Saturday, November 2, 2024
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Saturday, November 2, 2024

Milwaukee Press Club 'Excellence in Wisconsin Journalism' 2020 & 2021 Award Winners

Jessica McBride | Milwaukee Award Winning Journalist | 2023

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Jessica McBride, Milwaukee Journalist

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicamcbride1
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jessica.mcbride100

Jessica’s opinions on this website and all WRN and personal social media pages, including Facebook and X, represent her own opinions and not those of the institution where she works. 

Jessica mcbride milwaukee
Jessica mcbride, milwaukee.

Jessica McBride, Milwaukee journalist, and a Wisconsin Right Now contributor, is a national award-winning journalist and journalism educator with more than 25 years in journalism. She is recipient of the UW-Milwaukee Alumni Foundation’s teaching excellence award, for her innovations in teaching and her founding of the Minority Media Association, which champions media diversity. She was the co-founder of the U-View campus television program focusing on bringing diverse voices to campus and improving media diversity.

U View example.

Jessica McBride’s journalism career started at the Waukesha Freeman newspaper in 1993, covering City Hall. She was an investigative, crime, and general assignment reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for a decade. Since 2004, she has taught journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Her work has appeared in many news outlets, including Patch.com, WTMJ, WISN, WUWM, Wispolitics.com, OnMilwaukee.com, Milwaukee Magazine, Nightline, El Conquistador Latino Newspaper, Japanese and German television, Channel 58, Reader’s DigestTwist (magazine)Wisconsin Public Radio, Heavy.com, BBC, Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, and others. 

Jessica McBride, Milwaukee, Wisconsin area resident, has appeared on true-crime programs for Investigation Discovery, Oxygen Channel, and History Channel. She has a Master’s Degree in Mass Communication from UWM and judges statewide journalism competitions nationwide for press clubs in states ranging from Idaho to Louisiana. Her work is her own and does not represent the institutions where she works, including UWM.

  • Jessica McBride is a winner of prestigious state journalism awards for categories including investigative reporting, column writing, blogging, feature story that first appeared on the Web, story that contributed to the community welfare, short feature writing, magazine feature writing, spot-news reporting, explanatory/interpretive reporting, and best continuous reporting. She is the winner of the national Clark Mollenhoff Award for Excellence in Investigative Reporting. She won regional awards in investigative reporting and personality profile.
  • Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (winner of newspaper staff award).
  • Some highlights:
    • UW-Milwaukee Alumni Association Teaching Excellence Award for academic staff recipient, 2008.
    • Co-editor of Media Milwaukee, the department’s national, regional, and state award-winning online news site.
    • Founder and faculty advisor for the Minority Media Association of UWM. This is a student media club that champions diversity in the media. Among other activities, the club brings diverse speakers to campus and obtains grants to send diverse students to career fairs sponsored by the National Association of Black Journalists and others.
    • Has chaired the Curriculum and Internship and Scholarships Committees. Member of the JAMS transition committee. Has served on many departmental committees.
    • Helped create and produce content for the U View campus television show on media diversity.
    • Created the department’s first Living Learning Community.
    • Received student success certificate.
    • Conducted scholarly research into the media that was presented internationally in South Africa, Australia, and Belgium. Scholarly work published in prestigious Australian journal.
    • Helped develop guidelines on social media for international journalism educators at the World Journalism Education Congress, 2010, 2013.
    • Frequent judge of state press association contests (Idaho, Syracuse, New Orleans, etc.).
    • Former Advisory Board member of the WISN Political Commitment project.
    • Supervised student advertising assignment that was turned into a Super Bowl ad by Chevrolet.
    • Convergence and Society: The Participatory Web, University of South Carolina, presenter, “Using Blog Talk Radio in the Classroom.” Fall 2008.
    • Student work in classes has won numerous state and regional reporting and writing awards and first-place national Society of Professional Journalists’ awards for online in-depth reporting and for online feature reporting.
    • Previous class partnerships with Student Press Law Center of Virginia, Journal Communications NOW, Patch.com, Urban Milwaukee.com, Wisconsin Innocence Project.
    • Obtained immersion project grant.
    • Jessica McBride teaching evaluations at UWM scored an average of 4.4 on a 0 to 5 scale for all classes from hire to indefinite status.
    • Created and runs a professional social media course that supervises the department’s social media pages

Learn more about Jessica here.

Jessica McBride: Education & Career Accomplishments

Jessica McBride was the class Salutatorian for Flambeau High School in Tony, Wisconsin. She also won a US Army National Award and participated in all-conference volleyball. She went to the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Print and Broadcast Journalism in 1992. She completed post-graduation with Master’s degree a in Mass Communication in 1993. Jessica McBride is part of a Milwaukee journalism family as newspapers were a family affair; her grandparents were reporters for the Milwaukee Journal and Milwaukee Sentinel and her father was a film critic for Daily Variety and works as a professor or cinema.
Jessica mcbride milwaukee
Jessica mcbride

Jessica’s Journalism career started when she was in college. While studying in college, She worked part-time as Suburban reporter from May 1992 to May 1993 at the Milwaukee Journal – Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She then joined the Waukesha Freeman – Waukesha, Wisconsin as a full-time reporter in 1993. She left this job to serve as a full-time General Assignment and crime reporter at Wisconsin’s largest newspaper, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Milwaukee, WI in August 1994. Jessica McBride spent years as an award-winning reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. She switched to a teaching career in 2000. She is a former columnist for the Waukesha FreemanOn Milwaukee.com, and El Conquistador Latino newspaper (Freeman columns also appear in the West Bend Daily News and Oconomowoc Enterprise. Some of her columns were published in both English and Spanish languages. 

Jessica McBride has worked in many forms of the media. She has worked as a fill-in editor for Patch Media for various metropolitan Milwaukee area online news sites. She helped Patch.com run sites in communities ranging from Whitefish Bay to Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin until Patch discontinued its Wisconsin sites.

Jessica McBride: Teacher

As a teacher, Jessica McBride has been the recipient of a teaching excellence award and is known for her innovations in teaching and her championing of media diversity. In 2000, Jessica McBride joined the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee to work as an ad-hoc Lecturer and taught news reporting each semester. She was promoted in 2004 to a full-time position at UWM, and she is a senior lecturer with indefinite status, which she was awarded in 2010 after four levels of review for excellence in teaching, professional creative work, and service.

She teaches in the Journalism, Advertising, and Media Studies Department, including courses and topics, such as: Integrated Reporting, Advanced Integrated Reporting, Opinion Writing, Social Media, Race and Ethnicity in the Media and many more.

Examples of Some of Jessica McBride’s Awards

Milwaukee Press Club: 2014 Excellence in Journalism Award


Milwaukee Press Club: 2007 Excellence in Journalism Award


Milwaukee Press Club: 2006 Excellence in Journalism Awards

Student work created under Jessica McBride’s supervision as a teacher has won many, many awards, nationally, regionally, and statewide.
News stories about award-winning work created in part in Jessica’s classes:
UWM students win SPJ awards
UWM student awards total 62
Here are just some recent examples of student work in the immersion projects that Jessica McBride helped supervise (there are many, many more).

2019

Society of Professional Journalists, national contest

First place: Best online college feature reporting in the country (Project covering Somali immigration to Barron, Wis.). Welcome to Barron

National finalist: Feature writing (Project covering midterm election trends in Crawford County, Wis.) The Village That Flipped Back

National finalist: General news photography (Project covering gun issues in the wake of Parkland, Florida in three states). Photo from March for Our Lives event.

Milwaukee Press Club awards

Best blog (Project covering gun issues). UWM Covers March for Our Lives.

Best blog (Project covering gun issues). UWM Covers the Gun March on Washington * Wisconsin.

Best news story (Project covering gun issues). Two Americas, 32 Miles Apart

Wisconsin College Media Association

Second Place. News photography (Project covering gun issues). Generation Lockdown.

Honorable mention. News photography (Project covering Hurricane Harvey). Hurricane Harvey

Third Place. Feature photography (Project covering Somali immigration to Barron). Welcome to Barron

Second place. In-depth story. (Project covering midterms in Crawford Co, Wis.)

Third place. In-depth story. (Project covering gun issues). Crossing the gun divide

Honorable mention. In-depth story. (Project covering Hurricane Harvey.) Un/Natural Disaster.

First place. Public affairs reporting. (Project covering gun issues). Generation Lockdown

First place. Feature story. (Project covering Somali immigration. Barron, Wisconsin: An immigration story.

2018

Regional Society of Professional Journalists Contest (four states)

First Place. Feature writing. Hurricane Harvey.

First place. General news photography. Hurricane Harvey.

Finalist. Feature writing. (project on Flint Water crisis).  Overview story.

Finalist. Feature photography (Flint project). Package of photos.

Finalist. Online in-depth reporting. (Flint project). Finding Flint.

Midwest Broadcast Journalists Association Eric Sevareid awards

First place, multimedia storytelling by a team. In Harvey’s Wake.

Award of merit, multimedia storytelling by a team. Finding Flint.

Regional award, (Hurricane Harvey), overview story.

Wisconsin College Media Association

First place. Public Affairs reporting (Flint project). Finding Flint

First place. In-Depth Story (Mississippi River Valley election project).

First place. Use of multimedia. (Flint). Finding Flint

Second place. Use of multimedia. (Mississippi River Valley).

Milwaukee Press Club

Online use of multimedia. (Flint). Finding Flint

Online use of multimedia. (Hurricane Harvey). In Harvey’s Wake.

Online blog. (Flint). Water is Life

2017

Society of Professional Journalists, Regional

Finalist, (Mississippi project)

Milwaukee Press Club

Long feature story (Flint). It’s not the water

Use of multimedia (Mississippi).

News story (Mississippi project).

Disclosure re Wauwatosa stories: Jessica McBride is the niece of Wauwatosa Mayor Dennis McBride.

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U.S. Economy Adds 12,000 Jobs in October, Far Fewer Than Expected

The U.S. economy added 12,000 jobs in October, far fewer than expected and the lowest monthly total since December 2020.

With the election just days away, it's unclear how Friday's report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor will impact voting.

"Total nonfarm payroll employment was essentially unchanged in October (+12,000), and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.1 percent," the bureau said. "Employment continued to trend up in health care and government. Temporary help services lost jobs. Employment declined in manufacturing due to strike activity."

The economy and inflation have been the top issue on voters minds all year, according to most polls, including The Center Square Voters' Voice poll in October.

"Employment in government continued its upward trend in October (+40,000), similar to the average monthly gain of 43,000 over the prior 12 months," the bureau said. "Over the month, employment continued to trend up in state government (+18,000)."

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Harris-Trump Polling Margins Razor-thin in Wisconsin

(The Center Square) – New polling from Wisconsin shows the presidential race in the state remains too close to call.

The survey, conducted Oct. 16-24 by Marquette Law School, shows Democrat Vice President Kamala Harris barely leads Republican former President Donald Trump 50% to 49% among Wisconsin voters. The results fall well within the poll’s +/-4.4 margin of error.

“It should not surprise anyone if Donald Trump wins, and it should not surprise anyone if Kamala Harris wins,” MLS poll Director Franklin said. “Because the polling – both ours and the polling averages for the state, which is under a 1% average margin right now – are just so close that polling is not going to help us at all to have confidence in who’s the likely winner.”

The partisan makeup of the poll sample, which included 834 registered and 753 likely voters, is 39% Republican, 31% Democratic, and 34% Independent.

Favorability ratings have remained mostly stable for the presidential candidates, but have significantly changed for their vice presidential picks.

Trump went from a net -11 in September to a -14 in October, while Harris’s ratings also dropped during that time from -3 favorability to -5 favorability. But Sen. J.D. Vance’s favorability has shot up by 9 points since last month, though he still has a net negative rating, -4 percentage points. By contrast, Gov. Tim Walz’s favorability has dropped 7 points since last month, with his current rating at exactly zero percentage points, still the highest out of all the candidates.

Candidate images have barely changed, with voters still believing Harris has a better personality overall than Trump. Voters’ opinions on who would do a better job on political issues have also mostly remained the same, with the majority believing Trump would better handle the economy, immigration and border security, the Israel-Hamas war, and foreign relations. Harris scores much higher on the issues of Medicare and Social Security, health care and abortion policy.

The economy remains by far the most important issue for Wisconsin voters at 38%, with abortion policy at 15% and immigration and border security at 13%.

“If you look at personality, most of those favor Harris. If you look at issues, it’s a split. But when you look at the single most important issue to people, it’s a slight Trump advantage,” Franklin summarized. “So that kind of explains why we have such a close race.”

MLS also analyzed the voter gender gap using a pooled sample of all registered voters interviewed in the four MLS polls from July to October. Women, who made up 51% of registered voters in the combined July-October polls, favored Harris by 14 percentage points, while men, who made up 48%, favored Trump by 12 percentage points, a 26-point gap between the genders. Though significant, the difference is smaller than the 32-point gap in 2020 and the 30-point gap in 2016.

The gender gap is especially large among non-white voters, suburban-dwelling voters, and voters under age 30 and between the ages of 45-59. The gender gap is smallest within rural communities and small towns, older voters, and born-again Protestants.

Enthusiasm levels across both the gender and partisan gap remain high, something Franklin says could drive voter turnout to 2020 levels.

“[The year] 2020 set records for turnout. It would be hard to reach those levels again,” Franklin said. “But I think with this level of enthusiasm, we do have some reason to believe that we should expect to see turnout close to the 3.3 million we saw last time.”

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Poll: Wisconsin Voters Reluctant to Approve Tax Increases for School Funding

(The Center Square) – With a total of 137 local school referendum questions spread across ballots in Wisconsin, recent data shows voters’ support for increasing property taxes to fund public education is waning.

Marquette Law School polled 834 registered Wisconsin voters from Oct. 16-24, asking their opinions on presidential candidates, the direction of the state, and public school referendums, among other things.

The poll found that voters’ desire to prioritize public school spending over lower property taxes peaked in late 2018, when 57% of Wisconsin registered voters polled said increasing school spending was more important and only 37% said reducing property taxes was more important.

But now, voter support for increasing school district funding has fallen to its lowest level since Marquette began tracking the sentiment in 2013, with only 44% in the most recent survey saying school spending is more important, versus 55% who chose lower property taxes. The change occurs even as voters’ reported satisfaction with Wisconsin schools has returned to November 2023 levels, though not to pre-pandemic levels.

School districts in Wisconsin are subject to a 1993 state law that places limits on how much local governments can increase their property taxes each year. But a district’s property taxes can be raised above the revenue limit through voter-approved ballot proposals.

This past spring, voters across the state approved 62 of the 103 school referendum questions on the ballot, the lowest approval numbers in a midterm or presidential election year since 2010, according to the Wisconsin Policy Forum.

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BREAKING: Supreme Court says Virginia Can Remove ‘Noncitizens’ From Voter Rolls

The U.S. Supreme Court has granted Virginia’s emergency request to keep “noncitizens” off voter rolls, Attorney General Jason Miyares announced Wednesday morning via a social media post.

The Wednesday morning announcement comes after a coalition of 24 state attorneys general joined the commonwealth in urging the high court to allow Virginia to remove “self-identified noncitizens” from voter rolls.

Miyares announced Sunday evening that the commonwealth would file an emergency appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court in a last-ditch effort to block a ruling an order from the U.S. District Court to return over 1,500 noncitizens to the voter rolls that have been removed since Aug. 7.

The 6-3 ruling overturns the unanimous decision from a panel of judges in the Fourth Circuit of Appeals that rejected Virginia's request on Sunday to stop an order from a lower court to reinstate noncitizen registrations removed from voter rolls.

In the amicus brief filed to the highest court, the attorneys general argued that the ruling from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia “undermines the constitutional authority of states to determine voter qualifications” to maintain election integrity “by allowing only eligible citizens to vote.”

The top prosecutors argue that the District Court’s ruling is “based on flawed interpretation” of the National Voter Registration Act’s 90-day “quiet period.” They claim the quiet period “does not apply to the removal of noncitizens from voter rolls.”

“Noncitizens are not eligible voters,” the brief reads. “They were not eligible voters before Congress passed the National Voter Registration Act, they were not eligible when Congress passed the NVRA, and they are not eligible today.”

Miyares has defended the commonwealth's removal of noncitizens from the voter rolls, claiming the ruling was “politically motivated.”

"It should never be illegal to remove an illegal voter," said Miyares. "The Department of Justice pulled this shameful, politically motivated stunt 25 days before Election Day, challenging a Virginia process signed into law 18 years ago by a Democrat governor and approved by the Department of Justice in 2006.”

The Friday ruling drew criticism from Republicans, including former president Donald Trump, who claimed the move was an attempt by the Biden Administration to “weaponize” the Justice Department.

“Now their truly Weaponized Department of ‘Injustice,’ and a Judge (appointed by Joe), have ORDERED the Great Commonwealth of Virginia to PUT NON-CITIZEN VOTERS BACK ON THE ROLLS. This is a totally unacceptable travesty,” Trump posted on X.

In the lawsuit, the Justice Department alleged the commonwealth unlawfully removed individuals deemed “noncitizens” from voter rolls within 90 days before an election, citing a “quiet period” in the National Voter Registration Act that mandates “no such voter cancelation or list maintenance programs may be conducted” within that time period.

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Wisconsin DNR Warns of Invasive Carp in 2 Rivers

(The Center Square) – There’s a warning about invasive carp in two western Wisconsin rivers.

The Department of Natural Resources said silver carp have been found in both the lower Chippewa River and lower Black River.

“In July, the DNR began receiving reports from anglers of jumping fish suspected to be invasive carp at the Dells Dam on the lower Chippewa River in Eau Claire. The Dells Dam in Eau Claire prevents further upstream passage of invasive carp in the Chippewa River System,” the

DNR said. “On Aug. 1, DNR staff went to the dam and observed jumping fish but were unable to verify the species of fish.”

The department said it confirmed silver carp in the lower Black River in September.

“The dam in Black River Falls is a barrier to upstream fish migration, and no observations or other detections of invasive carp have been reported in the lower Black River at this time,” the DNR added.

Silver carp are an invasive species in the Midwest and have done immense damage to other rivers where they’ve been found.

“It is believed that the carp may have migrated in June and early July due to the high-water levels observed on the Mississippi River, which would have allowed fish to move upstream into adjacent tributaries,” the department explained. “Tributaries to the lower Chippewa River, such as the Red Cedar River up to the Lake Menomin Dam and the Eau Claire River up to the Lake Altoona Dam, may be other potential locations where invasive carp might be observed since these waterbodies do not have barriers that would prevent upstream fish movement from the adjacent lower Chippewa River.”

The DNR is not saying what it plans to do about the carp but is asking people to keep an eye out for them.

“Although no technology currently exists to eradicate invasive carp, the DNR is working collaboratively with other state and federal agencies on the research and development of invasive carp prevention and control technologies,” the department added. “Anglers and others who capture any potential invasive carp are asked to euthanize the fish, put them on ice and contact a local aquatic invasive species staff, fisheries biologist or warden to confirm identification.”

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Trump Receives Endorsements From Muslim, Arab Leaders at Michigan Rally

Some Arab- and Muslin-American leaders endorsed Republican presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump during a campaign rally Saturday in Novi, Michigan.

The endorsements are notable in the key swing state that is home to more than 200,000 Muslim-American voters. According to RealClearPolitics' polling average, Trump holds the narrowest of leads over Harris in Michigan, 47.9% to 47.7%.

"We're winning overwhelming support from the Muslim and Arab voters right here in Michigan," Trump told the crowd.

That support from Muslim leaders includes Hamtramck Mayor Amer Ghalib and Dearborn Heights Mayor Bill Bazzi, as well as Imam Belal Alzuhairi.

Saturday's rally occurred less than 24 hours after Israel struck Iran with strategically targeted missiles the night before. The ongoing turmoil in the Middle East was among the reasons the Muslim and Arab leaders cited in their endorsement of the former president.

"We are supporting Donald Trump because he promised to end war in the Middle East and Ukraine," Alzuhairi said. "The bloodshed has to stop all over the world, and I think this man can make that happen."

Alzuhairi added, "I personally believe that God saved his life twice for a reason," referring to the two unsuccessful assassination attempts against Trump's life.

Two recent polls indicate that many Arab- and Muslim-Americans, traditionally voting blocs for Democrats. are drifting away from Democratic presidential nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris as the Biden-Harris administration struggles to balance U.S. support for Israel with appeasing a significant anti-Israel faction within the Democratic Party.

In one poll of 500 Arab American registered voters conducted by The Arab American Institute, Trump and Harris were nearly split, 42-41%, a drop in support from the level Democrats received in 2020, as The Center Square previously reported.

In the other conducted in late August, The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) released a poll showing American Muslim voters supporting Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein and Harris equally, at 29% each, with Trump at 12%. In Michigan, the poll found that 40% of Muslim voters support Stein, 18% support Trump, and just 12% support Harris.

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Virginia Appeals Order to Return Noncitizens to Voter Rolls

Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares announced late Sunday the commonwealth will file an emergency appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court in a last-ditch effort to block the return of more than 1,500 noncitizens to voter rolls.

The appeal follows a unanimous panel ruling Sunday from the Fourth Circuit of Appeals rejecting Virginia's request to stop an order from a lower court to reinstate noncitizens removed from voter rolls within 90 days of an election.

The latest ruling comes two days after the commonwealth filed an emergency motion to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit on Friday night to stay a ruling from the district court.

Shortly after Friday's ruling, Miyares defended the commonwealth's removal of noncitizens from the voter rolls, claiming the ruling was “politically motivated.”

"It should never be illegal to remove an illegal voter," said Miyares. "The Department of Justice pulled this shameful, politically motivated stunt 25 days before Election Day, challenging a Virginia process signed into law 18 years ago by a Democrat governor and approved by the Department of Justice in 2006.”

The Friday ruling drew criticism from Republicans, including former president Donald Trump, who claimed the move was an attempt by the Biden Administration to “weaponize” the Justice Department.

“Now their truly Weaponized Department of ‘Injustice,’ and a Judge (appointed by Joe), have ORDERED the Great Commonwealth of Virginia to PUT NON-CITIZEN VOTERS BACK ON THE ROLLS. This is a totally unacceptable travesty,” Trump posted on X.

The former president commended Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s vow to appeal the “illegal order,” while calling on SCOTUS to remedy the situation.

“Gov. Youngkin is absolutely right to appeal this ILLEGAL ORDER, and the U.S. Supreme Court will hopefully fix it! Only U.S. Citizens should be allowed to vote. Keep fighting, Glenn – AND REPUBLICANS IN VIRGINIA, KEEP VOTING EARLY!”

Shortly after Miyares’ announcement, Youngkin commended the attorney general for taking decisive action.

“It’s commonsense noncitizens shouldn’t be our voter rolls. Thank you [Jason Miyares] for filing immediately with the U.S. Supreme Court for an emergency appeal of the order for Virginia to put over 1,500 people who self-identified as non-citizens back on the voter rolls,” Youngkin posted on X late Sunday evening.

The lawsuit filed by the Justice Department the commonwealth unlawfully removed individuals deemed “noncitizens” from voter rolls within 90 days before an election, citing a “quiet period” in the National Voter Registration Act that mandates “no such voter cancelation or list maintenance programs may be conducted” within that time period.

It’s unclear if there is enough time for the Supreme to rule on the matter before Nov. 5.

11 Million IllegalsmSouthern Border Arrests

Nearly 565,000 Illegal Border Crossers in Arizona in Fiscal 2024

There were nearly 565,000 illegal border crossers reported in Arizona in fiscal 2024, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.

Arizona’s 378 miles of shared border with Mexico is staffed by CBP and Border Patrol agents in the CBP sectors of Tucson and Yuma. Tucson Sector’s 262-mile shared border with Mexico extends from the Yuma County line to the Arizona-New Mexico state line. Yuma Sector’s nearly 182,000 square miles of primarily desert terrain extends from Imperial Sand Dunes in California to the Yuma-Pima County line.

The Tucson Sector has historically been one of the busiest along the U.S.-Mexico border. In fiscal 2024, Border Patrol agents there reported 463,567 illegal border crossers, the most of any sector along the southwest border during the year, which runs from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30. The second greatest number was reported by San Diego Sector Border Patrol agents of nearly 325,000, The Center Square reported.

Tucson Office of Field Operations agents also reported 47,051 illegal border crossers in fiscal 2024, significantly less than San Diego OFO’s 183,890 over the same time period.

In CBP’s Yuma Sector, Border Patrol agents reported 53,877 illegal border crossers. Because of the sector’s vast desert, large drifting sand dunes, mountainous terrain, ever-changing Colorado River, and temperatures exceeding 120 degrees, Yuma Border Patrol agents often rescue illegal border crossers in distress.

Combined, apprehensions in Arizona totaled at least 564,495 in fiscal 2024 excluding gotaways, those who illegally entered and evaded capture. Data for both sectors is consistent with nationwide data: the overwhelming majority of illegal border crossers are single adults coming from all over the world.

In Tucson Sector’s Cochise County, Sheriff Mark Dannels says despite numerous requests, he’s never met with President Joe Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris the entire time they’ve been in office as his rural county has been pummeled with illegal border crossers and cartel-related crime.

“My community's frustrated over the last three and a half years with what we've dealt with … when it comes to crime and the policies that have failed this country; the policies have failed our citizens, and the tragedies that my neighbors are addressing silently, because nobody's listening,” Dannels, who is also the chairman of the National Sheriff’s Association for Border Security, said.

Over a 31-month period, his office booked 3,762 people in the county jail for border-related crimes, he said. “These are not immigration issues. These are border-related crimes, with double digit murders.”

In an investigation led by the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security, Arizona Border Patrol chiefs expressed concerns about gotaways and national security risks. Tucson Sector Chief Border Patrol Agent John Modlin said, “When we make an arrest, we can then vet that person and find out, if they have a criminal history, if there are national security concerns. Gotaways are a public safety concern … potentially a national security concern.”

“The smuggling organizations to our south are very well organized and resourceful,” he said, referring to Mexican cartels. “Each and every person crossing through the Tucson Sector must pay these criminal organizations. The migrants we encounter are completely outfitted in camouflage by the smuggling organizations before they cross. Most run from and fight our agents to avoid apprehension. Many are previously deported felons who know they are inadmissible to the United States and many pose a serious threat to our communities.”

Modlin also expressed concerns about having to pull agents from other areas to deal with surges, a practice used across sectors, The Center Square reported. Yuma Sector Deputy Chief Border Patrol Agent Dustin Caudle said the sector’s three interior checkpoints are critical for interdicting gotaways, but the majority of fiscal 2022 and most of fiscal 2023 they were down, meaning the border was wide open and unmanned.

As Border Patrol agents were inundated with surges of illegal border crossers and given timeframes to process and release them into the country under Biden-Harris policies, background checks and vetting weren’t always performed and individuals on the terrorist watch list were released into the country, according to congressional investigations and Office of Inspector General reports. Americans living more than 2,600 miles away are also suffering consequences. Crimes being committed in New England can be traced back to foreign nationals who illegally entered the country in Arizona, The Center Square reported.

Despite ongoing challenges, federal, state and local law enforcement agents in Arizona have seized a record amount of fentanyl in the last few years, enough to kill billions of people. Earlier this year, CBP agents seized half a ton of fentanyl at the Lukeville Port of Entry in the Tucson Sector, the largest fentanyl seizure in CBP history. With two milligrams considered a lethal dose, and 22,696.2 lethal doses in a pound, they seized more than 453 million lethal doses, enough to kill roughly the entire population of the U.S. and Mexico.

Arizona parents who’ve lost children to fentanyl, like Josephine Dunn, have called on the Arizona legislature and Congress to act, The Center Square reported.

As the Biden-Harris administration escalated flights of illegal foreign nationals into the country, Arizona’s border apprehensions were down in fiscal 2024 compared to the more than 775,000 reported in fiscal 2023, The Center Square first reported.

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Steil, Van Orden Highlight Crimes, Costs of Migrants in Wisconsin

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin Republican Reps. Derrick Van Orden and Bryan Steil testified at a House Judiciary Committee meeting last week about the dangers of sanctuary cities and the community challenges illegal immigration has posed across the state, particularly in Whitewater.

Steil has previously pointed to Whitewater as a “case study” of the damaging effects of illegal immigration under the current administration. The influx of roughly 1,000 migrants to the city of 15,000 has led to increasing strain on law enforcement, school resources, and housing capacity in Whitewater, according to reports. Now, the city is witnessing cartel activity, including drug and human trafficking operations, Steil testified, referencing multiple reports.

“We know the danger that that poses in our communities,” Steil said. “And there has been state legislation where we could have had an opportunity to ban sanctuary cities here in the United States, and we’ve not been successful in doing that under Democratic leadership.”

Though Madison is the only city in Wisconsin officially classified as a sanctuary city, Whitewater officials seem uncertain over whether the city is legally able to send away migrants, who have temporary asylum status under the Biden-Harris administration’s “catch and release” policy, where migrants who illegally cross into the country are allowed to wait in the U.S. for their claims to be processed in an immigration court.

The effects of illegal immigration have also affected Wisconsin on a statewide scale, Van Orden testified at the hearing, particularly at prisons in the state.

In particular, Wisconsin’s Federal Correctional Institution Oxford is holding 650 migrants who have committed felonies, more than half of the prison’s housing capacity of 1,200. According to Oxford administrators, the cost of housing a single inmate is $42,000 per year, amounting to $27 million in taxpayer dollars going to holding migrant inmates.

A record 14 million illegal border crossings have occurred under the Biden-Harris administration, with nearly 3 million occurring during the past 2024 fiscal year, the second-highest number in U.S. history.

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