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Tracy Chapman and Luke Combs on stage

Luke Combs, politics and healing our nation's divide

Mark Esper sitting next to Donald Trump

What would really happen if Trump wins?

Department of Veterans Affairs building

Project 2025: The Department of Veterans Affairs

White House with "stop" barrier in front

If Trump wins, should Democrats turn over the keys to the White House?

Migrants being detained by U.S. Border Patrol agents

Why Trump's mass deportation plan is a lost cause

Have 25 million undocumented immigrants entered the U.S. and stayed during the Biden-Harris administration?

Peopel crossing the border at night

Migrants cross into the United States from Mexico through an abandoned railroad on June 28, in Jacumba Hot Springs, Calif.

Qian Weizhong/VCG via Getty Images
Tom Kertscher, Wisconsin Watch
By Tom Kertscher, Wisconsin WatchSep 09, 2024
Tom Kertscher, Wisconsin Watch
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This fact brief was originally published by Wisconsin Watch. Read the original here. Fact briefs are published by newsrooms in the Gigafact network, and republished by The Fulcrum. Visit Gigafact to learn more.

Have 25 million undocumented immigrants entered the U.S. and stayed during the Biden-Harris administration?

No.

Authorities estimate the number of undocumented immigrants who entered the U.S. during the Biden-Harris administration and remained at far less than the 25 million that Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance claimed.

Vance said Aug. 28, 2024, in De Pere, Wis.:

"Kamala Harris let in 25 million illegal aliens ... the 25 million people who are here in this country illegally."

U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported 10 million migrant encounters — one person one or more times — from February 2021 through July 2024.

However, millions were turned away, returned or deported.

The nonprofit Migration Policy Institute estimates there were 6 million entries between January 2021 and April 2024.

Customs and Border Protection also estimated about 2 million “got-aways” — border crossers who evaded authorities — 385,707 in 2021, 737,244 in 2022, and 694,685 in 2023.

Vance's spokesperson cited conservative media reports, including one saying there may have been 1 million got-aways in one year.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

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Sources

WLUK-TV FOX 11 JD Vance rallies voters in Wisconsin

Customs and Border Protection Nationwide Encounters

News release Chairman Green for RealClearPolitics: No, Biden and Harris’ Border Crisis Is Not Over

USA Today No, 51M 'illegals' have not entered US under Biden, Harris | Fact check

PolitiFact There aren’t 20 million to 30 million immigrants in the U.S. illegally, as Sen. Marco Rubio claimed

Google Docs Migration Policy Institute Aug. 29, 2024

Department of Homeland Security Fiscal Year 2025 Congressional Justification

Department of Homeland Security Fiscal Year 2024 Congressional Justification

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Migrants sits on the ground facing Border Patrol agents

U.S. Border Patrol agents detain migrants who camped in the border area near Jacumba, Calif.

Katie McTiernan/Anadolu via Getty Images

Do mass deportations cause job losses for American citizens?

This fact brief was originally published by EconoFact. Read the original here. Fact briefs are published by newsrooms in the Gigafact network, and republished by The Fulcrum. Visit Gigafact to learn more.

Do mass deportations cause job losses for American citizens?

Yes.

History shows mass deportations cause job losses for American citizens.

The anti-immigrant efforts of the Kennedy, Johnson, Roosevelt and Coolidge administrations either “generated no new jobs or earnings” or “harmed U.S. workers’ employment and earnings,” according to PIIE.

More recently, an analysis of President Obama’s deportation efforts found that deporting 500,000 immigrants causes around 44,000 job losses for U.S.-born workers.

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WuXi AppTec building

The BIOSECURE Act takes direct aim at five Chinese companies, including WuXi AppTec.

CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images

Bill of the month: Limiting Chinese influence in the biotech sector

Rogers is the “data wrangler” at BillTrack50. He previously worked on policy in several government departments.

This month IssueVoter and BillTrack50 take a look at the BIOSECURE Act, a significant escalation in efforts to restrict Chinese influence in America's biotechnology sector.

The bipartisan legislation, passed by the House of Representatives in September and spearheaded by Reps. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), aims to protect American patient data and prevent federal funds from flowing to biotechnology companies deemed to pose national security risks.

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Cargo ships designed to look like Chinese and U.S. flags
Yaorusheng/Getty Images

Did the Trump tariffs increase U.S. manufacturing jobs?

This fact brief was originally published by EconoFact. Read the original here. Fact briefs are published by newsrooms in the Gigafact network, and republished by The Fulcrum. Visit Gigafact to learn more.

Did the Trump tariffs increase U.S. manufacturing jobs?

No.

The tariffs Donald Trump imposed on Chinese goods in 2018 had a net negative effect on manufacturing jobs as well as overall U.S. employment.

The Federal Reserve Board found that the tariffs caused a reduction in manufacturing employment of 1.4%. Modest gains (0.3%) achieved by shielding domestic producers from foreign competition were “more than offset” by rising production costs for manufacturers who used steel as an input (-1.1%) and retaliatory tariffs (-0.7%).

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Comic book panel

A panel from "Stop Project 2025: A Comics Guide to the Republican Plan to End Democracy"

How comic books can help us understand this political moment

Toliver is an assistant professor of curriculum and instruction at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and a public voices fellow with The OpEd Project.

Recently, a group of comic book writers and authors published “Stop Project 2025: A Comics Guide to the Republican Plan to End Democracy.” Free to the public, the guide aims to succinctly explain the Heritage Foundation’s 900-page blueprint for Donald Trump to overhaul the executive branch of government when he is sworn into office for the second time.

The future of democracy may seem an unlikely topic for comic book treatment, but the genre has long transcended the likes of Marvel superheroes. And in an era when civic literacy is in peril, we need them more than ever.

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