Kayla Epstein
US reporter

After spending several minutes criticising the Biden administration's border policies, Donald Trump pledges that as president, he would invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to crack down on migrants.

The centuries old law allows a president to detain or deport non-citizens during wartime. It was last used in World War Two to intern or deport individuals hailing from Italy, Germany, and Japan - including some Jews who had fled Nazi Germany.

Mike Wendling
Reporting from Madison, Wisconsin

While Donald Trump continues attacking his opponent at his rally in Wisconsin, Kamala Harris is about to address supporters in the same battleground state.

For Trump's rallies and on conservative media, “garbage” is the word of the day.

For context: President Joe Biden appeared to refer to Trump supporters as "garbage" at a campaign event – he later said it was directed at a comic who called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” during a Trump rally over the weekend.

It’s that original comment that has stuck in the mind of voters here at Harris's rally.

“As a Latino, it’s disgusting,” says Mallory Malvitz. "It’s hateful that that’s what people think about people like me."

Mallory and another young voter she’s with say that far from considering those with opposing views “garbage”, they have no problem trying to talk with them.

“Some of my family are Trump supporters, they’re not the happiest that I’m here today but I know my beliefs,” she says.

Trump is attacking Kamala Harris at length in Wisconsin and tells supporters millions would "die" in a Third World War if she wins.

He says: "Kamala Harris's gross incompetence, her gross incompetence disqualifies her from being president of the United States of America.

"She's incompetent. Everyone knows it. No one respects her, no one trusts her, no one takes her seriously.

"To make her president would be a gamble with the lives of millions of millions of people, she would get us into a Third World War."

Trump then refers to the Democratic Party as a "savage machine" and adds: "All your sons and daughters will end up getting drafted to fighting endless wars."

Returning to the theme a few minutes later, Trump says he "will prevent World War Three".

Trump is now on a familiar part of his 2024 stump speech: Immigration.

He says, without evidence, that Harris is "importing" migrants from foreign countries, and claims that people from "insane asylums" and "mental institutions" around the world are coming to the US.

Trump has ratcheted up his rhetoric against migrants in this election, as border security remains a key issue for voters. Trump has pledged to conduct mass deportations of people in the US illegally if elected.

He tells the crowd he will ensure the death penalty for migrants who commit murder against first responders and says he will "immediately ban all sanctuary cities".

Trump plays a video featuring the mother of Jocelyn Nungaray, a 12-year-old girl who was killed in Houston, Texas. Two men from Venezuela who were in the US illegally were charged over her death, CNN reported., external

Image source, Reuters

Trump is working his way through a partially-improvised speech in Wisconsin.

"Kamala, you're fired!" he says, adopting his catchphrase from his former TV show, The Apprentice. "Get the hell out of here!" he adds.

Between asides criticising Harris, praising Elon Musk, and his hi-vis safety vest, Trump hits on his key policy proposals.

Trump makes pledges to "rapidly defeat inflation;" "drill baby drill," his shorthand for expanding fossil fuel production in the US; "massively cut taxes" for workers and small businesses; and reasserts his call for "no tax on tips."

Are illegal migrants coming from jails and insane asylums?published at 00:09 Greenwich Mean Time 31 October

00:09 GMT 31 October

By Lucy Gilder

As Donald Trump continues attacking Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, he says: "They [other countries] are emptying their mental institutions and insane asylums into the United States of America, and these two stupid people allow it to happen."

He's repeatedly claimed this and has not provided evidence and there is no data to back up this claim, which looks like a big exaggeration.

Of the 1.5 million apprehensions of people crossing the border illegally so far this financial year (October 2023 to September 2024) and where Border Patrol was able to check against law enforcement databases - about 15,608 were of people with previous criminal convictions, external.

The most common convictions are:

• for illegal entry into another country – 9,545
• driving under the influence – 2,577
• drug possession and trafficking offences – 1,414

Last month, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) released figures showing it had recorded 662,566 "noncitizens with criminal histories", external - which includes those currently detained by the agency and those not detained.

However, the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees Ice, said the figures cover a period of many years, and include migrants who entered the US under the Trump presidency and previous administrations.

Read more here.

Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from Washington

At this rally in Wisconsin, Donald Trump tells supporters about the moment he learned that former astronaut Buzz Aldrin was endorsing him.

"I had respect for him for many years – great astronaut," he says.

Earlier, Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, confirmed his support for Trump.

In a statement, Aldrin said that the presidency requires "an understanding of human nature, clarity in judgement, decisiveness, knowledge, understanding, and calm under pressures few have a natural ability to manage".

Aldrin – who has previously been active in Republican politics – praised Trump's support of the National Space Council, his creation of the US Space Force and the "great advancement in the private sector space economy" by people like Elon Musk.

Image source, Get

Image source, Reuters

Donald Trump seizes on President Joe Biden's "garbage" comments immediately at this rally – he's even swapped his usual suit jacket for an orange hi-vis safety vest.

"You are not garbage," he tells roaring supporters, adding that they are "the heart and soul" of the US.

Attacking Biden and Kamala Harris, Trump says: “They treat our whole country like garbage", and lists off what he calls “horrible things they’ve done to hurt our country”.

Before the rally, Trump was picked up from the airport in a white garbage truck emblazoned with his campaign logo on the side – and now he thanks "all of our incredible sanitation workers" across the country.

For context: President Joe Biden has tried to clarify his comments after he appeared to call supporters of Donald Trump "garbage", sparking conservative uproar. Biden claims he was referring to a comic, who called Puerto Rico a "floating island of garbage" at a Trump rally at the weekend.

Image source, Reuters

Donald Trump is just taking to the stage in Green Bay, Wisconsin – we'll bring you more on that in a moment.

The polls in the US election are incredibly tight, but if Trump loses there are concerns that he will refuse to accept the results, as he did in 2020.

Our analysis editor Ros Atkins looks at why these concerns have emerged and what might happen this time in this video:

Mike Wendling
Reporting from Wisconsin

Let's check in with what's happening in Wisconsin - another key battleground state where Trump is slated to host a rally shortly.

It seems a little old fashioned, but on the interstates winding through Milwaukee, the biggest city in the swing state of Wisconsin, the election has been playing out on billboards.

The messages have been flashing – many of the roadside adverts are digital these days - since well before the Republican National Convention here in July.

More of them, judging from my unscientific survey, feature Trump – both for and against.

One, posed by a pro-Harris group, shows his scowling mugshot and the words: “Trump doesn’t have the greatest personality”.

Some of the most striking adverts include simple messages. A billboard showing Kamala Harris lists her accomplishments, like expanding health care and … well, I’m not sure what else, because I was going too fast to read the rest of the list.

By contrast, a pro-Trump billboard hearkens back to the assassination attempt against him in July. It shows the iconic picture of the Republican candidate raising his fist in the air after being shot at and the words “Fight, Fight, Fight”.

Before we leave Pennsylvania, it's worth briefly recapping why Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are fighting so hard to win this state.

In a nutshell: It’s hard to win the White House without Pennsylvania, which carries the most electoral votes of all the swing states.

What's the deal now? Pennsylvania’s prized 19 electoral votes make it one of the most visited states by both candidates. It is also the place where a supporter of Trump was killed at a rally, in a hail of bullets targeting the former president.

Famous for: The Liberty Bell, Will Smith and the 72 “Rocky Steps”.

2020 margin: Biden by 82,000 votes.

Population: 12.97m, same as Moscow

• Seven swing states are set to decide this election - read more about them here

Tom Bateman
Reporting from Pennsylvania

A few moments ago, Harris's rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania was interrupted three times by protesters supporting Palestinians against Israel’s military assault in Gaza.

It’s a sign of just how potent and divisive an issue this is for the Democrats, and it continues to disrupt the VP’s very stage-managed campaign.

I saw the first protest close up, behind us in the press area, where a woman with a large Palestinian flag was eventually escorted from the building, after a man with a Harris-Walz sign tried to block her holding it up.

Shortly afterwards there was more heckling from elsewhere in the crowd.

On the third occasion a man closer to the stage held up a small Palestinian flag and shouted something I couldn’t hear, which led Harris to address the interruption.

“Look I’ll repeat it. We are fighting for our democracy, we love our democracy. It can be complicated at times but it is the best system in the world,” she said. The crowd tried to chant over the heckler. “It’s okay, it’s alright” said Harris several times as he was led away.

What’s notable is that while Harris portrays the interruptions as part of a tolerant democracy, she doesn’t tend to use the platform to address the related substantive issue during the campaign – America’s military assistance to Israel during the ongoing war.

Image source, Getty Images

Before heading to Wisconsin, Kamala Harris is squeezing in another rally in Harrisburg, which is in another of the key states – Pennsylvania.

"Are we ready to do this?" she says, while the crowd loudly chants her name.

Donald Trump, she says, "wants to keep us divided, afraid of each other".

"Many folks are just exhausted with it all. They know it is time to stop pointing fingers and to start locking arms," she says.

Repeating lots of her key campaign points, Harris says the US needs a "new generation of leadership", pledging to unify the country, strengthen the economy and fight against criminals.

Democrats are being "intentional about building a coalition", she says, adding: "We all have so much more in common than what separates us".

Pennsylvania: At a glance

Kayla Epstein
US reporter

A judge in the swing state of Pennsylvania has extended the deadline for voters in Bucks County to request mail ballots until Friday, after Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee sued the local election board.

The lawsuit alleged voters in Bucks County were turned away when they tried to obtain mail ballots this week due to long lines at poll sites. The filing includes accounts from three voters.

Pennsylvania does not have early voting like some other states: Voters who want to cast a ballot before election day can request a mail ballot, receive it, and then submit it. The original deadline was 17:00 on Tuesday.

Local media and voters had reported long lines at some locations.

“We are aware that, due to a miscommunication, individuals in line to apply for an on-demand mail-in ballot were briefly told they could not be accommodated,” Bucks County government posted on X on Tuesday. “In fact, these voters were given the opportunity to submit mail-in ballot applications today.”

Bucks County, which sits just north of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is a critical county in arguably the US's most important swing state.

A local journalist in Philadelphia reported that law, external enforcement officers at one location had monitored the end of the line, but people were given applications and told to turn them in by 17:00 local time.

A reporter for an NBC affiliate, external in Doylestown said she hadn't seen people ejected from the line at her location.

Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from Washington

A new poll suggests that significant numbers of voters - particularly in swing states - fear that violence may erupt in the event of a contested election next week.

The Washington Post-Schar School poll of 5,000 registered voters in six swing states found that 57% are very or somewhat worried that Donald Trump's supporters would turn violent if he loses, compared to 31% who think the same of Kamala Harris and her supporters.

About two-thirds of voters said they are not confident that Trump would accept defeat is he loses - approximately the same amount of respondents who said they believed Harris would acknowledge her loss.

These concerns have been shared by election officials across the country.

Separate statistics released by the Brennan Center for Justice in May found that 90% of local officials surveyed said that they had already increased security for voters, local officials or election-related infrastructure.

Tom Bateman
Reporting from Pennsylvania

We’ve just landed in Pennsylvania on Air Force 2 as Harris’ triple swing state tour continues.

Everywhere we’re going is on a knife edge. Convincing the remaining undecideds is as critical as getting her own base out to vote.

At her big rally just now in North Carolina, one of the most interesting things happened before Harris spoke. A woman called Jennifer Bell was introduced to the stage.

Bell described herself as a former “outspoken Republican voter” - triggering loud boos. She said she was a fiscal conservative who made an “honest mistake” voting for Trump in 2016.

Image source, Reuters

Bell then told the crowd of Democrats she had been trying for years with her husband to have IVF fertility treatment - and portrayed Trump’s positions on reproductive rights as a threat to this for all such couples.

I got a feel for the increasingly tribal divisions in this country as the loud jeering grew at every mention of Trump and Republicans. But this was an attempt to appeal beyond the base.

Bell represents a core target group for Harris to win in the battlegrounds - suburban, often traditionally conservative women who might ordinarily vote Republican, but who flinch at Trump’s character and track record on abortion. To ensure a win, Harris needs to persuade them.

Mike Wendling
Reporting from Wisconsin

Image source, BBC / Mike Wendling

Anne Driessen came prepared.

Overhearing me talking to other Donald Trump supporters waiting in line to get into a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, she pulls out a black trash bag and waves it around.

It’s a reference to Joe Biden’s comments about Trump supporters being "garbage" – and it’s made her furious.

“We’re accustomed to this from the other side,” she says, referring to the Democrats. "He's been called Stalin, Hitler, and Mussolini - why don’t they just call him Satan?"

"They lump us all together too," she says.

It’s an "us vs them" sentiment that I hear from several voters waiting in line to hear their candidate – they see hatred and fury coming at them from the other side.

"It's not OK" to use words like "garbage" says a woman who will only identify herself as Ash.

"We're not all the same, and a lot of us are politically moderate... but I feel like more of the insults are coming from that [other side]," she says.

Biden was accused of calling Trump supporters "garbage" on Tuesday evening, but the White House has said he was referring to comic Tony Hinchcliffe, who ignited controversy by calling Puerto Rico, a US territory, an "island of garbage" during a Trump rally.

Harris has distanced herself from the comments, saying she disagrees with criticising people based on who they vote for.

Gareth Evans
Reporting from Washington

Image source, Getty Images

We're turning our attention to Wisconsin for a bit as it hosts both presidential candidates - Donald Trump will be in Green Bay before Kamala Harris holds an event of her own in Madison.

It’s no coincidence that both candidates are there - it’s a key swing state which picked the winning candidate in both 2016 and 2020 by a very narrow margin.

And it’s not the first time the state has been in the eye of the political storm this election cycle, as it hosted a raucous and jubilant Republican National Convention in July.

I was at the days-long event in Milwaukee - it was celebratory, confident and many Republicans we spoke to there felt certain of a Trump win in November.

But much has happened since that convention, which saw Hulk Hogan tear his shirt off on stage as he shouted Trump’s name and Kid Rock perform to hundreds of dancing delegates.

Most notably, of course, is that just days after the convention ended Joe Biden dropped out. Now polls suggest a neck-and-neck race, including in Wisconsin, which is why both campaigns are keen to focus efforts there at this late stage.

Mike Wendling
Reporting from Wisconsin

Image source, BBC / Mike Wendling

I've made it to my first Wisconsin stop of the day - but Donald Trump won’t speak here in Green Bay for about five hours from now.

That hasn't stopped hundreds upon hundreds of his biggest fans from showing up very early.

Trump will be joined by Brett Favre, former star quarterback for this city’s beloved American football team, the Packers.

Although he's a hero here, Favre has been mired in a scandal in his home state of Mississippi, over allegedly taking payments from a welfare fund. He's paid back $1m, and has faced grilling by lawmakers, but has not been criminally charged.

Above the waiting crowd an electronic sign displays messages including: "Nov. 5: The most important day in the history of our country."

I'll be asking people what they think of the state of the race and recent events such as President Biden’s "garbage" remark. I'll let you know what I hear from them before I head to a Kamala Harris event in Madison later today.

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America correspondent

Overwhelmed by the polls? Given the tightness of this race, it’s easy to become obsessed by the small shifts in voter preference in the key battleground states.

In one survey, Kamala Harris seems to have an edge. In another, Donald Trump is in the lead. Virtually everything is within the margin of error, which means it’s almost impossible to figure who is ahead.

A Monmouth survey of Pennsylvania voters released earlier today, external provide a little extra insight into some of the decisions that pollsters make when producing their results.

When Monmouth tabulates responses of all registered voters, Trump leads 47% to 46%. When only those who the pollsters considered "highly likely" to vote were included, Harris led 51% to 46%.

Trump led among "moderate" and "low" likelihood voters, 49%-43% and 47%-42%.

Combine "high" and "moderate" – a reasonable turnout scenario – and we’re back to a near tie, with Harris at 48% to Trump’s 47%.

Shifts in turnout leads to sometimes dramatic shifts in the results. And each pollster is trying to figure out what the electorate will look like when the results are tabulated on Tuesday.

Most polling firms make those decisions behind closed doors, but Monmouth pulled back the curtain a bit.