11/02/20 11/02/20 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! in the final weekend of the election season, police in north carolina pepper sprayed voters heading to the polls during a get-out-the-vote rally in the city of graham. at least eight people were arrested, including rally organizer revrend greg drumwright, who will join us.

meanwhile in texas, a caravan of trump supporters tried to run a biden campaign bus off the road. one truck swerved into a car full of biden campaign workers. trump responded by tweeting, "i love texas." joe biden condemned the political intimidation. mr. biden: we have never had anything like this. at least we have never had a president who thinks it is a good thing. amy: plus, we will go to the key battleground state of florida to speak with haitian-american writer edwidge dandicat to talk a milliona quarter of u.s.-born children born in the u.s. could be separated from their parents should trump win reelection and terminates temporary protected status for migrants. we will also speak to a 13-year-old u.s.-born girl who is the daughter of tps recipients from haiti. can make au vote,

difference in what happens to me and all those other children. amy: all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. one day ahead of election day, over 94 million people have already cast their ballots -- more than two thirds of the total number of ballots cast in 2016. in graham, north carolina, police arrested eight people and unleashed pepper spray on a peaceful get out the vote rally in march which plan to end at an early voting site. the participant started at a black church and stopped at a confederate monument opposite the county courthouse to honor george floyd and black lives before law-enforcement officers in riot gear attempted to clear them out. officers then started deploying pepper spray on a crowd that included young children and elderly people. north carolina governor roy

cooper and rights groups condemned the police action. we'll have more on this after headlines with the event's organizer reverend greg drumwright. the texas supreme court on sunday denied a republican request to invalidate nearly 127,000 drive-thru votes cast in harris county. harris county set up 10 drive-thru polling sites for early voting -- which ended friday -- and election day to make voting easier and safer for texans during the pandemic. however, the outcome of the case is still not guaranteed as the republican plaintiffs also filed suit in federal court, which is set to hear the case this morning. one of the plaintiffs is steven hotze, a coronavirus and qanon conspiracy theorist who said -- "the deep state could have been the ones that orchestrated this whole viral problem with the virus." during the racial justice uprising this summer, hotze told

texas governor greg abbott in a voicemail he should order the national guard to kill protesters. he said -- "shoot to kill the sons of [b leeps] that's the only way you restore order. kill 'em." this is joe speaking at a socially distanced drive-in rally in philadelphia on sunday. mr. biden: this is the most important election of our lifetimes. we have to vote like we never did before. every day. every day is an reminder of how high the stakes are, how far the other side will gold to try to suppress -- go to try to suppress the turnout. amy: axios is reporting trump plans to declare a premature victory tuesday night if he is ahead of joe biden in early returns. election forecasters say vote counting after election day will

likely favor biden -- particularly in pennsylvania -- even if trump holds a lead on -- holds an early lead. trump denied the reports sunday but told reporters he opposed counting ballots after election day. pres. trump: i think it is a terrible thing when people -- when states are allowed to tabulate ballots for long period of time after the election is over. amy: trump also suggested he expects to win any election cases that land before the supreme court. this is trump at a packed campaign rally in pennsylvania saturday. pres. trump: if we win on tuesday -- thank you very much, supreme court -- shortly thereafter. amy: on sunday, senior trump campaign advisor jason miller came under fire for suggesting democrats could attempt to steal the election by counting ballots after election day. miller spoke with abc news. >> if used week with many smart

democrats, they believe president trump will be ahead on election night, probably getting 280 electoral and then they will try to steal her back after the election. we believe we will be over 290 electoral votes on election night. so no matter what can of hygiene's or lawson's they try to test lawsuits they try to pull off, we will have enough votes to get president trump reelected. amy: the fbi is investigating after motorists with trump 2020 flags surrounded and harassed a biden campaign bus driving down a texas highway. trump defended the drivers on twitter saying, "these patriots did nothing wrong" and that the fbi should instead investigate antifa. meanwhile, hundreds of trump supporters blocked traffic on a new jersey highway and the mario cuomo bridge in new york sunday. coronavirus cases in the united

states topped 9.2 million as scientists warn the virus is spreading at a faster rate than before and hospitals will be pushed beyond capacity. on friday, nearly 100,000 new cases were reported -- the highest single day number of cases recorded for any country. a stanford university study found trump rallies between june 20 and september 30 may have led to over 700 covid-19 deaths and 30,000 cases. trump has repeatedly discouraged and mocked mask wearing, while continuing to hold events with tightly packed crowds, with minimal mask wearing, in coronavirus hotspots. at a rally in florida sunday, trump suggested he could fire top infectious disease expert dr. anthony fauci after the election. >> fire fauci!

fire fauci! fauci! pres. trump: code tell anybody, but wait until a little after the election. amy: this comes after "the washington post" reported fauci said the pandemic would only get worse and that joe biden's campaign "is taking seriously from a public health perspective, while trump is prioritizing "reopening the country." in immigration news, an investigation by "reveal" and "the los angeles times" shows both the obama and trump administrations detained tens of thousands of migrant children for longer periods of time than previously known. the report reveals over 25,000 migrant children were detained for more than 100 days in the past six years. nearly 1000 children were in shelters for more than a year.

in related news, "the new york times" reports the u.s. has been deporting unaccompanied children from central america and other countries to mexico, violating a diplomatic agreement that requires the u.s. to deport them to their home countries, where they may be able to reunite with their family. in poland, an estimated 150,000 people rallied in warsaw friday to protest against a court decision banning nearly all forms of abortion. the protests were the biggest since the solidarity movement of the 1980's. >> i am a woman. , mother. -- i am a mother. i'm here for my daughter so she lives in better times. and with the best for her and for everyone to i think it is important for everyone who lives in poland. amy: in ivory coast, at least 12 people were killed during protests saturday as voters headed to the polls.

anti-government protests intensified in the weeks leading up to the election as opponents say president alassane ouattara's bid for a third term is a violation of the constitutional two-term limit. as early results show ouattara in a commanding lead, opposition leaders are calling for a civilian transition from his government. al jazeera reports at least 30 people were killed in pre-election violence. in hong kong, authorities have arrested eight opposition politicians over their roles in resisting a controversial new security law that gives china sweeping powers over hong kong. the eight were part of contentious parliamentary hearings last may where they opposed a bill that critics say criminalizes free speech and protests and erases any autonomy hong kong once held. this is wu chi-wai, chair of hong kong's democratic party. >> i think this is completely unacceptable. using grammage charges to suppress the opposition's voice

in the legislative council meeting. amy: meanwhile, calls are growing for china to release 12 activists arrested at sea in august after they allegedly tried to reach taiwan from hong kong by boat. lawyers hired by families of the 12 prisoners say they've been harassed by chinese authorities and have not had any access to their clnts. in the philippines, at least 16 people died and one million were evacuated as super typhoon goni, the world's strongest typhoon this year, ripped through the island of luzon sunday. goni is the 18th typhoon to hit the philippines in 2020. climate change is causing more intense and more frequent tropical storms in the philippines, with mass deforestation, mining and intensive farming further compounding the deadly effects of extremeeather. in turkey, rescue woers are continuing to search for survivors in the western city of izmir after a 7.0 magnitude rthquakeit the aegean sea friday, killing at least 79 people in turkey and two people in greece. nearly 1000 people were injured and at least 20 buildings destroyed.

and the veteran middle east reporter and author robert fisk has died in dublin at the age of 74 after a suspected stroke. fisk spent decades writing for the british newspaper the independent, where he covered the iranian revolution, civil wars in algeria, the balkans, lebanon and syria, u.s. sanctions against iraq, and the u.s.-led invasion in 2003. fisk wrote extensively about the soviet and u.s. invasions of afghanistan and interviewed osama bin laden three times in the 1990's -- one of the few western journalists to do so. this is robert fisk speaking on democracy now! in 2008, just one month ahead of the presidential election. >> we should be talking about phrases like justice for the people of the middle east. if you have justice, can build democracy on it and then we can withdrawal all of these soldiers. where promising people packages

of human rights about supermarket shelves and arriving with our horses and our swords and apache helicopters and tanks. the only feature and the middle east is to withdrawal all of our military forces and have serious political, social, religious cultural relations with these people. it is not our land. amy: robert fisk died at the age of in dublin. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. we begin today's show in the battleground state of north carolina. on saturday, police in alamance county pepper sprayed peaceful protesters taking part in a get-out-the-vote rally. the rally began at a local black church and was scheduled to end at an early voting site in the city of graham, which is located in between durham and greensboro. during the rally, participants stopped near a confederate monument and paused in the street for eight minutes and 46

seconds to remember george floyd, who was killed by police in minneapolis in may. floyd's niece was scheduled to speak but did not get a chance. moments later, the police -- some dressed in riot gr -- began pepper spraying the crowd which included children as young as three years old. one elderly woman in a wheelchair appeared to have a seizure after being exposed to the pepper spray. >> medic! medi amy: democratic congressional candidate scott huffman recorded this moments later in his car. >> i am scott huffman and i'm running for congress. my eyes are full of pepper spray because we were peacefully

demonstrating, exercising our first amendment rights with black lives matter. what i have witnessed is what is happening all over america. this is wrong. to showhould be allowed up, to exercise their rights to vote. we're all taxpayers. the police work for us, yet spray, witnessed pepper chemical weapons been sprayed on my fellow americans. amy: was the last day of early saturday voting in north carolina, but the march never made it to the polling site. at least eight people were arrested during the rally, including the march organizer, the reverend greg drumwright, who joins us now from greensboro. he is lead organizer of justice 4 the next generation coalition. reverend greg drumwright, welcome to democracy now! can you take us through saturday? what happened? >> good morning to all o your

viewers and certainly to you and thank you for having us. saturday, in some instances, is still a blur. we still have people recovering from those tear gas and pepper spray attached. we started the morning really knowing that there was going to be some form of a materialized andrt to quell our success to quiet our voices, even though we prayed intently and we met several times over with local authorities there asking them not to bring militia force to our march. as you and i know now, that was not the case. amy: so explain. what we're the purpose of just what the purpose of your rally was, where you went, and when the police moved in and attacked you. >> we lead there after marching for about three quarters of a mile on the north side of main

street just before the court allowed --e we were we were in full cooperation with our agreement with authorities. once we got to north main street in front of the confederate monument, we knelt eight minutes, 46 seconds, as you have uplifted, in honor of george floyd's family. i need to say george floyd's family, four members of the family, was there with us on the front line. after eight minutes and 46 seconds, we got up and began to prepare for our rally. and just as the graham police department uplifted in the press conference yesterday, at the nine minute mark, they began to release pepper spray and tear gas upon our marchers. they stated we were not moving

fast enough out of the roadway most of don't know if you know arithmetic well enough to discern that is only 14 seconds for hundreds of people to remove themselves peacefully on to the sidewalks. amy: so tell us who the sheriff is and then tell us what happened next once the police tear gassed and pepper sprayed you. were they wearing riot gear? >> we seen all types of tactical force dressings and gear. cole,itioned chief kristi who was in charge of this. sheriff terry johnson's department, his deputies were working in concert with chief kristi cole and the graham police department. we begged them not to bring militia force. we begged them across several letters, stating when this type of police presence gets involved

, black and brown people end up in jail. and so we started our riot with people already being injured, people already being hassled and detained by local police authories sily because they would not get on to the sidewalks after they escorted us in the streets, fasten a. again, 14 seconds to make something like that happen with a crowd of hundreds of people. amy: the graham police department held a news conference sunday to answer questions about the pepper-spraying of marchers at saturday's event. this is lt. daniel sisk. cooks we wanted them to have a successful event. they were under the same under sin we were when we thought that the event started that they were not authorized to keep theoad close for new extended period of time, the road closure was temporary. we had rd closures up to the courthouse.

we gave the order to clear the road. -- that is cleared only deployed to get them out of the roadway. amy: that was the tenant daniel sisk. i'm looking at a flyer distributed by your organization justice 4 the next generation that says on saturday, october 31, participants will be "marching from wayman's chapel ame to a court square rally at the confederate monument and on to elm street poll." so talk about that and point. you had hundreds of people, many were going to vote >> yes. we believed many were going to vote. we believed others were waiting for us to get to the elm street poll to vote in concert with us. the truth of the matter is, we really don't know what those numbers would have looked alike because of this police

brutality. we never made it to the polls. therefore, we believe that this interaction, this interference from local authorities has created obstruct our marchers from not only lifting up our first amendment rights to alsost, to speak outbut our rights to vote. this interaction from the police most certainly kept people from voting in alamance county. amy: as people heard this story all over the country, the parallels were being made to bull connor, the head of so-called security in birmingham who would water hose the people who are going to register to vote, beach people, water hose children. your thoughts, reverend drumwright? >> this is aheriff who has been sued by the federal

government in 2012, has been sued by the government for actually disproportionately arresting black and brown people. even referring to hispanics as "taco eaters." sheriff terry johnson and his department has long suppressed the citizens of alamance county. there are horror stories come the fear mongering in alamance county is very intense. as we have organized there also are long, there are people who are in support of our movement but fear for their safety. one of our marchers, one of the speakers of our march uplifted the fact that she as a business owner has been targeted. other members have had that kkk show up in their yard. and all of them have information that lead back to sheriff terry johnson's administration. amy: what happened to the woman

in the wheelchair? >> we seen her yesterday. she is still recovering. she is very sore. e is very shaken. and her spirit, as you might imagine, is broken. but she is not cast down, is what she told me. we're hoping she makes a full recovery. we believe she is lost the use of one of her mobile wheelchair units. therefore, we are still fighting for all of the people that are recovering from the incident on saturday. we will return to the streets on tuesday. amy: reverend, how did you get arrested? >> did you say how did i get arrested? amy: yeah. looks we were standing there holding our ground because we were permitted to be at the court square to 2: with our rally. the police -- the law enforcement, the deputies formed a militia line.

they impeded upon us, they thatled many of the folks ended up in joe with me on to the ground. those were people who had already been pepper sprayed by the same police force. i was grabbed by my clothing and roughed up and taken into custody right there in front of the confederate monument. amy: can you talk about who you met in jail? >> i met folks that i did not know yet. i met people that were there to stand with us in solidarity. i met black folks and white folks in jail. i also met a young man who did not come in with the particular crew i was detained with, and i did not think he knew who i was. i certainly did not know who he was. i had a split second to ask him as he was being released just

minutes before me in passing and processing, "sir, are you going to vote?" he looked at me and said, " reverend drumwright, i was going to vote with you today." amy: finally, i'm looking at a piece from september that said supporters of the president's reelection bid yelled "white power" from pickup tcks and trunk convoy in alamance county, organized by neo-confederate activist gary williamson. can you talk about the climate in your county? >> let me jussay it is a known fact that sheriff terry johnson has a relationship with gary williamson. from that july 11 event, we have footage of sheriff terry johnson actually being sympathetic, putting his arm around mr. williamson, and telling her downamson just to cal while his same sheriff deputies were being instructed to locket

our peaceful protesters. that is why we are advocating, that is why this was not just a march to the polls. when we had to -- we had to stop by that monument and uplift our peaceful message for change. there needs to be police reform in graham, north carolina, just as it is being discussed in minneapolis, minnesota. the scene from saturday and even a scene from july 11 where over 200 confederates and neo-nazis marchllowed access to our to disparage our efforts to disrupt our efforts, it is all too common right now in north carolina. amy: what are your plans for tuesday, election day? from graham until tuesday. so we are having to do this under so many different dynamics. we thought that saturday would

end our george floyd summernd we would have a little time to rest. we never imagined we would be planning voter efforts on tuesday on the streets. and as soon as our interview wraps and between other interview opportunities, we are in very intense meetings to figure out with are very meager resources how we are still going to get people now into their varis districts to vote. we also are concerned about the people who can't register to vote now because saturday was the last day of registration and voting in one-stop. so we know for a fact that there are people who will not be able to vote simply because of the police brutality that we incurred on saturday. we do know o efforts will start at 9:00 and we are asking everyone to stay attuned to our social media for the official announcement of our plans after

noon today. amy: reverend greg drumwright, thank you for being with us, lead organizer and activist with justice 4 the next generation. next up, we go to texas where a caravan of trump supporters try to run a biden campaign bus off the road. one truck swerved into a car full of biden campaign workers. a cue supporter has sued harris county come home to houston, to throw out nearly 100 27,000 early votes from 10 drive through polling locations. it goes to court today. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "beautiful morning" by little brother. this is democracy now! i'm amy goodman. we turn now to texas, where polls show a close race between president donald trump and democratic nominee joe biden. on friday, a caravan of trump supporters surrounded and then following a biden campaign bus on a highway between san antonio and austin. a biden campaign official described it as an attempt to

slow down the bus and run it off the road. "the dallas morning news" reports one of the pickup trucks that tailgated the bus swerved into a car full of biden campaign workers, leaving deep dents in the passenger side. there is video of all of this. after the attack, texas democrats cancelled three scheduled campaign events. this came days after donald trump, jr. called on his father's supporters to "get out there, have some fun." on saturday, president trump retweeted part of a video of the incident writing, "i love texas!" on sunday, he lashed out at the fbi for investigating it, writing, "these patriots did nothing wrong" and suggesting they should instead investigate antifa. this comes as texas voters have more than 9 million ballots -- more than the total

turnout of the 2016 presidential election. meanwhile, on sunday, the texas supreme court denied a request to throw out nearly 127,000 early votes from 10 drive-thru polling locations in harris county, home to houston. they allowed any registered voter to cast their ballot in their car instead of going inside polling centers. the case will now be heard today before the notoriously conservative u.s. district judge andrew scott hanen, who was appointed by president george w. bush. the harris county clerk's office said it created drive thru voting "in the wake of the covid-19 pandemic as a safer, socially-distant alternative to walk-in voting for all voters." the office is led by 34-year-old chris hollins, the county's youngest and the first black clerk. hollins also pushed to make it easier for houstonians to vote during the pandemic by tripling the number of early-voting sites.

last week, he kept eight polling locations open for 24 hours for the first time in texas history. the result has been record-breaking voter turnout. critics note the drive-through voting sites now being challenged were originally approved by the republican texas secretary of state and were set up in consultation with local republican officials. one of the main people who filed lawsuit is right-wing qanon conspiracy theorist, steven hotze, who has called covid-19 "much ado about nothing" and sued the county over its order requiring people to cover their faces in public. the lawsuit claims drive-thru sites are unconstitutional. harris county judge lina hidalgo -- who holds a non-judicial executive position -- addressed voters sunday night and said texas supreme court's decision proves otherwise. >> we are working with urgency

with the brightest legal team in our state who is working day and night to fight this frivolous the negation that is now in federal court. i do acknowledge that the fact we are even having this conversation is cause for something needs our attention. we have to be real and put out there that it is bewildering that this is even happening, that these boats that have already been cast -- that folks are trying to invalidate them. we know we are right on the law. we've had drive-thru voting. the secretary of state has seen our plans for months with no objections. just a few hours ago come the texas supreme court rejected a petition to have these codes invalidate. amy: more than 40% of harris county residents are latinx and about one in five are black.

for more, we go to alpine, texas, where we're joined by susan hays, who is special counsel to harris county, texas, on election matters. she has worked on election laws in texas for over 20 years. welcome to democracy now! so let's talk about this. the texas supreme court hands down a decision, says these nearly 127,000 votes -- ballots can be counted. explain what was set up to enable people to vote and what it means going before the federal court today. >> first, thank you for having me on today. harris county has set up 10 separate drive-thru locations, none of them are the enormous mental framing and tent structures. one is in a parking garage at the toyota center, sports arena. voters hold up, greeted by election workers just as they might be at a walking polling place. there asked to turn off their ce phone, not converse while voting. their ids are checked.

texas requir a voter id. they come into the polling station, the vote they sign a roster just as they would an in person voting pls of voting machine is attached to a cable, handed into the voters window and they vote from the seat of their car. they hand the machine back and it is sanitized between every voter. trying to keep as safe as possible given the pandemic. and then they pull on out. it has been enormously popular. about 10% of our in person voting -- vote so far have been at the drive-thru locations. amy: how long has this going on? >> it was pilot tested during a july primary runoff. we surveyed everyone who went through. the result were incredibly positive. the commissioners court, which has the power under state law to approve polling locations, voted unanimously, including the two republican members, on august 25

to approve these 10 locations along with the other 112 other early voting locations in harris county. it began on the first day of early voting on october 13. the texas supreme court has denied three separate petitions trying to attack and stop the drive-through voting. processthis whole landed in court -- once again, the texas supreme court ruled on comef of -- what was it harris county? is that these votes can be counted. where does it go now in the federal court? what is it up against? >> the middle of last week and almost identical complaint was filed in the southern district of texas. the judge set it for hearing this morning at 10:30 on a motion for preliminary injunction. what they're asking for is these votes be segregated and not

counted tomorrow night, is directly contrary to texas law. texas lottery buyers that all the votes be counted. fileces close and they can an election contest which is the remedy to any issues with the voting process. not lawsuits that happen before the election. we do not know what will happen today with the court. we have an incredibly strong legal team that has been lined up in houston that will be presenting arguments. a lot of organizations have weighed into file, including some very prominent republicans. the former republican speaker of the texas house has filed an amicus brief backing of harris county and backing up the right for everyone to vote. america tell us who steven hotze is, who is among those who file this petition in the federal court to throw out the more than 126,000 ballots. figure in extreme

texas politics for decades. decades ago he lived in austin and did a lot of anti-lgbt attacks -- lots of lgbt attacks. you did not get to be a judge and harris county without his blessing. he published a slight cart of people he endorsed except you had to pay them to get endsed. blue,ris county has gone his political star has fallen. yes become more and more outrageous, as you explained in your opening report. he has filed 10 separate direct lawsuits at the texas supreme court since the pandemic again. five attacking health measures that local officials have taken, particularly to chilled all go of harris county, and very focused on chris hollins, notably another person of color and in charge of --

every single one has been denied. amy: qanon supporter. >> yes. he has been so bad for so long that in a way this doesn't add that much to how extreme he is been the cancerous effect he has had on some republican politics in texas. amy: if the federal court throws out these boats, do all of these people have to vote tomorrow? >> that is one potential solution we have is along with the rest of the country, the original balloting system. harris county does have the date of who voted drive-thru and the iters in harris county, be republican, democratic, independent, are very unhappy about this. some of the voters have intervene in the case, filed late last night, about 20 named in the intervention but we have currently over 4000 other voters

signed up to join the lawsuits as well. amy: on saturday, susan hays, trump tweeted a video of his supporters surrounding the biden-harris campaign bus in central texas, writing, "i love texas." the president's tweet came after a separate video surfaced showing cars and trucks with trump 2020 flags encircling biden's blue campaign bus as it traveled from san antonio to austin. it was an -- it is a stunning video. biden criticized trump's tweet during a campaign rally in philadelphia on sunday. mr. biden: there's a big with bite markings on the side post-interstate highway on texas. a bunch of trump pickup trucks with trump flights tried to run it off the road, stopping in front of it. it, saw thet saw

video someone had taken come and tweeted it back out and said "i love texas." had anything like this. at least we've never had a president who thinks it is a good thing. amy: that was fighting. on sunday, susan hays, you tweeted -- "while all of you were getting excited about #texasturnout or horrified about terrorists trying to run a bus off the road, texas passed california in covid cases. now call everyone you know to vote like your life depended on it." if you can talk about what actually took place -- you have a car -- a trump card ramming a car of biden campaign workers. the fbi now saying they are investigating as trump tweets "i love texas." what i know is what i've seen through the media and i watched the video. i'm very familiar with that stretch of highway. it is an incredibly busy highway between austin and san antonio, a dangerous stretch on a good day. thes very disappointed in

county sheriff just south of austin for not seeming alarmed about that. i also noted that sheriff is on the ballot tomorrow. amy: because there is video, you can see license plates. you can see exactly who did this. this ultimately forced the biden campaign to cancel their events. >> absolutely. department of public safety, which would also have jurisdiction over that stretch of highway investigating as well, and i would hope the relevant sheriff's department's are investigating as well. law enforcement doesn't talk about investigations while their ongoing, but i would hope they would quickly wrap that up and arrest whoever was driving that black pickup who tried to run a car off the road in the middle of a busy interstate. this beats on the interstate regularly exceed 75 miles per hour. i doubt the bus was going that fast, but that is the traffic in

the right along there. it is very dangerous, as i said come on a good day. amy: i want to thank you very much for joining us. final question about covid. texas, breaking records in early voting but also around the issue of covid. can you talk about the scale of the pandemic and how you think it is going to affect the rest of the election, the record voting in texas so far? that our stateng government has not handled it well. our state government as aggressively push back on county governments who ha tried to handle it. el paso is having an outbreak and our attorney general sued the county judge for putting the county unlike down on lockdown. i'm speaking to you from alpine, texas, from a rural area because my husband has underlying conditions. we came here to be safe. it is hit the role counties with a vengeance, in part because of the messaging coming from president trump and coming from

people like steven hotze who ny medicine and deny science trying to minimize what people should be doing. and it is killing people. it is coming people in the rural communities and on the border, making them more's except of -- susceptible to it. amy: susan hays, thank you for being with us, special counsel to harris county, texas, on election matrs. has worked on election laws in texas for over 20 years. next we go to the battleground state of florida to speak with edwidge danticat about how more than a quarter of a million u.s.-born children could be separated from their parents. and we will speak with one of them. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "heat death" by futuro conjunto. this is democracy now! i'm amy goodman. we end today's show in the key battleground state of florida which could decide the presidential election. many political analysts say trump has little chance of winning the electoral college if he loses in florida, which has

29 electoral votes. we turn now to look at how trump and biden's immigration plans could impact the race in florida. over 273,000 u.s.-born children could be separated from their parents should trump win reelection and terminate temporary protected status, or tps. impactss put individuals from el salvador, haiti, honduras, nicaragua, sudan, and nepal. edwidge danticat writes about this in her new piece called "be the vote for immigrant families under threat by the trump administration." edwidge danticat joins us along with 13-year-old christina ponthieux, u.s.-born daughter of two tps recipients from haiti. she's a member of family action network movement, or fanm, and a co-chair of group's children for family reunification initiative. she testifies anywhere -- anyplace she can to talk about what is happening. edwidge danticat, we're on the

eve of the election. talk about what is at stake. cooks good morning and thank you for having us. there's a eat deal at stake overall. i think for so ny issues,or .mmigrion, covid, heal care what specifically with christina today is at ske is the fa that wther she will be able to stay with he famy or she anothechildrenn the sa situation as her -- there are so many of them -- and christine has a very powerfultory. when i meter in007 was e firs time tpsas aounced rminated and lawsuithave ke it goin mus veus nelsoin californ and anoer versu trp which the cas tt callys the on wall

tween the ll tminati of hristinahildrelike being able to stay in the only country they have ever known. amy: let's bring christina in right now. i want to read the beginning of the op-ed that you wrote "i've never seen a child work so hard to keep her family together. for the past four years, christina, 13, has been addressing rallies, attending congressional press conferences, writing open letters and recording videos addressed to elected officials including house speaker nancy pelosi and president donald trump." ,hristina, tell us your story your parents story, how you all came to the united states, how they came and you were born here. >> thank you for having me. my parents came from haiti.

they have been living in the u.s. for about 20 years now. 1999.ame in they came to america for a better life just because in haiti they could not really make their future a lot better. they did not see their future getting better where they were living. in 2010, they were granted tps becae of the earthquake that happened. sinceave been living here 1999. amy: just to be clear, this earth, 300,000 haitians died in the earthquake. >> yes. and many people work affected, lost a lot of family that we had there. so they granted tps and many other people tps, too. so they have been living here for 20 years. trump wasin 2017 mentioning he is terminating tps. , terminating tps

would affect all of us, especially kids like me who are u.s.-born children who have never been to their parents country before. their other children who may or may not even speak their parents leg which, their home countries language. so many of us could be affected on whether tps is terminated or not. i found out about this when i was nine years old. i found out my parents could be taken away from me at any time and there was nothing that i could really do about it. startedfirst time, i public speaking in this interview. they realized that i could do something with my voice. er since then, i have been public speaking, going to rallies, going to washington to speak with congress on this issue. it has been about four years now. amy: your parents are nurses? >> yes. alpn and my dad is an

rn. amy: you are 13, so you cannot vote. what do you tell kids your age to do? >> i cannot personally vote and there are kids who could not vote because of her age, but i do tell kids my age that are old enough to vote -- they can get their parents and idea, i should bode. i do speak to adults, too. i tell them, it is important you vote because even though it is one vote, many votes together can make a difference and your vote really does matter. it does come. amy: and florida sure does make a difference. on theer day we reported guardian reporting the trump administration had significantly increased deportations to haiti presidential election,e triggering concerns for the

safety of asylum-seekers and the possible spread of coronavirus in haiti. witness at the border has reported at least 12 deportation flights to haiti this month as immigrant advocates a black asylum-seekers are being disproportionately targeted. earlier this month, 60 cameroonian and other over two dozen congolese asylum-seekers manydeported en masse, alleging pies agents torture them to force them to sign removal papers. i want to bring edwidge danticat back into this conversation. i was speaking to someone engaged in a black voter -- black turnout to vote effort in massachusetts who said she spoke to someone, haitian-american woman, who lived here for decades, could vote and she said that she was afraid to go to the polls on election day because she was afraid she would be deported. can you talk about the chilling effect this has -- and if you

think this is part of the intention, all of this activity right before the election? >> absolutely, amy. i think this is part of voter suppression -- voter suppression is suca part of election day, escially in important ection in t unitestates. toknow the history of trying disenfranchise people to take away their ability to vote. now there is another layer i think with immigration and able who are citizens like all the ways they're going to make it harder to vote because -- miami-dade were we live, can potentially decide the selection. so i expect tomorrow there will probably be a lot of obstacles placed in the path of people of color, immigrants, people who might be voting for the first time. i'm not surprised by that. with the deportations, that seems to be part of thstart o partwo othe trump

administration's regression policy. stephen millerutlined what they were going to do, all the restrictions and that deportions, especially the most recent deportations during covid-19 seem to have accelerated in the last week. attack on to be both friends. voter suppression and the immigration front. amy: you wrote a piece earlier this year for "the new yorker" titled "the ripple effects of the coronavirus on immigrant communities." as we move into the selection and this record surge of covid-19 throughout florida, texas, the midwest, the upper ,idwest come across the country the effects you fear this will have on the election? and if you can comment on president trump coming to little haiti in florida years ago and

saying when he was running for president saying he wl represent haitian americans? -- ill, i think very few did not believe he was going to represent [indiscernible] worse thanly been actlly hinted wh the portatio, certaiy, that are accelered durincovid-19, the faly reunifition cano -ger applyor worieces certaiworkpiec that we availae to us befe. at is ceainly e opposi of tt promise bui think t ripple effects are throughou th iigration communi where we live.

miami-dade, weave quita lot of immration tmiamind peop ding covie' had a disproportion obably number of dehs here well. d peoe who armmigrant mite more afraid to go for health ceecause ty mit worry, f exale, if ty're the pcessedmmigrati, ey mightorry abo the puic charg about hing a greenca not avaable tthem later , withireduce t chansf progrs -- wou then ruce theichanceof coming cizens. there so mucht stake. i ink chrisna, is e of the reass why waed to wre abou h in is piecegives us a neway o lking tes mae some pple who were jad about ating, s reminds us and almy neibors remind us th theote real affectsot justs but pele arod the world. amy:inally, e wholeountry,

maybe thorld, isooking florid ablutely k state. inrder foronald trumpo win,e must w florida what a you loong at in the last 3econdshat weave? i'm lookinat tomorw the rnout. i hope they wi not be tting mounins ineople's way, that they c come ouand votend ten largnumbers and ve fothemselv and neibors and reallyote forheir fute. peopleike christina, young people are counting on us. vote for them. amy: i want to thank you both for joining us from the key battlegrounds 85 florida. edwidge danticat, the haitian-american novelist, and christina ponthieux of family action network movement, co-chair of group's children for family reunification initiative. one of 273,000 u.s.-born children who could be separated from their parents if trump wins reelection and terminates

temporary protected status. finally, this reminder, tomorrow, tuesday, november 3, democracy now! will air a three hour election night special from 9:00 p.m. to midnight eastn time. you can watch it live on our website at democracynow.org. we will cover the results from the presidential election to congressional and state races, as well as ballot initiatives around the country. democracy now! election night special feature interviews and perspectives you won't hear anywhere else. we will include voices of activists, grassroots leaders, discussion on how the movements on the ground will go forward following this historic election, and we will discuss election protection. we will discuss the voting around the country. that is not :00 p.m. to midnight eastern time. you can watch at democracynow.org were also stations across the country can run the democracynow special.

that does it for our show. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to outreach@democracynow.org or mail them to democracy now! p.o. box 693 new york, new york 10013. [captioning made possible by democracy now!]

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