When the biggest liar known to humanity tells us that something is true , it’s an easy bet that his assertion is false. Case in point: According to Donald Trump, undocumented immigrants are 1) committing horrendous crimes against Americans; 2) they are taking away our jobs, and 3) they are costing U.S. taxpayers many billions of dollars. On any reasonable comparative scale, each of those assertions is false, false, and false.

The facts are easy enough to find and verify. 1) The crime rate among immigrants is far less than that of U.S. citizens and other residents. In fact, the biggest violation among immigrants is “overstaying their visas,” and that is due mainly to Canadians. 2) Undocumented immigrants are mainly employed doing work that citizens and residents do not want. Examples: bussing and washing dishes in restaurants; cleaning rooms and toilets in hotels and motels; planting and harvesting our food sources; cutting our grass, trimming our trees, sweeping our streets; working as labor assistants to carpenters, brick layers, and roofers; plus cleaning our homes, and baby-sitting our children. And they do all that in the hot sun, in all kinds of weather, and typically for less than minimum wages. 3) They also earn their way by paying many billions of dollars into taxes and Social Security, but with no entitlement to ever draw on penny from that retirement source.

On an economic cost/benefit basis, is a wall to keep them out justified? Absolutely not! Think about it: Undocumented workers are much better law-abiders than we are; they are willing to do our dirty work for very low pay; and they pay into a bigger retirement fund for citizens and other residents that they cannot participate in. Even a 3rd grade dropout should know that they are one of our best economic bargains of all time. Incidentally, we stole about one-third of the United States from Mexico back in the late 1840s. Fact check that and discover a bit of our sordid history. Still, many of them have fought with us and for us in every war since then with uncommon valor.

So why does Trump continue to make his false assertions against this group of people who, by any honorable standard we dare to make, are among the best of humanity? First, his false claims are good distractors from his biggest problem: being impeached and removed from office. Shutting down the U.S. government and blaming them is a good distractor from his impeachment problem. Second, he is appealing to a small minority of residents who are easy to manipulate—the 3rd grade dropouts and their cohorts. And third, it is a subject that can be funneled through a disgraced but powerful propaganda machine where it is magnified into a colossal lie by experts at that game. Two of their biggest liars are Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, rich bloviators who appeal only to those in the bottom half of the IQ curve.

There is a place in history for those who stand truth on its head, who tell unconscionable lies about honorable people, and who dredge up shit from the pits of hell and throw it at us. I choose to stand as far from them and their wall of dishonor as I can get.