Former President Donald Trump, at his last North Carolina campaign stop, announced he would impose a substantial tariff on goods from Mexico if the country does not stop the flow of migrants coming into the U.S.

The event in Raleigh marked Trump’s last pitch to voters in North Carolina before Election Day — one of three scheduled battleground state stops on Monday.

“This is really the end of a journey. But a new one will be starting. And that’s the one we’ve wanted to partake in, which is basically to Make America Great Again,” Trump told attendees.

Trump announced for the first time that, if elected, he would impose an immediate 25% tariff on everything imported from Mexico if the country did not stop the influx of migrants and drugs pouring into the country. 

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“I’m going to inform her [Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum] on day one, or sooner, that if they don’t stop this onslaught of criminals and drugs coming into our country, I’m going to immediately impose a 25% tariff on everything they send in to the United States of America,” Trump said during the rally.

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“You’re the first ones I’ve told that to. Congratulations, North Carolina,” he added. “And it’s only got a 100% chance of working, because if that doesn’t work, I’ll make it 50, and if that does work, I’ll make it 75 for the tough guys. Then I’ll make it 100.”

Trump said that Mexico is “ripping us off left and right” as one of the U.S.’ biggest trading partners.

Republican presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump takes the stage during a campaign rally at the J.S. Dorton Arena on Nov. 4, 2024 in Raleigh, North Carolina. (Chip Somodevilla)

Trump further discussed his plan for immigration and the southern border, saying, “We want people to come into our country, but they have to come in legally.”

“I will invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to target and dismantle every migrant criminal network operating on American soil. And if they come back into our country, it’s an automatic 10 years in jail with no possibility of parole,” he said. “And I’m hereby calling for the death penalty for any migrant that kills an American citizen or a law enforcement officer. And I will immediately ban all sanctuary cities.”

The former president also highlighted record early voting in the state, after about 4.2 million North Carolinians cast their ballots ahead of Election Day.

Hundreds of migrants are heading in a migrant caravan called the ‘Rey de Reyes’ toward the U.S. along the roads of southern Mexico in La Venta, the present-day Mexican state of Tabasco on Oct. 22, 2024. 

Data from the North Carolina Board of Elections reveals that ballots cast through Friday show more than 1.4 million registered Republicans voted early compared to 1.35 million registered Democrats in the battleground state. 

Trump was joined at Monday’s event by Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose detailed efforts by the Biden-Harris administration and liberal groups to push back on audits of voter rolls across the country ahead of Election Day.

LaRose highlighted his own lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) aimed at forcing the administration to share data he says would help identify non-citizens who are registered to vote. The ACLU and other left-leaning groups have also challenged efforts to clean up voter rolls in Ohio and other states.

“It should come as no surprise that the irresponsible Biden-Harris administration, who has thrown open the doors on the southern border; who has allowed our nation to be invaded in many ways… are also not allowing me as an election official to access data to prove that only American citizens are able to vote,” LaRose said.

“It’s shocking, and they left me no choice but to sue them,” he added.

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The lawsuit claims there were four instances in which Ohio’s requests for access to federal Person Centric Query Service (PCQS) and Central Index System 2 (CIS2) records were ignored or denied.

“On October 10, 2024, nearly three months after first requesting assistance, Secretary LaRose received a response from DHS. The letter claimed that Ohio’s access to the SAVE program was sufficient—despite Ohio’s previous letters explaining why SAVE is largely useless here because Ohio lacks the identifiers needed to find specific individuals in SAVE,” the lawsuit reads.

Ohio’s ongoing search for wrongful voter registrations relies on analysis and cross-checks against records provided by the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles, the DHS Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database, the Social Security Administration, federal jury pool data and other resources.

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While LaRose’s office can access the SAVE database, states using it have to pay $1.50 for each query for records, and finding the information required to properly search the data is cumbersome, LaRose says.

The PCQS data the Biden administration has declined to share would provide a more comprehensive picture of whether any non-citizens remain registered to vote in Ohio, LaRose says.

When reached for comment by Fox News Digital, a DHS spokesperson said they are “engaged with Ohio and will continue to correspond with them directly through official channels.”

The ACLU sued LaRose’s office in an effort to stop certain people from having to verify their citizenship. (getty)

The DHS also pushed back on LaRose claim that the additional federal data would be helpful.

“A manual review of hundreds of thousands of records by the PCQS only allows users to submit one query at a time and would still not lead to a definitive result. Moreover, it would not be an efficient or accurate way to verify U.S. citizenship,” the DHS said.

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“PCQS returns aggregated results across many different immigration systems for a single query at a time. Use of PCQS would require manual review of the results in each case to determine immigration status, as the systems may return disparate or conflicting results. As such, PCQS is not an option for state and local agencies to use for voter verification purpose,” it added.

Voters across the country are prepared to head to the polls on Election Day. (Paul Bersebach/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images)

LaRose went on to detail efforts by liberal groups to block the removal of registrations.

“Just yesterday, we won a major lawsuit in federal court where the ACLU sued me – this sounds like something that’s in the Babylon Bee – they sued me to say that we should accept non-citizen ID cards and then just allow people to vote without any citizenship verification.”

“Thankfully, common sense prevailed and the ACLU lost that. Of course, if your state-issued driver’s license says ‘non-citizen’ on it, we’re not going to simply hand you a ballot. We’re gonna ask for you to verify your citizenship,” he added.

The Biden-Harris administration has attempted to block states from cleaning up their voter rolls in the final days before Election Day. (Tierney L. Cross)

The ACLU’s lawsuit pertained to naturalized citizens attempting to vote with an ID that labeled them a non-citizen due to it being obtained prior to their naturalization. The ACLU argued such citizens should be able to affirm their naturalization on a government document at the polling site, while LaRose argued such an individual must provide their naturalization documents before casting a ballot.

“Requiring naturalized citizens to bring additional documentation to verify their eligibility to vote is not only burdensome and discriminatory, it’s unlawful,” Freda Levenson, legal director of the ACLU of Ohio, said of the suit.

A federal judge sided with LaRose on the issue last week.

LaRose added that the Justice Department has also sued states for attempting to remove bad registrations. Such DOJ lawsuits accuse state officials of violating the federally mandated “quiet period” that prohibits the systematic removal of registered voters within 90 days of Election Day.

The DOJ sued Virginia earlier in October in exactly this fashion, though the Supreme Court sided with state officials in a ruling last week.

The Georgia Supreme Court ruled Monday that absentee ballots that were mailed late to voters in Cobb County will only be counted if they arrive back to election officials by Election Day, sparking GOP leadership to take a victory lap. 

“HUGE election integrity victory in Georgia. Democrat-run Cobb County wanted to accept 3,000 absentee ballots AFTER the Election Day deadline. We took this case to the Georgia Supreme Court,” RNC chair Michael Whatley posted to X on Monday. 

“We just got word that we WON the case. Election Day is Election Day – not the week after. We will keep fighting, keep winning, and keep sharing updates,” he added. 

Last week, it was revealed that about 3,000 absentee ballots were mailed late to voters in Cobb County, with just days to spare ahead of Election Day. A county judge ruled on Nov. 1 that the Cobb County Board of Elections could count the ballots if they arrived by 5 p.m. Nov. 8, and were postmarked by 7 p.m. Nov. 5.

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On Monday, the state’s Supreme Court granted an emergency motion ruling that ballots will only be counted if they are received by 7 p.m. Tuesday. 

Voters cast their ballots during the last day of early voting in Gwinnett County, Georgia, on Nov. 1, 2024. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“Consistent with OCGA § 21-2-386, the Cobb County Board of Elections and Registration (the ‘Board’) may count only those absentee ballots received by the statutory deadline of 7:00 p.m. on Election Day, November 5, 2024.” the order reads. 

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The ruling comes after the ACLU, ACLU of Georgia, and Southern Poverty Law Center filed a lawsuit last week regarding roughly 3,000 voters in Cobb County who did not receive absentee ballots. A Superior Court judge subsequently ordered election officials to overnight mail the delayed absentee ballots, and ruled that the ballots should be counted if they are received by Nov. 8. 

The ACLU lamented the state Supreme Court ruling on Monday, and urged “all affected voters to prioritize voting in person on Election Day, November 5, 2024, if at all possible.”

Former President Trump speaks at a campaign rally at Santander Arena in Reading, Pennsylvania, Nov. 4, 2024. (Reuters/Brian Snyder)

“This afternoon, the Georgia Supreme Court denied relief for Cobb County voters who requested absentee ballots on time but did not receive them on time due to the county’s failure to mail them promptly. The lower court had ruled that an extension of the absentee receipt deadline was necessary in order to protect these voters’ constitutional right to vote, but the Georgia Supreme Court stayed that ruling, removing the relief that the lower court had ordered. The November 8 extension deadline that the earlier order had issued is no longer in effect,” the ACLU said in a statement. 

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.