“Have you seen what's happening? Human smugglers, human traffickers. Have you seen what they're doing? This is an ancient thing. It's an ancient crime. It's bigger now because of the computer because of the Internet than ever before worldwide, not just here, worldwide and most come through our southern border where we don't have a wall, they don't go through ports of entry. Your people looking inside the car or the van. So you can't do that. If you have women tied up with tape over their mouths, you can't take them through a port of entry. And a lot of these people say, "Oh they come through the port, they don't come through the port. They come through areas where you don't have the wall. Fifteen miles up and make a left.”
— Campaign rally, 05/08/2019
Mentioning women trafficked with tape over their mouths has become a standard part of Trump’s talking points on the need for a border wall. But human-trafficking experts and advocates for immigrant women have said they are perplexed by this tale in Trump’s repertoire — and are at a loss for where he got his information. No prominent news reports have detailed a case that matches the president’s description. (The New York Times reported on March 1 it had found some instances of women being duct-taped and trafficked across the border, but “If the president was suggesting that such savagery occurs daily on America’s southern border, then he was indeed exaggerating.”)