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Is The War on Iran Unlawful And Unfair To U.S. Troops?

Is The War on Iran Unlawful And Unfair To U.S. Troops?

Protestors holding signs, many that say "Stop Bombing Iran."

Trump’s ‘Just for Fun’ War Talk Shows a Dangerous Trivialization

Republican scheming backfires in Texas election

Republican scheming backfires in Texas election

Disinformation Wins: Justifying ICE Murders through Transphobia

Disinformation Wins: Justifying ICE Murders through Transphobia

Trump: The King of Fake

Trump: The King of Fake

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.

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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Who Decides Whether America Goes to War?

A woman sifts through the rubble in her house in the Beryanak District after it was damaged by missile attacks two days before, on March 15, 2026, in Tehran, Iran.

(Photo by Majid Saeedi/Getty Images)

Who Decides Whether America Goes to War?

Because taking our country into war has the potential, if not the likelihood, even in modernwarfare, of costing the bodies and lives of American soldiers as well as disrupting the economy, this is an important question.

The Constitution is the guide to answering this question. The Constitution clearly states that Congress has the power to declare war. The President does not have that power.

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Republicans aren’t willing to call the war in Iran what it is

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (left) and Admiral Charles Bradford "Brad" Cooper II, Commander of US Central Command, speak during a press conference at US Central Command (CENTCOM) headquarters at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida, on March 5, 2026.

(Octavio Jones/AFP via Getty Images/TNS)

Republicans aren’t willing to call the war in Iran what it is

Let's state the obvious: We’re at war with Iran.

My evidence? Turn on your TV. U.S. forces, working with Israel, killed the supreme leader of Iran and many of his top aides. We sunk Iran’s navy and destroyed most of their air force. We bombed thousands of military sites across the region. President Trump, the commander in chief, has demanded “unconditional surrender” from Iran. He routinely refers to this as a “war.” Pete Hegseth, who calls himself the secretary of war, also describes this as a war daily, such as last week when he said, “We set the terms of this war.”

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Selling War Like a Brand Is Disrespectful to Those Truly in Harm’s Way

A memorial in Tyrone honors residents who served in World War I.

Photo by Jay Paterno.

Selling War Like a Brand Is Disrespectful to Those Truly in Harm’s Way

Each day in America as late morning approaches, families of service members stationed in the Middle East probably grow nervous as nightfall nears seven time zones away. On military bases or aircraft carriers, pilots are fueling up and taking off for missions over Iran. In countries across both sides of the Persian Gulf, civilians await the terror of missiles and bombs whistling through the darkness.

Back home, a mother worries about her son in his plane. A spouse, with a young child, worries about their service member while balancing the everyday stresses of holding a family together. At night, the seriousness of war emerges, and the distant drumbeats pound amid the silence.

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The Constitution: As Important As the Bible

America was made for a purpose - to prosper, to live better, to be all one can be; they are one and the same thing. Our Constitution was designed to deliver that purpose. The Constitution is a business plan, a prototype invention intentionally designed to grow people.

The Constitution was a paradigm change in who governed whom, and for what ultimate purpose people would govern each other. By amending it with the Bill of Rights, it became a purposeful enterprise framework for people to prosper first, not the more powerful, self-centered, often tyrannical, and prosperity-limiting special interests.

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