t for me ... (illegal immigration) wouldn’t even be a big subject, Trump said. It’s a line we’ve heard from Trump since at least August. It was False then, and it’s still False now. Back in August, we searched major newspapers for the 51 days before Trump entered the race -- on June 16, 2015 -- and the 51 days after Trump’s announcement. We looked for the terms undocumented and illegal immigrant within 10 words of the word president. The results? The subject of illegal immigration certainly was a subject pre-Trump, and post-Trump. Date range Search term Number of articles April 25 to June 15 Undocumented 65 June 16 to Aug. 6 Undocumented 42 April 25 to June 15 Illegal immigrant 60 June 16 to Aug. 6 Illegal immigrant 79 Source: Lexis-Nexis Anecdotally, Cruz certainly has made illegal immigration a subject of his campaign. In Cruz’s announcement speech for president March 23, 2015 , Cruz said, Instead of the lawlessness and the president’s unconstitutional executive amnesty, imagine a president that finally, finally, finally secures the borders. Our ruling Trump said, If it weren’t for me ... (illegal immigration) wouldn’t even be a big subject. Trump’s talk about building a wall -- and making Mexico pay for it -- certainly has made headlines. But talk about America’s immigration system and proposed changes preceded the billionaire businessman’s candidacy for president. We rate this claim False.
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