Trump Wants You to Accept All of This as Normal

In the final week of this election season, the Republican Party is running two different campaigns. One of them is an ugly and angry but conventional political enterprise. Donald Trump and other Republicans make speeches; party operatives seek to get out the vote; money is spent in swing states; television and radio advertisements proliferate. The people running that campaign are focused on winning the election. Last night, in New York City’s Madison Square Garden, we caught a glimpse of the other campaign. This is the campaign that is psychologically preparing Americans for an assault on the electoral system, a second January 6, if Trump doesn’t win—or else an assault on the political system and the rule of law if he does. Listen carefully to the words of Tucker Carlson, the pundit fired from Fox News partly for his role in lying about the 2020 election. Warming up the crowd for Trump, he mocked the very idea that Kamala Harris could win: “It’s going to be pretty hard to look at us and say, ‘You know what? Kamala Harris, she got 85 million votes because she’s so impressive as the first Samoan Malaysian, low-I.Q., former California prosecutor ever to be elected president.” “Samoan Malaysian” was Carlson’s way of mocking Harris’s mixed-race background, and “low-IQ” is self-explanatory—but “85 million” is a number of votes she could in fact win. And how, Carlson suggested, could there be such a “groundswell of popular support” for a person he demeaned as a mongrel, an incompetent, an idiot? The answer was clear: There can’t be, and if anyone says it happened, then we will contest it. Read: This is Trump’s message All of this is part of the game: the Trump campaign’s loud confidence, despite dead-even polls; its decision, in the final days, to take the candidate outside the swing states to New York, New Mexico, and Virginia, because we’ve got this in the bag (and not, say, because filling arenas in Pennsylvania is getting harder); the hyping of Republican-early-voter numbers, even though no evidence indicates that these are new voters, just people who are no longer being discouraged from voting early. Also the multiple attempts, across the country, to remove large numbers of people from the rolls; the many claims, with no justification, that “illegal immigrants” are voting or even, as Trump implied during the September debate, that illegal immigrants are being deliberately imported into the country in order to vote; Vance’s declaration that he will accept the election results as long as “only legal American citizens” vote. At Madison Square Garden, Trump doubled down on that rhetoric. He repeated past claims about the “invasion” of immigrants; about “Venezuelan gangs” occupying American cities, even Times Square; and he offered an instant solution: “On day one, I will launch the largest deportation program in American history to get these criminals out. I will rescue every city and town that has been invaded and conquered, and we will put these vicious and bloodthirsty criminals in jail.” But he left open the question of who exactly all these “criminals” might be, because he seemed to be talking about not just immigrants but also his political opponents, “the enemy within.” The United States, he said, “is now an occupied country, but it will soon be an occupied country no longer … November 5, 2024, nine days from now, will be Liberation Day in America.” The insults we heard from many speakers at Madison Square Garden, including the description of Puerto Rico as “garbage” or of Harris as “the anti-Christ” or of Hillary Clinton as a “sick son of a bitch”—insults that can also be heard in a thousand podcast episodes featuring Carlson, Elon Musk, J. D. Vance, and their ilk—are part of the same effort. Trump’s electorate is being primed to equate his political opposition with infection, pollution, and demonic power, and to accept violence and chaos as a legitimate, necessary response to these primal, lethal threats. Recommended Reading Against the Sticker Chart Erica Reischer Dear Therapist: I Can’t Stand My Dad’s New Wife Lori Gottlieb The Death of an Adjunct Adam Harris As I wrote earlier this month, this kind of language, imported from the 1930s, has never before been part of mainstream American presidential politics, because no other political candidate in modern history has used an election to undermine the legal basis of the American political system. But if we are an occupied country, then Joe Biden is not the legitimately elected president of the United States. If we are an occupied country, then the American government is not a set of institutions established over centuries by Congress, but rather a sinister cabal that must be dismantled at any price. If we are an occupied country, then of course the Trump administration can break the law, commit acts of violence, or even trash the Constitution in order to “liberate” Americans, either after Trump has lost the election or after he has won it. Read: Trump’s tariff talk might already be hurting the economy This kind of language is not being used accidentally or incidentally. It is not a joke, even when used by professional comedians. These insults are central to Trump’s message, which is why they were featured at a venue he reveres. They are also classic authoritarian tactics that have worked before, not only in the 1930s but also in places such as modern Venezuela and modern Russia, countries where the public was also prepared over many years to accept lawlessness and violence from the state. The same tactics are working in the United States right now. Election workers, whose job is to carry out the will of the voters, are already the subject of violent threats and harassment. At least two ballot boxes have been attacked. The natural human instinct is to dismiss, ignore, or downplay these kinds of threats. But that’s the point: You are meant to accept this language and behavior, to consider this kind of rhetoric “baked in” to any Trump campaign. You are supposed to just get used to the idea that Trump wishes he had “Hitler’s generals” or that he uses the Stalinist phrase “enemies of the people” to describe his opponents. Because once you think that’s normal, then you’ll accept the next step. Even when that next step is an assault on democracy and the rule of law. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Liberal unions ramp up Harris campaigning after Teamsters defect

RENO, Nevada — Union volunteers who power Democratic campaigns — many of them, working-class women — have supercharged their efforts to send Vice President Kamala Harris to the White House following endorsement snubs from the male-heavy Teamsters, firefighters and port workers unions. Their redoubled efforts are a test of whether so-called care economy workers can sway the election in favor of Democrats despite fissures in the labor movement and Donald Trump’s gravity with working-class men. ”This was important to us, regardless of the Teamsters and the firefighters,” said UNITE HERE President Gwen Mills, whose hospitality union is aiming to knock on 3.5 million doors in what it calls the largest labor-led canvass for Harris. “We all have members in our unions who took to Trump, but as a majority, we don’t,” Mills said, “and we feel like it’s our job as the leadership of the union to be engaged with our members about the difference that these two administrations would make.” Teamsters president says lack of endorsement is a 'wake up call' SharePlay Video UNITE HERE’s fieldwork is just the latest push by a progressive labor group to buttress Harris in the final sprint before the election. The National Education Association has targeted digital ads and canvassed union households in eight swing states while the AFL-CIO reports that its 60 unions — which represent domestic workers, school employees and other professions — have spoken with more than 3 million voters, the most in the federation’s history. The Service Employees International Union, the nation’s largest health care and building service labor group, has bolstered its multi-swing state operation by busing members from Los Angeles to Nevada and Arizona to knock doors. Several of the efforts extend to wide swaths of working-class voters, but the Harris campaign assigns special importance to labor groups’ ability to communicate with their members — who number 2.7 million in battleground states, according to a past memo from campaign manager Julie Chávez Rodríguez. “That means something when roughly 45,000 votes in key states decided the election four years ago,” Chávez Rodríguez wrote in August, which would turn out to be the month before the Teamsters became the largest union to decline to endorse Harris. “Endorsements are much more than words on a press release. In a fragmented media environment, union leadership is uniquely effective at breaking through to their members.” Kamala Harris speaks to supporters. The Harris campaign assigns special importance to labor groups’ ability to communicate with their members — who number 2.7 million in battleground states, according to a memo from campaign manager Julie Chávez Rodríguez. | Scott Olson/Getty Images Union leaders still in Harris’ corner agree that the rank-and-file — despite struggles to make inroads with members who support Trump — has an ethos that can sway fellow working-class voters who boosted the former president in past elections. Several of those groups including the AFL-CIO have targeted ads and canvassing efforts at union members, their family members and eligible voters within the same low- and middle-income demographics. “What we do best is having one-on-one conversations with workers about the stakes of the election,” said AFL-CIO spokesperson Steve Smith. “That contact is more important than it has ever been due to the cynicism in the American electorate.” The unions that make that contact with voters most frequently on Democrats’ behalf are still campaigning for Harris, even after the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and International Association of Fire Fighters peeled away. Those more conservative unions were not central to the party’s ground game in years past even when they had endorsed the Democratic nominee. “The labor unions that turn people out are usually the teachers, the service employees” and unions representing health care employees, said Doug Herman, a Democratic strategist and Obama campaign alumnus. “That’s the biggest chunk in terms of percentage of labor.” MOST READ financial-markets-wall-street-97462.jpg The stock market’s surprising bet on who will win the presidency Mark Cuban Shows Democrats What They’ve Been Missing DeSantis’ war on ballot measures ignites fury in Florida: ‘This is still a democracy’ Black turnout is lagging in North Carolina, a warning sign for Harris Dems see signs for optimism in gender gap in early vote Democratic presidential campaigns routinely draw large numbers of volunteers, but expanded canvassing by unions could prove important for Harris “because everything matters in a tight election,” said Herman. “You never know which contact or which piece of communication is going to be the one that turns the light switch on for the voter.” The 310,000-member California Teachers Association doesn’t usually canvass for presidential candidates, but it recently dispatched hundreds of members to turn out votes for Harris in the neighboring swing state of Nevada. “I absolutely think abortion will drive our members to vote. Women have died.” Becky Pringle, president, National Education Association The CTA, the largest union of its kind in the nation, visited the homes of independent voters during its outing in Reno, Nevada, earlier this month. Its president, David Goldberg, met enthusiastic Harris supporters, though one man slammed the door in his face. Goldberg and fellow volunteers also passed over several suburban homes that had Trump flags waving on their lawns though they were listed as having residents without a party affiliation. “That just speaks to the cult of personality around him,” remarked Goldberg, who came up through the ranks of the powerhouse United Teachers Los Angeles. Even for the progressive CTA, which routinely endorses and donates to state Democrats, pushing members onto the trail was unusual. Its leaders can’t remember a time when the union deployed members to campaign in a presidential race. The decision was panned by some Republican teachers who had come to Reno for a conference from a conservative part of the state and complained that it was inappropriate. “There’s tension with the decision to spend time walking and talking, and I hear you,” Goldberg told members in an address. But Goldberg, who has now led the union for a year, said he felt compelled to propose such a step to the union’s board. “Unions should not shy away from having deep political conversations,” he said in an interview, arguing that falling membership in churches and community groups in the U.S. has closed off important channels for political dialogue. “Unions are one of the last places where we actually can do this. We have an obligation. It makes us stronger, even when we disagree.” Most unions have endorsed the Democratic nominee again this cycle, though the Trump campaign has relished slipping support by groups representing industrial workers, trades and law enforcement. “While union leadership has been fully entrenched in Democrat politics for decades, the workers who comprise unions are supporting President Trump because they have paid the price for Kamala’s failed economic policies over the past four years and know President Trump stood strong for the American worker during his first term in office by putting more money in their pockets, negotiating good trade deals around the world, standing up for law enforcement and first responders, and protecting their jobs here at home,” Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. Partisan splits extend to the Teamsters and firefighters, who both have state and regional unions that have endorsed Harris despite their national counterparts laying off. Meanwhile, American union membership has dwindled since the election of President Joe Biden, who has proclaimed himself the most pro-union president in American history. Paradoxically, union ferment has spiked during his presidency, as strikes hit a 23-year high last year. A person holds a sign that says Labor for Harris Walz. Democratic presidential campaigns routinely draw large numbers of volunteers, but expanded canvassing by unions could prove important for Harris. | Scott Olson/Getty Images One of those walkouts was held by the United Teachers Los Angeles and the Service Employees International Union Local 99, which represents support staff like teacher assistants and bus drivers in the nation’s second-largest school district. Since the strike last year, SEIU 99 members have become more politically active in local and national elections, said President Max Arias. Of late, they’ve traveled to Phoenix and Las Vegas to campaign for Harris. ”People are way more engaged” since the strike, Arias said. “We have seen an uptick in a lot of our efforts, and we have no trouble filling up buses to Nevada or Arizona.” Weekend excursions from Harris’ home state have grown her army of volunteers, but national labor operations report that most of their volunteers live where they’re knocking doors. “We’re not parachuting in,” said AFL-CIO’s Smith. “We’re trying to ground these campaigns in the communities.” UNITE HERE drastically expanded its presidential campaign operations in 2020, after 98 percent of its members lost their jobs at the onset of the pandemic. It knocked 3 million doors that cycle and has already exceeded that number this year, focusing on immigration policy, which affects many of its members, as well as abortion rights. The leaders of majority-women unions have cast their role as especially important in messaging on abortion rights. The National Education Association has included the issue in its member-to-member persuasion efforts. “I absolutely think abortion will drive our members to vote,” National Education Association President Becky Pringle said in an interview. “Women have died.” Unions have boosted swing congressional candidates, too. The AFL-CIO is focused on races in Nebraska, Ohio and Montana, and the NEA has campaigned for Democrats in North Carolina and Montana. But Pringle also acknowledged the importance of winning battleground House seats in Democratic strongholds like California and New York when she joined “the big, bad, powerful” California Teachers Association in Reno. “California, no pressure,” she told members in an address. “But I’m depending on you to ensure that, come January, it will be Speaker Hakeem Jefferies.” Filed under: Labor Unions, Labor, Teamsters, California, Donald Trump, Playbook The unofficial guide to official Washington, every morning and weekday afternoons. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Trump’s mass deportation plan would be ‘economic disaster’ for US

If elected, Donald Trump plans to carry out “the largest deportation operation in American history”. After pushback on Joe Biden’s border policies, Kamala Harris has embraced border restrictions and the need to maintain limits on asylum seekers. But neither candidate captures the realities of US immigration. US consumers are accustomed to cheap goods and services, and the economic rationale for large-scale immigration has been largely avoided. In a country that relies on a mobile, low-cost workforce, the loss of migrant workers would trigger productivity losses and a new round of inflationary pricing pressure. “It would be an economic disaster for America and Americans,” says Zeke Hernandez, an economics professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, of Trump’s deportations threat. “It’s not just the immigrants would be harmed, but we, the people of America, would be economically harmed.” Baby boomers are retiring, and with fewer immigrants, the workforce will struggle to sustain economic output: US employers will need to hire 240,000 people a month for the next five years just to replace those who are stepping out, according to one recent study. Hernandez, author of a recent book, The Truth About Immigration, argues that immigrants contribute talent, investment, innovation, consumption and tax revenue. “If you lose those things, there are fewer jobs, the economy contracts and becomes less diversified.” Of the undocumented migrants, between 8 and 9 million are in the workforce doing essential jobs that Americans disproportionately don’t want to do or work in sectors where there aren’t enough workers. Typically, that’s farm work (one third of the labor force), construction work (about one quarter) and about half of the labor force in skilled work like drywalling, plumbing and insulation. “Undocumented immigrants make up a huge proportion of household services, manufacturing work, kitchen staff in restaurants. Americans simply do not do those jobs, or there are not enough to go around. But if you lose those key ‘bottleneck’ workers, the native workforce also can’t do their jobs,” says Hernandez. A study by the Center for Migration Studies estimates undocumented workers contribute $97bn in federal, state and local taxes, their removal from the workforce would have a substantial impact on local economies, including pushing nearly 10 million US citizens into economic hardship. Families would also be profoundly impacted. About 5.8m US households are home to at least one undocumented resident and mass deportations would break up nearly 5m US families. The cost of bringing up US-born children whose caregivers are removed has been put at $116bn. Taxpayers would have to foot the bill. Apprehending and deporting just 1 million of an estimated 11 million-12 million undocumented migrants in the US could cost taxpayers about $20bn, or $19,599 per person, according to a CBS News analysis of federal data – and take far longer than the term of a four-year Trump administration. Business leaders have been fairly quiet on Trump’s plans – possibly fearing retribution – but some lobby groups have begun to tally the costs of mass deportation. The construction sector employs an estimated 1.5 million undocumented workers, or 13% of its total workforce – a larger share than any other, according to data the Pew Research Center. Construction firms, already facing labor shortages, are warning that the loss of immigrant workers would push new home prices higher. The National Association of Home Builders considers foreign-born workers, regardless of legal status, “a vital and flexible source of labor”. The CEO of the NAHB, Jim Tobin, told NBC that their loss would be “detrimental to the construction industry and our labor supply and exacerbate our housing affordability problems”. The Business Roundtable notes that “immigrants have always been a key part of America’s innovative spirit. A vast majority of economists and business leaders agree that immigration is a net positive for the US economy” but says “the system for welcoming these highly valuable workers is broken”. A 2023 study of previous efforts at mass deportation, such as President Barack Obama’s Secure Communities program from 2008 to 2014 that resulted in the deportation of almost half a million people, found that any benefits from reduced job competition that US-born workers face were counteracted by a decline in labor demand due to an increase in labor costs. “Police-based enforcement policies aimed at reducing the number of undocumented immigrants should consider the potential negative spillover effects on the labor market outcomes of immigrants who remain in the US and on US-born workers,” a University of Denver study concluded. The same effect was seen during the Trump and Biden administrations when the Covid pandemic caused about a million fewer immigrants to enter the US leading to labor shortages and reduced output, and contributing to inflationary pressure. The post-pandemic spike in immigration contributed to inflation coming down, according to Hernandez. “Immigration allowed business to hire again and raise output to what the market demands, so prices normalized,” he says. Nevertheless opponents of immigration have been “very effective at flooding the zone with false or dubious claims”, said Hernandez. Biden’s policies, which Harris is now walking back, have created complications for the Latino communities in the US, resulting in declining support for Democrats and a frantic late-campaign effort to shore up their votes. In 2012, Latino support for Obama was at 71%. Eight years later Biden won 62%. A recent Times/Siena poll found Harris with 56%. According to Ana Valdez, president and CEO of the Latino Donor Collaborative, says the negative myths around Latino immigration are just “pure rhetoric … Trump knows that most of the workforce the US needs to continue growing comes from Latinos.” Valdez cites labor department statistics that show Latino workers in the labor force have grown from 10.7 million in 1990 to 29 million in 2020, and are projected to reach 36 million in 2030. In 2030, the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects they will account for one out of every five workers in the labor force, at 21.2%, or or 78% of net new workers by 2030. Without those immigrant workers, the change in the standard of living for the middle class would be much more dramatic, Valdez says. “The reason we have avocados or chicken to choose from every day is because of immigration.” Valdez, who worked in the Clinton administration, cites figure that show US Latinos generate $3.6tn in GDP and says the political discourse around the issue by both parties has equated all Latinos to undocumented immigrants and does not reflect the economic, data-backed reality. “If Trump and Harris want to win the Latino vote, and if the winner wants to keep our support once they’re in office, they need to change their perspective and messaging to Latinos and recognize the full scope of our economic contributions,” she says. “Not doing so is reckless for their campaigns and the US economy.” For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

What's missing in the immigration debate

Immigration is a top concern among U.S. voters this election cycle. But Zeke Hernandez, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania who studies immigration,thinks politicians and the media aren't giving the public the full story. Too often, he argues, they paint immigrants as objects of pity or fear, when the reality is much more complex — and positive. Today on the show, we look beyond the binary and explore the less talked about ways documented and undocumented immigrants shape the U.S. economy. Zeke's book is called The Truth About Immigration: Why Successful Societies Welcome Newcomers. Sponsor Message For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Trump's Deportation Plan Could Bring Back Family Separations

Former President Donald Trump's proposed mass deportation plan could lead to a return of widespread family separations, with an estimated one in three Latinos at risk of being targeted, according to an immigration and criminal justice advocacy group. Latino leaders warned Tuesday that the hardline policy would result in families "being ripped apart," raising concerns about the human impact and social consequences of such an extensive crackdown on undocumented immigrants. Nearly 20 million people could be directly affected by the former president's policy, either through their own deportation or separation from immediate family members, FWD.us found. A smaller scale family-separation policy was abandoned by the first Trump administration in the face of a overwhelming public outcry. "Maybe there are children who have a really good friend who is an immigrant who, because of Donald Trump's promise, risks being deported," Democratic California Senator Alex Padilla told reporters Tuesday. "We're talking about the teachers who teach our children being impacted by this, so many undocumented members of the workforce, small business owners whose livelihoods depend on the patronage of a lot of immigrants both documented and undocumented." Trump mass deportation affecting Latinos Left: Sofia Roca, a 49-year-old immigrant from Colombia, climbs a stairway inside her apartment complex in Aurora, Colo., on March 29, 2024. Right: Rancher Timm Klump stands near a door made in the wall built... More Ap Photo/Thomas Peipert/OLIVIER TOURON/AFP/Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images Senator Padilla said that those who were "American in every way except a piece of paper", having been raised in the U.S., faced being torn from their families. Around four million U.S. citizens have at least one undocumented parent, he added. Mass deportation is a core policy of the GOP's platform for 2024, with Trump promising millions would be removed from the country, starting the moment he returned to office. "I make this pledge and vow to you, November 5, 2024, will be liberation day in America," Trump told supporters on Oct. 11, as he branded the mass-deportation program "Operation Aurora", after the Colorado city which has faced ongoing issues with the notorious Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. "The border will be sealed. The invasion will be stopped. The migrant flights will end and Kamala's app for illegals will be shut down immediately, within 24 hours," he said of his first day in office. Immigrant child in Aurora Colorado Dylan Martínez-Ramírez, left, sounds out a sentence as instructed by Culturally & Linguistically Diverse Education teacher Sarah Pearlstein at Del Mar Academy, Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024, in Aurora, Colo. AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez Trump has not revealed much information on the logistics of his flagship policy, including how the court system would handle millions of deportation hearings. He has vowed to deploy the National Guard to assist with deportations, despite questions on the legal limits on military involvement in domestic law enforcement. Read more Immigration Democrats and Republicans Sharply Divided Over Israel, Poll Finds Donald Trump Claims Fox Wants to Change His Commercials Trump and Harris Supporters Agree on What To Do With Foreign Gangsters: Poll Harris v Trump: What to Watch For as White House Race Enters Final Week "The reality is that most of the people who would end up getting deported in any sort of mass deportation are people who are simply working in the U.S. labor force," Stuart Anderson, National Foundation for American Policy executive director, previously told Newsweek. "In fact, what is likely to happen is there will not there will not be an emphasis on removing criminals, but an emphasis on removing everyone to drive up the numbers to reach quotas." During Tuesday's briefing, Janet Murguia, president of UnidosUS Action Fund, said American citizens would inevitably get swept up by Trump's plan, adding that migrants make important contributions to the country, both economically and socially. "It's a threat to our economy, our values and our freedoms," she said, raising concerns about what would happen if workers were removed en masse. "Our economic contributions today, as a Latino community, represent the fifth largest economy in the world. Does former President Trump really understand what would happen to our economic interests in our country? This would be a self-inflicted wound to our economy." The advocacy groups said Latinos understood that issues within the immigration system needed addressing, but that the Trump plan was not the way to do it. Vice President Kamala Harris has promised to push for more legal pathways for immigrants if she wins the White House, reflecting efforts by President Joe Biden to offer green cards to undocumented migrants who have been in the country for over a decade. Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign national press secretary, told Newsweek that Harris's policies alongside Biden had caused a humanitarian and national security crisis. "Like President Trump said, he will make provisions for mixed-status families, and he will restore his effective immigration policies, implement brand new crackdowns that will send shockwaves to all the world's criminal smugglers, and marshal every federal and state power necessary to institute the largest deportation operation of illegal criminals, drug dealers, and human traffickers in American history," Leavitt said in an emailed statement. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

GOP pollster Frank Luntz: Harris still hasn’t said what she would do on immigration, affordability

Republican strategist Frank Luntz discussed what he called policy lapses in Vice President Harris’s campaign platform during a recent CNN appearance highlighting gaps in her plans for the presidency. “What is going to happen with affordability? What’s going to happen with the border, the two biggest issues immigration and affordability,” Luntz questioned. “She’s done an excellent job on focusing on the abortion issue on the women’s health issues and even on health care but those aren’t the number one and number two issues for all of America and she still hasn’t said what she’s gonna do unless I missed it in the first hour of her presidency, in the first day of her presidency and in the first week of her presidency and she’s only got seven days to go,” Luntz told anchor Jim Scuitto. Polls show former President Trump leading his opponent on the top issue for voters, the economy. Democrats are planning to spend the last week before the election hammering down on Harris’s proposals for the middle class which include tax breaks and credits for children. “I imagine with eight days to go it’s probably too late to do that for most voters, but you have to try and the thing is this has not been a good campaign,” Scuitto said of their efforts. “This has not been a good election. There’s so many people who dislike both candidates.” “It’s gonna be the highest negativity for the Republican and Democratic nominee in modern history that people are gonna hold their nose and vote for one or the other,” he predicted. Luntz explained that Americans don’t feel as if either candidate has presented them with a viable plan for voters or their families. Sign up for the Morning Report The latest in politics and policy. Direct to your inbox. Email address By signing up, I agree to the Terms of Use, have reviewed the Privacy Policy, and to receive personalized offers and communications via email, on-site notifications, and targeted advertising using my email address from The Hill, Nexstar Media Inc., and its affiliates “In the end the persuadables are asking for more details. They don’t feel like they’ve heard enough,” Luntz said. “They’ve heard the slams. They’ve heard the smears and they’ve heard the criticism. They simply want to know what are you going to do for them? And I think they’ve got the right to ask that question.” For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Kamala Harris Voters Want Hardline Stance on Immigration

Most supporters of Vice President Kamala Harris want a tougher stance on tackling illegal immigration, according to polling conducted exclusively for Newsweek, which also shows that Americans feel the U.S. has lost control of the southern border. Immigration policy is a top concern for voters in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election, with our polling showing that a majority of Harris voters agree with the overwhelming majority of Donald Trump voters on tackling the border crisis. Tracker Poll: Immigration Photo-illustration by Newsweek/Getty Harris voters want a hardline approach toward illegal immigration In the most recent poll of October 2024, 68 percent of Americans say the federal government should adopt a more hardline approach on immigration, with only 10 percent opposing such measures. This has risen from 62 percent at the start of polling in July 2023, and suggests a growing consensus across party lines that is backed up by a closer look at voting intentions. In October 2024's poll, those planning to vote for Donald Trump this year backed a more hardline approach by an unsurprising 87 percent—but even among those planning to vote for Kamala Harris, the figure was a clear majority of 53 percent, and in the previous month of September, it stood at 58 percent. This article is part of Newsweek's tracker polling, where Americans have been asked questions on topics such as abortion, immigration and the war in Ukraine over the past 16 months. This data is based on polling conducted exclusively by Redfield & Wilton Strategies on behalf of Newsweek, between July 2023 and October 2024. Altogether, 19 polls were conducted, asking cumulatively 34,800 eligible voters about the key issues of the 2024 election. Flourish logoA Flourish chart In response to the poll, Republican Rep. Mark Green, chair of the Homeland Security Committee, said that it is "no surprise that Americans are crying out" for tougher curbs on migration and border security. However, Brad Jones, a professor of political science at UC Davis, told Newsweek that the need for "hardline action" would have been addressed if the bipartisan border security bill passed in Congress. "If someone comes to believe some variation of the theme that undocumented immigrants pose an existential threat to Americans, they are very likely to agree that a hardline, punitive approach needs to be taken," Jones said. "Ironically, both the claims about an 'uncontrollable border' and the need for 'hardline action' would have been addressed in the bipartisan legislation proposed in Congress earlier this year. Read more Immigration Trump's Deportation Plan Could Bring Back Family Separations Donald Trump Sees Surge in Support Among Black Virginia Voters: New Poll Trump and Harris Supporters Agree on What To Do With Foreign Gangsters: Poll GOP Strategist Knocks Trump Holding Rally in New York: 'Wasted Time' "Because Trump relies on these narratives to fuel the campaign, he was highly incentivized to get that bill killed. He succeeded and, at least up until now, is winning on the immigration issue." Why is Kamala Harris tougher on immigration? Harris's position on immigration has evolved, and while she's supported some tough policies, she also previously advocated for reforms that focus on fairness and humane treatment. The VP has supported comprehensive immigration reform, which aims to provide pathways to citizenship, and she has been a strong advocate for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which protects young immigrants who came to the U.S. as children. She has been critical of policies from the Trump era, like family separations and the border wall. She also pledged to revive the failed bipartisan border security bill. Harris faces pressure to address the electorate's concerns about illegal immigration. She has to balance appealing to Democrats and Republicans while solving perhaps the most complex conundrum facing the country. Julia Gelatt, the associate director of the U.S. immigration policy program at the non-partisan Migration Policy Institute think tank, told Newsweek that Harris's position on illegal immigration is in response to polling, which shows voters trust Trump over her on the key policy matter. "Images of chaos at the border, high numbers of border arrivals, and the very visible challenges that major cities have faced in meeting the needs of newly arriving migrants have all affected public opinion on immigration," Gelatt said. Gelatt argues that Harris adopted a more conservative stance on immigration to increase support among voters who want a crackdown on illegal immigration. "Harris seems to be hoping that a focus on the need for more border enforcement will help her win the trust of voters. Indeed, some polling data suggests that she has narrowed the gap with Trump on the issue. "At the same time, we've seen Harris pairing her border focus with more traditional Democratic priorities on immigration, such as opening an earned pathway to citizenship to unauthorized immigrants and Dreamers who have been in the United States for decades." Philip van Scheltinga, director of research at Redfield & Wilton Strategies told Newsweek: "When even Democratic voters are overwhelmingly unhappy with the situation as it has developed, then it is time for the Democratic Party to revisit their position." Americans Think U.S. Lost Control Of Borders Data suggests Americans believe the federal government has lost control over its borders. When asked whether they believe the federal government has lost control over its borders, between 58 and 68 percent of Americans said "Yes" across the past 16 months, peaking in February 2024. In the most recent poll of October 2024, 63 percent said "Yes," while only 27 percent said "No." That little more than a quarter of the population express confidence in the Biden-Harris border record could reflect negatively on Kamala Harris' performance in the November election. This sentiment spans demographic lines but shows significant differences in political affiliation. Among Trump voters, nearly 80 percent expressed a belief that the U.S. does not have control over its borders, a number that has been steadily increasing. In contrast, Harris voters remain split, with roughly half agreeing that the borders are out of control and the other half expressing confidence in the federal government's handling of the issue. The data gathered shows a shift in public attitudes among Americans on matters concerning immigration policy. Rep. Green said: "Joe Biden and his 'border czar' Kamala Harris may work to sweep this historic border crisis under the rug, but the numbers don't lie. "Since the Biden-Harris administration began, CBP [Customs and Border Protection] has recorded more than 10 million encounters nationwide. "At the same time, ICE's non-detained docket has continued to explode, leading to tens of thousands of known criminals at large in our communities. Jones told Newsweek the Republicans spearheaded by the Trump campaign have been "successful at controlling the narratives about the border." "The Harris campaign has not been very effective at pushing back against claims that the border is being overrun, claims that are mostly inaccurate. "But because of this, large numbers of Democrats who have been exposed to some version of the narrative that the border is out of control endorse the belief that the U.S. has lost control over the border. "Under any conditions, Republican identifiers, but especially Trump Republicans, will endorse the belief that the U.S. and especially the Biden Administration have no control over the border. "The narrative of the border being overrun is Trump's signature narrative and one of his most effective tropes. "Trump has driven the narratives about immigrant criminality. Despite the fact that claims about high levels of immigration crime are simply untrue, the narrative has stuck." According to the Cato Institute, immigrants are less likely to commit crimes compared to U.S. citizens. While immigration policy has traditionally been a rallying point for conservatives, these new numbers indicate that the debate is resonating with a wider base of the electorate, as evidence shows support for stronger immigration measures among Harris voters. As election day is on the horizon, immigration will likely remain a top issue. The data suggests that both major parties may face increasing pressure from their bases to adopt firmer policies, potentially altering the policy platforms of candidates like Harris, who must navigate the evolving views of her supporters while appealing to a broader electorate. The numbers point to one clear conclusion: Americans, regardless of their political leanings, are growing more critical of how the U.S. government handles immigration, and many want to see tougher action taken to secure the nation's borders. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Kamala Harris Leads Trump on Almost Every Key Issue Among Younger Voters

Kamala Harris is pulling ahead of Donald Trump among younger voters on nearly every major issue, according to recent polling data shared with Newsweek. The poll, conducted by The Independent Center between October 18 and 22 among 1,200 likely voters aged 18 to 44, shows that Harris leads Trump on seven key issues, including the economy, healthcare, and social issues. The only issue where Trump has the lead is immigration. Harris' biggest lead was over Trump is on healthcare, where she leads him by 16 points, on 49 percent to his 33 percent. Nineteen percent of voters said they would trust a politician more who works with both sides of the aisle. Healthcare has not featured prominently throughout the campaign. In a Fox News poll conducted between October 11 and 14, only 8 percent of voters, including 8 percent of people under 45, said it was the most important issue in deciding their vote. According to a report by the Congressional Budget Office from June 2024, the uninsured share of the population will rise over the course of the next decade, largely as a result of the end of COVID-19 pandemic–related Medicaid policies, with the largest increase in the uninsured population expected to be among adults ages 19–44. However, both campaigns have been vague about their plans for Medicaid, with the Harris campaign committing only to using tax credits to bring down premiums on plans offered through the Affordable Care Act, while Trump has steered clear of discussing the act. Other issues where Harris performed well were the environment, where she has a 13-point lead, and education, where she leads by 12 points. On the economy, international issues, and political polarization, she leads by between 1 and 7 points. However, although Harris only leads by a small margin on these issues, the polls marks a departure from national surveys, which have largely shown that voters trust Trump more on economic and foreign policy issues. Nonetheless, Harris' lead on the economy is good news for the vice president's campaign, after polls have shown that it is the most important issue to young voters. Meanwhile, on social issues, which includes reproductive rights, crime, equality, and civil liberties, Harris has a 12 percent lead, with 47 percent of young voters trusting her more, compared to 35 percent who chose Trump. Abortion has been a key issue for the Democrats in this campaign, particularly among female voters. Throughout the campaign, Harris has positioned herself as a staunch advocate for reproductive rights, leading the Democratic Party's efforts on the issue, and launching a nationwide campaign for reproductive freedoms earlier this year. In contrast, Trump has struggled to shake of his association with the repeal of Roe vs. Wade by the Supreme Court in 2022 after appointing three conservative justices to the court during his term. He has also supported abortion rights being left to the states and has not said whether he would veto a national abortion ban. Harris Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign rally on October 24, 2024, in Clarkston, Georgia. Harris leads Trump on almost all the key issues among younger voters. Mike Stewart/AP But there is one issue where younger voters trust Trump more than Harris, the poll shows. On immigration, which has been the cornerstone of Trump's campaign, the former president has a 1-point lead over Harris, with 42 percent to her 41 percent. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Kamala Harris delivers ‘closing argument’ in Washington – as it happened

Victoria Bekiempis At a press conference Tuesday afternoon, about 12 hours after his release from prison, Steve Bannon railed against Democrat Nancy Pelosi, attorney general Merrick Garland and Harris, again claiming that he was a “political prisoner”. “The system is broken,” he said, claiming the justice department was “weaponized” to punish Trump supporters and gut his popular podcast, in an effort to thwart Maga’s influence. Bannon also claimed that he met a lot of “working class minorities” behind bars, saying he listened to, and learned from, them. They disliked Harris, he claimed, referring to the former prosecutor as the “queen of mass incarcerations”. Doubling down on his War Room statements this morning, where Bannon insisted that prison had empowered him, he also said: “Nancy Pelosi, suck on that.” Bannon also thanked the prison for giving him the opportunity to teach civics to about 100 students, noting that he had Puerto Rican and Dominican students. Bannon discussed his encounters with people of color at several points today, in an apparent effort to deflect anti-Latino commentary from Trump supporters. man wearing tan jacket speaks to reporters View image in fullscreen Steve Bannon holds press conference in New York City after his release from federal jail in Connecticut, on Tuesday. Photograph: Andrew Kelly/Reuters Share Updated at 16.11 EDT The video player is currently playing an ad. You can skip the ad in 5 sec with a mouse or keyboard Nearly 3.2 million voters have cast ballots in the 2024 general election in North Carolina as of Tuesday at noon. The North Carolina state board of elections made the announcement on Tuesday, adding that 3.2 million voters represents a turnout of 40.7% of registered voters in the state. Just over 3m of the votes were cast in-person, and about 170,000 were cast via mail in ballot. Through the end of the day on Monday, more than 2.9 million voters had cast ballots in person during the first 12 days of the early voting period, which the elections officials said was an increase of 11.9% compared with 2020. Interestingly, turnout in the 25 western North Carolina counties affected by Hurricane Helene continue to outpace statewide turnout, the election board added. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Lawsuit claims ICE withheld $300M in bond payments from immigrants

MIAMI (AP) — U.S. immigration authorities illegally kept more than $300 million in bond payments from tens of thousands of low-income immigrant families and U.S. citizens, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement kept the money for so long that $240 million was transferred to a U.S. Treasury account for unclaimed funds, said Motley Rice LLC, one of the firms that filed the lawsuit in federal court for the Eastern District of New York. The lawsuit, which addresses longstanding complaints, seeks class-action status for those who paid cash to bail out family members detained by ICE. Motley Rice, a firm that represents clients on a wide variety of class-action lawsuits, said it had been investigating the issue for two years. Immigration bonds are set by ICE and immigration judges and allow noncitizens who are facing removal proceedings to be released in the U.S. while their cases are decided in court. The average bail payment is $6,000 according to the lawsuit. Advertisement Based on information obtained through public records requests and other cases, there are tens of thousands of class members, the lawsuit claims. “The precise number and identification of the class members will be ascertainable from the government’s records,” it says. Related Stories Florida hospitals ask immigrants about their legal status. Texas will try it next Florida hospitals ask immigrants about their legal status. Texas will try it next Language, lack of money and fear are matters of life and death with Milton approaching Florida Language, lack of money and fear are matters of life and death with Milton approaching Florida Lawsuit filed over road rage shooting by off-duty NYPD officer that left victim a quadriplegic Lawsuit filed over road rage shooting by off-duty NYPD officer that left victim a quadriplegic Once the immigration case has concluded, family and friends of those detained are entitled to get their money back immediately in some cases or within 60 days in others, according to the online ICE handbook. ICE, however, “regularly fails to return these funds, even when all conditions have been met and proceedings have concluded,” according to the lawsuit. ICE declined to comment, saying it does not discuss pending litigation. The case filed this week is on behalf Douglas Cortez of Uniondale, New York, who posted bond for $10,000 to have his friend released from detention. In August 2023, his friend’s proceedings were dismissed, but more than a year later Cortez has still not received any notice and has not received a refund for the cash deposit he made. Advertisement “They have taken thousands of dollars from hardworking immigrant families who deserve to have their money returned,” said Deepak Gupta, an attorney from Gupta Wessler LLP, the other law firm that filed the lawsuit. “We want ICE to fix this system, we want the court to declare that ICE is violating its legal obligations under the contract so that this doesn’t happen to other families again in the future.” Gupta said that they arrived at the figure of $300 million after carefully reviewing government documents they obtained through FOIA requests and court records. Ada Salazar, 28, has not received her money after her uncle posted $5,000 in February 2016. She is from El Salvador, was granted legal status in 2021 and now she is ready to join the lawsuit. “I hope to receive the money back, that is the promise they made,” Salazar, a mother of a 6-year-old and owner of food truck in North Carolina, told The Associated Press. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Trump's mass deportation plans worry families with mixed immigration status

PHOENIX — Jocelyn Ruiz remembers when her fifth-grade teacher warned the class about large-scale patrols that would target immigrants in Arizona’s largest metropolitan area. She asked her mom about it — and unearthed a family secret. Ruiz’s mother had entered the United States illegally, leaving Mexico a decade earlier in search of a better life. Ruiz, who was born in California and raised in the Phoenix area, was overcome by worry at the time that her mother could be deported at any moment, despite having no criminal history. Ruiz, her two younger siblings and her parents quietly persevered, never discussing their mixed immigration status. They lived “as Americans,” she said. More than 22 million people live in a U.S. household where at least one occupant is in the country without authorization, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of 2022 Census data. That represents nearly 5% of households across the U.S. and 5.5% in Arizona, a battleground state where the Latino vote could be key. People are also reading… Here's where all those new Arizonans are coming from 100 fun events happening in Tucson this weekend Oct. 24-27 🎃👻 Reid Park Zoo is officially home to a new elephant 🐘 Tim Steller's column: Death of Tucsonan reflects Mexico's problems, not ours If Donald Trump is elected and follows through with a campaign promise to conduct the largest deportation operation in American history, it could not only upend the lives of the 11 million people who, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, are living in the United States without authorization — it could devastate the U.S. citizens in their families. The issue of immigration has been a cornerstone of Trump’s platform since he promised to “build a great wall” in 2015 as he announced his first Republican campaign for president. And despite polling that shows the economy as a top concern for voters, Trump remains fixated on the issue, criticizing the Biden administration’s handling of the southern border as an existential threat to American society as Election Day nears. Trump’s plans for a crackdown have motivated some mixed-status families to speak out. America’s success depends on the contributions of immigrants, they argue, and the people doing this work deserve a pathway to legal residency or citizenship. Trump's mass deportation plans worry families with mixed immigration status Jocelyn Ruiz, 26, is a U.S. citizen who discovered a family secret that her mother could be deported at any time. More than 22 million people live in a U.S. household where at least one occupant is in the country without authorization, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of 2022 Census data. That represents about 5.5% of households in Arizona. Matt York, Associated Press Others choose to be silent, hoping to evade attention. And there are some who support Trump, even though they themselves could become targets for deportation. The political divide over immigration runs deep: 88% of Trump supporters favor mass deportation, according to a recent Pew survey, compared with 27% of the voters who support Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for president. Trump was asked about the impact so many deportations would have on mixed-status families when he visited the Arizona-Mexico border in August. “Provisions will be made, but we have to get the criminals out,” Trump responded to NBC News. He didn’t say what the provisions might include, and his campaign did not share more information when The Associated Press asked for specifics. Living in a mixed-status family is inherently precarious, as immigration policies and political rhetoric have ripple effects for U.S. citizens and legal residents, said Heide Castañeda, a professor of anthropology at the University of South Florida. “For most Americans, it’s not a familiar thing to navigate your daily life thinking about somebody in your family possibly being taken,” said Castañeda, author of “Borders of Belonging: Struggle and Solidarity in Mixed-Status Immigrant Families.” “But for mixed-status families, of course, that’s always on their minds.” Politicians, she said, “think that they’re targeting a particular group, but these groups live in families and communities and households and neighborhoods.” In Nevada, California, New Jersey and Texas, nearly one in 10 households includes people living in the U.S. without legal permission, according to Pew. Many have lived in the country for decades and have U.S. citizens depending on them. Michael Kagan, director of the Immigration Clinic at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said recent arrivals aren’t representative of the population in Nevada. “The vast majority have been here more than 10 years,” Kagan said, warning that their U.S. citizen relatives could inadvertently be swept up. Erika Andriola, 37, a longtime advocate for immigrants in Arizona, witnessed her mother and brother being detained by immigration agents in 2013. She waged a successful campaign that led to their release, but she now suffers from PTSD and separation anxiety as a result of that day. “It was just this like constant nightmares. I would wake up crying,” Andriola said. She and her brother are now legal residents, but their 66-year-old mother has been challenging her deportation in court since 2017. It’s an experience Andriola doesn’t wish upon anyone — and she says the emotional and economic tolls can affect entire communities. Betzaida Robinson’s brother was deported to Mexico several years ago despite never having lived there. An integral member of the family in Phoenix, he had helped pay bills and raise her two children. Robinson said Trump and his supporters must not be thinking about what it’s like to have a loved one taken away. “How about if you were in that position, what would you do and how would you feel?” she said. Still, there are people living in the country illegally who do support Trump, said Castañeda, the university professor. Even Andriola says she has family members who do. “They’re not necessarily thinking about what can happen to people like my mom,” Andriola said, “but they’re thinking about their own lives and what they think is best for them.” Victoria Castro-Corral is a self-described optimist from a mixed-status family in Phoenix who advises students at Chandler-Gilbert Community College. She said she has faith that a mass deportation plan will never happen — and credits her Mexican parents, who crossed the border illegally decades ago, for teaching her how to remain positive. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Trump’s Former ICE Head’s Plan for Mass Deportation: More Family Separation or Deporting US Citizens

This year, former President Donald Trump’s central campaign pledge has been to conduct the “largest deportation operation in American history.” In his first term, Trump couldn’t deliver mass deportation. This was partially a result of his administration’s haphazard policy implementation, but also because a mass deportation campaign would require an almost unimaginable amount of resources: Removing one million people from the country a year would cost an estimated $88 billion annually, according to the American Immigration Council. Still, Trump’s potential second administration wants to try again, even if it appears they only have concepts of a plan for how to do carry out mass removal without bankrupting the economy and likely harming millions of immigrants and many more US citizens in the process. On Sunday, Tom Homan, the one-time cop and former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under Trump, appeared on 60 Minutes to sell the plan as not potentially catastrophic. Homan, the “architect” of family separation who said he didn’t “give a shit” about being sued over the infamous practice, has been defiantly positioning himself as the man to get the job done. “Trump comes back in January, I’ll be on his heels coming back, and I will run the biggest deportation force this country has ever seen,” he said at the National Conservatism conference in Washington, DC, in July. “They ain’t seen shit yet. Wait until 2025.” But when asked by CBS’s Cecilia Vega how feasible—or humane—the rollout of a mass deportation proposal would be, his answers inspired little confidence. Cecilia Vega asks: “Is there a way to carry out mass deportation without separating families?” “Of course there is. Families can be deported together,” says Tom Homan, head of ICE during Trump’s family separation policy. https://t.co/If9G1sNEzj pic.twitter.com/TIWhi25Vdu — 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) October 28, 2024 “Let me tell you what it’s not going to be first,” Homan said. “It’s not going to be a mass sweep of neighborhoods. It’s not going to be building concentration camps. I’ve read it all, it’s ridiculous.” Instead, he claimed, there would be “targeted arrests.” But, as I’ve reported before, that’s quite different from the actual plans Trump’s hardline adviser Stephen Miller has been publicly laying out: When asked by the hosts of the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton radio show how the mass deportations project would be realized, Miller said it would require a “switch to indiscriminate or large-scale enforcement activities.” Miller described going to every place where there are known congregations of “illegals” and taking people to federal detention. To detain immigrants before carrying out their deportations, Miller said the Trump administration would build massive holding facilities that could accommodate between 50,000 to 70,000 people at any given time. Such an undertaking, he said, “would be greater than any national infrastructure project we’ve done to date.” In an exercise of semantics, Homan went on to say he doesn’t use the term “raids,” but that “worksite enforcement operations” would be necessary. When Vega pressed him on how the agency would prioritize immigration enforcement against national security and public safety threats, he left no room for doubt that anyone would entered the United States unlawfully would be a potential target. “So you’re carrying out a targeted enforcement operation,” Vega said, “grandma is in the house. She’s undocumented. She gets arrested too?” “It depends,” Homan said. “Let the [immigration] judges decide. We’re going to remove people that the judges order deported.” Advertise with Mother Jones Advertise with Mother Jones As a retired government official, Homan has making the rounds of conservative media to declare an “invasion” at the southern border. And he has made an enterprise out of it by launching the nonprofit Border911 Foundation, Inc. and traveling across the country spreading fear-mongering about migrants. When asked on 60 Minutes how many people would be deported under Trump’s proposed mass deportation operation, Homan said “you can’t answer that question” because it would depend on how many enforcement agents they would have. Currently, ICE has about 6,000 deportation officers. Arresting and removing the roughly 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States, most of whom have been in the country for more then a decade, would require hiring hundreds of thousands of government employees. “If there’s no memo, if there’s no plan, is this fully baked?” Vega asked. “We’ve done it before,” Homan said, presumably referencing the less than successful slur-named militaristic “Operation Wetback” from the Eisenhower administration that Trump has repeatedly invoked as a model. But historians agree that campaign not only led to far fewer deportations than the federal government claimed, but also ensnared US citizens. A mass deportation of the scale Trump and Homan have been touting would likely have the same result. And as immigration experts have noted, such a plan would negatively impact mixed-status households, potentially tearing families apart. To that, Homan offered an alternative. “Is there a way to carry out mass deportation without separating families?” Vega asked. “Of course there is,” Homan said. “Families can be deported together.” For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Trump’s Puerto Rico fallout is ‘spreading like wildfire’ in Pennsylvania

Donald Trump has a serious Puerto Rico problem — in Pennsylvania. Many Puerto Rican voters in the state are furious about racist and demeaning comments delivered at a Trump rally. Some say their dismay is giving Kamala Harris a new opening to win over the state’s Latino voters, particularly nearly half a million Pennsylvanians of Puerto Rican descent. Evidence of the backlash was immediate on Monday: A nonpartisan Puerto Rican group drafted a letter urging its members to oppose Trump on election day. Other Puerto Rican voters were lighting up WhatsApp chats with reactions to the vulgar display and raising it in morning conversations at their bodegas. Some are planning to protest Trump’s rally Tuesday in Allentown, a majority-Latino city with one of the largest Puerto Rican populations in the state. And the arena Trump is speaking at is located in the middle of the city’s Puerto Rican neighborhood. Tony Hinchcliffe calls Puerto Rico 'island of garbage' at Trump rally SharePlay Video “It’s spreading like wildfire through the community,” said Norberto Dominguez, a precinct captain with the local Democratic party in Allentown, who noted his own family is half Republican and half Democratic voters. “It’s not the smartest thing to do, to insult people — a large group of voters here in a swing state — and then go to their home asking for votes,” Dominguez said. The timing couldn’t be worse for Trump. Almost a week before Election Day, he’s pushing to cut into Harris’ margins among Latinos, especially young men who are worried about the economy. But the comments from pro-Trump comedian Tony Hinchcliffe Sunday night, referring to Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage,” has reverberated throughout Pennsylvania and elsewhere, prompting even the former president’s Republican allies to defend the island and denounce the comments. And with the race essentially a toss up, every vote counts — especially in Pennsylvania. “This was just like a gift from the gods,” said Victor Martinez, an Allentown resident who owns the Spanish language radio station La Mega, noting some Puerto Rican voters in the area have been on the fence about voting at all. “If we weren’t engaged before, we’re all paying attention now,” Martinez said. He added the morning radio show he hosts was chock-full of callers Monday sounding off on the Trump rally comments, including a Puerto Rican Trump supporter who is now telling people not to vote for the former president. Carlos H. Velilla sits near signs that say TRUMP KILLS JOBS and WORKERS for HARRIS. Carlos H. Velilla, a Puerto Rican, sits near signs that say "TRUMP KILLS JOBS" and "WORKERS for HARRIS" as he waits for a takeout order at Freddy & Tony's Restaurant in north Philadelphia, Oct. 28. | Francis Chung/POLITICO In response to questions on the comments, and whether Trump was planning to publicly denounce them, Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement, “Due to President Trump’s plans to cut taxes, end inflation, and stop the surge of illegal immigrants at the southern border, he has more support from the Hispanic American community than any Republican in recent history.” Local Democrats like Dominguez argue the fallout at the very least reminds Puerto Rican voters of Trump’s previous comments about the island, calling it “dirty” and tossing paper towels to survivors during a 2017 visit after Hurricane Maria devastated the island and killed more than 2,000 people. And in a sign of how worried local residents are, a school district in Allentown announced Monday morning that it had canceled classes for Tuesday, when Trump visits. The Trump campaign has tried to distance itself from the comedian’s comments about Puerto Ricans and Latinos. Danielle Alvarez, senior adviser to the Trump campaign, said Sunday evening that the “joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign.” Another Trump adviser said the speakers’ remarks were not vetted prior to the rally. Key Republican lawmakers in Florida, New York and other states with large Puerto Rican populations quickly denounced the comments, saying it didn’t reflect GOP values. But other Trump allies, and his running mate JD Vance, have downplayed the rhetoric as just jokes. During a rally in Wisconsin Monday, Vance said that he had not heard the joke and that “maybe it’s a stupid racist joke” or “maybe it’s not” but Harris saying people should get offended by a comedian’s jokes is “not the message of a winning campaign.” “Our country was built by frontiersmen who conquered the wilderness,” Vance said. “We’re not going to restore the greatness of American civilization if we get offended at every little thing. Let’s have a sense of humor and let’s have a little fun.” At a rally on Monday night in Racine, Wisconsin, Vance said that he was not worried “that a joke that a comedian who has no affiliation with Donald Trump’s campaign told,” would cost the campaign votes among minority groups in swing states. “I just don’t buy that. I don’t think that’s how most Americans think, whatever the color of their skin,” he said. Donald Trump Jr. and other MAGA Republicans have shared social media posts with a similar message. But at least one local Republican is denouncing the remarks. MOST READ philadelphia-election-44909.jpg Trump’s Puerto Rico fallout is ‘spreading like wildfire’ in Pennsylvania Fallout spreads from racist rhetoric at Trump’s MSG rally ‘Everything Is Subservient to the Big Guy’: Fiona Hill on Trump and America’s Emerging Oligarchy Trump allies bemoan Madison Square Garden rally’s racist and vulgar comments Trump’s New York homecoming sparks backlash over racist and vulgar remarks Puerto Rican flags are flown over a row of houses in north Philadelphia. Puerto Rican flags are flown over a row of houses in north Philadelphia, Oct. 28. | Francis Chung/POLITICO “The comments made by this so-called ‘comedian’ at Madison Square Garden weren’t funny, they were offensive and wrong,” state Rep. Ryan Mackenzie told POLITICO. The Republican is locked in a close race against Democratic Rep. Susan Wild, who represents Allentown and a key part of the swingy Lehigh Valley. Mackenzie said he was still looking forward to Trump’s visit. And, some Pennsylvania GOP strategists, even as they tried to downplay the electoral fallout, acknowledged it was an unforced error at the very least. Jimmy Zumba, a Latino GOP strategist based in the Lehigh Valley, called them “stupid comments,” that were clearly not based on the immigration and crime themes that Republicans have tried to hammer this cycle. “Obviously I would love to be talking about that, to be on the offense on that, but right now we’re on the defense trying to defend comments that are not from the campaign or President Trump,” Zumba said, adding he didn’t believe the matter is “going to shift completely a Latino vote.” But many local Puerto Rican community members are unwilling to let go of the comments. Roberto L. Lugo, President of the Pennsylvania Chapter of the National Puerto Rican Agenda, said the nonpartisan group will be releasing a letter, shared exclusively with POLITICO, condemning the comments and urging Pennsylvania Puerto Ricans not to vote for Trump. Lugo, who was born in Puerto Rico and now lives in Philadelphia, said Pennsylvania Puerto Ricans are “really disturbed” over the comments. “I’m not a Republican, I’m not a Democrat, I’m independent,” Lugo said. “But at this point, it’s not about political, partisan issues. It is about the respect and honor our Puerto Ricans and Latinos deserved as citizens and legal residents of this country, that’s the issue.” “We held Trump and his campaign responsible for this disgraceful act,” he added. State Rep. Danilo Burgos, co-chair of the “Latinos con Harris” group in Pennsylvania, said residents have spread the comments on social media and within Philadelphia’s Puerto Rican community. “I saw two ladies in particular saying they were considering voting for Trump, but they’re not now,” he said, “because of the comments.” Kenny Perez prepares food at Freddy and Tony's Restaurant. Kenny Perez prepares food at Freddy & Tony's Restaurant in Philadelphia, Oct. 28. | Francis Chung/POLITICO He also said that Puerto Rican megastar Bad Bunny’s endorsement of Harris could be a game changer in Pennsylvania, arguing that a third-party candidate in Puerto Rico’s governor’s election surged from a double-digit deficit because the superstar got involved. Bad Bunny has not endorsed a candidate in that race, but has paid for billboards opposing Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon’s New Progressive Party. “She was running away with the election,” he said. “Now that election is a statistical tie.” Notably, Donald Trump Jr., Trump’s son, made a stop in Allentown on Monday, ahead of a planned event in Coplay, Pennsylvania, a Lehigh Valley borough outside Allentown. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro on Monday also noted Trump made the choice not to distance himself from the comments. “If Donald Trump really wanted to disassociate himself with that, the first thing he would have said when he came onto the stage at Madison Square Garden was, ‘hey, listen, I heard that person’s attempt at humor. It was not funny. I stand with the Puerto Rican community,’” Shapiro told a local talk news radio station in northeast Pennsylvania. “He didn’t do that.” Ivonne Concepcion speaks about remarks made by a speaker at Donald Trump's rally. Ivonne Concepcion reacts while discussing remarks made by a speaker at former President Donald Trump's rally at Madison Square Garden outside Freddy & Tony's Restaurant in Philadelphia, Oct. 28. | Francis Chung/POLITICO Republicans have been eager to peel away Puerto Rican and Latino voters from Democrats in Pennsylvania and other swing states. Trump actually made gains among voters in North Philadelphia’s Puerto Rican-dominated neighborhoods in 2020. Harris sought to shore up her support in the neighborhood during a Sunday visit to Freddy and Tony’s, a local Puerto Rican restaurant, where she was speaking about her plans for the island around the same time that Trump’s rally featured the disparaging comments. Kenny Perez, an employee at Freddy and Tony’s, said in an interview at the restaurant on Monday that he’s often turned off by politics and normally doesn’t vote. But he condemned the Trump rally comments and said while he’s still deciding, this year, he thinks he’ll vote for Harris and “definitely not for Trump.” “I think he gave Kamala a boost,” Perez added. Other Puerto Ricans want an apology from Trump himself. “They should think before they put a person in front of millions of people to talk like that and joke like that,” said Ivonne Concepion, who also lives in North Philadelphia. “He’s gotta say ‘perdon,’ not just sorry, but from here,” she said pointing to her chest. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Takeaways from Kamala Harris’ CNN town hall

Over and over, Vice President Kamala Harris argued at a CNN town hall Wednesday night that Republican rival Donald Trump is “unstable” and “unfit to serve.” The Democratic nominee’s message in the closing weeks 2024 presidential race is squarely focused on warning Americans – particularly undecided independents and moderate Republicans – that Trump poses a threat to the nation’s core principles. Vice President Kamala Harris participates in a CNN Presidential Town Hall moderated by CNN’s Anderson Cooper in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday, October 23, 2024. Related article Key lines to understand the Kamala Harris town hall on CNN She pointed repeatedly to former senior military figures in Trump’s administration who have called him a fascist and claimed the former president spoke glowingly of the loyalty of Hitler’s Nazi generals. She also raised concern over his comments about turning the military against “enemies within.” If Trump wins, Harris said, “He’s going to sit there, unstable and unhinged, plotting his revenge, plotting his retribution, creating an enemies list.” Harris was as focused on putting the former Trump aides and military leaders’ comments in front of the Pennsylvania town hall crowd, and voters watching at home, as she was on detailing her own policy agenda. Here are six takeaways from Harris’ CNN town hall: ADVERTISING Yes, Harris thinks Trump is a fascist Harris was asked Wednesday night if she considers Trump a fascist. “Yes, I do,” she said. But, she added, she doesn’t want voters to take her word for it. Harris pointed to senior military leaders who served under Trump and have said the former president is a fascist – including the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, and Trump’s former White House chief of staff, retired Marine general John Kelly. “I also believe that the people who know him best on this subject should be trusted,” Harris said. Harris believes Trump is a 'fascist' 03:55 - Source: CNN The vice president’s condemnation of Trump as a threat to the United States’ founding principles is a window into how she is trying to win over the small number of undecided voters — including educated, suburban moderate Republicans and independents — in the race’s closing weeks. She is casting Trump as a threat to democracy, rather than focusing on her policy differences with the former president. Harris said more than 400 members of Republican presidential administrations have endorsed her – and she named former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, who has campaigned with her, and former Vice President Dick Cheney, specifically. She said those Republicans’ support for her campaign is motivated by “a legitimate fear, based on Donald Trump’s words and actions, that he will not obey an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States.” Harris distances herself from Biden, promises ‘a new generation of leadership’ Harris has faced repeated questions on the trail over how – and to what degree – she would break from Biden on policy. Mostly, she has brushed them off. In one particularly awkward exchange, she told the hosts of ABC’s “The View,” who asked what she would’ve done differently from the president, “There is not a thing that comes to mind.” On Wednesday night, though, Harris seemed more comfortable with the proposition and argued that, if she was elected, change would follow. “My administration will not be a continuation of the Biden administration,” Harris said. “I bring to this role my own ideas and my own experience. I represent a new generation of leadership on a number of issues and believe that we have to actually take new approaches.” Hear Kamala Harris explain how her administration would differ from Biden's 03:42 - Source: CNN After ticking off a few major policy plans, like having Medicare cover home health care for the elderly, Harris returned to what she described as “a new approach.” “I bring a whole set of different experiences to this job,” she said. Pressed by CNN’s Anderson Cooper about why she hasn’t, during her time as vice president, been more assertive on those points, Harris was short on details – later on she would present a Middle East policy identical to Biden’s – but hammered home the talking point. “There was a lot that was done (during the Biden administration), but there’s more to do,” Harris said. “I’m pointing out things that need to be done, that haven’t been done.” Border security and migration are a tricky area for the vice president By both Cooper and audience members, the vice president was pressed on border security. She was asked on the record number of illegal border crossings that occurred during the Biden administration in spite of multiple executive orders. That flow had only begun to shrink after a major executive action earlier this year, Cooper noted, and asked why Biden and Harris hadn’t done something sooner. Harris argued that the Biden administration, and she personally, believed that executive actions were just short-term solutions and that a long-term fix could only happen through a bipartisan agreement in Congress. She stressed the need for a large bipartisan bill on border security. “Let’s just fix the problem” Harris said multiple times. She contrasted that with Trump’s record on border security where she mocked him for failing to fulfill his promise to build a border wall across the United States’ southern border and make Mexico pay for it. “I think of what he did and how he did it didn’t make much sense because he didn’t do much of anything,” she said. Harris also pushed back on the idea that she was soft on border security and immigration, saying “people have to earn it” in gaining American citizenship and that she wanted “to strengthen our border.” Harris wants Sinwar’s death to be a moment to end the Israel-Hamas war One of Harris’ biggest challenges has been attempting to find a middle ground between staunchly supporting Israel’s war in Gaza in the wake of the October 7, 2023, attack and calling for the return of hostages held by Hamas, while seeking a ceasefire to end the humanitarian crisis and tens of thousands of Palestinian civilian deaths in the territory. Democrats have sought to maintain support among voters who oppose the US’ continued military aid to Israel. One undecided voter in the audience asked Harris what she would do to “ensure not another Palestinian dies due to bombs being funded by US tax dollars.” Harris said it was “unconscionable” how many innocent Palestinians have died, but that she hoped the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar – who helped plan the October 7 attack and was killed by Israel earlier this month – would create an opportunity to end the conflict. “With Sinwar’s death, I do believe we have an opportunity to end this war, bring the hostages home, bring relief to the Palestinian people and work toward a two-state solution, where Israel and the Palestinians – in equal measure – have security, where the Palestinian people have dignity, self determination and the safety they that they so rightly deserve,” Harris said. Cooper followed up by asking what Harris would say to people who are considering voting for a third-party candidate or staying home over the administration’s approach to the conflict in Gaza. Harris said that she understood that anyone who has seen what has happened in Gaza or lost family there would have strong feelings, but she said she believed those same voters care about their president’s approach to other issues, including the cost of groceries and reproductive rights. The next question came from a voter asking how Harris would handle antisemitism. The vice president touted her work cracking down on hate crimes and called for new laws to deter future attacks. She also referenced Kelly’s comments regarding Trump and Hitler. Cooper asked Harris if she thought Trump was antisemitic. “I believe Donald Trump is a danger to the well being and security of America,” she said. Asked if she would be more pro-Israel than Trump, Harris criticized Trump’s foreign policy more broadly, including his affinity for authoritarian figures, reports that he sent Covid-19 tests to Russian President Vladimir Putin, his handling of the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol and, again, his alleged comments on Hitler. Harris speaks Republicans’ language as she courts anti-Trump GOP vote Harris’ campaign has spent the last few weeks working feverishly to court Trump-skeptical Republicans and right-leaning independents. On Wednesday night, the vice president reprised that appeal – both in what she said and how she said it. She repeatedly name-dropped Liz Cheney, the former House member who broke from her party over Trump and lost her GOP leadership position and a primary for her sins – and has been at the center of Harris’ efforts to win over wobbly Republicans. “I traveled this state and others with Liz Cheney,” Harris said early on, adding, “She has endorsed me.” And not only her, she reminded the audience. “Dick Cheney is voting for me. Over 400 members of previous members of” Republican administrations “have endorsed my candidacy,” Harris said, “and the reason why – among them is a legitimate fear based on Donald Trump’s words and actions, that he will not obey an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States.” A little while later, when discussing abortion rights, Harris again mentioned Liz Cheney, an “unapologetically pro-life” politician who, as the vice president put it, “doesn’t agree with what’s been happening” in states that banned abortion. Harris also made a point of her desire to work with the private sector to solve public problems like the housing crisis. “We need a new approach that includes working with the private sector. I say that as a devoted public servant,” Harris said, before assimilating traditionally moderate Republican rhetoric to describe her plan, which includes “working with the private sector to cut through the red tape, working with home builders, working with developers to create tax incentives so that we can create more housing supply and bring down the price.” Unity is a bipartisan talking point, of course, but Harris repeatedly argued that “common sense” solutions were within grasp. “The American people deserve to have a president who is grounded in what is common sense, what is practical and what is in the best interest of the people, not themselves,” Harris said, jabbing at Trump but hardly embracing anything like an ideologically liberal agenda. Flip-flopping on issues Another voter question challenged Harris on her shift to the middle during her three-month presidential campaign. Since becoming the nominee, the vice president has changed her stance on key issues, including backing away from her past support for redirecting police department funds to social services and banning fracking. Harris said she does not want to ban fracking and hasn’t moved to do so as vice president, while reiterating that her “values” when it comes to addressing climate change haven’t changed. And when directly asked by Cooper if she thinks fracking is bad for the environment, Harris dodged the question. “I think that we have proven that we can invest in a clean energy economy, we can mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, we can work on sustaining what we need to do to protect this beautiful earth of ours and not ban fracking,” she said. On her stance on law and order, Harris said there has been a “whole lot of misinformation” and emphasized that she’s spent most of her career as a prosecutor. Harris then addressed her changed policy stances more broadly by defending what she described as her willingness to embrace good ideas, build consensus and not “stand on pride.” “I believe in fixing problems. I love fixing problems,” Harris said. “And so I pledge to you to be a president who not only works for all Americans, but works on getting stuff done, and that means compromise.” Cooper followed up to ask Harris about her shift in support for Medicare for All (Harris co-sponsored the single payer health care legislation when she was in the Senate but proposed a more moderate plan during her 2020 presidential campaign) and her past support for decriminalizing border crossings. “I never intended, nor will I ever allow, America to have a border that is not secure,” Harris said, adding that there must be consequences for entering the country illegally. This story has been updated. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Proof that immigrants fuel the US economy is found in the billions they send back home

Donald Trump has vowed to deport millions of immigrants if he is elected to a second term, claiming that, among other things, foreign-born workers take jobs from others. His running mate JD Vance has echoed those anti-immigrant views. Researchers, however, generally agree that massive deportations would hurt the U.S. economy, perhaps even triggering a recession. Social scientists and analysts tend to concur that immigration — both documented and undocumented — spurs economic growth. But it is almost impossible to calculate directly how much immigrants contribute to the economy. That’s because we don’t know the earnings of every immigrant worker in the United States. We do, however, have a good idea of how much they send back to their home countries – more than US$81 billion in 2022, according to the World Bank. And we can use this figure to indirectly calculate the total economic value of immigrant labor in the U.S. Don’t let yourself be misled. Understand issues with help from experts Economic contributions are likely underestimated I conducted a study with researchers at the Center for Latin American and Latino Studies and the Immigration Lab at American University to quantify how much immigrants contribute to the U.S. economy based on their remittances, or money sent back home. Several studies indicate that remittances constitute 17.5% of immigrants’ income. Given that, we estimate that the immigrants who remitted in 2022 had take-home wages of over $466 billion. Assuming their take-home wages are around 21% of the economic value of what they produce for the businesses they work for – like workers in similar entry-level jobs in restaurants and construction – then immigrants added a total of $2.2 trillion to the U.S. economy yearly. That is about 8% of the gross domestic product of the United States and close to the entire GDP of Canada in 2022 – the world’s ninth-largest economy. Immigration strengthens the US Beyond its sheer value, this figure tells us something important about immigrant labor: The main beneficiaries of immigrant labor are the U.S. economy and society. The $81 billion that immigrants sent home in 2022 is a tiny fraction of their total economic value of $2.2 trillion. The vast majority of immigrant wages and productivity – 96% – stayed in the United States. Remittances from the U.S. represent a substantial income source for the people who receive them. But they do not represent a siphoning of U.S. dollars, as Trump has implied when he called remittances “welfare” for people in other countries and suggested taxing them to pay for the construction of a border wall. The economic contributions of U.S. immigrants are likely to be even more substantial than what we calculate. For one thing, the World Bank’s estimate of immigrant remittances is probably an undercount, since many immigrants send money abroad with people traveling to their home countries. In prior research, my colleagues and I have also found that some groups of immigrants are less likely to remit than others. One is white-collar professionals – immigrants with careers in banking, science, technology and education, for example. Unlike many undocumented immigrants, white-collar professionals typically have visas that allow them to bring their families with them, so they do not need to send money abroad to cover their household expenses back home. Immigrants who have been working in the country for decades and have more family in the country also tend to send remittances less often. Both of these groups have higher earnings, and their specialized contributions are not included in our $2.2 trillion estimate. A business owner stocks her grocery store. A Somali business owner stocks her store in Lewiston, Maine. Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call Additionally, our estimates do not account for the economic growth stimulated by immigrants when they spend money in the U.S., creating demand, generating jobs and starting businesses that hire immigrants and locals. For example, we calculate the contributions of Salvadoran immigrants and their children alone added roughly $223 billion to the U.S. economy in 2023. That’s about 1% of the country’s entire GDP. Considering that the U.S. economy grew by about 2% in 2022 and 2023, that’s a substantial sum. These figures are a reminder that the financial success of the U.S. relies on immigrants and their labor. We all spend plenty of time doom scrolling and looking at trivialities on our phones. This is your chance to supplement that with an article that is written by an expert and chosen for you by the experienced editors of The Conversation. Plus, on Fridays, we’ll send you the link to our entertaining weekly news quiz. There’s no charge, and you can opt-out anytime. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Vulnerable House Dem goes on offensive on immigration — in a district nowhere near the border

ROCKY MOUNT, North Carolina — This battleground congressional district in eastern North Carolina is over a thousand miles away from the U.S.-Mexico border. But there’s perhaps no other House seat in the country where immigration is more central to next month’s election. Republicans have zeroed in on the issue as the heart of their strategy to oust Democratic Rep. Don Davis. Republican challenger and retired Army Col. Laurie Buckhout lists the border as her top policy priority and brings it up constantly in interviews. Nearly every ad in the race — on both sides — centers on the issue. And Davis himself has tried to counteract by going on the offensive, proudly citing in ads that he visited the border “not once or twice, but three times” and touting his votes in Congress in favor of increased border security. 00:31 Top Stories from POLITICO The Democratic pivot is unmistakable: Take an affirmative stance on the issue, rather than just playing defense against Republican attacks. And House Democrats’ success or failure in neutralizing the immigration messaging could be a harbinger of Vice President Kamala Harris’ efforts to do the same. On its face, the overwhelming focus on the border in this House race doesn’t make a ton of sense. Davis’ largely rural district still has vestiges of a tobacco-based economy. It’s 49 percent white, 40 percent Black and only 7 percent Latino. It doesn’t boast a large immigrant community. But virtually no competitive race has escaped the border issue this cycle, and this is the swingiest district in North Carolina, an Electoral College battleground. GOP congressional candidate Laurie Buckhout poses with supporters. GOP congressional candidate Laurie Buckhout (center) poses with supporters at the Wilson County GOP Dinner. | Nicholas Wu/POLITICO “Every state’s a border state. People are really impacted by it here,” Buckhout said in an interview on the sidelines of the Wilson County GOP dinner, as the party faithful shucked roasted oysters and ate barbecue. “There’s the issue of the economy. There’s the issue of fentanyl. People throughout the district feel they have been impacted by immigration and they talk about it.” Democrats don’t argue that point. Speaking to a mostly Black congregation this past Sunday morning in a Home Depot-turned-Word Tabernacle Church, former President Bill Clinton even used deportations of undocumented migrants as an applause line. “When President Obama was in office, we sent people who tried to get here without following the law, away, actually more than Donald Trump,” said Clinton, who was in the district to campaign for Democrats up and down the ticket, prompting cheers. “What Donald Trump did was to scare off legal immigrants, people we need to do jobs and create jobs.” “Donald Trump can accuse Joe Biden and Kamala Harris of being for open borders. That’s not true,” he added. Clinton had been rallying voters over the weekend in the bellwether counties of Nash and Wilson alongside Davis, who’s been hammered by Buckhout on border issues. She’s been tying him to the Biden administration’s record and the proliferation of drugs like fentanyl and for voting against a conservative border bill the House GOP passed last year. Former President Bill Clinton speaks at the World Tabernacle Church in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. Former President Bill Clinton speaks at the World Tabernacle Church in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. | Nicholas Wu/POLITICO The district only favored Joe Biden by less than 2 points last cycle after it was redrawn last year from one that had backed Biden by about 9 points in 2020. Recent internal Democratic polling has shown Davis with a sizable lead, but Republicans have been confident they can close the gap, and the red-meat appeals on immigration and the embrace of Trump are part of it. The two candidates haven’t debated, nor are they planning to, allowing their dueling ads to be their main method to speak to a wider swath of voters. Davis has embraced the tough-on-border counter-message that propelled Rep. Tom Suozzi to win a special election earlier this year on Long Island, a campaign style Democrats said at the time they planned to emulate broadly. Davis repeatedly highlights his three border visits in his ads. And he has sometimes voted with Republicans on border-related issues in Congress, too. “We know that these illegal drugs are making it into communities across America and right here in North Carolina. And I believe families want us to look at this and do something. This is Democrats, Republicans alike,” he said in an interview after rallying supporters with Clinton and other local Democrats. He voiced support for “comprehensive immigration reform” along with a tougher border policy. Local Democrats acknowledge that former President Donald Trump’s rhetoric — one that the GOP broadly has adopted on immigration — has set the tone of the race here. Nash County Democratic Party Chair Cassandra Conover stands outside. Nash County Democratic Party Chair Cassandra Conover Nash County dyed her hair blue for the “unapologetically blue” county. | Nicholas Wu/POLITICO “That’s because Trump made that an issue,” said Nash County Democratic Party Chair Cassandra Conover, whose hair was dyed blue for their “unapologetically blue” county. “The issues that the local candidates have are all Trump’s issues.” As Carly Lindsay, a 60-year-old physician, observed before a Democratic canvassing event: “It’s not as if they come across illegal immigrants on a daily basis here.” Although abortion has been a major issue in many other congressional races this year, Buckhout took a stance that sought to head off Democrats’ attempts to tie her and other Republicans to more conservative positions on abortion, such as a national ban. “I am pro-life, and I support all the standard exceptions, and so a national ban is not on the table as far as I’m concerned,” she said. Republicans are projecting confidence about flipping Davis’ seat and closing the gap in the last days of the race. Mick Rankin, chair of the Wilson County Republican Party, said he was “feeling good about it” but acknowledged it would be a “hard-fought race” since Davis was “a nice guy” and was well-known in the community. He even equivocated his criticism of Davis. “He hasn’t done a whole lot to bring a lot of money into the 1st District,” Rankin said. “It’s only his first term. I’ll give him that.” Retired Army Col. Laurie Buckhout speaks at the Wilson County GOP dinner. Retired Army Col. Laurie Buckhout speaks at the Wilson County GOP dinner. | Nicholas Wu/POLITICO Adding to the drama: GOP gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson’s personal controversies are threatening to drag down other Republican candidates, many of whom were close to their lieutenant governor. Democrats have taken to running ads of Buckhout and Robinson together. Buckhout sidestepped questions about supporting him. “Mark is running his race. I’m running mine. So this is about policies, not personality. So I’m running my race, and I feel good about it,” Buckhout said. Robinson’s struggles hadn’t deterred many of the party faithful in Wilson County, where Republicans were excited for November, even if they’re bearish on their gubernatorial nominee’s chances. “I don’t think he’s going to win. And I think abortion is what’s going to get him — too far right,” said Bentley Massey, a 63 year-old retiree, in between shucking oysters. He’d voted for Robinson and was all-in for Buckhout: “She’s my girl.” Attendees schuck oysters at the Wilson County GOP Dinner. Attendees schuck oysters at the Wilson County GOP Dinner. | Nicholas Wu/POLITICO Beyond the 30-second ads, both candidates stick to their party’s immigration script. When asked about border legislation she’d wanted to see on the House floor, Buckhout said: “We definitely have to close the border” and that she supported the conservative border bill House Republicans had passed this Congress. She said the so-called “Remain in Mexico” policy from Trump’s tenure was a “good start,” and that she was “happy with what [Trump] is doing so far” on border policy. Davis, meanwhile, cited bills that had already come up this Congress, like the Senate’s scuttled bipartisan border deal that Democrats from Harris on down have used to argue that Republicans aren’t serious about the problem: “I believe there’s a lot of legislation that is already out there that we can refine and tune.” For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.