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US President Barack Obama today rejected Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's claim that America is in deep crisis, asserting that it does not jibe with facts as violent crime and illegal immigration have plunged during his leadership to their lowest rates in last three decades.
"We're not going to make good decisions based on fears that don't have a basis in fact," Obama told reporters at a joint news conference with his Mexican counterpart Enrique Pena Nieto.
"America is much less violent than it was 20, 30 years ago. Immigration is much less a problem than it was not just 20 or 30 years ago, but when I came in as president. That doesn't mean we haven't solved those problem, but those are facts," Obama said in response to a question.
Obama said he did not watch the convention, but has a broader idea of what was discussed during the four-day event in Cleveland.
"I don't think that's a surprise. I've got a lot of stuff to do and they are pretty long events. But I did read some of what was said, and the one thing that I think is important to recognise is this idea that America is somehow on the verge of collapse, this vision of violence and chaos everywhere, doesn't really jibe with the experience of most people," he said.
"I think it is important, just to be absolutely clear here, that some of the fears that were expressed throughout the week just don't jibe with the facts. So let's take two specific examples. When it comes to crime, the violent crime rate in America has been lowered during my presidency than anytime in the last three, four decades," he said.
Acknowledging an uptick in murders in some US cities this year, he said the violent crime rate is still far lower than when Ronald Reagan was president in the 1980s.
"Although it is true that we've seen an uptick in murders and violent crime in some cities this year, the fact of the matter is that the murder rate today, the violence rate today is far lower than it was when Ronald Reagan was president and lower than when I took office," he said.
"We've just gone through a tragic period where we saw both tragedy in Minnesota and Baton Rouge, and then the insanity and the viciousness of people targeting police officers. And we are all heart broken by that and we're all troubled by how we can rebuild trust, support law enforcement and make sure the communities feel that they are being fairly policed," he said.
"The fact is that the rate of intentional killings of police officers is also significantly lower than it was when Ronald Reagan was president. Those are facts. That's the data."
On immigration, he said illegal migration into the US today is lower by two-thirds than it was when Reagan was president.
"When it comes to immigration, I think Americans expect that our immigration process is orderly and it is legal. And we have put unprecedented resources at our border," said the US President.
"Well, it turns out that the rate of illegal migration into the United States today is lower by two-thirds than it was when Ronald Reagan was president. We have far fewer undocumented workers crossing the border today than we did in the '80s or the '90s or when George Bush was president. That's a fact," he said.
