GOP Debate Fact Check: What Haley and DeSantis Said

“Biden has let in 8 million people just in four years.”

— Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida

This is misleading.

DeSantis is referring to the number of “encounters” with migrants at the U.S. borders under the Biden administration — about 8 million through the fall of 2023, according to federal data.

The number is based on events, not unique individuals, and does not represent the actual number of migrants who have entered the country.

Customs and Border Protection data also shows that there were about 2.5 million expulsions under Title 42 during the Biden administration before that rule expired in May. Title 42 was a health rule that used the coronavirus as grounds for turning back immigrants illegally crossing the border.

Looking at the southern border, the government released more than 2 million migrants into the country under the Biden administration, The Washington Post recently reported.

Pressed during a recent Fox News interview, the secretary of homeland security, Alejandro Mayorkas, said that there were “well more than 1 million” immigrants released into the country each year.

“We have one of the top-performing fourth-grade reading and math in the country.”

— DeSantis

True.

In 2022, Florida fourth-graders performed above national averages in both reading and math, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the gold-standard federal exam. Other top-performing states included Massachusetts, New Jersey and Utah.

“I have always fought to protect kids. I have always said that boys need to go into boys’ bathrooms, girls need to go into girls’ bathrooms, that we shouldn’t have any gender transitions before the age of 18. Just like we don’t have tattoos before the age of 18, we shouldn’t have gender transformation or puberty blockers.”

— Nikki Haley, former governor of South Carolina

This needs context.

Haley has indeed repeatedly said that minors should not be able to receive gender-affirming surgeries before age 18. But DeSantis and other critics have pointed to a comment she made in June, when she suggested that the law should not be involved in regulating such care.

During a CBS interview, Haley was asked what the law should say regarding transgender care for youths. “I think the law should stay out of it, and I think parents should handle it,” Haley responded.

Still, even then, Haley added that “when that child becomes 18, if they want to make more of a permanent change they can do that.”

She similarly said in May: “You shouldn’t allow a child to have a gender-changing procedure until the age of 18 when they are an adult and they can make that decision. But we shouldn’t have taxpayer dollars ever going to that.”

“We started holding kids back instead of pushing them forward. We brought in their parents. We did reading remediation. And we set them up for success.”

— Haley

This is misleading.

Haley implied that her education policies improved performance in South Carolina. It is true that, as governor, Haley championed the 2014 “Read to Succeed” bill, which sought to improve reading scores by hiring literacy coaches and by holding back third graders who did not demonstrate skill in reading.

But fourth grade reading scores in the state did not significantly change in subsequent years and have often been below national averages, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a gold-standard federal exam.

“Nikki Haley also opposed the border wall in 2016.”

— DeSantis

False.

Haley did not oppose a border wall; she said that a wall alone was not the answer.

Speaking during a 2015 event at the National Press Club, Haley implored Republicans “to remember that the fabric of America came from these legal immigrants” but went on to say that “illegal immigration is an extremely important issue in this country.”

“Don’t say you’re just going to build a wall, because a wall’s not going to do it,” she added. “You’ve got to have commitment of ground troops, equipment, money — all of that — to bring it together. Then you’re being serious about tackling illegal immigration.”

“She ran for governor, saying she was going to do universal school choice. And she caved to the teachers union. She didn’t deliver that. In Florida, I delivered the largest expansion of school choice in the history of the United States.”

— DeSantis

This requires context.

As governor of South Carolina from 2011-17, Haley was known as a strong supporter of school choice. But there was opposition in the state — including among public school teachers — and a sweeping school voucher law did not pass until this year, under the current governor, Henry McMaster, a Republican.

However, teachers unions have not been powerful in South Carolina, where they have long lacked collective bargaining rights.

Before DeSantis was elected governor of Florida, the state already had several school-choice programs. As governor, DeSantis broadly expanded educational savings accounts by allowing all families, regardless of income, to have access to state funding to cover the costs of private school tuition, home-schooling and tutoring, among other expenses.

According to EdChoice, an advocacy group, Florida’s program is “the most expansive” in the country.

“Nikki Haley, when she was governor, she promised she would never do the gas tax. Then she tried to raise the gas tax on hardworking South Carolinians.”

— DeSantis

This is misleading.

As governor of South Carolina, Haley vowed not to raise the gas tax and resisted calls to do so. But in 2015, she proposed a plan to raise the gas tax only if the state also reduced the income tax rate to 5%, from 7%, and made changes to the state’s Transportation Department. Haley did not ultimately raise the gas tax.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.