October 31, 2024 - PBS News Hour full episode

AMNA NAWAZ: Good evening.

I'm Amna Nawaz.

Geoff Bennett is away.

On the "News Hour" tonight: Kamala Harris and Donald Trump head west as the margins remain razor-thin in critical swing states, with days to go until voting ends.

The Supreme Court allows Virginia to purge voter rolls.

How unsubstantiated claims of noncitizens voting have spurred the move and the effect it could have on the election.

And we examine the potential impact, economic impact, of Donald Trump's promise to deport immigrants en masse.

GIOVANNI PERI, University of California, Davis: From a pure economic point of view, massive costs.

Some sectors will have huge disruption.

(BREAK) AMNA NAWAZ: Welcome to the "News Hour."

Both presidential candidates brought their campaigns to the Southwest today.

Former President Donald Trump stopped in New Mexico, a detour from battleground territory, while Vice President Kamala Harris jetted off to Arizona.

But, before she left, Harris spoke with reporters about what's on the line on Election Day just five days out.

Laura Barron-Lopez begins our coverage with this report.

KAMALA HARRIS, Vice President of the United States (D) and U.S. Presidential Candidate: Among the stakes in this election are whether we continue with the Affordable Care Act or not.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: In between campaign stops today, Kamala Harris warned that health care is on the ballot, following a vow from House Speaker Mike Johnson for -- quote -- "massive reform" if Donald Trump is elected.

KAMALA HARRIS: And now we have further validation of that agenda from his supporter, the speaker of the House.

The American people, regardless of who they're voting for, know the importance of the Affordable Care Act, of, as it's also called, Obamacare, in terms of expanding people's coverage to health care.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: In leaked video obtained by multiple outlets, Johnson echoed an audience member, saying -- quote -- "No Obamacare" and that changes needed to be made.

Later, he walked it back, rejecting that he wants to gut the popular law, even though Trump himself has repeatedly said he wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

It comes as both campaigns battle for votes in the Southwest, Harris in Phoenix, Arizona.

KAMALA HARRIS: We have an opportunity to turn the page on a decade of Donald Trump trying to keep us divided and afraid of each other.

We're done with that.

We're exhausted with that.

DONALD TRUMP, Former President of the United States (R) and Current U.S. Presidential Candidate: I said, look, your votes are rigged.

We can win New Mexico.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: And Trump in not so-far-away Albuquerque, New Mexico.

DONALD TRUMP: If we could bring God down from heaven, and he could be the vote counter, we would win this.

We'd win California.

We'd win a lot of states.

(CHEERING) DONALD TRUMP: You just got to keep the votes honest.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Last night, Trump touched down in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Wearing a reflective orange vest, he approached a MAGA-themed garbage truck.

The 78-year-old appeared to stumble twice as he reached for the handle.

From the passenger seat... DONALD TRUMP: This truck is in honor of Kamala and Joe Biden.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: ... Trump played up an off-script comment made by President Joe Biden, where Biden appeared to say Trump supporters are -- quote -- "garbage."

President Biden quickly clarified he was referring to a comedian who made a racist joke about Puerto Ricans at Trump's Madison Square Garden rally.

Trump himself regularly calls Democrats enemies from within and repeatedly refers to the United States as the -- quote -- "garbage can of the world."

The theatrics didn't stop at the tarmac.

DONALD TRUMP: I'm president.

I want to protect the women of our country.

They said -- they said, sir, I just think it's inappropriate for you to say.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: During his rally last night, against the apparent advice of his team, Trump insisted his policies would -- quote -- "protect American women," a pledge he's made before.

But, this time, he added: DONALD TRUMP: I'm going to do it whether the women like it or not.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Harris responded earlier today.

KAMALA HARRIS: It's just -- it actually is, I think, very offensive to women in terms of not understanding their agency, their authority, their right and their ability to make decisions about their own lives, including their own bodies.

And this is just the latest on a series of reveals by the former president of how he thinks about women.

GOV.

TIM WALZ (D-MN), Vice Presidential Candidate: It's this simple.

We trust women.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: In Pennsylvania, Harris' running mate, Governor Tim Walz, also seized on the remark.

GOV.

TIM WALZ: They are going to send a loud and clear message to Donald Trump on November 5.

(CHEERING) GOV.

TIM WALZ: They're going to send that message whether he likes it or not.

(CHEERING) LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Meanwhile, in a roughly three-hour conversation with podcaster Joe Rogan, Trump's running mate, J.D.

Vance, said abortion restrictions should be left to the states.

And he suggested that white kids are pretending to be transgender in order to get into Ivy League schools.

SEN. J.D.

VANCE (R-OH), Vice Presidential Candidate: Like, obviously, that pathway has become a lot harder for a lot of upper-middle-class kids.

But the one way that those people can participate in the DEI bureaucracy in this country is to be trans.

And is there a dynamic that's going on where if you become trans, that is the way to reject your white privilege?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Other members of Trump's inner circle are also making headlines.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN Host: Neither of us are doctors.

HOWARD LUTNICK, Co-Chair, Trump/Vance Transition Team: We are not.

KAITLAN COLLINS: Vaccines are safe.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: On CNN last night, Howard Lutnick, tapped as co-chair of Trump's transition team, was asked whether or not RFK Jr. fits into a potential Trump administration.

That prompted him to go on a baseless anti-vaccine rant.

HOWARD LUTNICK: Why do you think vaccines are safe?

There's no product liability anymore.

They're not proven.

KAITLAN COLLINS: Kids get them and they're fine.

HOWARD LUTNICK: Why do you think they're fine?

We all know so many more people with autism than had it when we were young.

Oh, come on.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Tonight, both candidates head to battleground, Nevada as voters there file into the polls.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Laura Barron-Lopez.

AMNA NAWAZ: Just days before Election Day, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the state of Virginia will be able to continue to purge people from the state's voter rolls.

The state has argued it's part of an effort to remove noncitizens from the rolls.

But voting rights advocates have found several U.S. citizens were also removed from the rolls.

NPR's Jude Joffe-Block has spoken with some of those voters.

She joins me now.

Jude, welcome to the "News Hour."

JUDE JOFFE-BLOCK, NPR: No, thanks for joining us.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, the state of Virginia has removed some 1,600 people from its voter rolls since August.

Why was it doing that purging in the first place?

JUDE JOFFE-BLOCK: So all states have an obligation to make sure that the voters on their rolls are eligible to vote.

And what's really under debate here is how Virginia went about doing that and when Virginia did that.

So, Virginia has this program under way to identify noncitizens on the rolls.

But the argument being made is that they aren't narrowly tailoring it enough to only target noncitizens and that it's happening too close to the election.

So, under federal law, there's a rule under the National Voter Registration Act that states have to stop this kind of voter maintenance 90 days before an election.

But Virginia says that doesn't apply here because they're targeting noncitizens specifically.

But we have seen that this program has ensnared U.S. citizens.

AMNA NAWAZ: So tell me about that.

You spoke to some of these folks who say they are U.S. citizens, they were erroneously removed from the rolls.

How did that happen and what happens for them now?

JUDE JOFFE-BLOCK: There's a pattern where people have visited the DMV, and they at some point there must have made a mistake on a form where they identified -- they marked a box identifying themselves as noncitizens somewhere in those forms.

We're not really sure how exactly this happens.

But after that visit to the DMV, they got a letter in the mail from their local election official, saying, we think you might not be a citizen.

Please affirm your citizenship.

We spoke to a voter, Nadra Wilson, who that letter was sent to the wrong address.

It got forwarded.

By the time she got it, the deadline had already passed.

She was able to re-register.

We spoke to another voter, Rina Shaw.

She did get the letter in the mail letting her know that she had to affirm her citizenship.

And she did send it back.

But, even then, she was still not on the rolls.

And she was able to call and sort that out.

But all of this does take time.

Both of those voters did end up voting early this week, though.

AMNA NAWAZ: We spoke with Anna Dorman, who's an attorney working with this nonpartisan civil rights group called Protect Democracy that helps voters to restore their voter registration.

Here's what she had to say about this.

ANNA DORMAN, Protect Democracy: Especially within the new citizen community, there's a lot of fear.

I have talked to people who have actually already fixed the problem with the registrar and affirmed their status and re-registered who are still scared to vote, because they think that they have gotten a communication saying it might be illegal for them to do so.

There's another group of people who are pretty indignant and frustrated that this happened.

I spoke to one voter who said, I'm supposed to choose my elected officials.

They're not supposed to choose whether I get to vote.

AMNA NAWAZ: Jude, even if it does end up being legally sorted out for individual voters, could this have some kind of an impact on the election?

JUDE JOFFE-BLOCK: I think this is a small number of people.

This is 1,600 who've been purged so far in this election period, though there -- there were actually people who were taken off the rolls even before August through this same program who -- and we know some of those cases were eligible U.S. citizens as well too.

Luckily, because Virginia does allow same-day registration, a lot of these people will hopefully realize that they can still vote.

So, that is the silver lining here.

AMNA NAWAZ: Let me just pull back the lens a little bit here, because this idea of noncitizens voting has really been elevated in Republican concerns, right, despite the evidence that points to the fact that this isn't really a big problem in the country.

So, does this effort that we saw in Virginia tie in to those more national concerns and conversation that we have seen?

JUDE JOFFE-BLOCK: It definitely does tie in.

This narrative has been a key talking point this election season.

And we have seen other states take aggressive actions right before the election publicizing that they're taking noncitizens off the rolls.

But really these efforts have also ensnared U.S. citizens.

So, that happened in Alabama, where more than 2,000 -- at least more than 2,000 U.S. citizens were swept up in an effort that was supposedly targeting noncitizens on the Alabama voter rolls.

And election experts are suggesting that this false narrative that large numbers of noncitizens could vote could be used to lay the groundwork to sow doubt about the election and potentially be used for future election challenges.

AMNA NAWAZ: NPR's Jude Joffe-Block joining us tonight.

Jude, thank you for sharing your reporting and your insights with us.

Appreciate it.

JUDE JOFFE-BLOCK: Thank you.

AMNA NAWAZ: We start the day's other headlines in Spain, where crews are searching for bodies in abandoned cars and swamped buildings after devastating flash floods.

At least 158 people are confirmed dead and an unknown number of others remain missing.

The eastern region of Valencia was by far the worst hit.

From there, ITN's James Mates reports.

JAMES MATES: This was how a flood was to be handled, a ravine, a channel that could tame nature and get water safely to the sea.

On Tuesday night, nature had other ideas, three of the four bridges simply swept away, water surging two to three meters above the banks.

Cars were tossed aside like toys dumped even onto railway lines, and all with such speed that people, many on the streets on their way home from work, had little chance.

ADRIAN MANEZ, Spain Resident: Sort of ocean came here and everything was underwater.

Everything -- suddenly, in 10 minutes, all the town was absolutely full of water.

JAMES MATES: We found Elena and her husband, Ismael, beginning to clear up outside their home just a few meters from where the river burst.

Elena showed me how they fled up their front steps, only to find the water rushing in to waist height after them.

The trauma of the next few hours is still with her.

"My son couldn't get to us," she said.

"I can't talk.

It was a terrible catastrophe."

Without being here at the time, it's almost impossible to conceive of the force of water that came down this street.

Locals talk about it as a tsunami.

And when you see what happened, when the water had nowhere else to go, simply smashed everything into the end of this street, they weren't exaggerating.

The irony, of course, is that this sort of storm is not unusual here at this time of year.

They thought they were resilient to it.

It turned out they simply weren't.

A local supermarket, still awash with mud and debris, opened its doors this morning and told people to take what they need.

For years, experts have warned that freak weather was going to get more frequent and more intense.

It has.

If Europeans believe their modern societies can easily withstand such events, then recent storms in Central Europe and now Southern Spain may demand a serious rethink.

James Mates, ITV News, Valencia, Spain.

AMNA NAWAZ: Turning now to the Middle East, Lebanon launched back-to-back rocket attacks into Northern Israel today, killing at least seven people, including four foreign workers.

It was the deadliest day in Israel since its military crossed into Lebanon early this month.

Meanwhile, Israel continued its aerial assault of Southern Lebanon.

Health officials there say 45 people have died in just the past day.

Eyewitnesses captured the scope of the devastation, including in the city of Baalbek, which is home to a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Across Lebanon, wary residents say they're tired of living in fear.

WALID KARAKI, Beirut Business Owner (through translator): No one knows anymore where is safest and where is not.

We are tired.

The most important thing is that this doesn't drag on any longer.

They must find a solution, a cease-fire and implement a resolution in order to achieve peace.

AMNA NAWAZ: Since Israel's incursion, the Lebanese government estimates that some 1.2 million of its people have been displaced in the conflict.

U.S. officials say about 8,000 North Korean troops are now at Russia's border with Ukraine.

They're expected to join the fighting in the coming days.

The new figure is a sharp increase from just a day earlier, when Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin would only say some troops had moved towards the border.

Austin joined Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a meeting with their South Korean counterparts in Washington today.

They condemned the buildup of troops, as well as North Korea's ballistic missile test overnight.

And the group agreed to expand their cooperation.

LLOYD AUSTIN, U.S. Secretary of Defense: That's why the United States and the ROK are working so closely with our partners to stand up to coercive destabilizing actions in both the Indo-Pacific and the Euro-Atlantic.

Our work together is central to ensuring peace and stability and to enhancing deterrence.

AMNA NAWAZ: Today's gathering comes as Russia continues its air assault on Ukraine.

At least three people were killed, including two teenage boys, when a Russian glide bomb struck a residential building in Ukraine's second largest city of Kharkiv.

Dozens of other people were injured.

A Philadelphia judge has put a state case against Elon Musk's million-dollar election sweepstakes on hold.

City prosecutors had tried to stop the giveaways from Musk's political action committee, saying they may violate election law.

Musk did not show up at the hearing at Philadelphia City Hall today.

His lawyers are trying to move the case to federal court.

Musk has been handing out million-dollar prizes to randomly selected voters in swing states who pledge their support for gun rights and free speech.

The giveaways have continued as the legal challenge plays out.

The Federal Reserve's preferred measure of inflation slowed last month to near-pre-pandemic levels.

It's a welcome sign for consumers ahead of the U.S. election.

The latest report from the Commerce Department showed that prices rose 2.1 percent in September when compared to last year.

That is down from a reading of 2.3 percent in August, and it's just a hair above the Fed's 2 percent inflation target.

Separately, the number of Americans filing for unemployment fell last week by 12,000, pointing to ongoing stability in the U.S. labor market.

On Wall Street today, stocks ended sharply lower as tech shares weighed on the markets.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost nearly 380 points on the day.

The Nasdaq's sank more than 500 points, or about 2.75 percent.

The S&P 500 also ended sharply lower, dropping more than 100 points.

And it was a Hollywood ending for this year's World Series champions, the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Their series-clinching win over the New York Yankees last night was defined by an epic comeback, or a remarkable collapse, depending on who you root for.

New York blew a 5-0 lead in the fifth inning due to a number of errors.

L.A. went on to win the game and the series.

Today, the team brought the trophy back to Tinseltown.

It's the Dodgers' second World Series win in just the last five years.

Tomorrow, the City of Angels will host their heroes with a parade downtown and a celebration at Dodger Stadium.

Still to come on the "News Hour": we examine the divide between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump on Social Security and Medicare spending; the rise of misinformation and threats to election workers as Election Day approaches; and the politics of abortion in the United States ripples through Kenya.

In the final days of this election, both presidential candidates are trying to win over older voters with their plans for entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, which provide financial protections to retired and disabled Americans.

But Social Security, a program that has long been popular with both parties, is at risk of being depleted as soon as 2034, and Medicare will be insolvent by 2036, leaving families without critical financial support.

As part of our in-depth coverage of the candidates' Promises and Policies, Lisa Desjardins is here to walk us through how both campaigns say they will tackle the issue.

Good to see you, Lisa.

LISA DESJARDINS: Good to see you.

AMNA NAWAZ: So let's start with the stakes here.

If these programs do become insolvent, who's at risk?

LISA DESJARDINS: A massive group of people.

Before Social Security and Medicare were in place together, 35 percent of American seniors lived in poverty.

That number is more like 10 percent now.

If Congress and the White House do not do anything, Social Security will see 20 percent cuts within the next decade, and, by some estimates, senior poverty will double.

Now, there are ways to solve this.

They're politically tricky, but it takes making tough choices.

AMNA NAWAZ: All right, so let's start with what the candidates say here.

And let's start with a program that's going insolvent first, Social Security.

LISA DESJARDINS: Neither candidate has a comprehensive plan to stabilize Social Security.

And, in fact, analysts have found that one candidate's plan would actually destabilize it.

That's former President Donald Trump.

Let's talk about how he speaks on this.

Here's one of his messages on the campaign trail.

DONALD TRUMP, Former President of the United States (R) and Current U.S. Presidential Candidate: I will cut all of the bad talk about Social Security.

They're going to destroy your Social Security, but I will not cut 1 cent from Social Security or Medicare.

(CHEERING) DONALD TRUMP: And I kept my promise for four years that I will keep it again, and seniors should not pay taxes on Social Security.

(CHEERING) LISA DESJARDINS: OK, so Trump specifically says he will end income taxes on Social Security, he would end payroll taxes, which fund Social Security, on tips and overtime pay, and, in addition, not raise the retirement age, currently 67 years old.

He has no proposals for making the system more solvent.

And I should also point out, 20 years ago in a book, he had different policy proposals.

He wanted to privatize the system and raise the Social Security retirement age then.

AMNA NAWAZ: So you said the plans would make Social Security less stable, right?

How so, specifically?

LISA DESJARDINS: Specifically, Trump's plan has been analyzed by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

The system is running out of money as it is, and essentially his plans would reduce the funding.

So let's look at what they found.

They found that Trump's plan would most likely make Social Security insolvent and force cuts three years sooner, by 2031.

And the cut eventually would be larger, a 33 percent cut in benefits in 10 years, they found.

Now, this also is something that would affect people beginning with those who are 60 years old now and want to retire by 67.

And, of course, those kinds of cuts would affect everyone on Social Security now as well.

AMNA NAWAZ: So we know Vice President Harris has been critical of former President Trump's plans, but what are her plans?

What would she do?

LISA DESJARDINS: Yes, let's start with how Vice President Harris talks about Social Security herself.

KAMALA HARRIS, Vice President of the United States (D) and U.S. Presidential Candidate: My plan includes what we need to do to strengthen the solvency of Social Security.

It includes what we're going to need to do in work with Congress to make sure we're putting more into it.

And it cannot be about cutting benefits, because right now those benefits are barely adequate as it is.

LISA DESJARDINS: Now, Harris has also not given any details about how she would keep the system solvent while potentially expanding benefits.

And remember that doing nothing about that means there would actually be an automatic cut going into place in 2034.

So without any more details, Harris' plan heads us towards a cut in Social Security.

We spoke to Maya MacGuineas, who heads the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, about these two plans for Social Security.

MAYA MACGUINEAS, President, Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget: And if you just take Social Security, what's really astounding is you have both candidates talking about how they promise to protect the program.

If we do nothing, in nine years, there will be across-the-board benefit cuts of almost a quarter for every retiree who is collecting benefits, and that's unconscionable.

LISA DESJARDINS: And, Amna, it's also not something either candidate is really facing up to on the campaign trail.

AMNA NAWAZ: OK, so that is Social Security.

Medicare is also at risk.

What do the candidates say about that?

LISA DESJARDINS: I'm sorry to say, neither candidate has a plan to stabilize that either, but Harris does have some proposals for Medicare that are significant and we should point out.

She wants to expand the plan and would negotiate all drug prices, and that could save billions of dollars for Medicare and for the government.

She likes to point out that she and President Biden expanded the program and started the program to negotiate on drugs.

But former President Trump does not have a specific prescription drug plan, and he also -- it's not clear if he would allow Medicare to keep negotiating prices or if he would expand it.

We just don't know.

Harris would use the savings from this idea of negotiating more drug prices to begin a new benefit for in-home care.

Former President Trump also is interested in that, but it's not clear how he would pay for it.

As things stand, though, the bottom line is neither candidate has a plan to stabilize Medicare, and we are on that same track, in other words, a program that will face benefit cuts if nothing else happens.

AMNA NAWAZ: Lisa, it's fair to say the situation with both these systems is approaching dire.

So how do voters feel about this?

What do they say?

LISA DESJARDINS: This is a really important sleeper issue, especially with a key group of voters, older voters.

The AARP did a survey of American voters over 50, and they found that Harris has an advantage here.

When asked, who do you trust more on Social Security and Medicare, 48 percent said they trust her more than Donald Trump.

One more thing, we keep talking about how the economy tops concern for voters.

This is part of that issue in America.

The AARP found that, with those voters over 50, that when they were asked about what would help them most financially, their personal economy, Social Security, protecting Social Security, was tied for first with food prices.

We talk so much about inflation, but keeping Social Security intact is something that older voters realize is a key part of their economy and also the national economy.

AMNA NAWAZ: So important to point out the economy means so many things to different people.

LISA DESJARDINS: That's right.

And older voters, this is an issue that I think has just not been given enough attention by the candidates, in part because it is difficult.

Either you have to raise some kind of revenue or you have to cut benefits.

They know that's the case.

And the longer that they wait, Amna, the more painful it's going to be for them, for our seniors, for you and I, for just about everyone waiting.

So this is really sort of a failure in addressing a critical American problem.

AMNA NAWAZ: Lisa Desjardins, thank you so much.

LISA DESJARDINS: You're welcome.

AMNA NAWAZ: Immigration remains another key issue in this campaign.

Vice President Harris says, if elected, she will pass a bipartisan bill strengthening border security.

Former President Trump promises a much larger crackdown, including mass deportations.

One of the key claims from Trump and others, that immigrants committed disproportionate number of crimes, has been disputed and contradicted by data.

But there's been an economic argument made by the former president as well, that immigrants take jobs and lower wages for other Americans.

Our economic correspondent, Paul Solman, gave that a closer look.

DONALD TRUMP, Former President of the United States (R) and Current U.S. Presidential Candidate: An invasion of criminal migrants.

PAUL SOLMAN: For former President Donald Trump, immigration has long been an obsession.

DONALD TRUMP: We are a dumping ground.

We are like a garbage can for the world.

PAUL SOLMAN: But Vice President Harris too promises to crack down on illegal crossings.

KAMALA HARRIS, Vice President of the United States (D) and U.S. Presidential Candidate: We will pursue more severe terminal charges against repeat violators.

PAUL SOLMAN: Fifty-five percent of Americans say they favor reduced immigration amidst a record number of illegal crossings late last year, straining resources in several cities, including here in New York, though crossings have since plunged.

These are immigrants in the South Bronx learning construction safety basis.

Almost all have asked for asylum and are in legal limbo until their cases are resolved.

How many of you think you will be working in two months?

What kind of work?

Well, Karmeen Tavares came here years ago from the Dominican Republic.

He says he's done every job he could find.

KARMEEN TAVARES, Dominican Migrant: Construction, electrician, carpenter, plumber, and locksmith.

PAUL SOLMAN: Wilbur Alva has been here just one month.

WILBUR ALVA, Peruvian Migrant (through translator): I go to Home Depot.

A lot of migrants go to look for construction jobs there.

PAUL SOLMAN: Alfonso Melendez endured the nightmare trek from Venezuela through the Darien Gap jungle to get to America with his two young sons and wife, Bianney.

BIANNEY PACHECO, Venezuela Migrant (through translator): We were robbed just as we were exiting the jungle.

The masked men came out and they stopped everybody crossing.

So it was in a large group and they stole from everyone.

And those who didn't have anything to give, at times there were young women, pretty women there.

And these men just took it upon themselves to rape them.

PAUL SOLMAN: Bianney and her husband say they're forever scarred.

Knowing what now, would you do it again?

ALFONSO MELENDEZ, Venezuela Migrant (through translator): No.

It's too much psychologically.

Lots of bodies riddled the path.

PAUL SOLMAN: Donald Trump also stresses a more seemingly plausible dark side of immigration, the immigrant's economic impact.

DONALD TRUMP: It's not just a crime.

Your jobs are being taken away too.

PAUL SOLMAN: Especially low-wage jobs, says Steven Camarota, who has long advocated for fewer immigrants.

STEVEN CAMAROTA, Center for Immigration Studies: The vast majority of people who do all the low-wage work in the United States are U.S.-born.

PAUL SOLMAN: So key question, are immigrants displacing American workers?

Well, almost any employer will tell you how hard it is to find reliable workers these days.

JUAN PABLO MORALES, Catholic Charities: Most of the people that are coming are in working age.

They're going to do the jobs that I don't want to do, you don't want to do, nobody else wants to do and we're not doing.

PAUL SOLMAN: When Juan Pablo Morales, the program coordinator here, came from Guatemala 14 years ago, he too started at the bottom.

JUAN PABLO MORALES: I was putting floors.

I was teaching English, cutting hair, killing rats.

PAUL SOLMAN: Killing rats?

(LAUGHTER) JUAN PABLO MORALES: Absolutely.

PAUL SOLMAN: How do you kill rats?

JUAN PABLO MORALES: I have some friends that have Jack terriers, and we would take them out at night and hunt rats in vacant lots of New York City.

And would we get paid just to walk around and do that.

PAUL SOLMAN: Karmeen Tavares says immigrants have to take whatever job they can get.

KARMEEN TAVARES (through translator): They have to take any opportunity available, because they have to provide for themselves and for the people they're with, and they don't have access to health care.

They don't have any assistance.

PAUL SOLMAN: Twenty-hour miles west, Janelle Baker runs a ranch in rural Eastern Nevada.

Her father has a dairy farm nearby.

What's your reaction when you hear that immigrants are taking jobs from Americans?

JANELLE BAKER (Baker Ranches): I think it's dumb.

PAUL SOLMAN: Dumb?

Yes.

JANELLE BAKER: It's uninformed.

They're not taking your job.

You don't want it.

You don't want to do it.

If you want to, you would be applying when we advertise.

My dad wouldn't be looking for milkers all the time.

Nearly everyone we know in agriculture is looking for someone.

PAUL SOLMAN: Case in point, for years, Baker has posted an irrigation job.

JANELLE BAKER: We had a couple of people that said: "My son would like a job."

I never heard from them.

Another time, we had someone call, say they were interested and they never showed up.

This year, we had someone looked at the requirements of the job and decided they didn't want to do it.

But he was the only person to actually show up and talk to my husband about the job.

PAUL SOLMAN: OK, but what about the recent wave of immigrants?

Can the economy really absorb all of them?

JUAN PABLO MORALES: New York City is a vacuum of jobs, especially in the construction industry.

There is a job for anybody that wants to work, especially if you're willing to do anything.

PAUL SOLMAN: Jobs that native-born Americans don't or won't do?

STEVEN CAMAROTA: It would be wrong to say there are jobs that Americans simply don't do.

If two-thirds of construction laborers, based on the American Community Survey, are U.S.-born, you can't say no American does that job or is interested.

PAUL SOLMAN: And here's a crucial point, says Steven Camarota.

Immigrants depress wages below what many Americans can bear.

STEVEN CAMAROTA: If you increase the supply of anything, in this case labor or workers, you tend to lower its price.

If a job is very heavily immigrant, then that is likely an area where immigration has significantly pushed down wages.

And some of those jobs are really unpleasant, like construction labor.

So you would want wages to be relatively high there, and one of the things immigration does is tends to hold down wages, making the occupation less attractive.

PAUL SOLMAN: But Karmeen Tavares says there are construction jobs American workers won't do even for high pay.

KARMEEN TAVARES: I see the people you pay $50 something and work in the construction, and sometimes don't work.

I see that with my eyes.

PAUL SOLMAN: Juan Pablo Morales, long since an American citizen, sympathizes.

JUAN PABLO MORALES: There's a lot of jobs that I had to do.

If I'm not in a spot in my life again where I have to, I won't.

I won't.

PAUL SOLMAN: Business school Professor Zeke Hernandez.

ZEKE HERNANDEZ, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania: We have very clear evidence that native-born young men and women will simply not do those jobs.

They will not take them, even during times of very high unemployment.

PAUL SOLMAN: But, argues Camarota, if fewer immigrants mean higher wages then maybe Americans will take the jobs, especially less educated men.

STEVEN CAMAROTA: The share of men not in the labor force, that is neither working nor looking for work, is about triple what it was in 1960.

And it's nearly double what it was even 20, 25 years ago.

As long as we have a supply of eager immigrants, we are never going to address this problem.

PAUL SOLMAN: And think of all the available jobs were Donald Trump to deliver on his campaign vow.

DONALD TRUMP: We're going to get these people out.

We're going to deport them so rapidly.

PAUL SOLMAN: That would cost all of us, says economist Giovanni Peri.

GIOVANNI PERI, University of California, Davis: The income that this undocumented generating in the U.S. is about 3.5 percent of the U.S. GDP, so on the order of $1 trillion per year.

Plus, you will have all the cost of running this operation that will also be huge.

From a pure economic point of view, massive cost.

Some sectors will have huge disruption.

PAUL SOLMAN: What would happen to American agriculture, let's say?

JANELLE BAKER: So I think you would tank it in our area.

If you were to pull out all of the immigrants, documented and undocumented, it would devastate our area.

JUAN PABLO MORALES: Here in New York,construction never stops.

Who's doing that construction?

Tim Driscoll runs the bricklayers union.

TIMOTHY DRISCOLL, President, International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers: I don't believe the industry could actually survive that kind of mass loss of workers.

PAUL SOLMAN: And besides, says Driscoll: TIMOTHY DRISCOLL: The only way there was a reduction in unauthorized workers in this country was when the pandemic hit and employment opportunities ceased to exist and the reason that a lot of folks were attracted here disappeared.

We had the four-year experiment of self-deportation.

It failed.

PAUL SOLMAN: Just so, says Professor Hernandez.

ZEKE HERNANDEZ: There's a study that came out recently showing that the biggest predictor of illegal border crossings is unfilled job openings in the United States.

We need these people.

PAUL SOLMAN: And, at the moment, at least, we certainly seem to.

For the "PBS News Hour," Paul Solman in the Bronx.

AMNA NAWAZ: Officials across the country are working overtime to ensure Election Day is a success, and the stakes are high.

William Brangham has a closer look at the threats causing concern -- William.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Thanks, Amna.

From rampant disinformation, foreign adversaries trying to sow chaos, ballot boxes set ablaze, there are many bad actors trying to undermine our elections process.

But there's also an army of nonpartisan elections officials who are collecting ballots and pushing back, confident that this election, like the last, will be secure.

For a closer look at what we need to know in advance of Tuesday, we are joined again by Juliette Kayyem.

She's a former assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security and faculty chair of the Homeland Security Program at Harvard's Kennedy School.

Juliette, so good to have you back on the program.

You have been advising elections administrators around the country in the lead-up to Tuesday.

What is the mood like amongst them right now?

JULIETTE KAYYEM, Former U.S. Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary: It is nervous, but also no surprises.

In other words, everyone has been anticipating what we're now seeing going on, which is both a coordinated and ad hoc sort of attack on how we vote, where we vote, what we understand to be the truth in the information space.

And so this is not a surprise to them, but let's just be honest.

The system wasn't built for this, so they're adapting and pivoting in real time.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Let's talk about some of those different threats.

One of them has been physical attacks.

JULIETTE KAYYEM: Right.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: We saw these ballot boxes lit on fire in the Pacific Northwest.

We saw a man in Arizona shoot up a DNC office, again, not an elections office, but how are elections officials preparing for those kinds of physical so-called kinetic attacks?

JULIETTE KAYYEM: So that's their biggest concern, because, of course, it is the get-out-the-vote next Tuesday which has to be protected.

And you have lots of volunteers, lots of young people, lots of old people.

And their physical safety is the most important.

In most instances, private security is also being hired to buttress public safety security.

Preventative measures, everything from lighting and videos to sort of make sure that there's eyes and ears everywhere are occurring.

And so there's both defense in terms of essentially locking down, to the extent that you can, and then preparing if there are attacks what you would do.

In my opinion, it is less likely that any individual place is going to have a physical attack.

There's going to be lots of hoaxes, lots of disinformation.

The goal is to disrupt the get-out-the-vote.

So just think about what 10 bomb threat scammers could do in urban area in a swing state.

And so there's lots of practicing about, essentially, how do you move from one building to another out into the street?

You just got to keep focusing on get-out-the-vote.

And that's what a lot of the training and practicing is doing right now.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: I mean, what a world we live in.

JULIETTE KAYYEM: I know.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: I mean, apart from the -- this physical threat, there's also this concurrent information war attack against the voting system.

The former president and many of his allies have continued for four years to say that the last election was stolen and that this one currently is also being cheated upon and stolen.

We also know that polls show that this message has penetrated to Republicans, where some polls show half, some show a majority of Republicans believe there will be cheating and fraud.

How on earth do we defend against that?

JULIETTE KAYYEM: So the first thing is just to say, factually, there is simply no evidence of rampant sort of institutionalized voter fraud.

You are going to see cases here or there of which people are arrested or there are mistakes made.

When millions of people are voting, that is going to happen.

So it's just worth the sort of the groundwork is, we have as a country the most safe and fair elections in almost any democracy at this stage, given how bifurcated it is.

I mean, you have so many different polling places.

So that's the first thing.

The second is the information pushback that's going on now against a concerted both foreign and domestic campaign to undermine the validity of this election, not just to disrupt the vote on Tuesday, lies about place and time and whether you're authorized to vote, but also to create a narrative that, should Donald Trump lose in the election, he will create a narrative that he didn't lose fairly, that the votes were stolen from him.

That narrative, a lot of -- there's a lot of people interested in promoting that narrative, including the Russians, including Elon Musk, who owns Twitter and X and who has, we know, promoting falsities about the vote.

The best thing one can do -- and there's two things.

One is, citizens need to get smart about their information intake, including people who think they are sophisticated inhalers of intelligence.

We all tend to get whipped up at the random person who says something.

We need to sort -- we need to validate it.

The other is, you're starting to see public and private entities push back on the lies early on.

I have never seen, for example, the United States government give attribution to the Russians for a lot of lies that they're sort of pushing in social media about fake votes and about voting places, losing ballots.

The United States is going to name and shame to the extent it can as well.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: I mentioned at the beginning that elections officials say, look, 2020 was the safest, most secure election we have ever had.

And they think that they're going to be the same or better this year.

Do you share that confidence?

JULIETTE KAYYEM: Yes, I do.

The thing that I can't sort of qualify or quantify right now is how many people are willing to break federal law -- just a reminder, this is breaking federal law -- to disrupt the vote?

And if they're willing to do that, then you can see disruptions that we hadn't imagined in the past.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: All right, that is Juliette Kayyem of the Harvard Kennedy School.

Always great to see you.

Thank you so much for being here.

JULIETTE KAYYEM: Thank you for having me.

Kenya AMNA NAWAZ: Abortion is a closely watched issue in this year's election, and not just in the United States.

Former President Trump cut funding for international groups that offer or even counsel on abortion services.

Advocates on both sides of the debate in Kenya are watching for who wins and what that may mean.

With the support of the Pulitzer Center, special correspondent Neha Wadekar reports from Nairobi.

And a warning: This story contains accounts of sexual and gender-based violence.

NEHA WADEKAR: Anne became an orphan when she was just 10 years old.

With nowhere to turn, she moved to Dandora, Kenya's largest dump site, and began sorting trash to earn some money.

Shortly after she arrived, Anne was raped by an older man.

We have changed her name and concealed her identity.

Anne soon started making a living as a sex worker.

Many of her clients were abusive and some refused to wear condoms.

ANNE, Sexual Violence and Back Alley Abortion Survivor (through translator): That's because, when you meet a guy, if you ask him to use protection, he says: "I don't eat a sweet while it's still wrapped."

NEHA WADEKAR: At age 13, Anne became pregnant.

Nearly one in five Kenyan girls becomes pregnant before they're 18, in part due to poverty and lack of sex education and access to contraception.

Back in 2004, abortion was completely illegal in Kenya.

Anne used black market pills for her first abortion.

Her second pregnancy two years later was harder to terminate.

ANNE (through translator): So I used knitting needles.

It got to the point where I bled for two months.

I had to go to the public hospital, where I got help.

NEHA WADEKAR: Anne's story is far too common in Kenya, where an estimated seven women and girls die each day from unsafe abortions.

Many who survive the procedures are left with severe complications, says Monica Oguttu, founding executive director of the nonprofit health care organization KMET.

MONICA OGUTTU, Founder and Executive Director, Kisumu Medical and Education Trust: They bleed a lot from these damaged organs.

We have seen cases that that sharp object was through the uterus.

NEHA WADEKAR: The country's 2010 Constitution now permits abortion in a narrow handful of circumstances, like for emergency treatment or if the life and health of the mother is in danger.

But it's still confusing, even for physicians, says Dr. Ernest Nyamato, an associate director at the nonprofit Ipas.

Kenya is also a very religious country, and abortion is highly stigmatized.

DR ERNEST NYAMATO, Associate Director, Ipas: When you see this ambiguity, and, as a medical provider, you take the safer road and say, let not provide these services, or let me allow other people to do it.

So, instead of accepting this thing of this is a backstreet service, let it stay there.

NEHA WADEKAR: Some government facilities do perform abortions.

Private clinics also do, but they can be expensive, so women look for other, cheaper options.

PAMELA, Traditional Medicine Vendor: For abortion, we have charged 3,500.

If you have two months, it's 3,500.

If it's five months, we take 4,000.

NEHA WADEKAR: Pamela is a traditional medicine vendor who charges women and girls between $27 and $31 for help.

Pamela claims she stopped selling abortion-inducing herbs long ago.

This type of denial is commonplace among black market actors offering illegal abortion-related services, both in person and on social media, where misinformation thrives.

If the herbs don't work, a woman might turn to a quack doctor for help.

This is a room in a back-alley abortion clinic in one of Nairobi's informal settlements.

Many of the people who work here claim to have medical training, but really have very little.

They will often use unsterile instruments like this to perform unsafe abortion procedures on women and girls, which can leave them either infertile or even lead to death.

Samuel is a self-proclaimed doctor who offers surgical abortion to poor women with nowhere else to turn.

We have changed his name because his work is illegal.

SAMUEL, Back-Alley Abortion Provider: The challenge is, for example, when you want to interact with somebody who has just come for it, it has to be a secret, because the government doesn't allow.

NEHA WADEKAR: Many poor and indigent women who die from back-alley abortions end up at public morgues.

Abandoned fetuses often end up there too.

Some of those fetuses are fished out of the river in Dandora, the slum where Anne lives.

After her own two abortions, Anne helped other women and girls abort around 150 pregnancies using a rusty pair of knitting needles.

She throws the fetuses in this river at night to avoid getting caught.

Do you -- Anne, do you ever feel any guilt?

ANNE (through translator): Yes, I do.

That's because we're taking the life of young babies, but we have to do that because we have no other choice.

NEHA WADEKAR: Since Kenya adopted its 2010 Constitution, the country's judges have expanded abortion access through several major court decisions.

But after Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022 in the United States, abortion rights advocates became concerned that the same thing could happen in Kenya.

One of the groups pushing for those decisions to be overturned is the Kenya Christian Professionals Forum, led by a constitutional lawyer named Charles Kanjama.

CHARLES KANJAMA, Chair, Kenya Christian Professionals Forum: We believe that abortion is not care.

Abortion doesn't save lives.

Abortion takes lives.

NEHA WADEKAR: Several cases are making their way through Kenyan courts, including one petitioning for unborn children's right to life and for equal protection and benefit of the law, a familiar argument in the United States' own abortion debate, says Martin Onyango, a lawyer at the Center for Reproductive Rights.

MARTIN ONYANGO, Center for Reproductive Rights: Those are not new tactics.

Those are the same tactics being applied by the opposition group in the U.S. in various states and also at the Supreme Court.

NEHA WADEKAR: That's in part because the Kenyan anti-abortion movement is being bolstered by international groups, especially American groups, promoting conservative policies and ideology in Africa.

These groups travel to Africa as speakers for events and conduct anti-abortion training sessions.

According to parliamentarian Esther Passaris, this type of campaigning is highly influential, because politicians fear losing the support of important conservative voting blocs.

ESTHER PASSARIS, Nairobi County Women's Representative, Parliament: I think the idea that you will offend the church, the idea that you will lose votes if the church doesn't endorse you as a candidate.

NEHA WADEKAR: There are huge sums of money flowing from American conservative groups into the continent of Africa.

A 2020 investigation by openDemocracy revealed that $54 million flowed from U.S. Christian right groups to Africa between 2008 and 2018.

Many of these groups are led by prominent American evangelicals with close ties to former President Donald Trump and his administration.

DONALD TRUMP, Former President of the United States (R) and Current U.S. Presidential Candidate: To protect the unborn, I have reinstated a policy, first put in place by President Ronald Reagan.

NEHA WADEKAR: Trump also reinstated and expanded the Mexico City policy, known as the global gag rule, which restricts U.S. funding to any international organization that performs or even counsels on abortion.

These policies emboldened anti-abortion advocates during his term.

CHARLES KANJAMA: They don't use federal funds to support pro-abortion organizations.

So the noise of pro-abortion in our countries goes down.

NEHA WADEKAR: They also created a chilling effect for Kenyan reproductive health care providers like KMET, who chose to lose $3 million in U.S. funding rather than stopping abortion-related services.

MONICA OGUTTU: We had 15 staff that we laid off.

It was the most difficult moment for me as the CEO of the organization.

NEHA WADEKAR: With an American election around the corner, Kenyans on both sides of the issue are waiting to see which way the chips fall.

MARTIN ONYANGO: Depending on the government that is elected in the United States, we may have either continued progress in realizing reproductive rights or we can go back, we can lose the gains that we have made.

NEHA WADEKAR: The stakes are highest for Kenyan women and girls, who will feel the greatest impact if abortion rights are rolled back once again.

For "PBS News Hour," I'm Neha Wadekar in Nairobi, Kenya.

AMNA NAWAZ: And, remember, there's a lot more online, including conversations with several young voters on what's driving them to the polls.

That's at PBS.org/NewsHour.

And we know it's Halloween tonight.

Millions will be trick-or-treating and celebrating the spookiness of the season.

But it's also Diwali, the Hindu Festival of Lights.

And in Northern India, a record 2.5 million clay lamps line the Sarayu river in the city of Ayodhya.

The waterway is believed to be the birthplace of the deity Lord Ram.

The lights of Diwali symbolize the triumph of good over evil and knowledge over ignorance.

And that is the "News Hour" for tonight.

I'm Amna Nawaz.

On behalf of the entire "News Hour" team, thank you for joining us and have a happy, or should I say spooky, Halloween.