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As Pressures Mount, Trump Faces the Most Precarious Moment of His Presidency

As Pressures Mount, Trump Faces the Most Precarious Moment of His Presidency

People voting at voting booths.

The Quiet Campaign That Could Rewrite the 2028 Election

The Minneapolis Shooting Is Not an Aberration — It’s a Warning of What Comes Next

The Minneapolis Shooting Is Not an Aberration — It’s a Warning of What Comes Next

Vance’s Claims on ICE Shooting Don’t Match the Evidence

Vance’s Claims on ICE Shooting Don’t Match the Evidence

Can Things Get Even Worse for Mike Johnson?

Can Things Get Even Worse for Mike Johnson?

Has President Joe Biden ‘let in’ nearly 1,700 people with links to terrorism?

Sen. Ron Johnson in front of a chart

Sen. Ron Johnson claims President Biden has allowed 1,700 terrorists to enter the country. That total refers to encounters (people who were stopped)

Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Tom Kertscher, Wisconsin Watch
By Tom Kertscher, Wisconsin WatchJun 20, 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.

Has President Joe Biden ‘let in’ nearly 1,700 people with links to terrorism?

No.

Border agents have encountered individuals on the federal terrorist watchlist nearly 1,700 times since President Joe Biden took office — that means those people were stopped while trying to enter the U.S.

The latest figures show 1,664 encounters from fiscal 2021, starting Oct. 30, 2020, through May 15, 2024. That includes nearly three months before Biden was inaugurated.

The watchlist contains known or suspected terrorists and individuals “who represent a potential threat.”

About 78 percent of the encounters were at legal ports, where entry into the U.S. can be denied. The other 367 encounters occurred between legal ports, nearly all at the Southwest border. Those individuals may be detained and removed.

The 1,700 claim was made June 4 by Fox Business TV host Elizabeth MacDonald while interviewing U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.).

A Fox spokesperson provided no evidence that any of the encounters resulted in entries.

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

Sources

Associated Press Posts misrepresent border encounters with people on terror watchlist

Google Docs Terrorist Screening Data Set Encounters as of June 5, 2024

US Customs and Border Protection CBP Enforcement Statistics

Fox Business Sen. Ron Johnson: Biden's border executive action 'proves point' he's had authority to keep the border closed


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Trump Signs Defense Bill Prohibiting China-Based Engineers in Pentagon IT Work

President Donald Trump with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, left, and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth

Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

Trump Signs Defense Bill Prohibiting China-Based Engineers in Pentagon IT Work

President Donald Trump signed into law this month a measure that prohibits anyone based in China and other adversarial countries from accessing the Pentagon’s cloud computing systems.

The ban, which is tucked inside the $900 billion defense policy law, was enacted in response to a ProPublica investigation this year that exposed how Microsoft used China-based engineers to service the Defense Department’s computer systems for nearly a decade — a practice that left some of the country’s most sensitive data vulnerable to hacking from its leading cyber adversary.

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AI-powered wellness tools promise care at work, but raise serious questions about consent, surveillance, and employee autonomy.

Getty Images, d3sign

Why Workplace Wellbeing AI Needs a New Ethics of Consent

Across the U.S. and globally, employers—including corporations, healthcare systems, universities, and nonprofits—are increasing investment in worker well-being. The global corporate wellness market reached $53.5 billion in sales in 2024, with North America leading adoption. Corporate wellness programs now use AI to monitor stress, track burnout risk, or recommend personalized interventions.

Vendors offering AI-enabled well-being platforms, chatbots, and stress-tracking tools are rapidly expanding. Chatbots such as Woebot and Wysa are increasingly integrated into workplace wellness programs.

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Meta Undermining Trust but Verify through Paid Links
Facebook launches voting resource tool
Facebook launches voting resource tool

Meta Undermining Trust but Verify through Paid Links

Facebook is testing limits on shared external links, which would become a paid feature through their Meta Verified program, which costs $14.99 per month.

This change solidifies that verification badges are now meaningless signifiers. Yet it wasn’t always so; the verified internet was built to support participation and trust. Beginning with Twitter’s verification program launched in 2009, a checkmark next to a username indicated that an account had been verified to represent a notable person or official account for a business. We could believe that an elected official or a brand name was who they said they were online. When Twitter Blue, and later X Premium, began to support paid blue checkmarks in November of 2022, the visual identification of verification became deceptive. Think Fake Eli Lilly accounts posting about free insulin and impersonation accounts for Elon Musk himself.

This week’s move by Meta echoes changes at Twitter/X, despite the significant evidence that it leaves information quality and user experience in a worse place than before. Despite what Facebook says, all this tells anyone is that you paid.

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artificial intelligence

Rather than blame AI for young Americans struggling to find work, we need to build: build new educational institutions, new retraining and upskilling programs, and, most importantly, new firms.

Surasak Suwanmake/Getty Images

Blame AI or Build With AI? Only One Approach Creates Jobs

We’re failing young Americans. Many of them are struggling to find work. Unemployment among 16- to 24-year-olds topped 10.5% in August. Even among those who do find a job, many of them are settling for lower-paying roles. More than 50% of college grads are underemployed. To make matters worse, the path forward to a more stable, lucrative career is seemingly up in the air. High school grads in their twenties find jobs at nearly the same rate as those with four-year degrees.

We have two options: blame or build. The first involves blaming AI, as if this new technology is entirely to blame for the current economic malaise facing Gen Z. This course of action involves slowing or even stopping AI adoption. For example, there’s so-called robot taxes. The thinking goes that by placing financial penalties on firms that lean into AI, there will be more roles left to Gen Z and workers in general. Then there’s the idea of banning or limiting the use of AI in hiring and firing decisions. Applicants who have struggled to find work suggest that increased use of AI may be partially at fault. Others have called for providing workers with a greater say in whether and to what extent their firm uses AI. This may help firms find ways to integrate AI in a way that augments workers rather than replace them.

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