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National

Former President Trump spent much of his immigration rally in Wisconsin Saturday criticizing Vice President Kamala Harris, who a day earlier promised harsher asylum restrictions on her first trip to the U.S.-Mexico border as Democratic presidential nominee.

Why it matters: Both presidential candidates are hoping to gain swing state votes, and Trump is betting on hopes for immigration reform tipping scales in his favor. 

What he's saying: Trump addressed Harris' remarks at the border, accusing her of lying about promises she made.

"She's been there almost four years. Why didn't you do anything," he asked.

During her Friday visit at a port of entry being modernized in Douglas, Arizona, Harris accused Trump of putting politics before border security and helping block a Biden-backed border security bill she promised to support if elected.

Harris also promised to bar reentry for five years in cases of illegal border crossings, to pursue more serious charges against "repeat violators" and to bar requests for asylum that do not come from a legal point of entry.

Catch up quick: In a push for mass deportations, Trump and running mate Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) have repeated a false online conspiracy theory about Haitian immigrants eating pets in Springfield, Ohio.

Local officials maintain they've received no credible reports substantiating the accounts, one of which Trump shared during the presidential debate on Sept. 10. 

Days later, the former president announced that if elected, he would implement the "largest deportation" in U.S. history, starting in Ohio and Colorado. 

By the numbers: 88% of Trump supporters but only 27% of Harris supporters favor mass deportations for those in the country illegally, according to a Pew Research Center study published on Friday.

Strengthening border security gained support from 96% of Trump supporters and 80% of Harris supporters in the survey of 9,201 adults.

It was conducted through phone and online interviews from Aug. 5-11 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 1.3 percentage points.

How Trump's plan for mass deportations fits into U.S. history

Scoop: Inside Harris' plan for stricter asylum rules

Trump pounds immigration message after Harris' border visit

Both presidential candidates are hoping to gain swing state votes.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump delivers remarks at the Prairie du Chien Area Arts Center in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, on September 28

Former President Trump delivers remarks at the Prairie du Chien Area Arts Center in Wisconsin on Sept. 28. Photo: Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP via Getty Images

Donald Trump

2020 election

Kamala Harris

Elections 2024

Immigration

2024 will be an election year like no other, as President Biden seeks re-election amid economic uncertainty, two wars and questions about his age. His likely foe, former President Trump, faces felony charges and vows revenge on his political enemies. Meanwhile, Americans generally are dissatisfied with those choices and are divided over immigration, race, education and more.

Politics & Policy

The first vice presidential debate between Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) and Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) on Tuesday comes just over a month before Election Day and as early voting has already launched in a handful of states. 

The big picture: The Walz-Vance showdown could likely be the last major televised debate of this election cycle, and the mics will not be muted if all goes as planned. 

A large segment of voters are planning to cast ballots ahead of Election Day, with early voting already launched in a handful of states, including Minnesota.

Both candidates agreed to the debate in August. 

Catch up quick: In the first 59 days after Vice President Kamala Harris entered the race, Vance has become a familiar face, giving more than seven times more interviews and press conferences than Walz and Harris combined, per Axios' review. 

In that time, Walz has also boosted the Harris campaign with an aura of authenticity as a running mate. He rose to national prominence by casting Vance and other Republicans as "weird" in many television appearances." 

Vance has deemed the label "schoolyard bully stuff" on CNN.

The Republican senator, who served as a public affairs specialist in the Marines, has taken shots at Walz's military record,  accusing the 24-year Army National Guard veteran of misrepresenting a service record Walz says "speaks for itself."

The 90-minute debate, starting at 9pm ET, will be produced by CBS and carried by other major networks and platforms. 

It will be held at CBS Broadcast Center in New York City.

CBS "Evening News" host Norah O'Donnell and "Face the Nation" host Margaret Brennan will moderate.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has helped the Walz team in an off-duty capacity to stand in for Vance during debate prep.

It is being led by White House alums Rob Friedlander and Zayn Siddique, also part of Harris' debate room.

The debate prep team also includes Chris Schmitter, the aide who led Walz's gubernatorial races; longtime Obama-Biden aide Liz Allen; and Harris-Walz communications director Michael Tyler.

House GOP Whip Tom Emmer is playing the part of Walz in GOP prep for Vance, Axios' Juliegrace Brufke previously reported. 

Emmer has been studying up on how Walz debates, his positions and his physical mannerisms, a source familiar told Axios.

Walz will stand behind a podium on the right side of the screen with Vance to the opposite side, per debate rules CBS News announced on Friday. There will not be opening statements, and Walz will be introduced first.

Each candidate will have two minutes to answer questions, with the other candidate given two minutes to respond. 

They will each have one additional minute for rebuttals. Moderators, the only ones permitted to ask questions, will be able to decide whether to give the candidates another minute, per the rules.

Candidates will have two minutes for closing statements. Vance won a coin toss determining order and opted to go last.

Although there are no plans to mute mics, CBS News reserved the right to change that plan.

Vance said Wednesday during a press call about the showdown that he doesn't think it will take much preparation.

"What we're going to focus on is that I make as concise and direct appeal to the American people as possible about Donald Trump's successful policies and Kamala Harris' failed policies," Vance said.

Walz, calling Vance a "Yale Law guy" and himself "a public school teacher," said the debate is "a good opportunity to contrast where we're at."

"You'll hear me talk like I have about things that impact Americans, making sure they have the opportunity to thrive, making sure that we're being factual in how we talk about that," Walz told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow after Harris and Trump's debate Sept. 10. 

"And so I'm looking forward to it. I'll work hard. That's what I do."

Emily Soong, a spokesperson for the Harris-Walz campaign, said the debate is an opportunity for Walz to present Harris' vision "to the American people who are ready to turn the page on Donald Trump."

Tuesday's faceoff is set to be the last one this cycle. 

Harris has repeatedly challenged Trump to a second debate and accepted CNN's invitation for one on Oct. 23, but Trump has declined.

JD Vance agrees to debate Tim Walz on Oct. 1

Walz accepts vice presidential debate invite

Axios Vibes: Voters see Walz as more authentic than Vance

What to know about the vice presidential debate

Unlike the presidential debates, mics won't be muted.

This is a collage of Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance at the Republican National Convention on July 17 at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee Wisconsin and Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz at the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 21 at the United Center in Chicago.

Vice presidential candidates JD Vance and Tim Walz at their parties' respective conventions this summer. Photos: Joe Raedle/Getty Images and David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images

JD Vance

Axios Vibes

Latino

Axios Latino

Former President Donald Trump's call for historic "mass deportations" of immigrants from the United States is forcing the nation to revisit past expulsions that left deep wounds still felt today.

The big picture: From the Palmer Raids of Jewish and Italian immigrants of 1919 to the mass deportation of Mexican immigrants in the 1950s, previous deportation operations ignored civil liberties, heightened racial tensions and disrupted families of American citizens for generations.

Catch up quick: In campaign speeches, Trump has said he would launch "the largest deportation operation in American history" and end birthright citizenship as outlined in the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Trump wants to mobilize ICE agents — along with the FBI, federal prosecutors, the National Guard, and even local law enforcement officers — to carry out deportations.

He says he would start with mass deportations of Venezuelan migrants in Aurora, Colorado, and Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio. As part of his call for deportations, Trump has pushed baseless claims that Haitian immigrants are eating house pets in Springfield, a debunked conspiracy theory that led to bomb threats in schools.

Reality check: To end birthright citizenship, the U.S. Constitution would have to be amended by three-fourths of the state legislatures or three-fourths of conventions called in each state for ratification — an unlikely event.

A surge of Italian and Russian Jewish immigrants into many industrial cities at the turn of the century sparked a wave of anti-immigrant bigotry and fueled the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan.

A bomb outside Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer's home in Washington, D.C. — along with pandemic flu, Russia's Bolshevik Revolution and the over-hyped "Red Scare" — gave the ambitious lawyer cover to go after those immigrants.

Palmer dispatched young Justice Department lawyer J. Edgar Hoover to monitor immigrants suspected of holding radical political views, leading to the arrests of immigrants during simultaneous raids in major cities.

Thousands of people were arrested without warrants and with no regard for constitutional protections against unlawful searches and seizures.

The deportations split up families and led to the creation of the American Civil Liberties Union.

The Great Depression saw pressure from state and local governments on Mexicans and Mexican Americans to "return" to Mexico amid high unemployment in the U.S. and violent anti-Mexican sentiment. 

Under the guise of so-called repatriation, Mexican Americans were targeted in immigration raids or coerced under the threat of violence into leaving the United States. 

About a million people of Mexican descent were forced out of the U.S.

Between the lines: U.S. officials, who skirted birthright citizenship by saying they did not want to break up families, sent Mexican American children to Mexico, according to "Decade of Betrayal: Mexican Repatriation in the 1930s."

Co-author Francisco Balderrama said some families hid children away with relatives in the U.S. to prevent them from being sent to a foreign country they had never visited.

Among those who were forced to leave was Anthony Acevedo, a future World War II medic in the U.S. Army and Holocaust survivor.

President Eisenhower's operation used military-style tactics to round up 1.3 million Mexicans and Mexican Americans across the country in the 1950s for what was then the largest deportation operation in U.S. history. "Wetback" is a racial slur for Mexicans.

The deportations came after some Mexican American civil rights leaders, including lawyer Gus Garcia, urged the federal government to deport undocumented Mexican immigrants who were being exploited to keep wages down for poor Mexican Americans.

Border agents raided Mexican American neighborhoods, demanded ID from "Mexican-looking" citizens in public, invaded private homes in the middle of the night, and harassed Mexican-owned businesses.

More than 1 million were deported, separating families and creating corridos (traditional Mexican ballads) about family breakups still sung today.

A generation after the operation, many mainstream Latino civil rights groups changed from supporting deportations to actively opposing them. 

The intrigue: Despite cheers at Trump rallies of "send them back," any modern-day mass deportation effort would likely be met with resistance from Latino civil rights groups and elected officials, David J. Bier, associate director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, tells Axios.

Today, there are elected Latinos in federal, state and local offices and well-organized civil rights and advocacy groups that weren't in place decades ago.

Networks of churches and volunteers will likely offer shelter to migrants, as seen in the 1980s during Reagan-era raids of Central American immigrant communities.

Armies of journalists, activists and social media influencers will document raids.

What we're watching: Businesses, schools, and farms will likely urge leaders against mass deportations.

Any mass removal could result in unpicked crops rotting, American children lacking childcare, and a shortage of workers, leading to new inflation. 

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Past mass deportations ignored civil liberties and disrupted families of US citizens for generations

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