Fact Check: Yes, Democrats Once Supported Walls on the Border

President Donald Trump claimed that Democrats once supported fences and barriers on the U.S.-Mexico border during an Oval Office address on Tuesday evening.

According to congressional records, Trump is correct when he said elected House and Senate Democrats previously supported funding for barriers and fences at the southern border.

The Secure Fence Act of 2006, which authorized the construction of 700 miles of the same style of bollard fence that Trump is building at the border, was supported by 26 Senate Democrats at the time. In the House, 64 Democrats joined 219 Republican lawmakers to fund the border fencing.

Those Democrats in support of funding the bollard border fencing included:

• Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY)
• Then-Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY)
• Then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL)
• Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)
• Then-Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE)
• Then-Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA)

All 54 Senate Democrats, in 2013, voted again to commit funding to secure 700 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border in the Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act — which was authored and introduced by Schumer.

In November 2018, there were close to 52,000 border crossings on the southern border, alone, marking the highest level of illegal immigration in the month of November since 2006.