What To Do When You're Stopped By Police - The ACLU & Elon James White
What To Do When You're Stopped By Police - The ACLU & Elon James White
Know Anyone Who Thinks Racial Profiling Is Exaggerated? Watch This, And Tell Me When Your Jaw Drops.
This video clearly demonstrates how racist America is as a country and how far we have to go to become a country that is civilized and actually values equal justice. We must not rest until this goal is achieved. I do not want my great grandchildren to live in a country like we have today. I wish for them to live in a country where differences of race and culture are not ignored but valued as a part of what makes America great.
“Donald J. Trump has been reposting racially and sexually charged insults of Kamala Harris, continuing a history of crass attacks. But in Ms. Harris, he may have found a particularly risky target.
Former President Donald J. Trump in North Carolina last week.Doug Mills/The New York Times
Over his decades in the public eye, former President Donald J. Trump has a well-established history of making degrading and racist remarks about women, people of color and pretty much anyone else who crosses his path.
It is a proclivity that dates to his days as a reality television star and that has only expanded in the meme-driven era of social media. In the words of Senator Kevin Cramer, Republican of North Dakota, Mr. Trump is “an equal opportunity offender.”
But in Vice President Kamala Harris, Mr. Trump has found a particularly complicated and risky target for his trademark brand of transgression, as more Americans are suddenly tuning in to what has become a highly competitive race.
Although there are no clear signs that Mr. Trump has increased the quantity of abuse he levels at his opponents, his decision to repost a string of sexually and racially charged broadsides in recent weeks suggests that he has turned up the dial when it comes to pure vulgarity and crudeness.
That eagerness to offend is likely to receive increased scrutiny as the election enters its final stretch. With both major parties battling for female and moderate swing-state voters, Mr. Trump could potentially alienate an undecided audience uncomfortable with his coarse rhetoric.
Since July 21, when President Biden stepped out of the race and endorsed Ms. Harris, Mr. Trump has directed a seemingly constant fusillade of invective at a challenger who happens to be Black, South Asian and female.
In a little over five weeks, in speeches, social media posts and interviews, Mr. Trump has called Ms. Harris a “wack job”; a “communist”; “dumb as a rock”; “real garbage”; “a bum”; and, employing a phrase he applies almost exclusively to women, “nasty.” In early August, he reposted an image depicting Ms. Harris as a dung beetle with her face covered in what appears to be blackface while astride a coconut. And he has made or amplified innuendo-laden references to his opponent’s long-ago relationship with the former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown, suggesting she traded sexual favors to accelerate her political career.
“She had a very good friend named Willie Brown,” Mr. Trump said at a rally on Aug. 3. “He knows more about her than anybody’s ever known. He could tell you every single thing about her, could tell you stories that you’re not going to want to hear.”
At a convention for Black journalists in Chicago last month, he questioned Ms. Harris’s racial identity, saying that she only recently “became a Black person.” And in addition to a post on Wednesday on his Truth Social platform, which made a crude reference to Ms. Harris and oral sex, Mr. Trump this month reshared a video of a singer in a parody video saying that Ms. Harris has spent her life “down on her knees.”
In a statement, James Singer, a spokesman for Ms. Harris, called Mr. Trump “out of his mind.” He added, “If a family member posted what Donald Trump is sharing today, Americans would rightly be concerned.”
The Trump campaign did not directly respond to questions about his social media posts and reposts or the language he uses when attacking his opponents. Instead, the campaign, asked to address concerns that Mr. Trump ran the risk of alienating crucial voters, said that “women deserve a president who will secure our nation’s borders, remove violent criminals from our neighborhoods and build an economy that helps our families thrive — and that’s exactly what President Trump will do.”
In rallies and other public forums, Mr. Trump continues to use off-color language, deploying the phrase “son of a bitch” at least a dozen times since he announced his re-election campaign in November 2022, and variations of the word “shit” dozens of times in that span. He used the word “fucking” twice in one speech last year in North Carolina.
Ms. Harris, by contrast, has been sparing, using that word once in May and uttering the term “half-assed” during her acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention.
But it is on the internet where much of the crass political discourse takes root. For Mr. Trump, a primary driver is the almost symbiotic relationship he has developed with his base on Truth Social, which he launched in early 2022.
Although he returned to the X platform this month, nearly all of the off-color content Mr. Trump has amplified has been confined to his own site, which has become a kind of echo chamber for MAGA content.
In that politically homogenous, criticism-free context, Mr. Trump’s posts are constantly answered with racist and sexist memes by ardent followers in hopes that the former president will repost them, a badge of honor in MAGA circles. In recent weeks, social media has been awash in digitally manipulated and crude images of Ms. Harris that were created by Mr. Trump’s supporters showing her in sexual situations, often unclothed or in lingerie.
The post that Mr. Trump shared on Wednesday on Truth Social — a screenshot from X that showed an image of Ms. Harris and Hillary Clinton and another user’s reply: “Funny how blowjobs impacted both their careers differently…” — was a reply to one of Mr. Trump’s own posts on the site.
An anonymous account with the handle @beware_the_penguin posted the screenshot on Truth Social. In recent weeks, that same account has uploaded and shared dozens of highly sexualized images about Ms. Harris on the platform. At least one other, more PG-rated post from that account, depicting Ms. Harris hiding from reporters under a table, was also reposted by Mr. Trump.
The oral-sex remark came from the account of a pro-Trump podcaster who calls himself Zeek Arkham. The comment alludes to Mrs. Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, who admitted to having a sexual relationship with a White House intern, Monica Lewinsky, and to Ms. Harris’s relationship with Mr. Brown in the mid-1990s.
The Truth Social post with the screenshot appears to have since been deleted.
On Wednesday, the person running the Zeek Arkham account posted on X that he would “like to apologize because you’re too stupid to vote for someone who actually made the country better,” adding: “I made a dirty joke. You’re voting for one.”
That individual has stated in the past that he is a former New York Police Department officer named Ezequiel Arkham, but no such individual could be located. The New York Times was unable to immediately confirm the identity of either that account or the @beware_the_penguin account on Truth Social.
Mr. Trump reposted — or, in the jargon of Truth Social, retruthed — the sexual content amid a furious spree of activity on his social media platform.
On Wednesday, he boosted at least four posts making reference to the QAnon conspiracy theory, as well as altered images depicting Ms. Harris and other Democratic leaders in orange prison jumpsuits and other posts calling for former President Barack Obama to be tried in a military tribunal.
In the past, Mr. Trump used the platform and Instagram to level attacks against Mr. Biden, reposting, for example, several videos depicting the president as feeble that were made by a group of pro-Trump content creators called the Dilley Meme Team.
In January, he took to Truth Social to call Nikki Haley, the former governor of South Carolina who was then challenging him for the Republican presidential nomination, “Nimrada,” a misspelling of her given name, Nimarata, that was interpreted as a racist dog whistle designed to emphasize her identity as the child of South Asian immigrants.
It mirrors a string of posts by Mr. Trump this month that called the vice president “Kamabla,” instead of Kamala.
Susan C. Beachy and Tiff Fehr contributed research.
Karen Yourish is a Times reporter in the Graphics department, combining traditional reporting with data and visual analysis.More about Karen Yourish
Michael Gold is a political correspondent for The Times covering the campaigns of Donald J. Trump and other candidates in the 2024 presidential elections.More about Michael Gold“
Trump Videos at Arlington Stir More Fallout After Gravesite Visit
"The family of a Green Beret buried there expressed concern about videos and photos taken by his grave. And a cemetery employee declined to press charges after an altercation with the Trump team, fearing retribution.
The family of a Green Beret who died by suicide after serving eight combat tours and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery expressed concern on Wednesday that Donald J. Trump’s campaign had filmed his gravesite without permission as Mr. Trump stood in an area where campaign photography isn’t allowed.
Relatives of Master Sgt. Andrew Marckesano issued their statement two days after Mr. Trump’s visit, which also includeda confrontation between members of the Trump campaignand an Arlington employee. The former president’s campaign took video in a heavily restricted section of the cemetery known as Section 60, which is largely reserved for the fallen veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
A woman who works at the cemetery filed an incident report with the military authorities over the altercation. But the official, who has not been identified, later declined to press charges. Military officials said she feared Mr. Trump’s supporters pursuing retaliation.
Sergeant Marckesano died on July 7, 2020, after moving to Washington to begin a job at the Pentagon. He had three children, and friends said he had chronic post-traumatic stress disorder from his time in combat. He earned Silver and Bronze Stars during his service. His gravesite is adjacent to that of Staff Sergeant Darin Taylor Hoover, a Marine who was killed in the 2021 bombing at Abbey Gate outside the Kabul airport in Afghanistan.
The Hoover family granted permission to the Trump team to film and take photographs at the gravesite; the Marckesano family did not, and filming and photographing at the gravesite for political purposes is a violation of federal law, according to cemetery officials. Yet Sergeant Marckesano’s grave was shown in photos from the visit that were published online. A video was posted to Mr. Trump’s TikTok account featuring footage from the Section 60 visit and the gravestones from behind, with narration criticizing the handling of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.
In a statement from Sergeant Marckesano’s relatives after being contacted by The New York Times, his sister, Michele, said, “We fully support Staff Sergeant Darin Hoover’s family and the other families in their quest for answers and accountability regarding the Afghanistan withdrawal and the tragedy at Abbey Gate.”
“However,” she added, “according to our conversation with Arlington National Cemetery, the Trump campaign staffers did not adhere to the rules that were set in place for this visit to Staff Sergeant Hoover’s gravesite in Section 60, which lays directly next to my brother’s grave.”
Sergeant Marckesano’s sister continued, “We hope that those visiting this sacred site understand that these were real people who sacrificed for our freedom and that they are honored and respected accordingly.”
Steven Cheung, a Trump campaign spokesman, did not address the statement from the Marckesano family, saying when asked about the TikTok video only that “the campaign will continue to respect the wishes of the Gold Star family members who invited President Trump.”
Sergeant Marckesano had served six tours in Afghanistan with the 82nd Airborne and others in combat overseas, according to news accounts at the time of his death. His family is said to have sought privacy since his death.
In the aftermath of the Monday altercation, the Army has closed the matter, after the Arlington official declined to press charges. According to three U.S. military officials, some Trump campaign members confronted and eventually pushed past the cemetery official when she tried to stop them from taking photos in Section 60.
Two Trump campaign officials, Mr. Cheung and Chris LaCivita, had insulted the cemetery worker in public statements on Tuesday. Mr. Cheung asserted that she was “suffering from a mental health episode” while Mr. LaCivita said that she was a “despicable individual” who “does not deserve to represent the hallowed grounds of Arlington National Cemetery.”
Military officials said that the cemetery worker feared that pursuing the matter with the authorities at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall in Virginia, which has jurisdiction over the cemetery, could subject her to retaliation from Trump supporters. Mr. Cheung said in a statement on Wednesday that “that is ridiculous and sounds like someone who has Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
The Trump team had said it was prepared to release footage of the altercation, but never did.
Several Army officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential aspects of the matter, on Wednesday sought to keep the politically charged issue from escalating. But at the same time, they defended the cemetery official and pushed back on attacks from the Trump campaign, with one official saying that the woman at the cemetery was just trying to do her job.
Since Monday, the former president’s cemetery visit has become increasingly scrutinized for its political nature.
He was there for a wreath-laying ceremony honoring 13 American troops who werekilled in the Abbey Gatebombing during the United States’ Afghanistan withdrawal three years ago. Mr. Trump has said President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris bear responsibility for the bombing and America’s chaotic withdrawal, and repeated his attacks on the subjectin campaign events after his visit to the cemetery.
Mr. Trump had laid three wreaths at theTomb of the Unknownson Monday morning, the third anniversary of the Abbey Gate bombing. Two of the wreaths were for Marines killed: Sergeant Hoover and Sgt. Nicole Gee. A third was dedicated to all 13 troops killed.
Mr. Trump then accompanied the families and Marine veterans to Section 60. That part of Mr. Trump’s visit was private and closed to the press, andresulted in the confrontation. In a statement, the cemetery said that federal law prohibited political campaigning or “election-related” activities within Army cemeteries, including by photographers, and that the prohibition was “widely shared” with those participating in the event.
For centuries the United States has tried to keep military might and partisan politics far from each other, to avoid the appearance of allegiances to a political party or ideology. Because of this, military members are forbidden from participating in partisan activities or endorsing candidates while in uniform and military bases are off-limits for political campaigns.
It was unclear on Wednesday whether the Defense Department would pursue a legal claim related to the episode.
Campaigning in Erie, Pa., on Wednesday, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, Mr. Trump’s running mate, blamed “some staff member” at the cemetery for the incident and criticized the media for reporting on it.
“Apparently somebody at Arlington Cemetery, some staff member had a little disagreement with somebody,” Mr. Vance said. “And they have turned — the media has turned this into a national news story.”
Photos of Mr. Trump’s visit to Section 60 were later published online. Mr. Trump was photographed giving a “thumbs up” to the camera standing behind the grave of Sergeant Hoover, with Sergeant Marckesano’s grave clearly visible a few feet away. Mr. Trump posted the video on TikTok on Tuesday that also showed the two headstones from behind as Mr. Trump laid flowers.
Gov. Spencer Cox of Utah, whopublished one photo of himself and Mr. Trumpstanding behind the graves on social media, apologized on Wednesday for including other photos of the visit to Section 60 in a campaign email that solicited donations.
“This was not a campaign event and was never intended to be used by the campaign,” Mr. Coxsaid on social media. “It did not go through the proper channels and should not have been sent. My campaign will be sending out an apology.”
Michael C. Bendercontributed reporting from Erie, Pa., andDave Philippsfrom Colorado Springs."
Washington— Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said she was "concerned" about the court's landmark decision that granted former President Donald Trump immunity from prosecution for official acts he took while in office.
Jackson, in an interview with "CBS Evening News" anchor and managing editor Norah O'Donnell, suggested the ruling gives Trump special treatment compared to anyone else in the criminal justice system.
"I was concerned about a system that appeared to provide immunity for one individual under one set of circumstances, when we have a criminal justice system that had ordinarily treated everyone the same," she said.
It is Jackson's first broadcast interview since joining the Supreme Court, and it comes ahead of the release of her memoir, "Lovely One," on Tuesday.
The Supreme Court's decision, which was released in July, fell along ideological lines, with the six Republican-appointed justices concluding that former presidents have sweeping legal protections from charges for alleged acts that fell within their official duties. But the Supreme Court rejected Trump's argument that he has absolute immunity unless impeached by the House and convicted by the Senate.
In her dissent, Jackson wrote that "the court has now declared for the first time in history that the most powerful official in the United States can (under circumstances yet to be fully determined) become a law unto himself."
The decision stalled special counsel Jack Smith's case against Trump, who is accused of resisting the peaceful transfer of power after the 2020 election.
On Tuesday, Smith fileda superseding indictmentagainst Trump, narrowing the allegations after the Supreme Court ruling the former president was immune from prosecution for some of the conduct detailed in the original indictment.
Asked whether she was prepared for cases relating to the upcoming election to end up before the Supreme Court, Jackson replied that she is "as prepared as anyone can be."
"I think there are legal issues that arise out of the political process. And so, the Supreme Court has to be prepared to respond if that should be necessary," she said."
Watch more of Norah O'Donnell's interview with Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson on "CBS News Sunday Morning."
Former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president, visited Arlington National Cemetery on Monday to participate in a wreath-laying ceremony to mark the third anniversary of a suicide bombing at the Kabul, Afghanistan, airport that killed 13 U.S. service members.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Two members of Donald Trump's campaign staff had a verbal and physical altercation Monday with an official at Arlington National Cemetery, where the former presidentparticipated in a wreath-laying ceremony, NPR has learned.
A source with knowledge of the incident said the cemetery official tried to prevent Trump staffers from filming and photographing in a section where recent U.S. casualties are buried. The source said Arlington officials had made clear that only cemetery staff members would be authorized to take photographs or film in the area, known as Section 60.
When the cemetery official tried to prevent Trump campaign staff from entering Section 60, campaign staff verbally abused and pushed the official aside, according to the source.
Trump participated in an event to mark the third anniversary of a deadly attack on U.S. troops in Afghanistan as U.S. forces withdrew from the country; 13 U.S. service members were killed in the attack. The Trump campaign has blamed President Biden and Vice President Harris, now the Democratic presidential nominee, for the chaotic withdrawal.
In a statement to NPR, Steven Cheung, the Trump campaign's spokesman, strongly rejected the notion of a physical altercation, adding: "We are prepared to release footage if such defamatory claims are made.
"The fact is that a private photographer was permitted on the premises and for whatever reason an unnamed individual, clearly suffering from a mental health episode, decided to physically block members of President Trump's team during a very solemn ceremony," Cheung said in the statement.
The Trump campaign declined to make that footage immediately available.
In a statement to NPR, Arlington National Cemetery said it "can confirm there was an incident, and a report was filed."
"Federal law prohibits political campaign or election-related activities within Army National Military Cemeteries, to include photographers, content creators or any other persons attending for purposes, or in direct support of a partisan political candidate's campaign," according to the statement. "Arlington National Cemetery reinforced and widely shared this law and its prohibitions with all participants."
Both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris say they support cutting taxes on tips, and the topic may come up at their debate on 10 September. But as the Guardian’sMichael Sainatoreports, workers’-rights advocates aren’t thrilled about the suddenly popular policy:
Tipping has always been a controversial subject in the US. Imported from Europe and popularized bysome accountsafter the fall of slavery to reinforce racial wage disparities, the practice comes freighted with historic baggage.
Nor is it overly popular with consumers. Since the pandemic, 72% of US adults say tipping is expected in more places today than it was in 2019, according to aPew survey. Four in 10 Americans oppose the suggested tips that have been popping up on payment screens everywhere from coffee shops and dry cleaners to self-service machines in airports.
That hasn’t stoppedDonald TrumpandKamala Harrisfrom putting tips at the center of their election battle. Earlier this month, in a bold move, the vice-presidentendorseda policy that the former president touted earlier this year to ban taxes on tips for service workers, as both candidates have been vying for working-class voters in the 2024 election,especiallyin the swing state of Nevada.
At a glance, the idea of giving a break to tipped workers is attractive – in some states, the minimum wage for tipped workers is just $2.13 an hour, and an alarming 14.8% of those workerslive in poverty. But the idea raises many issues: why should a low-wage worker who does get tips be treated differently from one who doesn’t? Will higher-paid workers be able to use the cut their tax bills? Harris says not, Trump is less clear.
Trump says he's reached agreement for rules of 10 September debate with Harris
Donald Trumpsays he has agreed to the rules for ABC News’s 10 September debate withKamala Harris, which will be their first encounter since she launched her presidential campaign.
The two campaigns had reportedly been at odds over the rules of the debate, with the biggest point of contention being whether the candidates’ microphones would be muted when the other candidate was talking. Politico reported yesterday that Harris’s team wanted the microphones live during the whole broadcast, which would be a change from the CNN-hosted June debate between Trump andJoe Biden.
Ina post on Truth Social, Trump said that the debate will be held under CNN’s rules – which seems to indicate microphones will be muted when a candidate is not speaking:
I have reached an agreement with the Radical Left Democrats for a Debate with Comrade Kamala Harris. It will be Broadcast Live on ABC FAKE NEWS, by far the nastiest and most unfair newscaster in the business, on Tuesday, September 10th, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Rules will be the same as the last CNN Debate, which seemed to work out well for everyone except, perhaps, Crooked Joe Biden. The Debate will be “stand up,” and Candidates cannot bring notes, or “cheat sheets.” We have also been given assurance by ABC that this will be a “fair and equitable” Debate, and that neither side will be given the questions in advance (No Donna Brazile!). Harris would not agree to the FoxNews Debate on September 4th, but that date will be held open in case she changes her mind or, Flip Flops, as she has done on every single one of her long held and cherished policy beliefs. A possible third Debate, which would go to NBC FAKE NEWS, has not been agreed to by the Radical Left. GOD BLESS AMERICA!"
A whale of a tale is the latest setback for the beleaguered former presidential candidate.Photograph: Evan Vucci/AP
His independent White House campaign has fizzled, but the flow of bizarre stories ofRobert F Kennedy Jr’s unorthodox handling of the carcasses of wild mammals has experienced no similar suspension.
An environmental group is calling for a federal investigation into the former presidential candidate for an episode in which he allegedly severed the head of a washed-up whale with a chainsaw – and drove home with it strapped to his car’s roof.
The episode has parallels with another extraordinary talereported earlier in Augustin which Kennedy confessed to dumping a dead bear cub in New York’s Central Park and attempted to make it look like the animal was killed by a bicyclist.
The latest grisly revelation, about the whale head, is not particularly new – it stems froma 2012 interviewKennedy’s daughter Kick gave to Town & Country magazine, in which she talks about a visit to other family members of the political dynasty in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, more than two decades prior.
But the story’s re-emergence, following the bear tale and otheroff-the-wall declarations– including claims that part of RFK Jr’s brain was eaten by worms and that he had an apparent fondness for barbecued dog – has angered activists at the Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund. The group previously denounced Kennedy’s candidacy and endorsed Democratic nomineeKamala Harrisfor president.
In a letter to theNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration(Noaa) this week, Brett Hartl, the organization’s government affairs director and chief political strategist, demanded an inquiry.
“Mr Kennedy’s apparent transport of the marine mammal skull from Massachusetts to New York, and therefore across state lines, also represented a felony violation of the Lacey Act, one of the earliest wildlife conservation laws enacted by [the] United States in 1900,” he wrote, adding that it was also illegal to possess part of any animal protected by the endangered species act.
“Normally, an unverified anecdote would not provide sufficient evidence as the basis for conducting an investigation. The [bear] story made it seem like this was normal behavior for him, so he may also possess additional illegally collected wildlife parts.”
The former Kennedy campaign’s press office did not respond to a request for comment. And Noaa has yet to publicly acknowledge receipt of Hartl’s letter.
The somewhat unpleasant recounting by Kick Kennedy – granddaughter of Robert F Kennedy, the assassinated former US attorney general and Kennedy Jr’s father – remains the only documented account of the whale incident.
Describing her father’s fascination with animal skulls and skeletons as “eccentric environmentalism”, she tells how the whale washed up on a beach near Hyannis Port and he sped to the scene.
“[He] ran down to the beach with a chainsaw, cut off the whale’s head and then bungee-corded it to the roof of the family minivan for the five-hour haul back to Mount Kisco, New York,” she said.
“Every time we accelerated on the highway, whale juice would pour into the windows of the car, and it was the rankest thing on the planet. We all had plastic bags over our heads with mouth holes cut out, and people on the highway were giving us the finger, but that was just normal day to day stuff for us.”
Hartl,on X, called RFK Jr an “environmental criminal”. In his group’sdenouncement of his candidacy, it said “his conspiracy theories go against the science-based foundation of all environmental protections”, and that he was no different fromDonald Trumpin terms of policy priorities “driven by what will benefit Big Oil and the greedy corporations that fund them”.
Former President Donald Trump’s campaign has launched a new general election ad that falsely labels Vice President Kamala Harris the “border czar” and falsely suggests that 10 million people illegally crossed the southern border on her watch and are still “here.”
As we’vewritten before, Harris was specifically tasked with leading efforts to address the root causes of migration from three countries in Central America. She was not put in charge of U.S. border security, as the “border czar” title implies. That is the responsibility of the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
Also, during the Biden-Harris administration, there have been nearly 7 million apprehensions of those trying to cross the southern border illegally through June, according to the most recent figures available from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Another 1.1 million people arrived at legal ports of entry without authorization to enter the U.S. There may have been nearly 2 million who illegally crossed and were not caught.
But data on the initial action taken at the border, available only through March, shows that in about 3 million cases, the encountered individuals were either quickly removed or denied entry.
The Trump campaign released the 30-second ad, titled “I Don’t Understand,” on July 30 and said it “will run across six battleground states.”
Not the ‘Border Czar’
The ad begins with a video of Harris dancing while a narrator says, “This is America’s border czar and she’s failed us.” But the claim that Harris is the “border czar” is false.
Not long after taking office in 2021, President Joe Biden appointed Harris to head up the “Root Causes Strategy,” an effort to “improve security, governance, human rights, and economic conditions” in Central American countries. The strategy included a number of actions designed to “address the root causes of migration” from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, specifically. The synopsis released by the White House said that the strategy would focus on tackling economic insecurity and inequality, confronting corruption, and reducing violence, among other things.
Biden did not put Harris in charge of issues at the border. (Another Trump adclaims that “Biden made Kamala Harris border czar to fix immigration.”)
Harris addressed her role in a June 2021 NBC News interview with Lester Holt in Guatemala. A clip from that interview is featured in the campaign ad embedded above.
“Well, Lester, here’s the thing,” Harris began, as she explained why she had saidthat migrants should not come to the U.S. illegally. “I’ve been working on this issue for a very long time, and the kind of violence and danger that is associated with that trek, especially when we are talking about from Guatemala through Mexico to the United States. It’s extremely dangerous, and the reason that I am in Guatemala is to address the reasons people leave home, flee. … They want to stay. They don’t want to leave, but they need opportunity, they need assistance, they need support and we have the ability to give them that.”
Later in the interview, when Holt pressed her about not having gone to the U.S.-Mexico border by that point in her vice presidency, Harris said that she believed the border and the underlying reasons for illegal immigration are both important.
“I care about what’s happening at the border,” she said. “I’m in Guatemala, because my focus is dealing with the root causes of migration. There may be some who think that that is not important, but it is my firm belief that if we care about what’s happening at the border, we’d better care about the root causes and address them. And so that’s what I’m doing.”
About two weeks after that interview, Harris and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas did travel to part of the border in El Paso, Texas. In remarksmade at a press conference during the trip, Mayorkas talked about the administration’s plan to address a surge in migration and who would take on what role.
“The vice president is leading our nation’s effort to tackle the root causes of migration — why people leave their home in the first place,” Mayorkas said. “I and my colleagues in the Cabinet have been directed to execute the rest of the plan: to build safe and legal pathways for people who qualify for humanitarian relief under the laws our Congress has passed; to rebuild our country’s asylum system that was dismantled under the prior administration; in an orderly and just way, to remove those whose claims for relief do not qualify.”
He went on to say that he and DHS had the “responsibility to secure the border.”
Border Crossings
The ad also gives the false impression that, during the Biden-Harris administration, 10 million people entered the U.S. illegally and remain in the country.
A graphic on screen reads, “over 10 million illegal border crossings.” Meanwhile, the ad’s narrator says, “under Harris, over 10 million illegally here.”
But all the people who were encountered at the border are not still here; millions were removed or denied entry, almost immediately.
From February 2021 to June 2024, there were nearly 7 million apprehensions of people crossing the border illegally, according to CBP data. There were another 1.1 million instances of individuals who showed up at a legal port of entry but were “inadmissible,” meaning they did not have legal permission to enter the country. Also, based on an average annual apprehension rate of 78%, according to DHS, there were an estimated nearly 2 million “gotaways” who illegally entered the country and avoided being detected by authorities.
Adding those all together gets to 10 million border crossings, although each one does not necessarily represent a different person because some people may have been encountered more than once due to repeated attempts to gain entry into the country.
However, for the people encountered at the border, many of them did not get to stay.
We have comprehensive data on what happened after initial border evaluations only through March. For the nearly three-year period of February 2021 through March 2024, there were about 3 million removals or repatriations by CBP, according to monthly figures from the Office of Homeland Security Statistics.
Another 3.3 million were released into the country with notices to appear in immigration court or report to Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the future, or other classifications, such as parole. There were also 414,900 transfers to the Department of Health and Human Services, which is responsible for unaccompanied children who cross the border without adult family members or legal guardians, and about 910,000 transfers to ICE. The transfers to ICE include those who are then booked into ICE custody, enrolled in “alternatives to detention” (which include technological monitoring) or released by ICE. So, we don’t know how many of those were released into the country with a court notice and how many are still in ICE custody.
Also, these figures are for the initial dispositions of migrants encountered at the border, as we’ve explained before. Some of the people released into the country still may be removed later, if they do not qualify for asylum or another form of protection from removal. That would further subtract from the “10 million” the ad falsely suggests have stayed in the country.
Fentanyl and ISIS
The ad also says that there have been 250,000 deaths from fentanyl “on Harris’s watch,” suggesting that those deaths are connected to illegal immigration. Then the ad goes on to say, “ISIS now here,” citing a news story about men who entered the U.S. through the southern border and were later arrested because they may be connected to the Islamic State terrorist group.
First, there is not an exact count of deaths from fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is lethal in small doses, a spokesperson for the National Center for Health Statistics told us in an email.
The NCHS does report overdose deaths from synthetic opioids other than methadone, a category that includes deaths due to fentanyl or fentanyl analogs. In 2021 and 2022, there were a combined 144,439 overdose deaths from synthetic opioids other than methadone, according to finalized NCHS data based on death certificates for U.S. residents. There were an additional 74,702 estimated deaths from the use of those drugs in 2023, according to NCHS provisional data released in May.
Although not official, that’s a total of 219,141 overdose deaths, which could exceed 250,000 once the final figures for 2023 and 2024 are known.
Overdose deaths from non-methadone synthetic opioids have been rising for several years, including during the Trump administration. The estimated deaths for 2021-2023 are about 44% higher than the 152,676 deaths over Trump’s four years as president, and the total under Trump had increased about 306% from the 37,642 deaths during Barack Obama’s last four years as president.
Furthermore, as we’vewritten, the vast majority of fentanyl is smuggled into the U.S. by American citizens coming through legal ports of entry — not people illegally crossing the border between those ports.
As for ISIS being “here,” according to the ad, that’s based on a June 14 CNN article about eight Tajikistan nationals who entered the U.S. through the southern border seeking asylum. They were screened by border officials and allowed into the country, but they were later arrested for potentially having ties with the terrorist group.
CNN reported: “Though there is no hard evidence indicating they were sent to the US as part of a terror plot, at least some of the Tajik nationals had expressed extremist rhetoric in their communications, either on social media or in direct private communications that US intelligence was able to monitor, three officials said.”
The arrests “heightened concerns among national security officials that a dangerous affiliate of the now-splintered terror group could potentially carry out an attack on US soil,” CNN said.
But the story noted that the men would be held in federal custody on immigration charges until they are deported after a counterterrorism investigation is completed.
It’s not clear if all eight men entered the country illegally, as at least one of them reportedly used the CBP One app, which launched in January 2023 to accept appointments for migrants who are in Mexico and want to request asylum or parole in the U.S.
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