With any pressing issue there comes fallacies, inaccuracies, and misconceptions about the reality of the situation. That's the case with the U.S. - Mexico border, where a number of falsehoods are often spoken as fact, and are backed up by bogus data. Here's the real deal on five of those misconceptions.

You're on your own for the rest. There are just way too many conspiracy theories out there to debunk.

1. The US - Mexico border is vulnerable to terrorists.

While it does seem, at least on the surface, that international terrorists could use Mexico as a gateway to the United States, the fact of the matter is, they aren't.

No terrorist has ever entered the United States through Mexico -- and in fact, quite a few of those terrorists that have devastated the nation in recent years have been domestic, not international.

But don't take our word for it. Take the word of the State Department's Country Report on Terrorism instead:

No known international terrorist organization had an operational presence in Mexico and no terrorist group targeted U.S. citizens in or from Mexican territory. There was no evidence of ties between Mexican criminal organizations and terrorist groups, nor that the criminal organizations had political or territorial control, aside from seeking to protect and expand the impunity with which they conduct their criminal activity.

Or maybe check out the above documentary, The Fence, which is both hilarious and informative. It'll school ya. That's not the whole thing, but you can find it on Netflix, and trust. It's awesome.

2. The border is not secure.

While that seems to be the talking (or screaming) point by most major politicians right now, the border isn't insecure. It's actually quite secure -- in fact, it's more secure than it's been in recent history.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has declared the border secure, and while there is indeed a problem at the border, it really can't be defined as a security issue. There are more than 20,000 Border Patrol agents stationed along the border, which is about double what it was ten years ago. The kids coming across the border from Central America are not criminals; they are children.

Not to mention that the majority of them are not crossing illegally. They're crossing to seek asylum, which means having to go through due process in the immigration system. But place too much emphasis on deporting or punishing the children at the border and there will be an opening for increased criminal activity, mind you.

According to the American Immigration Council, border security is about more than catching unauthorized immigrants; it’s about targeting real security threats. Currently, border-enforcement resources are directed at what gets smuggled across the border—people, drugs, guns, money—rather than who is doing the smuggling; namely, the transnational criminal organizations based in Mexico which are commonly referred to as the “cartels.”

And, you know, that's probably not the children.

3. The President is not enforcing immigration laws (or is making up his own, etc)

We don't care where you stand in your thoughts on the President -- the fact of the matter is, President Obama is enforcing immigration laws. In fact, President Obama has deported more immigrants than any other president in U.S. history. Surprised? Well, you shouldn't be.

Since taking the oath of office, Obama has deported immigrants at a faster rate than any other president in American history, and has removed a record number -- over 2 million people. He deported more people in one term than good ol' George W. Bush did in two. How's that for statistics-mind-blowing?

And things are speeding up, too. He's pushing for more reform, and immigration courts have begun to speed up hearings for Central American children, who were normally pushed to the back of one very long immigration line in the federal court system.

While immigration advocates -- and about half of the general public -- may not agree with his practices, it's hardly fair to label him as being soft on immigration policy. Those facts say otherwise.

4. If you build it -- THE FENCE, that is -- they won't come.

That whole mega-expensive fence thing? Yeah, it didn't work. Not at all.

What it did do, however, is cost a whole lot of money. The nation spent about $3 billion on that border fence, and the vast majority of that was single-layer — one line of fencing designed to keep either pedestrians or vehicles from crossing into the United States, according to a Government Accountability Office report.

7,000 construction workers, 350 engineers and 19 construction companies that built the barricade, and the breakdown for all of the trouble? It works out to about $40,000 spent for each undocumented person we "catch."

And there's an even bigger problem. There’s lots more holes than fence. The U.S.-Mexican border stretches over 2,000 miles; the fence only runs along 700 of them. Plus, ultimately people are pretty smart -- and quite innovative -- and if they want to get over that fence, they'll figure it out.

And we do mean over. See above for more details. (By the way -- that story? It's not an anomaly. It happens all the time.)

5. Tougher laws and policies equal deterrants for would-be immigrants.

The fact of the matter is, immigrants are traveling to the U.S. for a better life -- be it that they're fleeing poverty, extreme violence, or horrible gang problems, or even perhaps the dreaded "reunification" of (gasp) families who were separated across continents.

We know, we know. How dare we suggest such a thing.

Ultimately, a small number of would-be migrants do report being dissuaded by tougher policies, but with immigrants from fleeing countries like Honduras -- which has the highest murder rate in the world -- or El Salvador, which has become overrun with rival gangs, who control everything in the nation, the reality is, until their home countries are suitable for people to live in, the U.S. will continue to be a perceived safehaven for them.

There were 90.4 homicides per 100,000 people in Honduras in 2012, according to this year's report from the U.N. Office of Drugs and Crime. According to the Human Rights Watch World Report 2014, perpetrators of killings and other violent crimes in Honduras are rarely brought to justice. The institutions responsible for providing public security continue to prove largely ineffective and remain marred by corruption and abuse, while efforts to reform them have made little progress.

El Salvador is rated “Critical” for crime by the U.S. Department of State. El Salvador is considered one of the most violent countries in the world. The criminal threat in El Salvador is unpredictable, gang-centric, and characterized by violence directed against both known associates and targets of opportunity.

And according to ICE, during the first six months of 2011, 22 percent of deported migrants—a total of 46,486 people—left U.S. citizen children behind. What parent wouldn't attempt to reunify with their child, despite the policies set in place to keep them apart?