‘This is our Agincourt’: Trump’s campaigners are pounding the streets of a crucial election battleground
They’re calling Pittsburgh and its surrounding area “ground zero” in this election and we joined a crack team of Trump troops on manoeuvres in this crucial battleground territory.
It’s 9am in a packed hotel room outside the city and the Mighty American Strike Force is mustering.
“You are in the arena,” an organiser tells them. “If you’re British,” nodding to us, “this is our Agincourt.”
The Mighty American Strike Force gathers in a hotel room
This is arguably the most important county in the most important swing state.
Pennsylvania looks like the tightest race after Kamala Harris lost her lead here a few days ago and it has the greatest number of electoral college votes, 19 of them.
US election latest: Harris and Trump make late bid to woo voters
So, unless there is a big upset somewhere, whoever wins here wins the White House.
A Trump supporter told campaigners anyone who didn’t think the US had “fallen off a cliff” since Joe Biden was elected is “an idiot”
This has been Democrat country for decades, working-class industrial heartlands where the unions help deliver a Democrat vote and now more progressive liberals have reinforced the party’s urban strongholds.
But the Trump campaign sees an opening here and is out to exploit it.
Michael Hildreth talks to Pennsylvania voters
Church minister Michael Hildreth has driven for two days from Texas with his son to campaign in this crucial battleground state.
We join them and fellow campaigner Stacie, also from Texas, as they drive out into enemy territory, the Democrat suburbs, on the hunt for votes.
“Tensions are high,” he tells us. “This time, there’s hostility.”
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Battle to win votes in swing states
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The first voter he speaks to on the porch of his house says he’s a “Kamala guy”.
The second says he never votes.
Pennsylvania is arguably the most important county in the most important swing state
But he and Stacie find potential recruits as they pound the pavements nearby.
“It’s Trump and Vance,” says one man. “Closed borders, economic freedom, inflation, less crime, a businessman who knows how to run a business.”
“Anybody who doesn’t think this country has fallen off a cliff in the last four years is an idiot,” another Trump supporter tells us.
The economy and affordability motivates most people in the Pittsburgh suburb
As we pause for breath, I ask Michael what made him drive all this way to help Trump win here.
For him, it’s about ending America’s wars overseas.
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“The left-wing people are psychopaths. I’m not saying every single person who’s a Democrat is,” he says.
“But the people in power, they’re all about the money. And people will die. People have already died.
“Hundreds of thousands have died in Ukraine. And we’re going to see maybe millions upon millions dying if we don’t stop this war.”
Whoever wins in Pennsylvania likely wins the White House
He is a preacher and a pacifist and believes Trump will end the Ukraine conflict and not let others happen, so his son is never drafted to fight for other people in far-off foreign countries.
Many voters they encounter have more mundane concerns, though.
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It’s the economy and affordability that motivates most people we find in the quiet sunny streets of this Pittsburgh suburb.
The Trump camp thinks it has a chance because of that: if it can make its mark here and elsewhere in this all important state, the former president will return to the White House.
It’s 5.30am, but the car park outside a laundrette in south central Los Angeles is already bustling.
A woman is setting up a stand selling tacos on the pavement and the sun is beginning to rise behind the palm trees.
A group of seven women and two men are gathered in a circle, most wearing khaki green t-shirts.
The leader, a man named Francisco “Chavo” Romero, begins by asking how everyone is feeling. “Angry,” a few of them respond. “Proud of the community for pushing back,” says another.
Ron, a high school history teacher, issues a rallying cry. “This is like Vietnam,” he says. “We’re taking losses, but in the end we’re going to win. It’s a war.”
Francisco ‘Chavo’ Romero leads a volunteer group, attempting to warn people ahead of ICE raids
This is what the resistance against Donald Trump’s immigration policy looks like here. In the past month, immigration and customs enforcement agents – known as ICE – have intensified their raids on homes and workplaces across Los Angeles.
Since the beginning of June, nearly 2,800 undocumented immigrants have been arrested in the city, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The previous monthly high was just over 850 arrests in May this year.
Police use tear gas against protesters, angry at a recent immigration raid at a farm in Camarillo, California. Pic: AP
Videos have circulated online of people being tackled to the ground in the car park of DIY shops, in car washes and outside homes. The videos have prompted outrage, protests and a fightback.
“Chavo” and Ron belong to a group of organised volunteers called Union del Barrio. Every morning, a group of them meet, mostly in areas which have high immigrant populations.
The day I meet them, they’re in an area of LA which is heavily Latino. Armed with walkie talkies to communicate with each other, megaphones to warn the community and leaflets to raise awareness they set out in cars in different directions.
A volunteer from Union del Barrio shows Sky’s Martha Kelner how they try to stay one step ahead of ICE agents
They’re looking for cars used by ICE agents to monitor “targets”.
“That vehicle looks a little suspicious,” says Ron, pointing out a white SUV with blacked-out windows, “but there’s nobody in it”.
An elderly Latino man is standing on a street corner, cutting fruit to sell at his stall. “He’s the exact target that they’re looking for,” Ron says. “That’s what they’re doing now. The low-hanging fruit, the easy victim. And so that is proving to be more successful for their quotas.”
This man, selling fruit on a street corner in LA, is a potential target of immigration agents
In the end, it turns out to be a quiet morning in this part of LA, no brewing immigration operations. But elsewhere in the city, dawn raids are happening.
ICE agents are under pressure from the White House to boost their deportation numbers in line with Donald Trump’s campaign promise to crack down on illegal immigration.
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In June, tear gas and rubber bullets were fired at protestors demonstrating against immigration raids
Maria’s husband Javier was one of those arrested in LA. He came to the United States from Mexico when he was 19 and is now 58.
The couple have three grown-up children and two grandchildren. But Javier’s work permit expired two years ago, according to Maria and so he was living here illegally.
Maria’s husband Javier was arrested after his work permit expired
She shows me a video taken last month when Javier was at work at a car wash in Pomona, an area of LA. He is being handcuffed and arrested by armed and masked ICE agents, forced into a car. He is now being held at a detention centre two hours away.
“I know they’re doing their job,” she says, “but it’s like, ‘you don’t have to do it like that.’ Getting them and, you know, forcing people and pushing them down on the ground. They’re not animals.”
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Maria wipes away tears as she explains the impact of his absence for the past four weeks. “It’s been so hard without him,” she says. “You feel alone when you get used to somebody and he’s not there any more. We’ve never been apart for as long as this.”
The family have a lawyer and is appealing for him to remain in the US, but Maria fears he will be sent back to Mexico or even a third country.
Maria fears her husband, who has lived in the US for nearly 40 years, will be sent back to Mexico
“I don’t know what to say to my grandkids because the oldest one, who is five was very attached to his papas, as he calls him. And he’s asking me, ‘When is papa coming home?’ and I don’t know what to say. He’s not a criminal.”
The fear in immigrant communities can be measured by the empty restaurant booths and streets that are far quieter than usual.
People in LA are being asked to report sightings of ICE officials so others can be warned
I meet Soledad at the Mexican restaurant she owns in Hollywood. When I arrive, she’s watching the local news on the TV as yet another raid unfolds at a nearby farm.
She’s shaking her head as ICE agents face off with protesters and military helicopters hover overhead. “I am scared. I am very scared,” she says.
All of her eight employees are undocumented, and four of them are too scared to come into work, she says, in case they get arrested. The process to get papers, she says, is too long and too expensive.
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Soledad, who owns a Mexican restaurant, plans to hide her illegal workers if immigration officials arrive
“They call me and tell me they are too afraid to come in because immigration is around,” she says.
“I have to work double shifts to be able to make up for their hours, and yes, I am very desperate, and sometimes I cry… We have no sales, and no money to pay their wages.”
There is just one woman eating fajitas at a booth, where there would usually be a lunchtime rush. People are chilled by the raids.
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Soledad says she plans to hide her illegal workers if immigration officials arrive.
“I’ve told them, get inside the fridge, hide behind the stove, climb up where we have a space to store boxes, do not run because they will hunt you down.”
The White House says they’re protecting the country from criminals. ICE agents have been shot at while carrying out operations, their work becoming more dangerous by the day.
The tension here is ratcheting up. Deportation numbers are rising too. But the order from Donald Trump is to arrest even more people living here illegally.
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