Yearly Archives: 2024

There were nearly 565,000 illegal border crossers reported in Arizona in fiscal 2024, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.

Arizona’s 378 miles of shared border with Mexico is staffed by CBP and Border Patrol agents in the CBP sectors of Tucson and Yuma. Tucson Sector’s 262-mile shared border with Mexico extends from the Yuma County line to the Arizona-New Mexico state line. Yuma Sector’s nearly 182,000 square miles of primarily desert terrain extends from Imperial Sand Dunes in California to the Yuma-Pima County line.

The Tucson Sector has historically been one of the busiest along the U.S.-Mexico border. In fiscal 2024, Border Patrol agents there reported 463,567 illegal border crossers, the most of any sector along the southwest border during the year, which runs from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30. The second greatest number was reported by San Diego Sector Border Patrol agents of nearly 325,000, The Center Square reported.

Tucson Office of Field Operations agents also reported 47,051 illegal border crossers in fiscal 2024, significantly less than San Diego OFO’s 183,890 over the same time period.

In CBP’s Yuma Sector, Border Patrol agents reported 53,877 illegal border crossers. Because of the sector’s vast desert, large drifting sand dunes, mountainous terrain, ever-changing Colorado River, and temperatures exceeding 120 degrees, Yuma Border Patrol agents often rescue illegal border crossers in distress.

Combined, apprehensions in Arizona totaled at least 564,495 in fiscal 2024 excluding gotaways, those who illegally entered and evaded capture. Data for both sectors is consistent with nationwide data: the overwhelming majority of illegal border crossers are single adults coming from all over the world.

In Tucson Sector’s Cochise County, Sheriff Mark Dannels says despite numerous requests, he’s never met with President Joe Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris the entire time they’ve been in office as his rural county has been pummeled with illegal border crossers and cartel-related crime.

“My community's frustrated over the last three and a half years with what we've dealt with … when it comes to crime and the policies that have failed this country; the policies have failed our citizens, and the tragedies that my neighbors are addressing silently, because nobody's listening,” Dannels, who is also the chairman of the National Sheriff’s Association for Border Security, said.

Over a 31-month period, his office booked 3,762 people in the county jail for border-related crimes, he said. “These are not immigration issues. These are border-related crimes, with double digit murders.”

In an investigation led by the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security, Arizona Border Patrol chiefs expressed concerns about gotaways and national security risks. Tucson Sector Chief Border Patrol Agent John Modlin said, “When we make an arrest, we can then vet that person and find out, if they have a criminal history, if there are national security concerns. Gotaways are a public safety concern … potentially a national security concern.”

“The smuggling organizations to our south are very well organized and resourceful,” he said, referring to Mexican cartels. “Each and every person crossing through the Tucson Sector must pay these criminal organizations. The migrants we encounter are completely outfitted in camouflage by the smuggling organizations before they cross. Most run from and fight our agents to avoid apprehension. Many are previously deported felons who know they are inadmissible to the United States and many pose a serious threat to our communities.”

Modlin also expressed concerns about having to pull agents from other areas to deal with surges, a practice used across sectors, The Center Square reported. Yuma Sector Deputy Chief Border Patrol Agent Dustin Caudle said the sector’s three interior checkpoints are critical for interdicting gotaways, but the majority of fiscal 2022 and most of fiscal 2023 they were down, meaning the border was wide open and unmanned.

As Border Patrol agents were inundated with surges of illegal border crossers and given timeframes to process and release them into the country under Biden-Harris policies, background checks and vetting weren’t always performed and individuals on the terrorist watch list were released into the country, according to congressional investigations and Office of Inspector General reports. Americans living more than 2,600 miles away are also suffering consequences. Crimes being committed in New England can be traced back to foreign nationals who illegally entered the country in Arizona, The Center Square reported.

Despite ongoing challenges, federal, state and local law enforcement agents in Arizona have seized a record amount of fentanyl in the last few years, enough to kill billions of people. Earlier this year, CBP agents seized half a ton of fentanyl at the Lukeville Port of Entry in the Tucson Sector, the largest fentanyl seizure in CBP history. With two milligrams considered a lethal dose, and 22,696.2 lethal doses in a pound, they seized more than 453 million lethal doses, enough to kill roughly the entire population of the U.S. and Mexico.

Arizona parents who’ve lost children to fentanyl, like Josephine Dunn, have called on the Arizona legislature and Congress to act, The Center Square reported.

As the Biden-Harris administration escalated flights of illegal foreign nationals into the country, Arizona’s border apprehensions were down in fiscal 2024 compared to the more than 775,000 reported in fiscal 2023, The Center Square first reported.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin Republican Reps. Derrick Van Orden and Bryan Steil testified at a House Judiciary Committee meeting last week about the dangers of sanctuary cities and the community challenges illegal immigration has posed across the state, particularly in Whitewater.

Steil has previously pointed to Whitewater as a “case study” of the damaging effects of illegal immigration under the current administration. The influx of roughly 1,000 migrants to the city of 15,000 has led to increasing strain on law enforcement, school resources, and housing capacity in Whitewater, according to reports. Now, the city is witnessing cartel activity, including drug and human trafficking operations, Steil testified, referencing multiple reports.

“We know the danger that that poses in our communities,” Steil said. “And there has been state legislation where we could have had an opportunity to ban sanctuary cities here in the United States, and we’ve not been successful in doing that under Democratic leadership.”

Though Madison is the only city in Wisconsin officially classified as a sanctuary city, Whitewater officials seem uncertain over whether the city is legally able to send away migrants, who have temporary asylum status under the Biden-Harris administration’s “catch and release” policy, where migrants who illegally cross into the country are allowed to wait in the U.S. for their claims to be processed in an immigration court.

The effects of illegal immigration have also affected Wisconsin on a statewide scale, Van Orden testified at the hearing, particularly at prisons in the state.

In particular, Wisconsin’s Federal Correctional Institution Oxford is holding 650 migrants who have committed felonies, more than half of the prison’s housing capacity of 1,200. According to Oxford administrators, the cost of housing a single inmate is $42,000 per year, amounting to $27 million in taxpayer dollars going to holding migrant inmates.

A record 14 million illegal border crossings have occurred under the Biden-Harris administration, with nearly 3 million occurring during the past 2024 fiscal year, the second-highest number in U.S. history.

Of the record 14 million illegal border crossers reported under the Biden-Harris administration, more than 1.62 million are from four Countries of Particular Concern (CPC): China, Cuba, Nicaragua and Russia.

The U.S. State Department has designated CPCs for their policies of “systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom,” which includes “torture, prolonged detention without charges, forced disappearance, or other flagrant denial of life, liberty, or security of persons.”

U.S. designated CPCs include Burma, the People’s Republic of China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea), Nicaragua, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan. The CPCs of Cuba, North Korea, and Iran are also designated State Sponsors of Terrorism (SST).

U.S. Customs and Border Protection records nationality for every illegal border crosser but not all nationality data is published online. Of the 12 CPCs, CBP published apprehension and encounter data reported nationwide for four: China, Cuba, Nicaragua and Russia.

Published data is from fiscal years 2021-2024; a fiscal year begins Oct. 1 and ends Sept. 30. CBP CPC data under the Biden-Harris administration excludes data from the first three months of fiscal 2021 under the previous administration. It also excludes gotaway data, those who illegally entered and evaded capture, and those released through several parole programs.

More than 176,000 Chinese illegal border crossers

Under the Biden-Harris administration, the greatest number of Chinese illegal border crossers was reported nationwide in U.S. history of 176,038.

That’s up from nearly 160,000 The Center Square reported in June.

The greatest number was reported in fiscal 2024 of 78,701, up from 52,700 in fiscal 2023, 27,756 in fiscal 2022 and 16,881 for nine months in fiscal 2021.

Republican members of Congress have expressed alarm about national security threats posed by the Chinese Communist Party, Chinese intelligence outposts operating in the U.S., Chinese and other illegal border crossers breaching U.S. military bases, Democratic vice presidential candidate Minn. Gov. Tim Walz’s alleged ties to the CCP, among other concerns. The U.S. House also passed bills to counter the CCP threat.

Nearly 786,000 Cuban illegal border crossers

Under the Biden-Harris administration, the greatest number of Cuban illegal border crossers was reported nationwide in U.S. history of more than 786,000.

The most were reported in fiscal 2022 of 224,607, followed by 217,615 in fiscal 2024, 200,287 in fiscal 2023 and 33,876 in nine months in fiscal 2021. They total 676,385.

At least 110,000 inadmissable Cubans were released into the U.S. through a CHNV Parole Program, according to CBP data.

Republican members of Congress have demanded answers about Chinese spies operating out of Cuba targeting Americans, nonimmigrant visas expanded to Cubans “endanger[ing] our national security,” non vetting of SST diplomats, among other concerns.

More than 536,000 Nicaraguan illegal border crossers

Under the Biden-Harris administration, the greatest number of Nicaraguan illegal border crossers was reported nationwide in U.S. history of more than 536,000.

The greatest number was reported in fiscal 2022 of 164,600, followed by 138,729 in fiscal 2023, 91,049 in fiscal 2024 and 49,254 in nine months in fiscal 2021, according to the data. They total 443,632. At least 93,000 inadmissible Nicaraguans were released into the country through the CHNV Parole program, according to CBP data.

Both Cuban and Nicaraguan nationals have been released into the country by historic proportions due to a new CHNV parole program created by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. CHNV parolees are also being arrested nationwide for committing violent crimes against Americans, The Center Square reported.

Nearly 127,000 Russian illegal border crossers

Under the Biden-Harris administration, the greatest number of Russian illegal border crossers was reported nationwide in U.S. history of 126,683, with the most reported in fiscal 2023 of more than 57,000, according to the data.

This year, FBI Director Christopher Wray testified multiple times before Congress of increased terrorist threats, including from China, Iran, North Korea and Russia. Several federal agencies also warned about Russian cyberthreats targeting U.S. “critical infrastructure with disruptive and destructive cyber and physical attacks,” as west Texas municipal water systems were targeted by Russian hackers, The Center Square reported.

The total excludes data not published about 8 CPCs as well as CPC nationals released into the U.S. through the CBP One App and other parole programs.

Combined, illegal border crossers from these four CPCs, 1,625,738, total more than the individual populations of 11 states: Hawaii, New Hampshire, Maine, Montana, Rhode Island, Delaware, South Dakota, North Dakota, Alaska, Vermont, and Wyoming.

They are also the equivalent of more than 36 U.S. Army corps, with 45,000 soldiers in a corps, and roughly double the number of U.S. troops who served in Afghanistan for 20 years.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s Senate race between incumbent Democrat Tammy Baldwin and Republican challenger Eric Hovde are nearly dead even, polls from Emerson College and Trafalgar Group showed.

The results are like a Quinnipiac poll of 1,108 likely voters showing the two candidates are too close to call.

The Emerson College poll of 800 likely Wisconsin voters had each candidate at 48% support in a poll conducted Oct. 21-22 through contacting the cell phones of potential voters (61% of respondents) and an online panel of voters (39%).

The Emerson poll had Donald Trump with 49% support and Kamala Harris with 48% in the state. Nearly 65% of the 1.2% of undecided voters said that they lean toward Harris while 35% lean toward Trump.

The poll showed that nearly 42% of voters believe the economy is the most important issue facing the state while 17% said threats to democracy, 10% said abortion access and 9% each said immigration and housing affordability.

Of those surveyed, 46% said they voted for President Joe Biden in 2020 while nearly 46% said they voted for Trump.

The Trafalgar Republican-based poll showed Trump with a 0.2% lead over Harris in the state with 1.9% undecided and Hovde with a 0.4% lead over Baldwin with 3.4% undecided among 1,083 respondents between Oct. 18-20.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s Senate race between incumbent Democrat Tammy Baldwin and Republican challenger Eric Hovde is too close to call, according to a new Quinnipiac Poll.

Baldwin has 49% support amount the 1,108 likely voters polled from Oct. 17-21 while Hovde saw 48% of the support in a poll with a 2.9% margin of error, making it too close to call.

That’s a tightening from an Oct. 9 poll that showed Baldwin with 50% support compared to 46% for Hovde. The toss-up call is similar to how the Cook Political Report sees the race. The two faced off in what was expected to be their only debate Friday evening.

The Quinnipiac Poll has run since 1994 and uses a random sampling of adults using random digit dialing with live interviewers calling both cell phones and land lines.

The poll also showed Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are tied with 48% support from likely voters in the presidential race in the state. All third party candidates received less than 1% support.

That compares to an Oct. 9 poll that showed Trump with 48% support and Harris with 46% support in Wisconsin.

The poll shows that Wisconsin women back Harris 57% to 39% while men back Trump 59% to 38%.

It showed that Trump has 52% support compared to Harris’ 47% on the economy, 50% prefer Harris to Trump’s 47% on preserving democracy while 54% in Wisconsin prefer Harris to 40% for Trump on abortion.

Voters were split 48% to 48% on whether Harris is considered honest while 56% say Trump is not honest and 40% believe that he is.

Annual FBI crime victimization surveys show violent crime is up 10.4% and property crime is up 6.4% between 2019 and 2023.

Each year, the FBI releases headline crime report data for the calendar year prior, and a separate crime victimization survey that asks Americans what crimes they have been the victims of. Comparing these reports provides insight into crime reporting rates and the accuracy of crime statistics.

While earlier reporting demonstrated that theft is worsening and often underreported, the growing divergence between the FBI’s annual crime victimization survey and its tabulations of reported crime indicates worsening trends in theft.

However, recent changes in how crime reporting data is collected, along with anomalous 2020 COVID-era data and reporting, have muddied the waters.

The FBI set a January 1, 2021 deadline back in 2016 for agencies to transition from the paper-based Summary Reporting System, which reports each incident of crime with the worst crime committed in the incident, with the computer-based National Incident-Based Reporting System, which can log up to 10 crimes per incident. But 40% of law enforcement agencies didn’t make the change in time. This included most agencies in populous California, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Florida, and the two largest agencies: New York Police Department and Los Angeles Police Department.

As a result, reported violent and property crime dropped 15.9% and 27.3% respectively between 2020 and 2021, while at the same time victimization for violent crime rose 0.9% and property decreased 3.3%. The ratio of reported violent crimes to victimization declined from 85.6% in 2021 to 71.4% in 2021, while that of property crimes declined from 51.6% to 38.8%, highlighting how the 2021 reported crime figures are the product of a muddled transition in data collection.

Data did improve for 2022 and 2023, with only 17% of agencies failing to submit at least three months of NIBRS data in 2022, and 16,009 agencies covering 95.2% of the national population reporting for 2023. The full 2023 data released at the end of September now shows that violent crime reporting rates — reports divided by victimizations — for property crime are back to 2019 levels, but that property crime reporting rates are 14.4% below 2019 levels, highlighting perceptions that Americans just aren’t reporting as much of the property crime that happens to them.

Newly released polling data on former President Donald Trump’s increased margins with Black and Hispanic voters mark a seismic shift in the electorate with just two weeks until Election Day.

A USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll released Monday found that nationally, Harris leads Trump by 1 point, well within the margin of error at 46% to 45%.

However, Trump significantly leads Harris with Hispanic voters and has made unprecedented gains among Black voters

The poll, which surveyed 1,000 likely voters between Oct. 14-18, shows that Trump leads Harris with Hispanics, 49% to 38%.

Harris also has 72% support among Black voters, which is much higher than Trump’s 17% support but much lower than other recent Democrats.

Previous Democrats like former President Barack Obama, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Joe Biden received between 90-95% of Black voters’ support.

Black voters hold particular sway in the urban ares of key swing states like Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Detroit, Atlanta and others.

The increased Hispanic support is a boon to Trump as well, particularly in the southwest swing states of Arizona and Nevada, which is about one third Hispanic.

Notably, Biden received 58% support from Hispanic voters when he beat Trump in 2020.

Harris does much better with women while Trump does better with men, something other polls have shown.

The Center Square Voter’s Voice poll as well as The New York Times/Siena College polling from earlier this month showed Harris’ weakness with Black voters, sending shockwaves through the Democratic party and pushing Harris to roll out new efforts to curry favor with Black voters.

The latest polling shows so far she hasn’t had much success.

Trump spent the weekend at a Pennsylvania McDonalds, simultaneously courting voters in the swing state and mocking his opponent, who he says lied about having previously worked at a McDonalds.

“I’ve now worked [at McDonald’s] for 15 minutes more than Kamala,” Trump told bystanders and media at the McDonalds location.

Meanwhile, Harris fired back online saying that she worked there for a summer job and that Trump wouldn’t understand that since he received a sizeable inheritance from his father.

According to Real Clear Politics’ polling average, Trump leads in every single one of the seven closest swing states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

His leads, though, are all less than two points and within the margin of error for most polls.

Harris leads by between 4 and 7 percentage points in Minnesota, New Mexico and Virginia.

Trump holds a 7-point lead in Ohio.

With no more scheduled debates and two weeks of feverish campaigning, who will manage to build a slight lead remains to be seen.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin has seen 305,000 absentee ballots returned heading into the final two weeks before the election.

In-person absentee voting began Monday and runs through Nov. 3 at sites throughout the state. Voters can register in person at their local municipality and need to show valid identification to receive an absentee ballot.

The deadline for online and mail voter registration has passed.

Wisconsin provides information on in-person absentee voting based upon address on its MyVote site.

An updated list of ballot drop boxes shows that 107 drop boxes are in use throughout the state that have been reported to the Wisconsin Elections Commission, up from 78 that were listed a week ago.

That includes 14 in Madison, 14 in Milwaukee and seven in Racine.

There were 500 drop boxes in use for the 2020 presidential election during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Wisconsin has sent out 586,616 absentee ballots of the 593,550 requested through Friday with 305,344 already returned.

A Philadelphia-area McDonald's onboarded a new worker on Sunday: former President Donald Trump.

The Republican nominee’s campaign shared footage of an employee at the Feasterville location in Bucks County training Trump, a black and yellow apron shielding his trademark red tie, how to cook the restaurant’s iconic French fries.

In separate clips, Trump serves customers waiting at the drive-thru window and pays their bills out of his own pocket.

ICONIC 🍟 pic.twitter.com/TeSI0ffffO— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) October 20, 2024

“I’m going for a job right now at McDonald’s,” Trump, known as a frequent patron of the fast-food chain himself, told reporters after he deboarded a plane in Philadelphia earlier Sunday. “I’ve really wanted to do this all my life and now I’m going to do it, because she didn’t do it.”

The “she” in question is Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee also vying for the White House in November. The story of the candidate’s humble beginnings, as the child of divorced parents living in Oakland, includes a brief stint working at McDonald’s during college – a fact she touted often in her failed bid for president in 2019 – possibly while at Howard University, possibly in the Bay Area.

She tweeted about it June 14, 2019. Fact-checking news outlets, including Snopes, could not confirm the claim then or today.

The Trump campaign isn't buying.

“We have checked with McDonald’s and they say, definitively, that there is no record of Lyin’ Kamala Harris ever having worked there,” Trump’s campaign said on X. “In other words, she never worked there, and has lied about this job for years.”

WATCH: The crowd roars as President Trump waves from the McDonald's drive-through window pic.twitter.com/i6tgRhT6Uv— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) October 20, 2024

Multiple media reports allege management at the Alameda, Calif., restaurant won’t respond to questions about the authenticity of Harris’ employment there four decades ago.

Of note, the Trump campaign has not offered any proof to dispute Harris’ claims beyond his reported conversations with unnamed McDonald’s employees. The Democratic nominee’s campaign also shoots down the claim as a “desperate” attack on her character.

“When Trump feels desperate, all he knows how to do is lie,” Harris campaign spokesman Ian Sams told to U.S. News & World Report on Sunday. “He can’t understand what it’s like to have a summer job because he was handed millions on a silver platter, only to blow it."

In Pennsylvania, widely viewed as the most pivotal swing state in the 2024 election, the contest between Harris and Trump has been neck-and-neck for weeks. In the most recent RealClear Politics polling average of surveys conducted through Oct. 17, the former president holds a 0.7 percentage point lead in Pennsylvania. Only in Wisconsin and North Carolina are his margins smaller.

Of note, although Harris leads nationally by 0.9 percentage points, Trump leads in all seven swing states by an average of 1 percentage point, according to RealClear.

Less than 48 hours before arrival in North Carolina and just over two weeks until Election Day, Donald Trump has become the first to clear the margin of error leading a presidential poll in the battleground state.

Trump leads Kamala Harris 51%-46% in the latest poll from Rasmussen Reports and American Thinker. The margin of error is +/- 3% with a 95% level of confidence in the sampling of 1,042 likely voters taken Oct. 9 through Monday.

Trump is slated for a visit to the East Carolina University campus in Greenville on Monday afternoon, where he’ll speak from Minges Coliseum. Pitt County was a 53.96%-44.51% win for the challenger Biden against the incumbent Republican in 2020, taking more than 47,000 of 87,573 votes.

Pitt was one of 10 counties, and the southern-most sans one, east of Interstate 95 he captured. The Maine to Florida connector is recognized as a bit of a divider for the state, with more populous areas toward the western two-thirds and plenty of rural socioeconomic challenges from it to the Atlantic Ocean.

Other key answers from the poll: Federal funding is favored 80%-12% for Americans impacted by disaster over “assistance for illegal aliens;” 70% prefer “major change” to “business as usual” in relation to the next president’s governing; and Harris, daughter of an Indian mother and Jamaican father, is collecting 70% of Black voters as compared to 92% by Biden in 2020.

The top issues question in choosing a president or U.S. senator was led by the economy (33%), border security (17%) and abortion (12%). At 7% each were violent crime, climate change and government corruption. Education (5%) matched other (5%) and was just in front of not sure (4%) and global conflicts and war (3%). North Carolina does not have a Senate seat race this year.

On the question of “who is the biggest enemy America faces?” the Democratic Party got 27%, China 19%, the Republican Party 16%, Russia 15%, domestic extremists 9%, unsure 8%, and Iran 6%.

In 2020, Trump won North Carolina 49.9%-48.6% over the ticket of Biden and Harris. In 2016, Trump won the state 49.8%-46.2% over the ticket of Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine. Trump outperformed the September and October polls each time.

North Carolina is one of seven consensus battleground states that collectively pivot 93 electoral college votes. Few prognosticators believe either candidate can win without the state or Pennsylvania, and perhaps need to take both.

Pennsylvania has 19 electoral college votes, North Carolina and Georgia 16 each, Michigan 15, Arizona 11, Wisconsin 10 and Nevada six.

The 78-year-old Trump has a 20-point platform, led by a return to enforcement of securing national borders. He chastises the Democrats for inflation that at 2.4% remains higher than when he left office in January 2021, yet is considerably lower than the 9.1% high of June 2022 in the era of Bidenomics. Energy independence and “manufacturing superpower” are also in his top five.

Harris, second in command to Biden and turning 60 on Sunday, says her top issues are an opportunity economy and lower costs for families. Tax cuts for the middle class, affordable rent and home ownership, and growth by small businesses also top her list. On abortion she favors federal regulation over state authority, meaning a return to Roe v. Wade.

Republicans own an unmistakable 14-cycle pattern in presidential elections. Since Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson carried North Carolina and won the presidency in 1964, only Democrats Jimmy Carter (1976) and Barack Obama (2008) have prevailed. Respectively four years later for each, they lost to Ronald Reagan and Mitt Romney.

Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday touted her support for legalizing marijuana, explicitly tying the issue to her effort to get support from Black voters in a social media post that drew immediate pushback.

Harris posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, a call to legalize recreational marijuana and specifically said the policy would help Black men.

“Breaking down unjust barriers that hold Black men and other Americans back and making sure Black Americans have opportunities to succeed as the market place takes shape,” Harris said, adding that "no one should go to jail for smoking weed."

One commenter on X remarked, “All Black People DON'T smoke weed...Other races smoke weed too; I don't think you understand how insulting this post is!”

The more common pushback, though, came from critics pointing out that Harris actively prosecuted marijuana-related crimes during her time as attorney general in California.

Former Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard helped end Harris’ presidential campaign in 2020 by bringing up this very issue at the Democratic debate.

“Now Senator Harris says she’s proud of her record as a prosecutor and that she’ll be a prosecutor president, but I’m deeply concerned about this record,” Gabbard said at the debate.

“She put over 1,500 people in jail for marijuana violations and then laughed about it when she was asked if she ever smoked marijuana,” Gabbard continued, referring to Harris laughing when admitting she smoked weed during an interview on The Breakfast Club.

Fact-checkers later pushed back on that number, but Harris' tough-on-crime stance while in California and her prosecution of marijuana-related offenses is indisputable.

Harris comments come after The Center Square Voter’s Voice poll showed that Harris is getting less support from likely Black voters than former President Barack Obama, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, and President Joe Biden.

As The Center Square previously reported, Harris received 79% support among Black voters in the national survey while former President Donald Trump received 16% support from likely Black voters.

Harris’ 79% support is significantly lower than the three former Democratic presidential candidates, which could be a factor in the very close presidential race.

Obama received 95% of the Black vote in 2008 while former Secretary of State and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton received about 91% support in 2016, and Biden received 92% support in 2020.

In an apparent effort to close the gap, Harris also posted on Monday about “creating an opportunity agenda for black men,” another attempt to court the demographic.

The post also said Harris would “provide 1 million loans that are fully forgivable up to $20k for Black entrepreneurs and others to start a business” and “support education training, and mentorship programs that lead to good-paying jobs for Black men, including pathways to become teachers.”

She also pledged to “protect cryptocurrency investments so Black men who make them know their money is safe” and “launch a national health initiative focused on the illnesses that disproportionately impact Black men.”

Obama chided Black men in a speech last week for their hesitancy to support Harris.

​​“Now, I also want to say that that seems to be more pronounced with the brothers,” Obama said, referring to the lower support for Harris among Black men.

Texas Department of Public Safety troopers working through Gov. Greg Abbott’s border security mission, Operation Lone Star, continue to arrest “special interest aliens,” primarily men from countries of foreign concern. That includes Iran, a U.S. State Department designated State Sponsor of Terrorism.

Texas DPS first sounded the alarm about increasing arrests of SIAs last month, The Center Square first reported.

In the past week, DPS troopers have arrested dozens of SIAs, Texas DPS Lt. Chris Olivarez said in a series of social media posts.

SIAs are noncitizens who, based “on an analysis of travel patterns,” are “known or evaluated to possibly have a nexus to terrorism” who “potentially poses a national security risk to the United States,” the U.S. Department of Homeland Security explains. Having an SIA designation does not necessarily mean the individual is a terrorist, but their travel pattern “indicates a possible nexus to nefarious activity (including terrorism) and, at a minimum, provides indicators that necessitate heightened screening and further investigation,” DHS says.

On Oct. 11, DPS troopers apprehended 165 foreign nationals in Quemado, outside of Eagle Pass, after they illegally entered Texas from Mexico. Among them were 14 identified as SIAs – citizens of Iran, Egypt, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

President Joe Biden recently extended executive orders declaring multiple national emergencies citing national security threats related to Iran, ISIS, Syria, Afghanistan and the DRC, The Center Square reported.

In a video posted by DPS, apprehended Iranian SIAs stated their names and information about themselves in English. They said they are from Iran, they came through Mexico and were going to Florida, Las Vegas and San Francisco, respectively.

DPS troopers also arrested 57 illegal foreign nationals for criminal trespass – citizens of Peru, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Guatemala, and Ecuador, Olivarez said.

On Oct. 13, Texas DPS troopers recovered 29 “unaccompanied alien children” (UACs) between the ages of 10 and 17. They all claimed to already have sponsors in New York, California, Colorado, Florida, Maine, and other states, he said.

On Oct. 14, Texas DPS troopers also recovered 23 UACs including 16 boys and seven girls, he said. Olivarez published a video of the UACs who stated their ages in Spanish.

All UACs are handed over to Border Patrol, which processes them and turns them over to the supervision of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement. HHS ORR is rife with allegations of abuse, the non-vetting of sponsors, losing track of more than 100,000 UACs after they are released into the US, among other allegations prompting multiple congressional investigations. A House Committee also recently subpoenaed the head of HHS to provide information about UACs.

One Democratic U.S. senator from Oregon blocked an attempt to halt funding for organizations accused of abusing UACs; 158 House Democrats voted against deporting violent offenders, including child sex offenders.

One Texas group, Alliance for a Safe Texas, has called for action in Texas since the majority of UACs are housed in HHS-contracted facilities in the state, The Center Square first reported.

So far, through OLS, Texas DPS troopers have rescued over 900 UACs, The Center Square reported. Border Patrol agents are also continuing to rescue drugged UACs believed to have been abused and smuggled into the country.

On Oct. 14, Texas DPS troopers also apprehended a large group of illegal border crossers on private property in Maverick County. They included family groups, the 23 UACs and 22 SIAs – citizens of Egypt and Turkey, Olivarez said.

Last month, troopers apprehended SIAs from Turkey, all single military age men, The Center Square reported.

Last month, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, filed a bill to require the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to publish data on SIAs who are apprehended illegally entering the U.S., The Center Square first reported.

SIA data collected by DHS has never been made public under any administration.

There have been at least 73,000 SIAs arrested under the Biden-Harris administration, Greene said at a congressional hearing. The number “does not include the potential special interest aliens among the 2 million known gotaways,” she said.

She’s referring to illegal border crossers who intentionally evade capture, don’t return to Mexico or Canada, run when pursued by law enforcement and aren’t apprehended, or their tracks are found by law enforcement and reported, officials have explained to The Center Square. They now total over 2 million since fiscal 2021, the greatest number reported under any presidential administration, The Center Square first reported.

Just 22 days from Election Day, Republican Donald Trump is the betting favorite over Kamala Harris 54.1%-44.9%.

Six times the favorite has changed since the vice president became the clear choice of Democrats in the wake of President Joe Biden quitting. The latest difference is the largest since the first of those shifts.

“We are going to defeat Kamala Harris, and we are going to usher in a new golden age of American success for citizens of every race, religion, color, and creed,” Trump said on social media Sunday.

Harris, campaigning Sunday in North Carolina, told her audience, "As president it is my pledge to you that I will always fight for all the American people, and together we will build a brighter future for our nation."

Trump has a 20-point platform, led by a return to enforcement of securing national borders. He chastises the Democrats for inflation that at 2.4% remains higher than when he left office in January 2021, yet is considerably lower than the 9.1% high of June 2022 under the watch of President Joe Biden. Energy independence and “manufacturing superpower” are also in his top five.

Harris, second in command to Biden, says her top issues are an opportunity economy and lower costs for families. Tax cuts for the middle class, affordable rent and home ownership, and growth by small businesses also top her list. She favors a return to Roe v. Wade on abortion.

Trump is favored on all seven of the RealClear sources to generate the betting average. Points Bet (57%) is strongest on the Republican, followed by Betsson (56%), Bwin (55%), Bovada (54%), Smarkets (53%), and Polymarket (52%) and Betfair (52%).

At the time of the first assassination attempt of Trump, he was running against Biden and his difference soared to plus-48.5 that July day. It was still over plus-42 a day before Biden quit and Harris assumed preferred candidate choice of Democrats.

The betting favorite changed to Harris on Aug. 8, went back to Trump on Aug. 21 as the Democratic National Convention closed though only for two days, came back to Trump again on Aug. 29, went back to Harris when they debated Sept. 10, and returned to Trump’s favor on Oct. 6.

In many states with early in-person voting, polls open this week.