Six years after his arrest, a former member of the Atomwaffen Division will face trial in a southern [California](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/california) courtroom over the killing of his former high school classmate – a murder that rocketed the neo-Nazi group to international notoriety and highlighted the wave of violence by far-right American extremists during the presidency of Donald Trump. Sam Woodward was arrested on 15 January 2018 and charged with the murder of Blaze Bernstein, a former fellow student at the Orange County School of the Arts. Bernstein, a gay and Jewish pre-med student, had been missing for a week before his body was discovered in a shallow grave. On the night of 10 January 2018, the two men met at Borrego Park in the Orange county city of Lake Forest, according to Orange county sheriff’s reports. Bernstein was home from the University of Pennsylvania on winter break, and re-established contact with his former high school classmate through Tinder, where the two had previously connected. Bernstein did not hide his identity as a gay man. Although Woodward was not open about his, while in high school he made passes at more than one of his male classmates, according to [reporting in Mother Jones](https://www.motherjones.com/criminal-justice/2019/03/how-a-gay-teen-an-internet-nazi-and-a-late-night-rendezvous-turned-to-tragedy/). [](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/07/neo-nazi-killing-blaze-bernstein-sam-woodward#img-2) Blaze Bernstein in an undated photo. Photograph: Orange county sheriff’s department Bernstein’s body was found with 19 stab wounds. Investigators’ attention quickly turned to Woodward, the well-off son of an observant, conservative Catholic family from Newport Beach. In interviews with an investigator from the Orange county sheriff’s department shortly after Bernstein went missing, the [investigator later testified in court](https://www.cbs8.com/article/news/california-man-to-stand-trial-for-gay-students-slaying/509-17f6bbad-c197-4d5a-b109-3e40ae5f7c4b), Woodward claimed his classmate had tried to kiss him that night at Borrego Park and that he found homosexuality “disgusting”. [](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/07/neo-nazi-killing-blaze-bernstein-sam-woodward#img-3) A memorial for Blaze Bernstein at Borrego Park in Foothill Ranch, California, on 9 January 2019. Photograph: Paul Bersebach/Orange County Register via Getty Images Two days after Woodward spoke with the investigator, rain washed away the shallow layer of dirt that had covered Bernstein’s body. Police found a knife with Bernstein’s blood on the blade in Woodward’s room, and blood was also recovered from Woodward’s car. Woodward was charged with murder and possession of a deadly weapon – charges that were appended in late 2018 with hate crime enhancements, following reporting by ProPublica on the Atomwaffen Division’s internal Discord server and on bigoted, anti-Jewish posts by Woodward there. Woodward has pleaded not guilty. Descent into neo-Nazism ----------------------- On the exterior, Woodward in his teenage years cultivated a macho persona that bordered on racist, re-enacting the infamous curb-stomping scene from American History X with a friend in a photo he later posted on social media. Though Woodward participated in the Eagle Scouts, much of his social life took place online, particularly on the iFunny app, where he went by the handle “Saboteur” and found friendship with young neo-fascists. By early 2017, Woodward and a Texan friend who went by Kruuz were participating in the online chats of Vanguard America, a far-right group whose members included James Alex Fields Jr, the man found guilty of murdering Heather Heyer in Charlottesville. Kruuz and Woodward sought out an even more radical group willing to take action, and fell into the orbit of the Atomwaffen Division, whose aggressive online propaganda and emphasis on armed white nationalist insurrection marked the outer bounds of the 2010s “alt-right” universe. [](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/07/neo-nazi-killing-blaze-bernstein-sam-woodward#img-4) Sam Woodward, right, with another member of the Atomwaffen Division. Photograph: Obtained by the Guardian Woodward spent the summer of 2017 in Texas with Kruuz, working construction, drifting from one motel room to another, training in firearms with the Atomwaffen Division’s Texas cell, posing for propaganda photographs with fellow neo-Nazi militants and visiting the group’s ideologue, James Mason, in Denver. By that fall, Woodward had moved back in with his parents in Newport Beach, working construction, boxing with another far-right group and hanging with Kruuz, who had moved west with Woodward and ran Atomwaffen’s California cell. It was at this stage of Woodward’s life, when he penned diary entries about “pranking” and “cucking” gay men he met on apps like Tinder and Grindr, that the budding neo-Nazi reconnected with Bernstein. The threat of Atomwaffen ------------------------ Bernstein’s death exposed to the world the shadowy and violent neo-fascist Atomwaffen, which had previously confined itself to flyering and online propaganda. One Atomwaffen member [pleaded guilty](https://www.tampabay.com/news/crime/2023/05/08/6-years-later-tampa-neo-nazi-murder-case-ends-with-guilty-plea/) to the May 2017 homicides of two fellow members of the group in Tampa, Florida. Another member was [charged](https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/07/22/giampa-records-release-fairfax/) over the Christmas 2017 killings of his ex-girlfriend’s parents in Virginia. In all, five deaths have been linked to the group. Both the Florida and Virginia cases were dragged out over issues of mental competency. In May 2023, the Florida member [pleaded guilty](https://www.tampabay.com/news/crime/2023/05/08/6-years-later-tampa-neo-nazi-murder-case-ends-with-guilty-plea/) to the double homicide after previously being declared incompetent to stand trial. He received a life sentence. The Virginia member’s proceedings are ongoing over a number of [challenges](https://law.justia.com/cases/virginia/court-of-appeals-unpublished/2022/1048-22-4.html) in state appeals courts about his alleged mental illnesses and the admissibility of his hospital-bed confession. Woodward’s trial has faced similar lengthy delays. Woodward has switched defense attorneys several times since 2018, and his defense team has repeatedly highlighted his Asperger’s diagnosis as justification for why he should be declared unfit for trial. In 2021, the then newly elected Orange county district attorney, Todd Spitzer, called the then three year delay (partially due to the Covid-19 pandemic) in Woodward’s case “unreasonable”, but was unable to advance the case until last summer. Jury selection was started and swiftly abandoned in early March after Woodward threw a cup of water at the judge. [](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/07/neo-nazi-killing-blaze-bernstein-sam-woodward#img-5) Sam Woodward with other Atomwaffen Division members. Photograph: Obtained by The Guardian Opening statements are slated to start on Monday, with the trial expected to last three months. In addition to the particulars of Bernstein’s killing, court proceedings will plumb the inner workings of the Atomwaffen Division: at least three former members of the neo-Nazi militant group are on the witness list. If convicted, Woodward faces life in prison without the possibility of parole. Atomwaffen was dismantled by a sprawling federal investigation that became public in 2020. The group is banned in Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia, where it spawned several offshoots. Its legacy has been bloody. Dozens of convicted militants, several [copycat](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63736944) [organizations](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/22/us/white-supremacy-the-base.html) and mass shooters in [Buffalo](https://apnews.com/article/buffalo-supermarket-shooting-gunman-radicalization-2669f6fd9dce881b150577eae885e44f), New York; [El Paso](https://ctc.westpoint.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/CTC-SENTINEL-112019.pdf), Texas; and [Jacksonville](https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/28/us/jacksonville-florida-shooting-what-we-know/index.html), Florida have cited Atomwaffen’s message as their inspiration. Woodward’s attorney, Ken Morrison of the Orange county public defender’s office, cautioned against prejudging his client’s guilt: “For the past 6 years, the public has been reading and hearing a prosecution and muckraking narrative about this case that is simply fundamentally wrong,” Morrison said. “I caution everyone to respect our judicial process and wait until a jury is able to see, hear and evaluate all the evidence before jumping to conclusions about exactly what happened.” Bernstein’s mother, Jeanne Pepper Bernstein, has occasionally spoken to media, but Spitzer requested she limit her media exposure to avoid influencing potential jurors, according to a 2023 interview she gave to the Forward. In that conversation, she noted the impact her son’s killing had on his two siblings. “The children that were 13 years old when this happened to Blaze are 18 now – they’re legal adults,” she said. “Are they ready to live in a world full of violence and hate? Have we done anything in the last five years to instill a sense of humanity in people? I don’t think so.”

 Abandoned tents remain at the migrant camp in Matamoros, Mexico, that is at the center of a controversy involving viral images of a flyer encouraging migrants to vote for President Biden. Verónica Gabriela Cárdenas for NPR April 15 started off as a typical day for Gabriela Zavala. Like usual, she was focused on juggling a busy family life with remotely running a small organization that helps [asylum-seekers](https://www.npr.org/2024/04/22/1244381584/immigrants-border-mexico-asylum-illegal-immigration) in Matamoros, Mexico. But by evening, the 41-year-old's email inbox started to fill with threats. Zavala showed NPR emails, some of which included racist language, that said, "Don't think for one moment that we are not watching," and "kill yourself." The vitriol started after a social media thread from one of the most influential conservative institutions in the U.S. went viral. "BREAKING - Flyers distributed at NGO in Mexico encouraging illegals to vote for President Biden," read [the first post](https://x.com/OversightPR/status/1780054306454167954) in a 10-part thread on X, formerly known as Twitter, posted at 9:03 p.m. U.S. Central time by the Heritage Foundation's [Oversight Project](https://www.heritage.org/oversight). The Heritage Foundation's investigative arm shared an image of the flyer and a video of copies hanging inside portable toilets at a Matamoros migrant camp. Within 12 hours, members of Congress would raise the flyer in hearings with Biden administration officials and use it to justify more restrictive voting laws. To Zavala's surprise, the flyer had her name on it, along with her organization's logo. Zavala told NPR in an April 30 interview that she didn't write it and has no connection to it. The flyer also had a Biden campaign logo, and in awkwardly written Spanish, it read in part, "Reminder to vote for President Biden when you are in the United States. We need another four years of his term to stay open." "I was almost in a state of shock," said Zavala, a U.S. citizen who lives in Texas. "And I said, 'Wow, you know, this is completely untrue.'"  Gabriela Zavala runs a small nonprofit that helps asylum-seekers in Matamoros, Mexico. Gaby Zavala Zavala said her group, [Resource Center Matamoros](https://www.resourcecentermatamoros.com/) (RCM), is focused on helping asylum-seekers and has nothing to do with politics. "We have never encouraged people to vote for anyone," said Zavala, who added that she is well aware that noncitizens are ineligible to vote. She said she would never "tell somebody that can't vote — that I know can't vote — 'Hey, go vote.'" Parts of the thread include a brief snippet of a recorded conversation with Zavala and details about her professional background. The final post in the Heritage thread reads, "This flyer obviously seeks to prey on unsophisticated illegals and encourages them to illegally vote." It quickly racked up more than 9 million views and was boosted by X's owner, Elon Musk. Mike Howell, the executive director of the Heritage Foundation's Oversight Project, said the flyer is "accurate." He also said the thread does not accuse Zavala of authoring it. Yet his organization's posts amplified the flyer, which bears her name, to a large audience, including members of Congress, and highlighted Zavala and her organization. Later [posts](https://x.com/OversightPR/status/1783556915361886551) published by Heritage criticize and attempt to [rebut media efforts](https://x.com/OversightPR/status/1785389297761243164) to fact-check Zavala's purported connection to the flyer. Howell has condemned threats of violence related to the flyer.  NPR's on-the-ground reporting with RCM officials, migrants and other aid workers, along with additional reporting, has found no evidence to support the narrative that there is an effort underway in Matamoros to encourage migrants to vote in U.S. elections. Nor did NPR find any evidence that Zavala has any connection to the flyer besides the obvious fact that someone put her name and logo on it. In an interview with NPR, both Howell and the social media influencer who collaborated on the thread acknowledged that they did not try to verify with Zavala whether she or anyone at RCM created the flyers before they posted on X. (You can read or watch NPR's interview with the Oversight Project [here](https://www.npr.org/2024/05/09/1250252668/transcript-npr-interview-heritage-foundation-oversight-project).) Zavala said she felt "victimized" and kept wondering, "Why would somebody want to do this? Why would somebody want to intentionally create a fake flyer?" The Heritage thread buttressed a key narrative of former President Donald Trump and his allies, who have made false claims about noncitizens swaying election outcomes since 2016 and who [had been emphasizing the issue in the months](https://www.npr.org/2024/03/13/1238102501/noncitizen-voting-immigration-conspiracy-theory) before the flyer appeared online. At a time when U.S. border agencies have been overwhelmed by record-high numbers of asylum-seekers arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border, the [current iteration](https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2024/jan/12/donald-trump/trumps-claim-that-millions-of-immigrants-are-signi/) of [this narrative](https://apnews.com/article/trump-immigrant-voting-noncitizens-elections-explained-cf4c73b336147b5f5d9c2a22b2564994) is that President [Biden is allowing](https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-misinformation-immigrants-parole-biden-trump-musk-dbd634820b3f8d07b859b8a05b2b20a7) migrants to enter the U.S. so they will [illegally vote for him](https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2024/feb/06/elon-musk/elon-musk-is-wrong-to-say-joe-biden-is-recruiting/). "If the ground is being seeded with claims like these," said Jared Holt, a senior research analyst at the [Institute for Strategic Dialogue](https://www.isdglobal.org/about/), an international think tank focused on extremism around the world, "then that may very well be another possible avenue to try to delegitimize democratic processes in this country." ### **Behind the thread** The Heritage thread says the flyer was discovered by [Muckraker](https://www.muckraker.com/), a right-wing video site. Anthony Rubin, the site's founder, often uses undercover tactics in his videos. He has traveled across Latin America to film migrants in transit to the United States. He portrays them as an "invasion" and has [appeared as a guest](https://www.muckraker.com/articles/muckraker-joins-alex-jones-live-in-studio/) on outlets that have spread conspiracy theories, including Alex Jones' Infowars. [Juries in Connecticut and Texas ordered Jones to pay a combined $1.5 billion](https://www.npr.org/2023/12/16/1219848695/alex-jones-sandy-hook-victims-families-settle) to the families of victims of the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., for falsely claiming the shooting was a hoax. In an interview with NPR, Rubin said he was tipped off to the existence of the flyer by a shelter worker in New York who said a migrant had received one in Matamoros. He said the video of the flyers was shot by an anonymous source with a "close connection" to his team.  The Heritage Foundation's building in Washington, D.C., in 2017. The Oversight Project is Heritage's investigative arm. Andrew Harnik/AP [Muckraker's own X account](https://x.com/realmuckraker/status/1780060033335632140) shared the thread about the flyers with the caption, "Claims of illegals being instructed to vote in elections has been labeled a 'conspiracy theory', until now..." The Heritage Foundation launched the Oversight Project in 2022 to investigate and provide "[aggressive oversight](https://www.heritage.org/press/heritage-foundation-launches-oversight-project)" of the Biden administration. Howell declined to comment on the relationship between Heritage and Muckraker or whether Muckraker was being paid for the content. "We're going up against some very powerful and dangerous people to include the cartels, weaponized Biden administration, etc., and we're not interested in giving an org chart out," Howell said, adding that he was glad to work with "anybody across any ideological spectrum who's willing to fight the invasion of the United States." The Heritage thread, in addition to publicizing the flyers, also includes posts that [link RCM](https://x.com/OversightPR/status/1780054311969714540) to [HIAS](https://hias.org/), formerly known as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. It notes that Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas once sat on the board of HIAS, a Jewish organization with offices in 20 countries that aids migrants, asylum-seekers and refugees. Other posts suggest a connection between Zavala and RCM and liberal billionaire George Soros and point out that he has given money to HIAS. While the intent of the posts is unclear, Soros, who is Jewish and a Holocaust survivor, is the target of [many far-right and antisemitic conspiracy theories](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/04/us/politics/george-soros-bragg-trump.html). HIAS released a [statement](https://www.threads.net/@hiasrefugees/post/C514T1mJkNt) saying that it has no connection to the flyers and does not support their message. Beth Oppenheim, the organization's chief advancement officer, said in recent months that HIAS has "increasingly become a target" for misinformation online. She said the other campaigns against HIAS have referenced "[great replacement](https://www.npr.org/2022/05/17/1099233034/the-great-replacement-conspiracy-theory-isnt-fringe-anymore-its-mainstream)" theory, which falsely claims that Jews are bringing immigrants into the U.S. to replace white Americans. [Several mass shooters](https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2022/05/17/racist-great-replacement-conspiracy-theory-explained) have cited the theory as justification for their acts. ### **An unexpected visit** To date, it is unknown who created the flyer. But right away, Zavala said, she understood one piece of the mystery behind the viral social media thread. Earlier on April 15, the same day the thread appeared, two American men wearing flip-flops rang the bell at RCM's building in Matamoros and said they wanted to volunteer. The scene was captured by RCM's security cameras. NPR was given access to the footage. Later, it would become clear that the two men were Anthony Rubin, the founder of Muckraker, and his brother, Joshua Rubin. Anthony Rubin can be heard on security footage saying that he and his brother previously worked with migrants "in Colombia, in Panama." Hugo Terrones, RCM's director, came outside to meet the men, who were never let inside. Terrones said that Anthony Rubin, who was speaking in broken Spanish, claimed he worked for HIAS. That exchange can be faintly made out on the security footage. HIAS briefly rented office space from RCM two years ago.  The director of Resource Center Matamoros, Hugo Terrones, spoke to Muckraker founder Anthony Rubin and his brother after the pair showed up at RCM's office asking about volunteer opportunities. But they were never allowed inside. Verónica Gabriela Cárdenas for NPR Terrones called Zavala and handed over his phone so Rubin could speak with her in English. Zavala said she told Rubin about volunteering at the shelter, which can include tasks such as cleaning or playing with children. Later she would discover a snippet of that brief conversation in [Heritage's X thread](https://x.com/OversightPR/status/1780054310275219952) with a caption saying Zavala implied that "she wants to help as many illegals as possible before President Trump is reelected." In the recording, Rubin can be heard saying, "In all honesty, we're just trying to help as many people as possible before Trump gets reelected." Zavala replies with a laugh: "Believe me, we're in the same boat." "It was in the context of volunteering," Zavala told NPR. "Yes, we want to help as many people as we can, you know? And for me, it's like, regardless of who's in office." Rubin did not deny to NPR that he introduced himself as a volunteer and a HIAS worker. "Absolutely, we were down there, and we were inquiring whether or not it would be possible to volunteer," Rubin said. He previously [told _The New York Times_](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/30/us/politics/immigration-disinformation-campaign-biden-trump.html) that he did not recall whether he had said he was with HIAS. A spokesperson for HIAS said Rubin has never been employed by the organization. Terrones told NPR that Rubin had asked him unusual questions, including whether Terrones knew of organizations in the U.S. that help migrants vote for Biden. Terrones said he kept answering, "No." "He kept repeating and was very persistent, asking us if we would vote for Biden," said Terrones. He said Rubin asked, "Biden or Trump?" Rubin said he does not recall what he asked Terrones. In his videos, Rubin often asks migrants similar questions. Rubin told NPR that in those videos, migrants "all say Biden." He said that this means it would be "pretty ridiculous" to think "this would not be then weaponized once they cross the border." Trump enacted a series of escalating policies to [chip away at the U.S. asylum system](https://www.npr.org/2020/06/11/875419571/trump-administration-proposes-rules-to-sharply-restrict-asylum-claims) when he was in office, and he has pledged to [continue](https://time.com/6972021/donald-trump-2024-election-interview/) if he is elected again. Biden was critical of Trump's policies when he ran for president in 2020. Once in office, Biden [continued](https://www.npr.org/2023/05/15/1176041255/immigration-policy-title-42-biden-us-mexico-border) the emergency border policies that Trump enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic that turned away many asylum-seekers until last May, and he [introduced](https://www.npr.org/2023/07/19/1188438846/illegal-border-crossings-are-down-one-big-reason-why-is-now-part-of-a-court-figh) new asylum restrictions. Biden has urged asylum-seekers to use a U.S. government app to make an appointment at a port of entry and avoid crossing the border illegally. But appointment slots are scarce, so migrants arriving in Mexican border cities like Matamoros end up waiting weeks or months in dangerous and difficult conditions. ### **The flyer becomes political fodder** Just 12 hours after the flyer was posted to X, Republican Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Dan Bishop both brought posters of the flyer to a budget hearing with Mayorkas. This was shortly before they [presented articles of impeachment](https://www.npr.org/2024/04/17/1245377914/senate-articles-impeachment-mayorkas-vote) against him. "How can Congress and the American people have confidence that the outcome of close elections will not turn on the votes of noncitizens who have registered and voted unlawfully?" [Bishop asked](https://twitter.com/RepDanBishop/status/1780260845605232783).  Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., holds a sign showing a screenshot of the viral flyer as Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas testifies before the House Homeland Security Committee on April 16. Allison Bailey/NurPhoto/Reuters The Daily Signal, the Heritage Foundation's news site, later [published a roundup of Republican lawmakers' responses to the flyers](https://www.dailysignal.com/2024/04/17/import-a-new-electorate-congress-alarmed-by-flyers-in-mexico-urging-illegal-aliens-to-vote-biden/), in which many of them called for stricter voting laws. It is already illegal for noncitizens to cast ballots in federal elections, and studies have repeatedly shown [it is rare](https://www.cato.org/blog/noncitizens-dont-illegally-vote-detectable-numbers). The topic gained new attention in April, when Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson promoted federal legislation that would [implement new citizenship documentation requirements](https://www.npr.org/2024/04/12/1244302080/trump-johnson-noncitizen-voting-bill). Gilda Daniels, an election law professor at the University of Baltimore, [recently told NPR](https://www.npr.org/2024/03/13/1238102501/noncitizen-voting-immigration-conspiracy-theory) that requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote would make it much harder for many eligible U.S. citizens, including students, older adults and poor people, to vote. ### **Clumsy translations, defunct phone numbers** Zavala said a "blanket of fear" fell over her in the days after the flyers went viral. **"**I didn't know how to respond. I didn't know if I should respond," Zavala said. "If I say something, is it going to fuel the fire more? Will this cause more death threats?" She shut down her social media accounts as the hateful messages kept coming. She said it bothered her that no one publicizing the flyer on social media or in Congress had checked with her about whether she or anyone at RCM had written it. "They never cared to call me and find out whether it was true or not," Zavala said. "I mean, that really is, you know, an attack on my character as a person." Rubin told NPR that it "certainly occurred to me" to ask RCM to verify the flyer when he visited, but he didn't want to bring attention to himself because he said he had previously been kidnapped by the Gulf Cartel near there. "I need to maintain a low profile here because I am in enemy territory. The cartel literally told me, 'Never come back here again.'" Howell, a former attorney for the Department of Homeland Security, acknowledged that the Oversight Project did not reach out to Zavala before publishing the X thread because "it was in the immediate public interest to know about the invasion in the United States." He added, "Would the United States reach out to the CCP \[Chinese Communist Party\] to verify intelligence about them flooding fentanyl into this country? Of course not." Howell noted that the Heritage Foundation's news outlet, The Daily Signal, sought comment from Zavala after the thread was published. [The first story that The Daily Signal](https://www.dailysignal.com/2024/04/15/group-in-mexico-displays-flyers-urging-illegal-aliens-to-vote-for-biden/) published about the thread, on April 15, does not mention seeking comment from Zavala; only [the second story](https://www.dailysignal.com/2024/04/16/after-discovery-of-vote-for-biden-flyers-in-mexico-mayorkas-cant-say-how-to-stop-illegal-aliens-from-voting/), on April 16, does. The second story says Zavala didn't respond to The Daily Signal. Zavala said there are a number of clues that suggest the flyer was not written by her or anyone at RCM. It contains errors, such as "Bienvedinos" instead of "Bienvenidos" (Welcome). Zavala is not a native Spanish-speaker, but she said she checks the grammar and spelling of what she writes in Spanish. Whoever made the flyer relied heavily on RCM's English-language website, which has dated posts that stop after 2021. Zavala said she has not had the time or resources to update it. The flyer lists a defunct phone number that Zavala said she hasn't used in years but is still listed on the website. The first two sentences of the flyer appear to be an old description of the organization copied directly from the website and run through Google Translate into Spanish. It mentions that HIAS shares the office, an arrangement that ended in 2022, according to both groups. The next two sentences, which remind readers to vote for Biden when they get to the U.S., are written in a different style and are riddled with more errors than the previous ones. That section translates "United States" as "estados unidos," without the usual capitalization, while the previous section uses the abbreviation "los EE. UU." There are also inaccuracies in the X thread. The [thread says](https://x.com/OversightPR/status/1780054308568125854) the site where the video shows the flyers is a "Resource Center Matamoras (RCM) location." But RCM has not staffed the site for years, which was also confirmed to NPR by people from other local nongovernmental organizations who work with migrants. Glady Cañas of Ayudándoles a Triunfar and Andrea Rudnik of Team Brownsville both told NPR that there is no longer a formal camp at that site.  Glady Cañas, president of Ayudándoles a Triunfar, stands outside the organization's offices in Matamoros, Mexico. Verónica Gabriela Cárdenas for NPR NPR visited the site and saw an informal encampment with a small number of migrants staying there, but did not see any evidence of the flyers. Anyone can access the encampment, which is in a city park along the banks of the Rio Grande. Aid workers like Cañas are redirecting migrants who show up at the encampment to shelters. Rubin told NPR that Terrones, RCM's director, gave him a "firsthand" tour of the camp the day he visited, was "letting himself into these different tents" and introduced Rubin to a Russian man who was staying there. "So this idea that they don't have any tie-ins with that camp is total nonsense," said Rubin. Terrones maintains that RCM currently has no role at the site, which he considers closed. He said he took the Rubin brothers to the encampment because he had trouble communicating with them and was trying to tell them it was basically empty. He said he opened tents to show them no one was inside. He said he had met the Russian man weeks earlier when he came to RCM asking for help. Cañas and Rudnik each told NPR that they had never seen the flyers at the encampment or heard about them from other volunteers or migrants. "Somebody would have noticed it," said Rudnik, a co-founder and volunteer with Team Brownsville. "And nobody did." She also said she had never seen any organizations hang flyers in the portable toilets before. "Those port-a-potties are pretty filthy," Rudnik said. "If we wanted people to know something, it would be put in a different place." Migrants who remain at the encampment denied ever seeing the flyers. Orlando Martínez, a 36-year-old from El Salvador, said he has been at the site for over a year and has never seen any such flyers, "nor has anyone come to say we should vote for Biden." He was among just a handful of people present when NPR visited on the afternoon of April 29.  Orlando Martínez, from El Salvador, has been living at a migrant camp in Matamoros for more than a year. He says that he has not seen the flyers and that no one has told him to vote in U.S. elections. Verónica Gabriela Cárdenas for NPR "No one who crosses illegally can vote," Martínez said. He said he knows the same is true for those who make an appointment to enter through a U.S. port of entry. There was no evidence of flyers in sight when NPR toured RCM's building. Asylum-seekers who have been at RCM for weeks as they wait for their appointments at the border told NPR they had not seen the flyer or been encouraged to vote in the U.S. either. ### **A second thread** Zavala decided to break her silence and gave a brief comment to The Associated Press. The [April 17 story](https://apnews.com/article/migrants-shelter-flyer-mexico-voting-conspiracy-theories-e02f14ef0763684f2919dc84e9ef2458) reported that Zavala said she hadn't made the flyer, did not know who had, and does not encourage immigrants to vote. Other fact-checking organizations, including [PolitiFact](https://www.politifact.com/article/2024/apr/19/did-a-nongovernment-organization-in-mexico-encoura/) and [Lead Stories](https://leadstories.com/hoax-alert/2024/04/fact-check-ngo-flyer-encouraging-migrants-to-vote-for-biden-is-not-authentic.html), published articles citing Zavala's denial to the AP and the flyer's Spanish-language errors. Among those who questioned the Heritage thread was Fox News national correspondent Bill Melugin, who regularly covers border issues. "I am extremely skeptical of this," Melugin [posted on X](https://x.com/BillMelugin_/status/1780281200143409659). "There's plenty of controversy with some NGO's, but this flier seems fake or doctored, even at first glance." Heritage has stood by its story. On April 25, 10 days after the initial thread, Heritage released a [second X thread](https://x.com/OversightPR/status/1783556912035852653). It [criticizes "legacy media"](https://x.com/OversightPR/status/1783556915361886551) for discrediting the flyer based on Zavala's denial and the translation errors. It points out that Zavala is not a native Spanish-speaker. In an interview with NPR, Howell added, "The counterattack \[against the story\] has provided absolutely zero evidence. Our international bombshell reporting has stood the test of all scrutiny and will withstand some more." The second X thread also included an excerpt of an affidavit with the name and signature apparently redacted. The affidavit's author claimed to have seen 40 copies of the flyer "inside the shelter," which appears to be a reference to RCM. The author says that they took a flyer to their home and that the next day they saw a similar flyer inside the portable toilets at the camp and recorded a video. "The individual who authored the affidavit is somebody that we have a close connection with," Rubin said. "This isn't some random individual." Howell said they wouldn't give more details about the affidavit's author. "Obviously we're protecting our sources and methods on this." NPR was unable to verify the [affidavit's account](https://x.com/OversightPR/status/1783556912035852653), which is dated April 19, four days after Heritage's first thread was published. The affidavit gives no time frame for when the events it describes occurred. Heritage's X thread calls the migrant camp a "[hotbed for political activity](https://x.com/OversightPR/status/1783556918096630266)." It includes photos of a tour that Jill Biden took of the camp when her husband was running for president in 2020, a photo of a Biden campaign sign hanging in the camp in 2021 and a photo showing "Bye Trump" balloons at the camp after the last presidential election. Zavala said RCM, which did work closely with the camp during the time the photos were taken, did not put up any campaign signs. Zavala said she chose not to attend Jill Biden's visit.  The offices of Resource Center Matamoros. The nonprofit works with asylum-seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border. Verónica Gabriela Cárdenas for NPR She said in the lead-up to the 2020 election, some asylum-seekers had been stuck at the camp for well over a year due to Trump administration policies. "All their hopes were riding on a new administration coming in," she said. She said some migrants chose to put up signs "without influence or encouragement by any NGO, including RCM." Rudnik, of Team Brownsville, remembers a volunteer from the U.S., who was not affiliated with an NGO, put up the "Bye Trump" balloons on her own. Zavala said she didn't know about the balloons at the time, but had anyone asked her, "I would have said, 'No, it is not a good idea.'" ### **Sharing her side of the story** By the time Heritage published its second social media thread, Zavala had decided she had to say more publicly. She agreed to talk to a reporter for [_The New York Times_](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/30/us/politics/immigration-disinformation-campaign-biden-trump.html) and then to NPR. "It wasn't enough that I just denied it," Zavala said about the flyer. "I need to share my side of the story. People need to hear what actually happened." Zavala wanted the public to know that the Rubin brothers rang the bell at RCM hours before the thread published. She said while it is clear who publicized the flyers, she doesn't know who made them, who put them in the portable toilets or who created the video. "If I can't tell you exactly who it was and really have it in evidence, I'm not going to go out there and accuse somebody of something," Zavala said. She said even though she felt that whoever made the flyer "smeared" her name and put it through "the entire national public spotlight," she is not willing to do the same to anyone else. She still feels fearful about what having her name associated with this flyer could mean for her, her family and her staff. It weighs on her that acts of violence, like the 2018 mass shooting at the [Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh](https://www.npr.org/2019/10/25/773031898/some-tree-of-life-members-believe-death-penalty-for-shooter-at-odds-with-jewish-) and the 2019 mass shooting [at an El Paso, Texas, Walmart](https://www.npr.org/2023/02/08/1155614286/el-paso-walmart-shooting-guilty-plea-federal-hate-crime-weapons-charges), have been inspired by immigration-themed conspiracy theories. "What if one crazy extremist takes this to heart and says, 'I'm just going to hurt them'?" Zavala said. In an interview with _The New York Times_ [that Heritage shared online](https://x.com/OversightPR/status/1785423999557833053), Howell condemned death threats, saying he gets them "all the time." He added, "No one should do it." Zavala said she will continue to focus on her mission to help asylum-seekers. "There's people fleeing from extreme situations, extreme circumstances," Zavala said. "And if I have the resources and the capability to help them, I will." _NPR's Audrey Nguyen, Texas Public Radio's Gaige Davila and independent journalist Verónica Gabriela Cárdenas contributed reporting to this story. Davila and Cárdenas reported from Matamoros, Mexico._

Three people were killed and 11 others injured in a shooting on Friday morning at a grocery store in Fordyce, Ark., the police said. A shooter opened fire at the Mad Butcher grocery store in Fordyce in Central Arkansas about 11:30 a.m., the Arkansas State Police said in a statement. The shooter, whose name was not released, was shot by the police and injured before being taken into custody, the police said. Eleven people, including two law enforcement officers, were injured in the shooting. The officers had injuries that were not life-threatening. Mike Hagar, the director of Arkansas State Police, said at a news conference that the shooter’s injury was not life-threatening. The conditions of the others who were injured ranged from not life-threatening to “extremely critical,” Mr. Hagar said. The motive for the shooting was unclear. Video and images emerging on social media showed bullet holes in a window of the store, and someone holding what appeared to be a rifle firing shots from the parking lot. David Rodriguez was filling up his car at a nearby gas station when he heard a few pops that he thought were fireworks. Eleven people, including two law enforcement officers, were injured in the shooting on Friday at the Mad Butcher store.Credit...Ainsley Platt/Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, via Associated Press “Then, all the sudden, mass gunfire between the police and whoever was out in the parking lot,” Mr. Rodriguez, 58, of Kingsland, Ark., said in an interview. He took out his phone and started filming the shooting before he realized he had to flee. Matt Gill was in the Mad Butcher, working his shift as a butcher, when he heard the pops. “Everybody was like ‘What’s that noise?’” Mr. Gill, 38, said in an interview. “I said ‘Ma’am, that’s shotgun. We got to go.’” Mr. Gill said he led his co-workers out of the back of the store, but a few store clerks got separated as they fled. Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on [social media](https://x.com/SarahHuckabee/status/1804222875169063134) that she had been updated on the shooting in Fordyce, a city of about 3,300 residents that is about 70 miles south of Little Rock, Ark. “I am thankful to law enforcement and first responders for their quick and heroic action to save lives,” she wrote. There have been several shootings at stores in recent years. In 2019, [a gunman killed 23 people at a Walmart store in El Paso](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/08/us/texas-walmart-shooting-suspect-plea.html). In 2021, [10 people were killed by a gunman at a grocery store in Boulder](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/23/us/boulder-victims.html), Colo. In 2022, [a gunman killed 10 people at supermarket](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/28/nyregion/buffalo-shooting-guilty-plea.html) in Buffalo.

It was just past 10am, but the west Texas sun already burned high above the border fence, a serpentine steel line slicing the Chihuahuan desert in two. On the US side, a short distance from the Paso del Norte International Bridge, the [Sacred Heart](https://www.jesuitscentralsouthern.org/press-release/sacred-heart-church-in-el-paso-shelters-migrants-seeking-safety/) shelter stirred with activity. Children giggled and shrieked as they chased each other in circles around the converted gymnasium, decorated with brightly colored piñatas, a mural of the Virgen de Guadalupe and a string of plastic flags, a small reminder of the countries they left behind: Venezuela, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras, [Mexico](https://www.theguardian.com/world/mexico). Their parents, who carried them across jungles, rivers and entire countries, rested on mats. A mother breastfed her son. A woman braided hair. This shelter is located in the heart of El Paso’s Segundo Barrio, a neighborhood that has served as the entry point for so many generations of immigrants arriving in the United States that it has been called “[the other Ellis Island](https://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/the-other-ellis-island/)”. It is here the newest arrivals find a moment of respite – a hot meal, fresh clothes and reliable wifi – suspended briefly in the crucible between a long, perilous journey and an uncertain future in the US; between the troubled places that pushed them out and a nation increasingly determined to keep them out. “_Bienvenido a los Estados Unidos_,” a volunteer said, welcoming a group that had assembled for his presentation on the asylum process, a portal into the labyrinth of immigration codes and policies that holds their fate. Diana, 26, listened carefully. Five months ago, she and her partner, José, 28, fled Venezuela, where a spiraling political, economic and humanitarian crisis has plunged [millions](https://www.unrefugees.org/emergencies/venezuela/#:~:text=More%20than%207.3%20million%20Venezuelans,(as%20of%20February%202023).) into poverty. Together they crossed the Darién Gap, an [inhospitable stretch of rainforest](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/jan/03/record-half-million-people-crossed-darien-gap-2023) between Colombia and Panama. They waited months in Mexico trying unsuccessfully to make an asylum appointment with the US. But Mexico was a dangerous place to be, Diana said, pulling her knees tightly to her chest. They eventually ran out of money. “Despair” crept in, José said, and they decided to continue. The pair surrendered to US authorities on a Sunday in early June, days before Joe Biden [issued an executive order](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/04/biden-us-mexico-border-asylum-seekers) essentially suspending – at least temporarily – the country’s longstanding promise that anyone who steps foot on US soil has the right to seek asylum. [](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/23/el-paso-texas-us-mexico-border-crackdown#img-2) People walk through the jungle near Bajo Chiquito village, the first border control of the Darién province in Panama, on 22 September 2023. Photograph: Luis Acosta/AFP/Getty Images While political leaders hundreds of miles away in Austin – Texas’s capital – and in Washington clash over the “crisis” at the border, the people of El Paso are grappling with the human side of an [unprecedented wave of global migration](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/may/26/us-immigration-mexico-border-south-america), driven by economic hardship, extreme weather, conflict and political instability. Though the border city has strained under the weight of receiving hundreds of thousands of migrants in recent years, it has also modeled compassion and resilience, rooted in a tradition of caring for those who flee north. Opinions here are divided over Biden’s election-year asylum crackdown. Many are skeptical, jaded perhaps by claims that the border can be sealed and a mass movement of people stopped. “From what we see at our shelter, people are desperate,” said Rafael Garcia, pastor of Sacred Heart parish, the church adjacent to the shelter. “They’re fearful to death, and so they’re going to continue to take risks, which they are doing right now.” As migration has reached historic levels in recent years, El Paso, a [liberal corner](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/11/03/us/elections/results-texas-president.html) in conservative Texas, has [intermittently](https://abcnews.go.com/US/el-paso-texas-migrant-surge-title-42-end/story?id=95663515) been a central crossing point from Mexico. Local officials say they are proud of the city’s response to what it defines as a humanitarian and public safety “[crisis](https://www.elpasotexas.gov/migrant-crisis/)”. But the sheer scale has taken a toll. Earlier this month, Oscar Leeser, the city’s Democratic mayor, traveled to the nation’s capital to stand with Biden at the White House as the president formally unveiled his controversial asylum order. “We’ve been asking for help for many years,” Leeser told journalists in [El Paso](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/el-paso), after returning from Washington. The president’s action was “a start,” he said, but Congress still needed to act. Leeser, who was [born](https://www.elpasotexas.gov/government/mayor/) in Chihuahua, Mexico, before moving to El Paso as a child, speaking no English, said the city strives to be a welcoming place for asylum seekers while remaining a safe place for residents. Having adopted a “no street release” policy, he said local officials work to connect people with shelters and transportation before they depart to other cities, often Denver, Chicago or New York. When shelters are full, the city has [opted to pay](https://elpasomatters.org/2023/09/22/migrant-arrivals-challenge-el-paso-shelters/) for hotel rooms. The city is also in the process of building an animal shelter in a vacant middle school now used as a shelter, part of the mayor’s vision to offer pet therapy as a mental health resource. “We really want to make sure people are treated with respect and dignity,” Leeser said. But the status quo is unsustainable, he said. During a peak last year, the number of arrivals rose as high as 1,700 people in a single day, leaving city resources stretched thin. The number of people crossing has plunged since then, but remains historically high. Since October, the start of the fiscal year, there have been more than 204,000 encounters in the El Paso sector, which includes west Texas and all of New Mexico, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) [data](https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/southwest-land-border-encounters-by-component), a 39% decrease compared to the same period last year. Leeser expects the asylum policy will work as a deterrent because “the consequences are greater now”. While the restrictions are in effect, people who do not establish a “[reasonable probability](https://www.dhs.gov/news/2024/06/04/fact-sheet-presidential-proclamation-suspend-and-limit-entry-and-joint-dhs-doj)” for asylum will be removed and subject to a “[five-year bar](https://www.dhs.gov/news/2024/06/04/fact-sheet-presidential-proclamation-suspend-and-limit-entry-and-joint-dhs-doj)” for re-entry, according to the Department of Homeland Security. [](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/23/el-paso-texas-us-mexico-border-crackdown#img-3) New arrivals outside the Sacred Heart shelter in El Paso, Texas, on 8 January 2023. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images [](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/23/el-paso-texas-us-mexico-border-crackdown#img-4) Outside the Sacred Heart shelter on 20 December 2022. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images It’s the mayor’s hope that the harsher penalties will encourage people to use the government’s preferred pathway, by requesting an asylum appointment through its smartphone app CBP One. Roughly [1,450 appointments](https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/national-media-release/cbp-one-appointments-increased-1450-day) are available each day via the app, but there is a [months-long backlog](https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/05/cbp-one-mobile-application-violates-the-rights-of-people-seeking-asylum-in-the-united-states/) that immigration advocates fear will worsen under the new policy, which opponents are [challenging in court](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/12/biden-immigration-asylum-directive-lawsuit). [According to preliminary CBP figures](https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/national-media-release/cbp-releases-may-2024-monthly-update#:~:text=On%20June%204%2C%202024%2C%20President,noncitizens%20across%20the%20Southern%20border.) released on Thursday, encounters with people at the border have fallen 25% in the two weeks since the asylum restrictions were implemented. “Every time the federal government makes a change, we see a dramatic drop in the flow,” Jorge Rodriguez, the emergency management coordinator for the city and county of El Paso, told journalists, hours after the policy took effect. But he said the situation can change abruptly, spurred by factors beyond Washington’s control – for example, the conditions in the countries people are fleeing, and the smuggling networks [that profit mightily](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/25/us/migrant-smuggling-evolution.html) from global migration. US enforcement tells only part of the story. Mexican authorities, under intensifying pressure from the US, are [aggressively cracking down](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/12/mexico-migrants-us-immigration) on people trying to reach its northern border, blocking their advance and [busing](https://apnews.com/article/mexico-immigration-border-lopez-obrador-biden-a5498f0791f5f1ef99f1dfd9accce8f4) them hundreds of miles in the opposite direction, towards its southern border with Guatemala. As the route becomes more difficult to traverse, human rights advocates say people will be forced to stay in Mexico, where they risk extortion, kidnapping and violence. Already, [shelters are beginning to fill](https://elpasomatters.org/2024/06/18/migrants-juarez-mexico-shelters-streets-biden-asylum-restrictions/) in Ciudad Juárez, the Mexican city opposite the border from El Paso, [as people hoping to claim asylum are turned back](https://www.npr.org/2024/06/09/nx-s1-4995786/how-bidens-asylum-policy-is-affecting-one-venezuelan-family). “Nothing’s going to stop the migration,” Juan Acereto Cervera, an adviser to the mayor of Ciudad Juárez, told journalists as part of the same panel in El Paso. “Nothing.” In the baking Santa Teresa desert, a few miles west of El Paso, the hulking, rust-colored border barrier snakes through sand and shrubs. A day after Biden’s asylum policy took effect, the US side was desolate, save for scattered pieces of clothing, empty water bottles and a photograph of a little girl with big brown eyes. “Valeria” was printed neatly on the back, with a note, in Spanish: “You’ll always be my queen.” For decades, the vast majority of those who crossed without authorization were Mexican men looking for work. Now people come from all over the western hemisphere. Families traveling with children make up nearly [40% of those who have crossed the southern border so far this year](https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/southwest-land-border-encounters), while tens of thousands of young people have come alone. Rather than hide, they increasingly [seek out authorities](https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc-podcast/why-is-this-happening/stakes-immigration-aaron-reichlin-melnick-podcast-transcript-rcna124713) to surrender and request asylum. On a tour with journalists, CBP officials declined to discuss the new asylum order, issued after Republicans blocked a bipartisan border security bill – at Donald Trump’s behest – that would have sent a surge of resources to the agency. The policy remains in place until the number of illegal crossings drops below 1,500 for seven consecutive days. The last time the figure fell that low [was in 2020](https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/american-immigration-council-analysis-presidents-212f-proclamation-and-interim-final-rule#:~:text=What%20the%20proclamation%20and%20regulation,it%20harder%20for%20people%20to), during the depths of the coronavirus pandemic. [](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/23/el-paso-texas-us-mexico-border-crackdown#img-5) People pass through razor wire while crossing the US-Mexico border on 13 March 2024 in El Paso, Texas. Photograph: John Moore/Getty Images It was the most restrictive action yet from the Democratic president, who recently invoked his own family’s journey from Ireland two centuries before to emphasize his compassion for the plight of immigrants. But the southern border has become a [defining feature](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/feb/29/trump-biden-border-visits-analysis) of the November presidential election – and a major liability for Biden, whose “carrot and stick” approach **–** mixing policies that expand legal pathways into the US while tightening border restrictions – has left few satisfied. Voters [strongly disapprove](https://www.monmouth.edu/polling-institute/reports/monmouthpoll_us_061224/) of Biden’s handling of the border, polls show, while attitudes [toward undocumented immigrants](https://www.axios.com/2024/04/25/trump-biden-americans-illegal-immigration-poll) living in the US appear to be [growing more hostile](https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2024/06/06/immigration-attitudes-and-the-2024-election/). Trump, the Republican nominee who as president enacted a policy that [separated children from their parents](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/feb/25/trump-family-separations-children-torture-psychology) at the border, has stoked those fears, promising to carry out “the largest deportation in history” if re-elected. Imelda Maynard, an attorney with the El Paso-based [Estrella del Paso Legal Aid](https://estrelladelpaso.org/), called Biden’s action a “gut punch”. She feared the [asylum clampdown](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/04/biden-us-mexico-border-asylum-seekers) would make people more desperate. They may attempt to cross in more remote areas to avoid detection. Or parents may attempt to send their children alone because unaccompanied minors are one of the few groups exempted under the new restrictions. There are also questions about how evenly the policy will be enforced along the 2,000-mile border, particularly if the number of arrivals begins to rise again. Inconsistencies, certain to be amplified on social media and messaging platforms, could send the message that it’s still possible to come, Maynard said, because: “You can’t battle hope, right?” For many in El Paso, portrayals of the borderlands as wide open and consumed by chaos are worlds apart from the reality of their everyday lives. In this predominantly Hispanic community, conversations slip easily between Spanish and English, and the border is a dividing line traversed daily by students going to school​ and relatives visiting family. Its ports of entry process [tens of billions of dollars](https://www.elpasoinc.com/news/local_news/el-paso-ranks-2nd-in-southern-border-trade/article_0d777414-00b6-11ef-b3cd-d39ffaaa008b.html) in trade annually. “If one more politician says the border is broken,” said Jon Barela of the [Borderplex Alliance](https://www.borderplexalliance.org/about-us), an economic development organization in El Paso, shaking his head. “The border is not broken.” Barela blamed Washington for repeatedly failing to overhaul an immigration system nearly every elected official has declared broken, despite the country’s need for more workers. Modernizing guest worker programs and expanding pathways to citizenship for the long-term undocumented – once pillars of comprehensive immigration reform, left out of [this year’s border security deal](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/23/senate-democrats-immigration-border-bill) – would help power the US economy, he argued. His preference is a [bipartisan immigration plan](https://salazar.house.gov/media/press-releases/salazar-and-escobar-introduce-bipartisan-dignity-act) introduced by El Paso’s representative in the US House, Veronica Escobar. But Congress has shown no interest in an election-year immigration consensus. [](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/23/el-paso-texas-us-mexico-border-crackdown#img-6) People gather near the Sacred Heart shelter on 8 May 2023. Photograph: Patrick T Fallon/AFP/Getty Images [](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/23/el-paso-texas-us-mexico-border-crackdown#img-7) People wait to enter the Sacred Heart shelter on 17 December 2022. Photograph: John Moore/Getty Images As a border-state Democrat and a co-chair of Biden’s re-election campaign, Escobar has carefully navigated the [choppy politics](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/16/democrats-biden-asylum-immigration-order) of the president’s immigration policies. This month, she signed on to a [letter](https://ramirez.house.gov/media/press-releases/ramirez-garcia-lead-16-members-congress-opposition-uscis-proposed-rule-add) asking the administration to reconsider its asylum rule. Then, last week, the congresswoman joined the president at the White House to celebrate [a suite of new executive actions](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/18/us-citizenship-pathway-spouses-children-immigrants-joe-biden) aimed at opening a pathway to citizenship for hundreds of thousands of immigrants living without legal status in the US. Escobar is also sounding the alarm on [growing anti-immigrant vitriol](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/dec/16/trump-immigrants-new-hampshire-rally). Right-wing talk of an immigrant “invasion” stir fears among residents, nearly five years after a white supremacist who railed against a “Hispanic invasion” of Texas [killed 23 people](https://apnews.com/article/el-paso-walmart-shooting-crusius-6e8b5f654d9c2b51e377c09bfdda9caf) at a Walmart in El Paso. “We have seen the way that they have targeted communities like this one, like El Paso,” Escobar said during a speech at the [Texas](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/texas) Democratic convention, held in the city earlier this month. She accused Republicans, led by Trump, who has said undocumented immigrants are “poisoning the blood” of the country, of furthering the “demonization of vulnerable migrants who are seeking a better life”. “All of that,” she said, “hangs in the balance in November.” Near the remote border community of Sunland Park, New Mexico, temperatures swelled to 107F on a recent Thursday. Agents often act as first responders for people suffering heat-related distress as they attempt to cross the border, a CBP official said. They provide water and administer medical care, the official said, adding that he anticipated rescues – and deaths – would continue to rise throughout the summer. [](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/23/el-paso-texas-us-mexico-border-crackdown#img-8) A man with symptoms of dehydration after crossing the border from Mexico receives medical attention in Sunland Park, New Mexico, on 19 June 2024. Photograph: José Luis González/Reuters The day before, agents had [recovered](https://www.facebook.com/SunlandParkFire/posts/pfbid031GzBU4ay6JwhedgiiZddtHT9aUDfJ36QyRURuNEhBxjs8TgbrmbPS2GFnF3NFrewl) the bodies of [two people](https://x.com/SunlandParkFire/status/1798568161752859100) found in the desert, believed to have [died](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/07/mexico-border-heatwave-deaths) of heat-related injuries. Since then, two more bodies were recovered in the area and two people suffering heat-related injuries were rescued, according to the Sunland Park fire department. “Last year, we had a [record \[number\] of border deaths](https://www.elpasotimes.com/story/news/immigration/2023/10/03/border-patrol-el-paso-sector-cbp-reports-record-migrant-death-toll-immigration/71041661007/) in our community, and with policies like these that is just going to increase,” said Aimée Santillán, a policy analyst at the [Hope Border Institute](https://www.hopeborder.org/), based in El Paso. “It’s a very human issue that unfortunately has been dehumanized,” she said. “Migrants have become something else – a problem that needs to be fixed instead of people that need to be helped.” At the Sacred Heart shelter on a recent Friday, volunteers sorted pairs of boxer briefs and other donated items. A woman from Venezuela chopped garlic in the kitchen. Preparing for the next group of arrivals was Michael DeBruhl, who now serves as the shelter’s director after a 26-year career with the border patrol. More than 50,000 people have passed through since it opened the parish gymnasium as a shelter, practically overnight, in December 2022, as winter temperatures plunged and local officials scrambled to accommodate [a sudden spike in migration](https://abcnews.go.com/US/el-paso-texas-migrant-surge-title-42-end/story?id=95663515). There are fewer people these days. The night prior, the shelter had housed 74 people, well below its capacity of 120. Many arrive here with children, mostly fleeing the crisis in Venezuela. DeBruhl, who is Mexican American, quips that he now keeps a bottle of Tabasco sauce with him to add spice to the milder Venezuelan dishes served at mealtime. In his time with the shelter, DeBruhl has tried to provide a sense of uplift. When he started, people were sleeping on cots, which couldn’t be stacked and stored, so he procured mats that could be folded and tucked away in the morning. “Even the illusion of space, I think, is better for the soul,” he said, surveying the gymnasium, where José and Diana were preparing to depart for Houston. DeBruhl said it would probably take several weeks to fully grasp the impact of Biden’s asylum order. Like others, he worries about the people toiling in Mexico – the more hostile side of the border, in his experience, by far. But so long as it was better to leave than to stay, DeBruhl was sure people would continue to try. That is his mission now: to care for those who come. “We didn’t want to leave our country,” José said. But he couldn’t afford to buy school supplies for his seven-year-old son or medication for his elderly mother. He came to the US, like so many before and after, to give his family a better life. If that had been possible in Venezuela, he would have stayed. * _This story was reported through a fellowship on_ _US immigration policy in El Paso organized by Poynter with funding from the Catena Foundation_

_You’re reading an excerpt from the WorldView newsletter._ [_Sign up to get the rest free_](https://www.washingtonpost.com/newsletters/todays-worldview/?itid=lk_inline_manual_1)_, including news from around the globe and interesting ideas and opinions to know, sent to your inbox Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays._ **It’s an image you’ve already seen:** Former president Donald Trump on a panicked outdoor stage in Pennsylvania, surrounded by Secret Service agents, blood streaming from the corner of his ear across his cheek. He seems shaken but defiant, a clenched fist in the air as he’s hurried away. Trump [survived an apparent assassination attempt Saturday](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/07/13/trump-rally-pennsylvania/?itid=lk_inline_manual_5) that saw the suspected shooter shot dead, one rally attendee killed and two others critically injured. The shooter has been identified by the FBI as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20. At the time of writing, there was no official indication of his personal motives. His assault on Trump has shocked the world and upended an already volatile, heated U.S. election cycle. President Biden described the assassination attempt Saturday evening as “sick,” saying “there’s no place in America for this kind of violence.” He later spoke with Trump. World leaders across the political spectrum [issued shocked condemnations](https://www.politico.com/news/2024/07/13/trump-rally-shooting-international-reaction-00167993) of the attack and expressed relief that Trump was not seriously harmed. A host of Trump allies [immediately blamed](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/07/13/trump-shooting-blame-biden-democrats/?itid=lk_inline_manual_8) Democrats and anyone who suggests Trump’s ultranationalism is a danger to U.S. democracy as being somehow complicit in the attack. In that rhetorical leap, they were joined by certain leaders elsewhere who see themselves in at least partial ideological alliance with Trump: Argentine President Javier Milei used the occasion to blast the “authoritarian agenda” of the “international left.” Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, long irked by criticism from the Biden administration and human rights advocates over [his quasi-autocratic consolidation of power](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/02/06/bukele-nayib-el-salvador-president-coolest-dictator-global-international/?itid=lk_inline_manual_9) while executing [a wildly popular crackdown on crime](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/02/06/bukele-nayib-el-salvador-president-coolest-dictator-global-international/?itid=lk_inline_manual_9), simply posed a one-word question on social media: “Democracy?” **But, of the foreign leaders, the reactions of current Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico and former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro may be the most significant**. Only two months ago, Fico, a populist often likened to Trump, was [shot and almost killed by a septuagenarian “lone wolf” assailant](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/05/16/robert-fico-serious-condition-shooting-slovakia/?itid=lk_inline_manual_11) who disliked Fico’s politics. The controversial Slovak leader has emerged from his convalescence all the more animated about the perfidy of his perceived ideological opponents. And in 2018, then-Brazilian presidential candidate Bolsonaro was stabbed by another lone wolf attacker in the middle of a campaign rally. The incident drove public sympathy toward Bolsonaro, [another anti-establishment, hard line nationalist like Trump](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/30/bolsonaro-trump-brazil-election-democracy/?itid=lk_inline_manual_14), and swept him into power. By Sunday morning, Fico and Bolsonaro had publicly embraced Trump and denounced his opponents. “It’s a carbon copy of the script,” Fico [wrote](https://www.euronews.com/2024/07/14/donald-trumps-attempted-assassination-eu-and-world-leaders-react) on social media, suggesting he and the former U.S. president were victims of an environment where their enemies fan public hysteria against them. “Trump’s political opponents are trying to shut him down. When they fail, they incite the public until some poor guy takes up arms.” Bolsonaro [tweeted](https://x.com/jairbolsonaro/status/1812260550476431781) his “solidarity” with Trump, and said he would see Trump at his inauguration — a reflection of the overwhelming confidence among right-wing observers that the incident would turn into a political boon for the former president. Bolsonaro’s son, Eduardo, echoed the sentiment, responding to a tweet from Trump’s son, Eric, with the message that Trump was “already elected” and gesturing to Bolsonaro’s stabbing in 2018. “We have experience with a situation like that, we know the enemy — and you too,” Eduardo wrote. Trump’s critics point to his own record of incendiary rhetoric; they link him to a sprawling canvas of political violence that’s marred life in the United States over the past decade. Trump’s rhetoric has echoed language in far-right conspiracy theories [linked to mass shootings](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/29/border-open-mentality-republican-migrants-san-antonio/?itid=lk_inline_manual_19) in El Paso, a synagogue in Pennsylvania and the wider mobilization of armed far-right White supremacists. It fanned the flames of the Jan. 6, 2021 storming of the Capitol by his supporters. “Trump himself often uses inflammatory language, having taken office in \[2017\] by describing the state of the nation as ‘American carnage,’” [wrote my colleague Michael Scherer](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/07/13/trump-shooting-blame-biden-democrats/?itid=lk_inline_manual_20). “He has since called his political enemies ‘vermin,’ described some undocumented migrants as 'animals’ and warned of a ‘bloodbath’ if he fails to win in November.”

Dabb, Kory R. Kimberlee Singler was detained in west London on 30 December 2023 A US mother accused of shooting two of her children at their home in Colorado was "begged" by her third child not to kill her, a UK court has heard. Kimberlee Singler has attended the start of her extradition hearing in London after being accused of murdering her daughter Elianna, 9, and son Aden, 7, who were found dead in their bedroom in Colorado Springs on 19 December last year. The eldest child, aged 11 at the time, survived being stabbed in the neck but needed emergency surgery, Westminster Magistrates' Court heard. Through her defence barrister Ms Singler, 36, denied responsibility for the deaths and the attack on the third child. _**Warning: This report contains graphic descriptions of violence against children**_ It will not ultimately be for the London court to carry out a criminal trial. Ms Singler is wanted in Colorado to face a seven-count indictment, comprising two counts of first-degree murder, one count of attempted murder, two counts of class-two felony child abuse, one count of class-three felony child abuse, and one count of assault. The court was told in the days that followed the attack, Ms Singler "fled" the US and was arrested 11 days later in London. Ms Singler's hearing, before District Judge John Zani, is expected to last three days. The final decision on whether Ms Singler should be extradited to the US will be made by the UK home secretary. On Wednesday, prosecutor Joel Smith KC told the court Ms Singler's alleged crimes were "committed against the backdrop of acrimonious court proceedings" concerning the custody of her children with her ex-husband Kevin Wentz. Mr Smith said she shot and stabbed the first two children and attacked the third with a knife, causing “serious lacerations”. "She initially blamed an unknown male, and cast suspicion on her former partner."  Seven-year-old Aden Wentz and his nine-year-old sister Elianna (Ellie) were found dead at a home in Colorado before Christmas The court heard that on 19 December the Colorado Springs Police Department responded to a 911 call reporting a burglary at a Colorado residence at 00:29 local time (06:29 GMT). When officers arrived at the defendant's address, they found two dead children and a third with a serious injury to her neck. She was taken to hospital. Live rounds and spent cartridges were found in a closet and a "blood-stained handgun" was discovered on the floor of the bedroom, the prosecutor added. A blood-stained knife was also found in the living room of the property, Mr Smith added. The court heard that DNA tests were carried out on the knife and the gun and revealed the presence of mixed profiles matching the children and Ms Singler. Mr Smith added: "Two empty bottles of sleeping tablets were also found and there were no signs of a break-in." The court heard the third child required emergency surgery, but survived. Mr Smith said Ms Singler blamed her husband for the attack, but it was found he had been driving a "GPS-tracked truck" in Denver, giving what the prosecutor described as a "complete and verifiable alibi". In the days that followed, the third child, who was not named in court, was moved into foster care after her emergency surgery. On Christmas Day, she told her foster carer that Ms Singler had been responsible for the attack and had asked her to lie to police, Mr Smith said. The prosecutor said the girl was interviewed by police on 26 December, during which time she recounted how the attack had unfolded after the defendant guided all three children into their bedroom. "The defendant told her that God was telling her to do it, and that the children’s father would take them away," Mr Smith said. The police investigation then led to a warrant being issued by Fourth Judicial District Court in El Paso County, Colorado, for Ms Singler's arrest. Mr Smith said Ms Singler was arrested in the Chelsea area of west London on 30 December. Ms Singler's defence barrister Edward Fitzgerald told the court she "denies she is responsible for the death of her two young children and the attempted murder of her third child". "She is innocent," he said. Members of Ms Singler’s family joined via a video link, as did the Colorado State prosecutor and officials from the US Department of Justice (DoJ). The extradition hearing continues.

Just two months after a man [tried to assassinate](https://www.vox.com/politics/360489/trump-shot-thomas-matthew-crooks-secret-service-butler-rally) former President Donald Trump, the Secret Service says it stopped what appeared to be [a second assassination attempt](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/09/15/us/harris-trump-election) against the former president. Unlike the July 13 shooting at Trump’s rally, in which a member of the crowd was killed and Trump was injured, no one was harmed this time. But the incident has raised questions about the ability of the Secret Service to protect the former president and sparked new concerns about the risk of ongoing political violence this election cycle. On Sunday, law enforcement officials say, the former president was playing golf on his course in West Palm Beach, Florida, when Secret Service agents [spotted a gun barrel in the bushes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2W1Yi_Np64U) on the perimeter of the course. Agents surrounded the former president and opened fire, prompting a man to flee the scene. The suspected gunman was 300–500 yards from the former president, according to Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw in a press conference. (While close, the suspect was not as close as Trump’s July shooter, [who was within roughly 150 yards](https://www.reuters.com/world/us/heres-what-we-know-about-thomas-matthew-crooks-suspected-trump-rally-shooter-2024-07-14/) of the president when he opened fire.) Police said they found an AK-47 style rifle with a scope, along with two backpacks and a camera, in the bushes. It is still unclear whether the suspected gunman fired any shots before the Secret Service reacted. The former president — according to Fox News anchor Sean Hannity, [who spoke to](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/15/us/politics/trump-reaction-golf-shooting.html) the president on Sunday after the attempted attack — was safe and in good spirits. A witness saw someone fleeing the vicinity in a black Nissan immediately after the incident, according to Bradshaw, and law enforcement officials announced that they apprehended a suspect, 58-year-old [Ryan Wesley Routh](https://www.reuters.com/world/us/what-we-know-about-reported-suspect-behind-apparent-trump-assassination-attempt-2024-09-16/), on Interstate 95 shortly after. Officials said that Routh was unarmed and appeared calm as he was arrested. Unlike [the man who attempted to assassinate Trump in July](https://edition.cnn.com/2024/07/15/us/thomas-crooks-trump-rally-shooting-invs/index.html), Routh has a colorful public history. Routh previously lived in North Carolina, [but had moved to Hawaii](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ryan-routh-custody-trump-golf-club-incident-rcna171225) in recent years and said he was building [affordable housing](https://edition.cnn.com/2024/09/15/politics/trump-attempted-assassination-man-detained/index.html) there. He was interviewed by the New York Times in 2023 for an article [about Americans acting as freelance fighters for the war in Ukraine](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/25/world/europe/volunteers-us-ukraine-lies.html), despite little or no qualifications to do so. Routh, who had no prior military experience, spoke with a Times reporter about his plans to recruit soldiers who had fled the Taliban in Afghanistan and transport them to Ukraine to join the war efforts. “By the time I got off the phone with Mr. Routh some minutes later it was clear he was in way over his head,” the reporter, Thomas Gibbons-Neff, [wrote](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/15/us/politics/trump-routh-ukraine-interview.html). “He talked of buying off corrupt officials, forging passports and doing whatever it takes to get his Afghan cadre to Ukraine, but he had no real way to accomplish his goals.” In 2023, Routh [also spoke to Semafor](https://www.semafor.com/article/09/15/2024/alleged-trump-plotter-ryan-routh-complained-of-obstacles-to-getting-foreign-soldiers-to-ukraine) about his efforts. Routh also appears to have a criminal history. In 2002, [he was arrested in Greensboro, North Carolina, following a three-hour standoff with police](https://greensboro.com/article_3006b4f9-9370-5b08-a54e-46c87faf6cbe.html) in which he barricaded himself inside a roofing business. He was charged with possessing an illegal, fully-automatic machine gun. According to the News & Observer_,_ a newspaper based in Raleigh, North Carolina, Routh also [had other convictions](https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article292532509.html), including a hit and run and possession of stolen goods. Routh’s son spoke positively of his father [in an interview](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/sep/15/trump-florida-shooter-suspect-son-ukraine) with the Guardian this weekend and expressed surprise at the idea he had resorted to violence. Little else is known at this time about his other potential familial relationships. Like Trump’s other would-be assassin, Thomas Matthew Crooks, Routh’s political stances appear not to fit neatly into a single political ideology — though it does seem he views Trump as a threat to American democracy. Routh [was registered](https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article292532509.html) in North Carolina as an “unaffiliated” voter and participated in this year’s Democratic primary. He had given money to Democratic causes. But on an X account that has since been deactivated, a user with Routh’s name [said that he had supported Donald Trump in 2016](https://edition.cnn.com/2024/09/15/politics/trump-attempted-assassination-man-detained/index.html) but had been disappointed by his presidency. In another post from the same account, [the author tried to encourage Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy](https://www.axios.com/2024/09/16/trump-florida-assassination-attempt-suspect-ryan-routh), both Republicans, to run for president and vice president together. The same account [posted that](https://nypost.com/2024/09/15/us-news/would-be-trump-assassin-idd-as-ryan-routh-58-of-hawaii-sources/) “democracy is on the ballot” in this election, along with other, [sometimes incoherent posts](https://nypost.com/2024/09/15/us-news/would-be-trump-assassin-idd-as-ryan-routh-58-of-hawaii-sources/) about various subjects, including Ukraine and China, suggesting that the author’s politics are not easily characterized by a single worldview. As with July’s assassination attempt, online partisans on both sides are already drawing conclusions about Routh’s political leanings and its implications, with some Democrats [downplaying](https://x.com/search?q=Routh&src=typeahead_click) Routh’s support for liberal causes and Republicans [connecting Routh’s comment about democracy being on the ballot](https://www.politico.com/news/2024/09/15/trump-second-assassination-attempt-republican-response-00179261) to what Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democrats have said about the stakes for this election. The AK-47 Routh had on him, like the AR-15 used by Crooks, [is one of the preferred weapons of mass shooters](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/07/23/us/trump-shooting-gunman-snipers.html) in recent years. Both are assault-style weapons — a phrase that has many possible meanings but generally refers to guns that are meant for rapid-fire use with large magazines of ammunition. An AK-47 style weapon [was used at a 2019 shooting in El Paso, Texas](https://www.texastribune.org/2019/08/28/el-paso-shooting-gun-romania/), where 23 people were killed and 22 were injured. Vice President Kamala Harris, who said in a statement that she was “deeply disturbed” by the reports of a second attempted attack on Trump, has called for [banning assault weapons](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-61621470). The United States [had a federal assault weapons ban](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=220dREyLPus) in place from 1994 to 2004, and research suggests that assault weapons bans [meaningfully reduce](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13504851.2014.939367?scroll=top&needAccess=true) mass shooting deaths. The [public is divided](https://www.monmouth.edu/polling-institute/reports/monmouthpoll_us_042423/) over the question of whether to ban assault weapons, though, and Republicans in Congress [blocked](https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/4345455-senate-republicans-block-assault-weapons-ban/) a bill to do so when it came up for a vote in 2023. Even after being targeted by a similar weapon in July, former President Trump [did not](https://www.vox.com/donald-trump/360742/someone-tried-to-assassinate-the-former-president-and-the-gop-still-wont-talk-about-guns) call for an assault weapons ban. Lawmakers are [demanding to know](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/15/us/politics/secret-service-trump-shooting.html) more about how another would-be assassin was able to get so close to the former president for a second time in a few months. At the press conference, law enforcement explained that Trump’s Secret Service detail did not have the resources to cover the entire perimeter of the golf course, but lawmakers are sure to ask for more details in the coming days. “The facts about a second incident certainly warrant very close attention and scrutiny,” Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut [told](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/15/us/politics/secret-service-trump-shooting.html) the New York Times. Though a second assassination attempt in such a short period of time seems shocking, it is in some ways not surprising. Current and former law enforcement officials I’ve spoken to in recent weeks have emphasized just how difficult the task of protecting elected officials in public has become. Following the expiration of the federal assault weapons ban, and after more than a decade of marketing of assault-style rifles, [more of these](https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/interactive/2023/history-of-ar-15-marketing/) weapons are circulating in the US [than ever before](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/gunmakers-made-over-1-billion-in-assault-weapon-sales-in-the-past-decade-congressional-report-finds/). The number of deadly long-range guns held by the public makes it considerably more difficult to maintain a zone of safety around politicians. The Secret Service also noted Sunday that as a former president, Trump doesn’t have access to the same level of security that the current president does, and some [former officials are now suggesting](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/15/us/politics/secret-service-trump-shooting.html) that may need to change. Guns aren’t the only problem, though. As Garen Wintemute, an expert in political violence and gun violence told me this summer, his research has revealed [a small but worrying segment of the American population](https://www.vox.com/politics/369441/political-violence-2024-election) is open to the idea that violence committed for political reasons is justifiable. At the time, Wintemute said, the conditions that made more violence likely were a closely contested race, with momentum swinging toward Democrats, and a race where political violence had already recently occurred. “I think it will happen again. Whether it will involve an elected official as a target, I can’t say,” Wintemute [told Vox](https://www.vox.com/politics/369441/political-violence-2024-election) in July. “But we’ve opened the door to political violence this election season, and there are still some leaders using rhetoric that enables violence. And we will all pay a price for that, I suspect.” You’ve read 1 article in the last month Here at Vox, we believe in helping everyone understand our complicated world, so that we can all help to shape it. Our mission is to create clear, accessible journalism to empower understanding and action. If you share our vision, please consider supporting our work by becoming a _Vox Member_. Your support ensures Vox a stable, independent source of funding to underpin our journalism. If you are not ready to become a Member, even small contributions are meaningful in supporting a sustainable model for journalism. Thank you for being part of our community.  Swati Sharma Vox Editor-in-Chief [Join for $10/month](https://vox.memberful.com/checkout?plan=99544&itm_campaign=swati-launch-banner&itm_medium=site&itm_source=footer) We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay.

Yoonie Yang was sitting in her Spanish two honors class in southern Florida when she first learned of a shooting at nearby Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school. She watched in horror as fellow students checked in on their friends to see if they were among the 17 victims. “I don’t think my peers know of an America or a world where there isn’t gun violence,” said Yang, now a senior at the University of Pennsylvania and a campus organizer for the gun safety group Students Demand Action. “This is an issue that we’re willing to take a stand on, and it’s an issue that has affected our lives and affected our childhoods into our adulthoods.” [](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2024/oct/24/trump-gun-safety-stakes#img-1) A girl attends the End of School Year Peace March and Rally in Chicago in June 2018. Photograph: Guardian Design/AFP/Getty Images Yang and fellow gun safety advocates are acutely aware of the stakes of this year’s elections, as [Donald Trump](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/donaldtrump) looks to return to the White House. The US has some of the highest rates of gun violence in the world when compared to other developed countries. Joe Biden’s presidency oversaw the passage of the first major federal gun safety law in nearly 30 years and a boost for violence interruption community programs led by the people in the communities most affected by gun violence. Now, advocates fear that those broadly popular policies could be easily reversed if Trump and congressional Republicans win in November, eroding incremental progress made on addressing the two most common types of gun deaths – suicide and homicide. “We are at a pivotal moment because we finally broke the back of the gun lobby in 2022,” said Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat of Connecticut, about the passage of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA). “We passed a significant piece of legislation. We are doing way more background checks. So we are at a moment where we have to convince people, based upon our experience in the last two years, that passing laws saves lives.” ‘We did nothing’ ---------------- When he addressed the National Rifle Association’s Great American Outdoor in February, Trump applauded his administration’s inaction on gun violence and described himself as “the best friend gun owners have ever had in the White House”. “During my four years, nothing happened,” Trump said. “And there was great pressure on me having to do with guns. We did nothing. We didn’t yield.” During his presidential tenure, Trump did ban bump stocks, the gun accessory used in the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting. And in 2019, following mass shootings in Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas, Trump [signaled](https://www.texastribune.org/2019/08/07/trump-considers-red-flag-laws-texas-lawmakers-have-blocked/) support for “[red flag laws](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/23/red-flag-laws-gun-control)”, which prevent those deemed to be a danger to themselves or others from accessing guns, but he never moved on legislation. If Trump wins election again, advocates expect him to immediately shutter the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, which Harris oversees, and nominate a gun industry-friendly leader as director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. He could also disrupt implementation of the BSCA and wind back some of the Biden administration’s efforts to broaden background checks. The BSCA expanded background checks for the youngest gun buyers, incentivized states to pass red-flag laws and provided significant funding for community violence intervention programs. If Republicans take full control of Congress, they could repeal the law entirely. “Not only is this out of touch and extreme, it’s not aligned with where the American people are on this,” said Angela Ferrell-Zabala, executive director of Moms Demand Action. According to a Gallup [poll](https://news.gallup.com/poll/513623/majority-continues-favor-stricter-gun-laws.aspx) conducted last year, 56% of Americans believe gun laws should be made stricter while 31% believe they should be kept the same. Only 12% of Americans favor less strict gun regulations. [](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2024/oct/24/trump-gun-safety-stakes#img-2) Donald Trump speaks at the NRA annual meeting in Dallas, Texas, on 18 May 2024. Composite: Getty Images/Guardian Design Despite that opposition, Republican-led states have moved to further loosen gun laws in recent years. Since 2015, 25 states have [enacted](https://giffords.org/lawcenter/gun-laws/policy-areas/guns-in-public/concealed-carry/) laws allowing residents to carry concealed weapons without a permit, despite [research](https://publichealth.jhu.edu/center-for-gun-violence-solutions/solutions/regulation-of-public-carry-of-firearms) suggesting such laws can increase rates of gun violence. On the other hand, states that have attempted to heighten gun regulations have encountered resistance from the conservative-leaning supreme court. In 2022, six of the court’s justices, including three nominated by Trump, [ruled](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jun/23/us-supreme-court-new-york-law-gun-control) to overturn a New York law that placed strict parameters on who could carry a handgun in public. Gun safety advocates worry that Trump would use a second term to nominate more judges who could strike down additional regulations on firearms. “Having a Trump administration means that we can look forward to having to fight like hell to not lose the incredible progress that we’ve made on just common basic gun safety measures across this country that are, frankly, saving lives every single day,” said Ferrell-Zabala. On the campaign trail, Trump and Vance have either downplayed or normalized gun violence, despite two assassination attempts against the former president involving firearms. After a school shooting in Iowa earlier this year, Trump [told](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/jan/06/donald-trump-iowa-school-shooting) mourning community members: “It’s just horrible – so surprising to see it here. But we have to get over it. We have to move forward.” After [framing](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/sep/06/georgia-school-shooting-trump-vance-harris) a recent school shooting in Georgia as a “fact of life”, Vance suggested during the vice-presidential [debate](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/01/vice-presidential-debate-walz-vance) that the answer to such violence was stronger doors and windows as well as more security. “We have to make the doors lock better,” Vance said in the debate. “We have to make the doors stronger. We’ve got to make the windows stronger, and of course, we’ve got to increase school resource officers.” Those proposed solutions are wholly inadequate to gun safety advocates, who note that the presence of school resource officers did not prevent the 2022 shooting at Robb elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, or the 2018 attack on Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in Parkland, Florida. “Our first responders certainly have a role to play in society, but they needn’t play a role in every part of society,” said Representative Ayanna Pressley, a Democrat of Massachusetts. “And all of the data supports that what makes students safer, what makes educators safer is an investment in social and emotional wellness supports and trauma-informed learning communities.” [](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2024/oct/24/trump-gun-safety-stakes#img-3) An activist shouts into a megaphone during a March for Our Lives rally in Bloomington, Indiana, in June 2022. Photograph: LightRocket/Getty Images/Guardian Design Asked about Vance’s framing of school shootings as a “fact of life”, Pressley described the comment as “shameful”. “We should never be normalizing all of the violence that is wrought by guns in this society,” Pressley said. “We should be outraged that it’s happening, and that is not anything that I am going to accept or tolerate.” A project left unfinished ------------------------- The first years of the Biden-Harris administration coincided with an [increase in homicides](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/sep/27/us-murder-rate-increase-2020) not seen in more than six decades. This jump, which hit underserved Black and Latino communities hardest, combined with the protesters that followed the killings of Black Americans like George Floyd and Breonna Taylor pushed the field of community-based violence intervention (CVI) into the spotlight. But the ties that have been forged between the White House and leading veteran Black and Latino violence prevention workers could now be jeopardized if Trump wins. Cities like Boston, Newark and Oakland have had programs for the small population of people most likely to be shot or shoot someone else since the late 20th century. By the mid-2010s, hundreds of groups were working in hospitals and subsidized housing complexes across the US to intervene in conflicts and connect people with the services they need to heal physically and mentally from gun violence. “The field is growing – not only in pockets of the country but all over the country, said Anthony Smith, executive director of Cities United, a non-profit that helps city officials, community groups and youth build up their violence prevention infrastructures. “You have more energy and synergy around it, and people trying to understand and be a part of it.” As the movement to defund police departments reached the national level and people sought out alternatives to prevent violence and shrink the police’s footprints in Black and Latino communities, the White House increasingly tapped people like Smith for their expertise. “Folks were looking for alternatives to public safety and didn’t know there were already a number of people doing this work,” Smith continued. “I think when people found out \[CVI\] got a different look than it had in the past.” [](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2024/oct/24/trump-gun-safety-stakes#img-4) A memorial at Robb elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, in November 2022. Photograph: The Guardian/Guardian Design Addressing that type of violence was also a central focus of the BSCA, and in 2023, [Biden and Harris announced](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/22/biden-harris-federal-gun-prevention-office) a first-of-its-kind federal Office of Gun Violence Prevention tasked with implementing the policies laid out in BSCA. The office has aimed to expand the use of red flag laws and distribute $5bn made available through the BSCA to on-the-ground violence prevention and violence response programs. “Lives will be saved,” Biden said when he signed the bill. “I know there’s much more work to do, and I’m never going to give up. But this is a monumental day.” Two years later, early evidence has lent credibility to Biden’s prediction. According to [data](https://www.fbi.gov/news/press-releases/fbi-releases-2023-crime-in-the-nation-statistics) compiled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, violent crime decreased by 3% between 2022 and 2023, while murder and non-negligent manslaughter were down by 11.6% in 2023 compared to a year earlier. Data from the [Gun Violence Archive](https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/) shows that, by the start of October, mass shootings had decreased by 22% compared to the [same point](https://x.com/GunDeaths/status/1708858377940713749) in 2023. Biden has used the authority of the BSCA to push for a drastic increase in the number of gun sellers required to perform background checks, although that policy has [faced](https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-judge-blocks-biden-backed-rule-expanding-gun-background-checks-2024-05-20/) legal challenges. “We’ve never seen the kind of two-year drop \[in violence\] that we’re seeing right now,” Murphy said. “Thousands of people are alive that wouldn’t have been alive had we not passed that bill.” Funding for this work will be available through the US Department of Justice until 2027, but the continuation of other Biden-era gun policies will depend on the outcome of the election. [](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2024/oct/24/trump-gun-safety-stakes#img-5) Joe Biden sigs an executive order during an address on gun violence at the White House on 26 September 2024. Composite: Getty Images/Guardian Design Harris has indicated she wants to build upon the work that Biden has done to tackle gun violence, as she has [called](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/sep/13/kamala-harris-assault-weapons-ban-tax-relief-pennsylvania) for the reinstatement of a federal assault weapons ban and universal background checks on gun purchases. But Harris has also made a point to emphasize that she and her running mate, Minnesota governor Tim Walz, are both gun owners. She has fiercely rejected Trump’s claims about Democrats angling to take all of Americans’ guns away, and she raised eyebrows when she [said](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn4yxe2xxzdo) anyone caught breaking into her home is “getting shot”. Gun safety advocates argue that Harris’ position underscores how responsible gun ownership need not clash with support for laws like universal background checks, a stance supported by polling. According to a [Fox News poll](https://www.foxnews.com/official-polls/fox-news-poll-voters-favor-gun-limits-arming-citizens-reduce-gun-violence) conducted last year, 87% of Americans, including 83% of those in gun-owning households, back requiring criminal background checks on all firearm purchases. “It is not the case that there is some sort of bifurcation where gun owners are in a different place on these issues than the rest of the electorate,” said Emma Brown, executive director of the gun safety group Giffords. “And I think that that is why you are seeing the vice-president talk about the importance of being a gun owner and that there is no conflict there.” She added: “Ultimately, we have [Kamala Harris](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/kamala-harris) on one side, who’s being very clear that we do not have to live in a country where we are under constant threat of gun violence. And on the other hand, you have Donald Trump promising to be the most loyal friend to the NRA. So I actually think it is a contrast that is extremely clear.” It’s unclear how much Trump knows about violence prevention programs, and Smith admits that the violence prevention field is still nascent in many ways. Efforts at the local, state and federal level can also easily be interrupted by a change in political leadership. “We should be prepared as a field no matter who’s the White House,” Smith said. “We have to be able to navigate the political shift, and I don’t think we have prepared ourselves enough, even on the local level.” A moment for change ------------------- With days left until election day, members of the anti gun violence movement, particularly its youngest members, are making it clear that they will not accept inaction on this issue. “It’s really important to elect folks across all levels of government, including the presidential ticket, that care about gun safety and want to act on it,” said Zeenat Yahya, director of policy for the youth-led organization March for Our Lives. “We’re living in a world where young people are fearing whether they’re even going to be able to grow up.” [](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2024/oct/24/trump-gun-safety-stakes#img-6) People attend a memorial service on t he fifth anniversary of the Parkland school shooting on 14 February 2023. Composite: Saul Martinez/Getty Images/Guardian Design A [study](https://circle.tufts.edu/2024-election-youth-poll#diverse-issue-priorities,-like-climate,-shape-youth-votes-and-action) conducted by Tufts University found that gun violence is the third most important issue for young voters, only after the cost of living and jobs. Since its founding in 2018, March for Our Lives has mobilized young Americans around the issue of gun violence, contacting millions of first-time voters in its organizing efforts. In July, the group endorsed Harris in its first ever political endorsement. “For young voters in particular, it’s not remiss that our lives and safetyhood are on the line,” Yahya said. “Young people should be given the right to be able to live freely and safely.” Witnessing the devastation of the Parkland shooting led Yang, in Florida, to help start the first chapter of Students Demand Action in Tennessee, after her family moved to the state. Now, as a campus organizer for the organization, she recently celebrated the opening of the new Everytown for Gun Safety field office in downtown Philadelphia, one of three such offices that the group has opened in battleground states. This election marks the first time that Everytown has invested in physical field offices. “What helps keep me motivated is that we are in such a place to make change,” Yang said. “If we’re not out talking to people, then actually nothing will change.”

Even before [two people](https://www.vox.com/politics/360489/trump-shot-thomas-matthew-crooks-secret-service-butler-rally) attempted to [assassinate former President Donald Trump](https://www.vox.com/politics/371981/trump-shooting-ryan-wesley-routh-golf-club), national security experts and law enforcement were warning that the United States [needed a plan](https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/4836866-a-plan-to-address-political-violence-before-election-day/) to contend with the possibility of political violence on Election Day. Now, in the final weeks of the campaign, researchers have just published [new findings](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s40621-024-00540-2) about the social lives of people who are likely to endorse using political violence, and be willing to use it themselves. The results, based on a nationally representative survey of more than 8,000 Americans, may seem counterintuitive. Basically, people open to the idea that political violence is justified tend to exist at opposite ends of the social spectrum. Those who report having no strong personal or work connections were 2.4 times more likely to say political violence is justifiable than people who said they have 1–4 close relationships. That’s not necessarily surprising, given the recent history of [mass shooters](https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/isla-vista-shooters-childhood-friend-the-guy-i-knew-wouldnt-say-a-word/) and [politically motivated assailants](https://www.wsj.com/us-news/thomas-matthew-crooks-trump-shooter-78b13a35) who’ve been [described by their broader networks as loners](https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/08/el-paso-shooting-when-loneliness-leads-mass-murder/595498/). What’s weird, though, is that people with lots of close connections were _also_ a little more likely to endorse political violence. People who said they had 50 or more strong relationships were 1.2 times more likely to endorse political violence. And here’s where it gets a little concerning: The people with no social connections weren’t on average any more likely to say they would be willing to personally commit political violence, even if they believed it was justified. But the people with lots of close relationships? They were 1.5 times more likely than the others to say they’d be willing to be violent for a political cause themselves. What’s going on with those super socially connected people? Julia Schleimer, the researcher who led the study, told Vox over email that, compared to the people with just a few close connections, the 50+ cohort tended to be white, higher in income, slightly more educated, and older. But that’s also true of the demographic in the middle (which reported 10–49 social connections) and they weren’t especially open to the idea of political violence. In other words, there were no demographic factors about the group that jumped out to the researchers. “One limitation of this study is that we don’t have details on the nature or characteristics of people’s social networks, which likely matters a great deal and is an area for future study,” Schleimer said. But [prior](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/pops.12239?casa_token=wifUF0BmKswAAAAA%3AcVa7JZnQxc1mxqRYcIvmfIqbckVthFTxEDur_lY-HyoyEPIiBQEHEwgWQbF3OkDQqDmCrqdOQm6hljO-) [studies](https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RBA1071-1.html) “give us reason to expect that people with very large social networks may be at greater risk for political violence, if those networks are characterized by antisocial norms, outgroup contempt, and extreme views.” That’s particularly true, she said, when the social networks are homogenous. Sometimes those groups form in person, but increasingly, they also develop online, like the Proud Boys and other far-right groups [who organized in the days after Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss](https://apnews.com/article/capitol-siege-proud-boys-donald-trump-congress-government-and-politics-a8baa24af07b20ab792f4ef6f4481fac) and [stormed the Capitol on January 6](https://apnews.com/article/enrique-tarrio-capitol-riot-seditious-conspiracy-sentencing-da60222b3e1e54902db2bbbb219dc3fb). This research, done by University of California Davis’s [Violence Prevention Research Program](https://health.ucdavis.edu/vprp/) (VPRP) builds on data [published earlier this year](https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/6crkf) about Americans’ beliefs in political violence. The good news from the earlier work is that by and large, a vast majority of Americans are opposed to political violence under any circumstances. The more worrying news? A small proportion of Americans are open to the idea that political violence is sometimes justified. “I personally think that large-scale political violence is really, really unlikely. I feel more sanguine about that prediction, given our 2024 data,” Dr. Garen Wintemute, director of the program, [told Vox](https://www.vox.com/politics/369441/political-violence-2024-election) this summer. “But sporadic outbreaks, particularly if the battleground states remain really close — is it possible? Sure. Might there be attempts to intimidate election officials? Absolutely.” The Violence Prevention Research Program applies a public health approach to issues like gun violence and political violence — meaning they look for interventions that can try to discourage them from happening. The new findings, Schleimer said, suggest that it’s important to develop approaches that target both those who are very lonely and those who are deeply connected, in, for example, extremist ideological groups. For the lonely, social skills training, community centers, cultural activities and more open and accessible cities can all be helpful. And both groups benefit from anti-violence messages from influential [public figures](https://muse.jhu.edu/article/937732) and on [social media](https://www.hfg.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/We-Want-You-To-Be-A-Proud-Boy.pdf). For the socially connected people, having a trusted figure who can support them as they begin opening up to different perspectives and challenging the beliefs of their ideology can be especially helpful. The ideas sound really simple, but the researchers’ previous work suggests that getting someone to reject political violence is perhaps easier than you might think. “For the would-be combatants, a big number would switch if their family asked them not to, or friends, or even some media sources,” Wintemute told Vox. “We can create a climate of nonacceptance for political violence. And in doing that, we can expect that it will work.” Their findings are encouraging, in that respect. But reaching every person who might be open to political violence, in a highly divided country, with this many guns? That’s the tricky part. You’ve read 1 article in the last month Here at Vox, we believe in helping everyone understand our complicated world, so that we can all help to shape it. Our mission is to create clear, accessible journalism to empower understanding and action. If you share our vision, please consider supporting our work by becoming a _Vox Member_. Your support ensures Vox a stable, independent source of funding to underpin our journalism. If you are not ready to become a Member, even small contributions are meaningful in supporting a sustainable model for journalism. Thank you for being part of our community.  Swati Sharma Vox Editor-in-Chief See More:

Two days shy of the second anniversary of a hate-fueled mass shooting at a queer nightclub in [Colorado](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/colorado) Springs, victims and mothers of those killed have filed lawsuits against the club for lax security and against the sheriff’s office for failing to trigger the state’s red flag law to disarm the shooter and ensure they could not purchase any more weapons. “Club Q advertised itself as a ‘safe place’ for LGBTQIA+ individuals. But that was a facade,” read the two complaints, which contain allegations of negligence. The suits were filed on Sunday and allege that the 19 November 2022 murders of five people could have been prevented if the El Paso county sheriff’s office used the state’s red-flag law after clear warning signs that the gunman intended to commit violence. A central focus of both lawsuits was the El Paso county commissioners’ and the then sheriff’s refusal to enforce Colorado’s red-flag law, passed in 2019, which allows officers to temporarily take someone’s firearm if they are deemed a threat to themselves or others. The same year the law was passed, El Paso county became one of the first in the state to declare itself a “second amendment sanctuary” in protest against the policy. The county passed a [Second Amendment Preservation Resolution](https://admin.elpasoco.com/commissioners-approve-pro-second-amendment-resolution/) with the county board of commissioners, arguing that the red-flag bill did not address mental health issues and imposed on people’s gun rights. This designation has no real legal teeth and it is unclear whether the designation stopped the sheriff from using the state’s red flag law. The shooter hinted at plans to carry out violent attacks at least a year before the Club Q shooting. In 2021, the shooter was arrested for allegedly kidnapping and threatening to kill their grandparents, reportedly saying he would become the “next mass killer” and then proceeding to collect ammunition, bomb-making materials, firearms and body armor, according to court documents. Their grandparents told authorities they were warned not to stand in the way of the plan. Authorities did not attempt to remove the shooter’s weapons after the 2021 incident, the lawsuits allege, saying: “This deliberate inaction allowed the shooter continued access to firearms, directly enabling the attack on Club Q.” Charges against Anderson Aldrich, the shooter, who is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns, were thrown out in July 2022 after their mother and grandparents refused to cooperate with prosecutors, evading efforts to serve them with subpoenas to testify, according to court documents unsealed after the shooting. Other relatives told a judge they feared the shooter would hurt their grandparents if released, painting a picture of an isolated, violent person who did not have a job and was given $30,000 that was spent largely on the purchase of 3D printers to make guns, the records showed. The plaintiffs in the two lawsuits include survivor Barrett Hudson, who still has three bullets in his body from that night, and other victims and relatives. They are scheduled to speak about the legal action at a news conference Tuesday – which is the second anniversary of the shooting. Families and victims also accuse the nightclub’s owners in the lawsuit of winnowing Club Q’s security detail from five or more people to just one in the years leading up to the shooting, prioritizing profits over the safety. A spokesperson for El Paso county told the Guardian the office does not comment on pending litigation. Those killed in the shooting were Raymond Green Vance, Kelly Loving, Daniel Aston, Derrick Rump and Ashley Paugh. The shooter, now 24, pleaded guilty to five counts of murder and 46 counts of attempted murder and was sentenced to a life in prison in 2023 in state court. A year later, Aldrich pleaded guilty in a federal court to hate crimes and was sentenced to an additional 55 life terms in prison.

The history of the justice department’s civil rights division is the product of lynchings, aged patients dying of neglect, and police officers murdering people in the street. It is the legacy of Matthew Shepard and Breonna Taylor and Emmett Till. When local authorities would not investigate civil rights violations – or were violating rights themselves – communities have had to rely on federal investigators to fill the gap in justice. The question these communities will ask over the next four years is who the civil rights division under [Donald Trump](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/donaldtrump) will protect. Trump plans to tap a loyalist whose civil rights résumé largely consists of culture-war battles over campus free-speech issues and attacks on diversity initiatives to helm the justice department’s civil rights division. The move puts at risk hundreds of active investigations, from police misconduct to employment and housing discrimination to abuses in jails and prisons. Trump [intends to replace](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/10/trump-harmeet-dhillon-justice-department-civil-rights) the assistant attorney general, Kristen Clarke, the current chief of the civil rights division and the first Black woman to lead the division, with Harmeet Dhillon, a Maga darling and fixture in rightwing media. “I talk to people who are depressed because the outcome of the election, and I have to remind them, this is not our first lynching,” said the Rev Gerald Durley, a contemporary of Martin Luther King and pastor emeritus of Pastor of Providence Missionary Baptist church in Atlanta. “During the early days, when real lynches were occurring, we took the body down, we buried it, we kept on moving, and we kept on marching.” Since the start of the Biden administration, the civil rights division has charged more than 120 people in more than 110 cases under hate-crimes laws, from the prosecution of three men who killed Ahmaud Arbery, a Black jogger in Brunswick, Georgia, to the murderer of 10 Black people in a Buffalo supermarket, to the white nationalist who [killed 23 people](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/03/el-paso-shooting-texas-one-year-anniversary) he perceived to be Hispanic immigrants at a Walmart in El Paso in 2019. When Clarke testified before the Republican-controlled House judiciary subcommittee on the constitution and limited government last year, conservative lawmakers pressed her on perceived biases in the department’s investigations. The Republican congressman Chip Roy lambasted Clarke for having only prosecuted a couple of cases of pro-choice protesters violating the Face Act, which protects access to abortion clinics and to pregnancy resource centers. “Even under your watch, it’s at least 35 to one or two,” he said. “That is not even-handed. It’s far from even-handed.” Left unsaid: crimes against abortion clinics and staff increased dramatically after the Dobbs decision stripped federal protection for abortion rights in 2022. **The civil rights division** is the primary federal enforcer for over a dozen provisions of federal law including the Civil Rights Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Fair Housing Act, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, the Uniformed Services Civil Relief Act, the Hate Crimes Prevention Act. The division also enforces anti-discrimination laws for immigrants under the Immigration and Nationalization Act, eliciting settlements with companies – usually with fines for small companies of under $100,000. But the division has larger targets. Apple, Meta and Facebook each signed multimillion-dollar settlements over visa discrimination under the Biden administration. The civil rights division has been investigating Elon Musk’s aerospace and satellite firm SpaceX since 2020, alleging that SpaceX erroneously relied on export control laws to restrict its recruiting and hiring to US citizens and lawful permanent residents. Disability rights have been core to the department over the last four years, particularly around how state hospitals treat mental health patients. The division opened an investigation into Michigan’s state hospitals last month. Hospital care tends to be less politicized and perhaps less susceptible to partisan changes in administration, said Simon Zagata, director of the community and institutional rights team of Disability Rights Michigan. “Our expectations are that \[the investigation\] will continue as it has started,” he said. “It is harder to stop these things once they get started, and even though there will, of course, be changes in the Department of Justice, changes don’t happen immediately and they don’t happen all the way down the line.” The department’s highest-profile civil rights investigations involve police misconduct. Since April 2021, the civil rights division has opened 11 investigations of law enforcement agencies. It has announced preliminary findings in five of those investigations, in Phoenix; Worcester, Massachusetts; Minneapolis; Mount Vernon, New York; and Memphis, Tennessee, the latter stemming from the killing of Tyre Nichols by Memphis police officers. [](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/17/justice-department-civil-rights-division#img-2) A protest against the death of Tyre Nichols after a police stop in January 2023. Photograph: Scott Olson/Getty Images “The department is working with these police departments, local officials, and the communities to identify and implement remedies for addressing these violations – including consent decrees – in a manner that is fair, transparent, and effective,” said Clarke in congressional testimony in December 2023. Ongoing investigations of police agencies include those of [New York police department’s special victims division](https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-announces-investigation-new-york-city-police-department-s-special-victims), [Oklahoma city police department](https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-launches-investigation-oklahoma-s-mental-health-service-system-and), [Trenton police department](https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-and-us-attorneys-office-district-new-jersey-announce-investigation-city-0) and the [Louisiana state police](https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-announces-investigation-louisiana-state-police). The murder case of Sonya Massey, killed by a sheriff’s deputy in Illinois earlier this year, prompted investigation by the civil rights division. So did the “goon squad” case in the [Rankin county sheriff’s department](https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-announces-civil-rights-investigation-rankin-county-mississippi-and-rankin) in Mississippi, where deputies systematically brutalized Black residents and then tried to cover up their crimes. It is unclear whether the Trump administration will allow these investigations to continue. Trump has vowed to “give our police their power back, and we’re going to give them immunity from prosecution, so they’re not prosecuted for doing their job”. But when [pressed](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXKbMYvH06E) on the Massey case, Trump relented. “I mean it depends. It depends on what happens,” Trump told Semafor. “I’m talking about people that are, much different cases than that … In this particular case, I saw something that didn’t look good to me. I didn’t like it. I didn’t like it at all.” **While Trump publicly repudiated** the policy initiatives of Project 2025 during the campaign, he has announced his intent to appoint many of its authors to positions of authority in the incoming administration. Project 2025 proposes a fundamental inversion of the mission of the civil rights division. “Even though numerous federal laws prohibit discrimination based on notable immutable characteristics such as race and sex, the Biden administration – through the DoJ’s civil rights division and other federal entities – has enshrined affirmative discrimination in all aspects of its operations under the guise of ‘equity’,” the document states. “Federal agencies and their components have established so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) offices that have become the vehicles for this unlawful discrimination, and all departments and agencies have created ‘equity’ plans to carry out these invidious schemes.” Project 2025 advocates for the [Trump administration](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/trump-administration) to pack the division with political appointees and to eliminate the use of “disparate impact” in civil rights enforcement, which undercuts measurements of discrimination. It also proposes that the department “should spend its first year using the full force of federal prosecutorial resources to investigate and prosecute all state and local governments, institutions of higher education, corporations, and any other private employers who are engaged in discrimination in violation of constitutional and legal requirements”. “Discrimination” in this context refers to government agencies pursuing diversity initiatives that ensure minorities have proportional representation in hiring and promotions. The conservative playbook also proposes taking investigatory responsibility for voting rights cases away from the civil rights division and giving it to the criminal division, with a mandate to prosecute Pennsylvania elections officials who distributed absentee ballot applications in 2020. And it calls for “aggressive enforcement of the immigration laws within the immigrant and employee rights section of the civil rights division to ensure that no American citizen is discriminated against in the employment context in favor of a temporary or foreign worker”. Civil rights leaders worry that under Trump, the work traditionally done by the division may fall by the wayside. In Georgia, the civil rights division has issued scathing reports about conditions in both the state prisons and the Fulton county jail in Atlanta. “I think the DoJ reports make it clear that there need to be some systemic changes,” said Mawuli Davis, a prominent civil rights attorney in Atlanta. “It requires a level of intentionality, of follow-up, and don’t know that this will be a focus.” This article was amended on 17 December 2024 to correct that the mass shooting in El Paso took place in 2019, not last year, as an earlier version stated.

Last Christmas, the Sinaloa cartel made a show of sending branded gifts to children’s hospitals. This year, a bloody war between rival factions of Mexico’s notorious drug mafia has cast a shadow over the holiday, leaving Culiacán’s Christmas fair nearly empty, and the city silent at night. Sinaloa has always had a complex relationship with its narcos, who portray themselves as generous bandits with a code of conduct. But as the war [enters a fourth month](https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/dec/12/mexico-sinaloa-cartel-war), with more than a thousand dead or disappeared, the myth of the good narco is wearing thin. The conflict was triggered by the arrest of [two of Mexico’s most powerful crime bosses](https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jul/25/sinaloa-cartel-leaders-arrested) in El Paso, Texas. Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, who founded the Sinaloa cartel with [Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán](https://www.theguardian.com/world/joachim-el-chapo-guzm-n), was detained along with one of Guzmán’s sons after a small plane touched down in the US. El Mayo [accused](https://insightcrime.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/el-mayo-zambada-statement.pdf) El Chapo’s son of betraying and delivering him to US authorities. Now a faction led by El Mayo’s son is waging war against another led by the two sons of El Chapo who remain free in [Mexico](https://www.theguardian.com/world/mexico). The unpredictable and sometimes spectacular violence has suspended normal life, and prompted [reflection in Sinaloa](https://elpais.com/mexico/opinion/2024-10-13/culiacan-la-mentira-que-nos-trajo-aqui.html) about its relationship with its narcos. One argument heard in Culiacán is that the old guard – figures such as El Chapo and El Mayo – had rules: they provided handouts, certain services, a kind of law. And they left the innocent out of it. But El Chapo and El Mayo are now in US prisons. And their sons – [a new generation of narcos who grew up rich](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/05/el-chapo-sinaloa-drug-cartel-mexico) – are different. Locals point to 17 October 2019 as the moment this became clear. When Mexican authorities arrested Ovidio Guzmán, one of El Chapo’s sons, [his sicarios seized the city for 24 hours](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/06/terror-cartel-violence-engulfs-mexican-city-el-chapo-son), shooting it out with security forces and killing three civilians. The government released Guzmán within hours. “The unwritten pact to not touch the citizenry, the innocent, was shattered,” said Miguel Calderón, coordinator of the State Council on Public Security, an NGO. The prolonged intensity of the current war has confirmed it. Along the train tracks in Culiacán, where hundreds of displaced families live in makeshift cabins, one man, who asked to remain anonymous, said he used to hear his parents and grandparents talk about the old guard with respect. “El Chapo and El Mayo used to say, women and children, innocent people – they’re not to be touched. But now they’re forcibly recruiting people who don’t even know how to use a gun, even kids.” “Before, there was more respect for the life of ordinary people,” he said, bitter but resigned. “Now they just want to win their war, no matter what.” In another neighbourhood, where a block had been cordoned off as soldiers prepared to raid a safe house, a group of women said that some boys used to hang around smoking weed, but disappeared 10 days ago. The women – all mothers – began talking about the sons of friends and relatives who had turned up dead. “There’s no such thing as a good narco,” interjected one of them, adding that her son was addicted to drugs. “How can you give me a handout when you’re poisoning my child?” “They should go to the countryside, kill each other there, and leave us in peace,” she said, while the others murmured their agreement. “Today I sense an anger, a demand that this time once and for all it is made clear that the public enemy No 1 is crime,” said Calderón. “Before, it wasn’t so clear,” he added. “El Chapo would deliver food parcels at Christmas, or El Mayo would fix a school, and they would throw a party. It was a kind of marketing to get close to the community. After this I don’t think it will be so easy.” Still, the new generation hasn’t given up on it. Besides the bloodshed, there’s a parallel propaganda war to claim the mantle of the good narco. Near the Christmas fair, a man said a small plane had flown overhead dropping pamphlets, and that El Mayo’s faction had come around to hand out business cards with a number, telling them to call it if anyone tried to extort them. He started reminiscing about the good old days, before extortion was such a thing –then laughed. “There’s no way I’m actually going to call the number.”

[Donald Trump](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/donaldtrump)’s imminent return to Washington has put gun-safety groups on high alert, as the president-elect once described himself as “the best friend gun owners have ever had in the White House”. Emma Brown, executive director of the gun-safety group Giffords, initially reacted to the news of [Trump’s victory in the presidential race](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/us-elections-2024) not with dismay, but with defiance. “When you take a step back and you look at the multi-decade arc of this issue, it’s obvious that we have had lots of ups and downs,” Brown said. “The first thought in my head \[when Trump won\] was: we’re ready for this.” With Trump returning for a second term, gun safety groups acknowledge that they will spend much of the next four years playing defense at the federal level. But despite their disappointment over Kamala Harris’s loss, advocates voiced determination and some cautious optimism about what they can achieve at the state level and through corporate accountability measures during Trump’s presidency. “We’ve been at this rodeo before,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety. “But we’ve got the playbook from 2016, and in some ways, I think we’re in much better shape than we were in 2016.” When Trump first entered the White House in 2017, the National Rifle Association (NRA) was at the height of its power. The gun rights group [spent](https://www.opensecrets.org/outside-spending/detail?cmte=National+Rifle+Assn&cycle=2016) more than $30m in support of Trump’s 2016 campaign, making the organization the [largest](https://www.opensecrets.org/outside-spending/by_group/2016?chart=V&disp=O&type=A) outside contributor to his election effort. Once he was sworn in, Trump often consulted with the group’s then CEO, Wayne LaPierre, to discuss gun laws. After expressing openness to expanding background checks on gun purchases following two mass shootings in Texas and Ohio in 2019, Trump [backtracked](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/20/us/politics/trump-gun-control-nra.html) following a phone call with LaPierre. But the power of the NRA has diminished dramatically since Trump left office. LaPierre [resigned](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/jan/05/wayne-lapierre-nra-resigns) as CEO earlier this year, just before the start of a civil trial exploring allegations that the longtime leader used NRA funds as his “personal piggy bank”. Legal troubles, financial mismanagement and declining trust in NRA leadership have decimated the organization’s resources. In 2024, the group [spent](https://www.opensecrets.org/outside-spending/detail/2024?cmte=National+Rifle+Assn&tab=targeted_candidates) just $4m in support of Trump’s campaign, and a top NRA official [recently told](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/04/us/politics/donald-trump-national-rifle-association.html) members that the president-elect had “lost faith” in the organization. As the NRA has declined, gun safety advocates have made major strides at the federal and state levels. In 2022, Biden signed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA) into law, marking the first enactment of a major federal gun safety bill in nearly three decades. The legislation, which expanded background checks for the youngest gun buyers and incentivized states to pass [red flag laws](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/23/red-flag-laws-gun-control), received unanimous support from Democrats and the backing of 15 Republican senators. “I’m not trying to be pollyannish about this, but it is a different ballgame,” Feinblatt said. “Democrats are now completely solid on the issue of gun safety. Our grassroots army has grown substantially in the last eight years and is almost three times the size of the NRA.” To be sure, Trump could [still unwind](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2024/oct/24/trump-gun-safety-stakes) some of the gun safety movement’s accomplishments during his second term. He will almost certainly shutter the office of gun violence prevention, a first-of-its-kind cross-government initiative launched by Biden. Trump could nominate a more gun-friendly official to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or he could simply allow the director post to sit vacant, as it often has in past administrations. Trump may also have the opportunity to nominate more justices to the supreme court, where conservatives have already proved very friendly to gun rights in recent years. [](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/04/trump-gun-control-safety#img-2) A Trump supporter looks on at people gathered outside the Mar-a-Lago club for a March for Our Lives in Florida in 2018. Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty Images But more significant measures, including a potential repeal of the BSCA, may prove out of reach. In late November, three Republican senators who supported the passage of the law – John Cornyn of Texas, Susan Collins of Maine and Thom Tillis of North Carolina – penned [an op-ed](https://www.newsweek.com/bipartisan-safer-communities-act-cause-optimism-opinion-1990754) for Newsweek praising the law’s accomplishments, sending an early signal about their stance on its repeal. “The political calculus has changed, and I think that’s been recognized,” Feinblatt said. “And that really was why \[then Senate minority leader Mitch\] McConnell had his conference vote for BSCA in 2022. The midterms were around the corner, and \[mass shootings in\] Uvalde and Buffalo had just happened, and he realized that it would not be politically smart to be the party that had resisted everything.” Still, with additional federal legislation appearing unlikely for the next four years, gun safety groups plan to devote even more attention to the states, which have already provided ample opportunity for change. Since the mass shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school in 2012, states have passed more than 700 gun safety laws, with 88 being enacted this year alone, [according to Giffords](https://giffords.org/lawcenter/resources/scorecard/). Gun safety advocates may face fewer hurdles at the state level, given that Democrats largely [held their ground](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/23/democrats-state-races) in state legislatures this year even as they sustained losses in federal races. “I have every expectation that we will build on that progress in 2025, not lose it,” Brown said. “We see states as the testing ground in a lot of ways for some of our most innovative solutions to this problem.” Some gun safety advocates are even looking beyond federal and state governments to advance their agenda. The group Guns Down America has launched a “Business Must Act” campaign imploring corporations to ban the open carry of firearms in stores and to use their financial capital in support of policy change. The campaign includes a [scorecard](https://www.businessmustact.org/#scorecard) where supporters can see how each company ranks in terms of gun safety. “We think this is Guns Down America’s moment to shine because, with the policymaking process at the federal level, I don’t think anyone has much hope for that in the next two to four years, and … the problem isn’t going to go away by itself,” said the group’s executive director, Hudson Munoz. The group’s efforts have been successful in the past. After a mass shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, in 2019, thousands of supporters joined Guns Down America’s call for the corporation to ban open carry in stores and end firearm sales. A month into the campaign, Walmart [announced](https://corporate.walmart.com/policies#firearms-and-ammunition-guidelines) it would suspend the sale of handguns as well as certain types of ammunition and prohibit the open carry of firearms in stores. “We see corporate accountability, right now activated in our ‘Business Must Act’ campaign, as the place where we can continue to build on progress that happened in the last four years,” Munoz said. “It’s time for us to be creative.” Gun safety advocates’ determination is perhaps unsurprising, considering many of them are no strangers to adversity. Giffords was founded by the former Democratic representative Gabby Giffords, who suffered a traumatic brain injury after she was shot in the head during an event with constituents in 2011. After the shooting, Giffords had to relearn how to walk, write and speak, and she has now become one of the most prominent leaders of the gun safety movement. The day after the election, Giffords joined a call with all of the members of her organization, Brown recounted, and she offered a simple instruction to them: move ahead. “We are led by a woman who has survived the unsurvivable, who has stared down the toughest of conditions and not blinked,” Brown said. “This is a moment for courage and fortitude and the pursuit of unlikely allies.”

* Elinor Brown, a worker at the Dovecot Studios, adjusts a painting. Works by a group of early 20th-century painters known as the Scottish Colourists – Samuel John Peploe, Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell, George Leslie Hunter and John Duncan Fergusson – are being featured alongside some of their European contemporaries Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images  [](https://www.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2025/feb/06/hoff-crab-and-selfie-with-trudeau-photos-of-the-day-thursday#img-1) * People walk in the morning fog at Morden Hall Park in south London Photograph: Ben Whitley/PA  [](https://www.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2025/feb/06/hoff-crab-and-selfie-with-trudeau-photos-of-the-day-thursday#img-2) * Eli Bouchard of Canada competes in the men’s snowboard big air qualifications during the Toyota US Grand Prix at Buttermilk ski resort in Colorado Photograph: Maddie Meyer/Getty Images  [](https://www.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2025/feb/06/hoff-crab-and-selfie-with-trudeau-photos-of-the-day-thursday#img-3) * The sun rises over a congested road in the capital of the southern Occitanie region Photograph: Lionel Bonaventure/AFP/Getty Images  [](https://www.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2025/feb/06/hoff-crab-and-selfie-with-trudeau-photos-of-the-day-thursday#img-4) * Abu Dhaka, a Palestinian man who has returned to the devastated city with his family after the ceasefire, attempts to continue with his daily life surrounded by the rubble of collapsed houses. He and his family share a makeshift tent he erected on the remains of their former home Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images  [](https://www.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2025/feb/06/hoff-crab-and-selfie-with-trudeau-photos-of-the-day-thursday#img-5) * Service personnel of the 44th Separate Mechanised Brigade fire a Leopard 1A5 tank during training Photograph: Reuters  [](https://www.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2025/feb/06/hoff-crab-and-selfie-with-trudeau-photos-of-the-day-thursday#img-6) * Hawaii’s Moana Jones Wong rides a wave during the WSL Lexus Pipe Pro women’s event at Pipeline on the North Shore in Hawaii Photograph: Brian Bielmann/AFP/Getty Images  [](https://www.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2025/feb/06/hoff-crab-and-selfie-with-trudeau-photos-of-the-day-thursday#img-7) * A line of armed members of the National Guard patrol the border separating the city and El Paso in Texas. They are among the first of 10,000 troops Mexico has sent to its northern frontier after tariff threats by President Donald Trump Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images  [](https://www.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2025/feb/06/hoff-crab-and-selfie-with-trudeau-photos-of-the-day-thursday#img-8) * A female (left) and male Hoff crab. Male crabs of the species, named after the actor David Hasselhoff, grow larger claws than females so they can fight each other for a mate. Scientists made the discovery while monitoring the Hoff, which acquired its name because its hairy chest prompted comparisons with the Baywatch star Photograph: Dr Nicolai Roterman/PA  [](https://www.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2025/feb/06/hoff-crab-and-selfie-with-trudeau-photos-of-the-day-thursday#img-9) * Civilians attend a meeting organised by the M23 rebel group at the Stade de l’Unité, days after the city in North Kivu province was seized Photograph: Arlette Bashizi/Reuters  [](https://www.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2025/feb/06/hoff-crab-and-selfie-with-trudeau-photos-of-the-day-thursday#img-10) * A woman wearing hanbok takes a selfie in the grounds of Gyeongbokgung Palace, a residence of the Joseon dynasty that was built in 1395 Photograph: Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters  [](https://www.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2025/feb/06/hoff-crab-and-selfie-with-trudeau-photos-of-the-day-thursday#img-11) * President Donald Trump signs an executive order barring transgender female athletes from competing in women’s or girls’ sporting events, in the East Room of the White House Photograph: Alex Brandon/AP  [](https://www.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2025/feb/06/hoff-crab-and-selfie-with-trudeau-photos-of-the-day-thursday#img-12) * A man hammers debris around the vandalised residence of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the former leader and the father of the country’s ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina Photograph: Mahmud Hossain Opu/AP  [](https://www.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2025/feb/06/hoff-crab-and-selfie-with-trudeau-photos-of-the-day-thursday#img-13) * Candles and flowers lay near the Risbergska school after a deadly shooting Photograph: Kuba Stężycki/Reuters  [](https://www.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2025/feb/06/hoff-crab-and-selfie-with-trudeau-photos-of-the-day-thursday#img-14) * Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, takes a group selfie after giving a speech at a Black History Month event at the Museum of History in Quebec Photograph: Canadian Press/Rex/Shutterstock  [](https://www.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2025/feb/06/hoff-crab-and-selfie-with-trudeau-photos-of-the-day-thursday#img-15) * Louisiana police officers walk past macaws riding a street performer’s remote-controlled jeep. There has been enhanced security on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter for the National Football League Super Bowl LIX Photograph: Erik S Lesser/EPA  [](https://www.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2025/feb/06/hoff-crab-and-selfie-with-trudeau-photos-of-the-day-thursday#img-16) * Visitors explore the Sky Castle, an interactive sound and light installation featuring huge inflatable arches that illuminate Union Terrace Gardens during the Spectra Festival of Light Photograph: Jane Barlow/PA  [](https://www.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2025/feb/06/hoff-crab-and-selfie-with-trudeau-photos-of-the-day-thursday#img-17)