Latest news with #DemocratPowerCenter
The Hill
23-06-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
History shows prosecuting officials challenging ICE raids won't be easy
President Trump's promised retribution against what he has called the 'core of the Democrat Power Center' includes siccing thousands of ICE agents on 'blue cities.' The assault has already led to the prosecution of public officials who challenged his abusive immigration seizures. But the Trump administration will likely lose those cases, thanks to the strong American tradition of jury resistance, sometimes called nullification, dating to before the Civil War. In New Jersey, Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.) was indicted for allegedly interfering with the arrest of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka during an immigration protest rally at an ICE detention center. If convicted of the two forcible felonies, McIver would face a maximum sentence of eight years. McIver denies the accusations, pointing out that she had a legal right to inspect the facility as a member of Congress. She has raised the Constitution's speech and debate clause as a defense. In Wisconsin, the Trump administration brought criminal charges against Milwaukee County Court Judge Hannah Dugan for allegedly preventing the arrest of a migrant in her courtroom. Dugan pleaded not guilty and moved to dismiss the case on the basis of judicial immunity. McIver's and Dugan's defenses are robust and may well prevail. But even if the prosecutors manage to overcome the immunity arguments, they will still have to face juries in Newark and Milwaukee, two of the heavily Democratic cities reviled by Trump. As detailed in my book, 'Fugitive Justice: Runaways, Rescuers, and Slavery on Trial,' American juries have historically refused to enforce unpopular laws against sympathetic defendants, in cases far more extreme than McIver's or Dugan's. In September 1851, shortly after the passage of the infamous Fugitive Slave Act, a band of slavehunters from Maryland, holding a federal warrant and under the leadership of a deputy U.S. marshal, attempted to apprehend four alleged runaways near the village of Christiana, Pennsylvania. When the posse's presence was discovered, the local Black community, along with some white allies, rallied to the defense of the fugitives and drove it away in a hail of rocks and bullets. One would-be kidnapper was killed in the melee, and the deputy marshal was humiliated. The fugitives escaped to Canada with the assistance of Frederick Douglass. The Millard Fillmore administration obtained indictments against 41 defendants — 36 Black and five white — accusing them of forming a 'traitorous combination' to 'prevent the execution' of the Fugitive Slave Act. The formal charge was treason, which carried the death penalty. The first defendant brought to trial — ironically, in Philadelphia's Constitution Hall — was a white miller named Castner Hanway. The prosecutors wrongly claimed that Hanway had been a mastermind of the rebellion, because they could not believe Black people capable of organizing a successful resistance against heavily armed whites. Hanway was represented by Rep. Thaddeus Stevens (R-Pa.), one of the great abolition advocates of his time and later author of the 13th Amendment. Stevens put on a defense that emphasized the frequent 'kidnapping and carrying away of colored persons' to nearby Maryland. As an explanation for the resistance, he noted the seizure of 'Black people … by force and violence and great injury and malice, without authority from any person on earth.' It took the jury only 15 minutes to acquit Hanway. Recognizing the futility of proceeding, the prosecution eventually dropped the charges against all defendants. Also in 1851, an alleged fugitive named Shadrach Minkins was arrested in Boston by agents operating under the Fugitive Slave Act. He was hustled into a federal courtroom where abolitionist lawyers volunteered to represent him. As the court convened the next day, about 20 Black men shoved their way through the doors and carried Minkins into the street. Onlookers cheered while 'two powerful fellows hurried him through the square,' later to be taken by wagon to Canada. Two of the most important leaders of Boston's free Black community were arrested for violating the Fugitive Slave Act: a prominent merchant named Lewis Hayden and attorney Robert Morris, one of the first Black lawyers in the U.S., as well as a white newspaper editor named Elizur Wright. All three defendants were represented by Richard Henry Dana, author of the memoir 'Two Years before the Mast,' and scion of one of Boston's oldest families. Despite substantial evidence of the defendants' participation in the rescue, there were no convictions, with two acquittals and a hung jury. As tensions increased between North and South, there were fizzled prosecutions in Syracuse, Milwaukee, again in Boston, and elsewhere. Even when prosecutions succeeded, sentencing judges could be unusually lenient. More important than any of the individual outcomes was the political movement built around the Fugitive Slave Act trials. Before the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, many northerners were content to condemn enslavement from a distance, expressing disapproval but taking no action to oppose it. Afterward, the repeated arrests of alleged runaways and the trials that followed, of both fugitives and rescuers, made it impossible to ignore the federal government's intrusive role in enforcing human bondage. The McIver and Dugan prosecutors will have to contend with potential jurors appalled by Trump's indiscriminate pursuit of migrants, just as jurors in antebellum Boston and Philadelphia were appalled by the kidnapping of fugitives and arrests of rescuers. Defense counsel will surely highlight the hypocrisy of prosecuting McIver and Dugan for minor incidents, versus Trump's mass pardons of the Jan. 6 insurrectionists. In the 1850s, northern opposition to the spread of slavery, sharpened by confrontations with slave hunters and federal marshals, led to Abraham Lincoln's election in 1860. Will the prosecution of Democratic officeholders and the arrests of countless migrants by masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have the same impact on the mid-term elections of 2026? Steven Lubet is the Williams Memorial Professor Emeritus at the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law. He is the author of 'Fugitive Justice: Runaways, Rescuers, and Slavery on Trial' and other books on abolitionist lawyers and political trials.
USA Today
21-06-2025
- Politics
- USA Today
Trump orders ICE to expand efforts in NYC, LA, Chicago: See how many immigrants live in major metros
In a lengthy June 15 Truth Social post, President Donald Trump called for the "largest mass deportation program in history," calling on ICE officers to expand detentions and deportations in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York, which he described as part of "the core of the Democrat Power Center." The post came after a weekend of nationwide "No King's Day protests and a military parade in the nation's capital to celebrate the Army's 250th birthday, a day that coincided with Trump's 79th birthday. According to U.S. Census data, The New York metro area has the nation's largest foreign-born population, followed by Los Angeles, Miami, Houston and Chicago. Trump did not mention Miami or Houston in his post, though they have some of the nation's largest foreign-born populations. Which cities have the most immigrants? Across the nation, immigrants make up roughly 14% of the population, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Nearly two-thirds of foreign-born residents live in 20 major metropolitan areas, the Pew Research Center reported. The New York, Los Angeles and Miami metro areas had the largest population of immigrants. About 60% of the nation's undocumented population lives in these same metro areas. Immigrants make up 19.2% of the civilian labor force. Immigrant workers made up 28.6% of all people employed in the construction industry, according to the Census Bureau. According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, undocumented immigrants paid $96.7 billion in federal, state and local taxes in 2022. Of that amount, $59.4 billion was paid to the federal government, and the remaining $37.3 billion was paid to state and local governments. The U.S. Census American Community Survey of 2023 collected data on the cities Trump mentioned and the others in the top five. Here's the demographic breakdown: Los Angeles City Census Bureau data shows nearly half of Los Angeles' population is Hispanic or Latino, and a third of all residents living there are immigrants. This includes foreign-born U.S. citizens and noncitizens. Although the exact count of undocumented immigrants in the city is not known, a 2020 study by University of Southern California Dornsife, estimated about 900,000 people in Los Angeles were undocumented and that most had been in the United States for 10 years or more. According to the nonprofit California Budget and Policy Center, immigrants make up roughly one-third of workers in the state, comprising an outsize share of the workforce in physically intense sectors like construction and agriculture. Economists say having fewer immigrants in the United States could weaken the economy, causing labor shortages and slowing economic growth. A 2024 analysis from Jamshid Damooei, executive director at the Center for Economics of Social Issues at California Lutheran University, found that work from undocumented employees created an additional 1.25 million jobs in California. 37.9% of Los Angeles-area workers were immigrants in 2023, according to USAFacts. Chicago Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker defended sanctuary laws protecting undocumented immigrants at a congressional hearing June 12. 'Safe and compassionate immigration policies, I believe, are vital. In fact, my own family owes everything to this country accepting a young refugee named Nicholas Pritzker to its shores over a century ago," he said. The Illinois TRUST Act prohibits state and local law enforcement from arresting, searching or detaining a person because of their immigration status. The law prohibits local police from cooperating with federal immigration officers, with some exceptions. 23% of Chicago-area workers were immigrants in 2023, according to USAFacts. New York City ICE recently arrested New York City comptroller and Democratic mayoral candidate Brad Lander as he attempted to escort a man out of immigration court. The arrest, which went viral, is the latest standoff between federal agents and Democratic officials opposed to the Trump administration's tactics to detain mass numbers of of 2022, an estimated 412,000 undocumented immigrants lived in the city, according to the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs. That's a decline of 32% from 2012. Immigrants make up nearly 40% of the total population in New York City. Immigrants made up 44.3% of the city's total labor force − more than double the national share of 18.6%, according to the New York State Comptroller's Office.'Many industries in the city depend on these workers, including construction, where foreign-born workers made up almost 70% of all workers, while 65% worked in transportation and utilities, and nearly 55% worked in manufacturing,' the report said. In 2023, 36.8% of New York-area workers were immigrants in 2023, according to USAFacts. Miami Miami recently voted to enter a 287(g) agreement with federal immigration authorities. The partnership will allow local Miami police to enforce federal immigration laws. Local and state police in Florida already have 292 signed and pending agreements, the most of any state. Miami is home to more than 252,000 immigrants, representing 55% of the city's total population, according to the Census Bureau. In 2023, 50.7% of Miami-area workers are were immigrants in 2023, according to USAFacts. Houston Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is expected to sign legislation that requires all county police to sign agreements with ICE, according to the Houston Chronicle. The partnership with federal immigration officials would allow local police to investigate the immigration status of people in their 70 counties in Texas already signed 287(g) agreements as of June. About 24% of Houston's population are immigrants, according to Census Bureau data. Immigrants make up nearly a third of the Houston workforce, according to the nonprofit American Immigration Council. As of 2023, 31% of Houston-area workers were immigrants, according to USAFacts. Read more: More than 600 local police agencies are partnering with ICE: See if yours is one of them
USA Today
20-06-2025
- Politics
- USA Today
Trump orders ICE arrests in NYC, LA, Chicago: See how many immigrants live in major metros
In a lengthy June 15 Truth Social post, President Donald Trump called for the "largest mass deportation program in history," calling on ICE officers to expand detentions and deportations in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York, which he described as part of "the core of the Democrat Power Center." The post came after a weekend of nationwide "No King's Day protests and a military parade in the nation's capital to celebrate the Army's 250th birthday, a day that coincided with Trump's 79th birthday. According to U.S. Census data, The New York metro area has the nation's largest foreign-born population, followed by Los Angeles, Miami, Houston and Chicago. Trump did not mention Miami or Houston in his post, though they have some of the nation's largest foreign-born populations. Which cities have the most immigrants? Across the nation, immigrants make up roughly 14% of the population, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Nearly two-thirds of foreign-born residents live in 20 major metropolitan areas, the Pew Research Center reported. The New York, Los Angeles and Miami metro areas had the largest population of immigrants. About 60% of the nation's undocumented population lives in these same metro areas. Immigrants make up 19.2% of the civilian labor force. Immigrant workers made up 28.6% of all people employed in the construction industry, according to the Census Bureau. According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, undocumented immigrants paid $96.7 billion in federal, state and local taxes in 2022. Of that amount, $59.4 billion was paid to the federal government, and the remaining $37.3 billion was paid to state and local governments. The U.S. Census American Community Survey of 2023 collected data on the cities Trump mentioned and the others in the top five. Here's the demographic breakdown: Los Angeles City Census Bureau data shows nearly half of Los Angeles' population is Hispanic or Latino, and a third of all residents living there are immigrants. This includes foreign-born U.S. citizens and noncitizens. Although the exact count of undocumented immigrants in the city is not known, a 2020 study by University of Southern California Dornsife, estimated about 900,000 people in Los Angeles were undocumented and that most had been in the United States for 10 years or more. According to the nonprofit California Budget and Policy Center, immigrants make up roughly one-third of workers in the state, comprising an outsize share of the workforce in physically intense sectors like construction and agriculture. Economists say having fewer immigrants in the United States could weaken the economy, causing labor shortages and slowing economic growth. A 2024 analysis from Jamshid Damooei, executive director at the Center for Economics of Social Issues at California Lutheran University, found that work from undocumented employees created an additional 1.25 million jobs in California. 37.9% of Los Angeles-area workers were immigrants in 2023, according to USAFacts. Chicago Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker defended sanctuary laws protecting undocumented immigrants at a congressional hearing June 12. 'Safe and compassionate immigration policies, I believe, are vital. In fact, my own family owes everything to this country accepting a young refugee named Nicholas Pritzker to its shores over a century ago," he said. The Illinois TRUST Act prohibits state and local law enforcement from arresting, searching or detaining a person because of their immigration status. The law prohibits local police from cooperating with federal immigration officers, with some exceptions. 23% of Chicago-area workers were immigrants in 2023, according to USAFacts. New York City ICE recently arrested New York City comptroller and Democratic mayoral candidate Brad Lander as he attempted to escort a man out of immigration court. The arrest, which went viral, is the latest standoff between federal agents and Democratic officials opposed to the Trump administration's tactics to detain mass numbers of of 2022, an estimated 412,000 undocumented immigrants lived in the city, according to the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs. That's a decline of 32% from 2012. Immigrants make up nearly 40% of the total population in New York City. Immigrants made up 44.3% of the city's total labor force − more than double the national share of 18.6%, according to the New York State Comptroller's Office.'Many industries in the city depend on these workers, including construction, where foreign-born workers made up almost 70% of all workers, while 65% worked in transportation and utilities, and nearly 55% worked in manufacturing,' the report said. In 2023, 36.8% of New York-area workers were immigrants in 2023, according to USAFacts. Miami Miami recently voted to enter a 287(g) agreement with federal immigration authorities. The partnership will allow local Miami police to enforce federal immigration laws. Local and state police in Florida already have 292 signed and pending agreements, the most of any state. Miami is home to more than 252,000 immigrants, representing 55% of the city's total population, according to the Census Bureau. In 2023, 50.7% of Miami-area workers are were immigrants in 2023, according to USAFacts. Houston Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is expected to sign legislation that requires all county police to sign agreements with ICE, according to the Houston Chronicle. The partnership with federal immigration officials would allow local police to investigate the immigration status of people in their 70 counties in Texas already signed 287(g) agreements as of June. About 24% of Houston's population are immigrants, according to Census Bureau data. Immigrants make up nearly a third of the Houston workforce, according to the nonprofit American Immigration Council. As of 2023, 31% of Houston-area workers were immigrants, according to USAFacts. Read more: More than 600 local police agencies are partnering with ICE: See if yours is one of them
Yahoo
18-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Fact-checking Trump's false accusations of undocumented immigrants and voting fraud in Los Angeles
After nearly a week of protests in Los Angeles against recent federal immigration enforcement sweeps in the city, President Trump doubled down on his administration's efforts to detain and deport immigrants without documentation, claiming they are a key voting bloc in Democratic cities. In a Truth Social post on Sunday, Trump said Los Angeles and "other such cities, are the core of the Democrat Power Center, where they use illegal aliens to expand their voter base, cheat in elections, and grow the welfare state, robbing good paying jobs and benefits from hardworking American citizens." But according to Los Angeles County election officials, that's simply not true. "That claim is false and unsupported, and only serves to create unsubstantiated concern and confusion about the electoral process," the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder's office said in a statement. In reality, the county has safeguards in place to ensure only eligible voters cast ballots and that all votes are accurately counted, said Mike Sanchez, spokesperson for the county's Registrar-Recorder's office. In the state of California there are five requirements a person must meet to register to vote, according to the California Secretary of State. To register an individual must be: A U.S. citizen. A resident of California. At least 18 years or older on or before Election Day. Not currently serving a state or federal prison term for the conviction of a felony. Not currently found mentally incompetent to vote by a court. When a person meets the eligibility criteria, they can register to vote which includes attesting under penalty of perjury that they meet all eligibility requirements, including being a U.S. citizen and a resident of California, said Sanchez. "This sworn statement is a legal declaration and serves as the foundation of the voter registration process," Sanchez said. Voting as a noncitizen is a felony that can lead to a year in jail or deportation, said Hasen. Though there are some cities in the United States where noncitizens can participate in local elections, for example in communities in Vermont and Maryland, participation is limited to voting in school board or city council elections. In California, San Francisco is the only city where noncitizens can vote and it is limited to the school board. Once a voter registers, their personal information is verified through the State Voter Registration database, which is done by cross-checking state Department of Motor Vehicle records or the last four digits of the person's Social Security number, Sanchez said. When the verification process is complete, a voter does not have to show their identification when voting in person. If verification has not occurred, the voter must show identification the first time they vote. Acceptable forms of identification include a driver's license, state-issued I.D or passport; the California Secretary of State has a complete online list of what identifying documents to take to the polling place. Once polling places open for voters within the county, the voter must sign a roster in the presence of election workers, who attest to their identity and eligibility. "Elections officials also conduct regular voter roll maintenance, checking against several data points including death records from the California Department of Public Health, Social Security Administration, Department of Motor Vehicles, and the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation," the California Secretary of State told The Times in a statement. For vote-by-mail ballots, the signature on the return envelope is compared to the one on file in the voter registration record, Sanchez said. If the signature does not match or is missing, the voter is contacted and given a chance to correct it. "Only verified ballots are accepted and counted," he said. The claim that immigrants lacking documentation vote in large numbers — and for Democrats — has been repeated for years. It has seeds in the once-fringe racist conspiracy theory called the "great replacement." According to a poll by the Associated Press and and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, 1 in 3 Americans now believe "an effort is underway to replace U.S.-born Americans with immigrants for electoral gains." The theory has gained momentum under Trump. In 2016, Trump won the Electoral College and the presidency, but not the popular vote. That went to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, who received about 2.9 million more votes. Trump then claimed, without evidence, that he would have won the popular vote if 3 to 5 million immigrants living in the country illegally hadn't voted. "About 3 million votes was the margin by which he lost the popular vote which is why I think he chose that 3 million number to try to explain away his popular vote loss," Hasen said. After losing his reelection bid in 2020 to Joe Biden, when voting by mail was a focus, Trump refocused on immigrants lacking authorization in the 2024 campaign and was ultimately voted back into the White House. "In 2024, when I think Trump and the Republicans concluded that the attacks on absentee ballots were actually hurting them because people don't want to show up in person to vote, the shift went back to immigration," Hasen said. Voter fraud claims echo whomever is trying to dictate the political narrative, according to Hasen. Researchers have found, repeatedly through decades of investigation, that fraud conducted by voters at the polls is virtually nonexistent and does not happen "on a scale even close to that necessary to "rig" an election, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. Many instances of reported fraud were due to clerical errors or human errors. "I think one of the things we've seen is people on the losing end of elections tend to be more likely to believe that there's cheating," Hasen said. "But Donald Trump has really supercharged things to the point where we're way beyond what we normally see in terms of partisan divisions." But Trump is not alone in fueling that theory recently. Last year as he campaigned for Trump, billionaire Elon Musk repeated those claims on his social media platform, X. "If the Democratic party gains enough voters to win an election by importing them and giving them free stuff, then they will do so," he posted in September. Yes, but likely not at the rate it once was, said Manuel Paster, professor of sociology and American studies at USC. California's immigrant population — including those without authorization — increased by 5% (about 500,000) from 2010 to 2023, compared to 14% (1.27 million) from 2000 to 2010, and by 37% (2.4 million) rise in the 1990s, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. Between 2019 and 2022, the population of undocumented immigrants in most states across the nation steadily climbed. California's however, decreased, according to the Pew Research Center. These days, most new immigrants are going to Florida, Texas and the South rather than high-cost California, Pastor said. "Los Angeles, more than 70% of our undocumented immigrants have been in the country for longer than a decade," he said. "They're more likely to be long established employees, parents, parts of faith institutions." Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
18-06-2025
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
Fact-checking Trump's false accusations of undocumented immigrants and voting fraud in Los Angeles
After nearly a week of protests in Los Angeles against recent federal immigration enforcement sweeps in the city, President Trump doubled down on his administration's efforts to detain and deport immigrants without documentation, claiming they are a key voting bloc in Democratic cities. In a Truth Social post on Sunday, Trump said Los Angeles and 'other such cities, are the core of the Democrat Power Center, where they use illegal aliens to expand their voter base, cheat in elections, and grow the welfare state, robbing good paying jobs and benefits from hardworking American citizens.' But according to Los Angeles County election officials, that's simply not true. 'That claim is false and unsupported, and only serves to create unsubstantiated concern and confusion about the electoral process,' the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder's office said in a statement. In reality, the county has safeguards in place to ensure only eligible voters cast ballots and that all votes are accurately counted, said Mike Sanchez, spokesperson for the county's Registrar-Recorder's office. In the state of California there are five requirements a person must meet to register to vote, according to the California Secretary of State. To register an individual must be: When a person meets the eligibility criteria, they can register to vote which includes attesting under penalty of perjury that they meet all eligibility requirements, including being a U.S. citizen and a resident of California, said Sanchez. 'This sworn statement is a legal declaration and serves as the foundation of the voter registration process,' Sanchez said. Voting as a noncitizen is a felony that can lead to a year in jail or deportation, said Hasen. Though there are some cities in the United States where noncitizens can participate in local elections, for example in communities in Vermont and Maryland, participation is limited to voting in school board or city council elections. In California, San Francisco is the only city where noncitizens can vote and it is limited to the school board. Once a voter registers, their personal information is verified through the State Voter Registration database, which is done by cross-checking state Department of Motor Vehicle records or the last four digits of the person's Social Security number, Sanchez said. When the verification process is complete, a voter does not have to show their identification when voting in person. If verification has not occurred, the voter must show identification the first time they vote. Acceptable forms of identification include a driver's license, state-issued I.D or passport; the California Secretary of State has a complete online list of what identifying documents to take to the polling place. Once polling places open for voters within the county, the voter must sign a roster in the presence of election workers, who attest to their identity and eligibility. 'Elections officials also conduct regular voter roll maintenance, checking against several data points including death records from the California Department of Public Health, Social Security Administration, Department of Motor Vehicles, and the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation,' the California Secretary of State told The Times in a statement. For vote-by-mail ballots, the signature on the return envelope is compared to the one on file in the voter registration record, Sanchez said. If the signature does not match or is missing, the voter is contacted and given a chance to correct it. 'Only verified ballots are accepted and counted,' he said. The claim that immigrants lacking documentation vote in large numbers — and for Democrats — has been repeated for years. It has seeds in the once-fringe racist conspiracy theory called the 'great replacement.' According to a poll by the Associated Press and and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, 1 in 3 Americans now believe 'an effort is underway to replace U.S.-born Americans with immigrants for electoral gains.' The theory has gained momentum under Trump. In 2016, Trump won the Electoral College and the presidency, but not the popular vote. That went to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, who received about 2.9 million more votes. Trump then claimed, without evidence, that he would have won the popular vote if 3 to 5 million immigrants living in the country illegally hadn't voted. 'About 3 million votes was the margin by which he lost the popular vote which is why I think he chose that 3 million number to try to explain away his popular vote loss,' Hasen said. After losing his reelection bid in 2020 to Joe Biden, when voting by mail was a focus, Trump refocused on immigrants lacking authorization in the 2024 campaign and was ultimately voted back into the White House. 'In 2024, when I think Trump and the Republicans concluded that the attacks on absentee ballots were actually hurting them because people don't want to show up in person to vote, the shift went back to immigration,' Hasen said. Voter fraud claims echo whomever is trying to dictate the political narrative, according to Hasen. Researchers have found, repeatedly through decades of investigation, that fraud conducted by voters at the polls is virtually nonexistent and does not happen 'on a scale even close to that necessary to 'rig' an election, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. Many instances of reported fraud were due to clerical errors or human errors. 'I think one of the things we've seen is people on the losing end of elections tend to be more likely to believe that there's cheating,' Hasen said. 'But Donald Trump has really supercharged things to the point where we're way beyond what we normally see in terms of partisan divisions.' But Trump is not alone in fueling that theory recently. Last year as he campaigned for Trump, billionaire Elon Musk repeated those claims on his social media platform, X. 'If the Democratic party gains enough voters to win an election by importing them and giving them free stuff, then they will do so,' he posted in September. Yes, but likely not at the rate it once was, said Manuel Paster, professor of sociology and American studies at USC. California's immigrant population — including those without authorization — increased by 5% (about 500,000) from 2010 to 2023, compared to 14% (1.27 million) from 2000 to 2010, and by 37% (2.4 million) rise in the 1990s, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. Between 2019 and 2022, the population of undocumented immigrants in most states across the nation steadily climbed. California's however, decreased, according to the Pew Research Center. These days, most new immigrants are going to Florida, Texas and the South rather than high-cost California, Pastor said. 'Los Angeles, more than 70% of our undocumented immigrants have been in the country for longer than a decade,' he said. 'They're more likely to be long established employees, parents, parts of faith institutions.'
