The Presidential debate is one of the most viewed events in US history that occurs every four years. This single day sparks disputes that send waves through the public on who is right and who is wrong. Many key topics are covered over the debate, all meshed into approximately 90 minutes. With such important issues being addressed in just a few minutes, it’s inevitable that some details get left out during the debate. Therefore, it’s vital that the public understand each topic in depth, and with the new wave of teens finally being able to vote, touching on a topic with such dire consequences like immigration is essential.
Before we can dissect what was spoken about in the debate, what is immigration? Merriam-Webster defines immigration as “travel into a country for the purpose of permanent residence there.” This definition is not to be confused with illegal immigration, which is the act of “a foreign person who is living in a country without having official permission to live there.” as defined by Merriam-Webster once again. It’s important to recognize the difference between the two as some tend to misplace blame and group them together when both are quite different.
Now that you are familiar with these terms and the overall idea of immigration, what is the general issue surrounding it? There were two main opposing opinions regarding immigration, that being those for immigration who believe it does good, and those who believe it should not be a regular part of the United States.
Former President Donald Trump brought up the topic of immigration early into the debate, before it was prompted by the hosts during a part where he was speaking on inflation. “And they’re coming in and they’re taking jobs that are occupied right now by African Americans and Hispanics and also unions. Unions are going to be affected very soon. And you see what’s happening,” he said, referring to immigrants. He states that they are entering the United States through violent methods and were supposedly from mental institutions and insane asylums. He then named a few towns such as Springfield and Aurora, accusing Harris and President Biden of allowing the supposed ‘violent’ immigrants to enter. Unfortunately, Harris was not able to respond to this as the Host redirected the debate back to economy.
Vice President Kamala Harris did not seem to have any strong sentiments towards immigrants as a whole, and when prompted about immigration and border security in the debate, chose to speak on the illegal truck trafficking occuring along the border and how the Biden administration had attempted to instate 1,500 border agents through a bill which she claims did not go through due to the fault of Trump.
Trump seemed to focus more on the immigration portion of the question instead of border security, sharing his very strong sentiments towards immigrants through claims that they were quote, “eating the cats. They’re eating — they’re eating the pets of the people that live there. And this is what’s happening in our country. And it’s a shame.” It was later clarified that there were no actual credible reports of pets being harmed by immigrants by David Muir, an anchor for ABC News who was hosting the Presidential Debate.
Trump had also been questioned on his previous claims of deportation attempts, during which he confirmed his intention of deporting 11 million undocumented immigrants. He claimed that any and every type of criminal was being allowed into the country, raising the crime rate in the United States while dropping the crime rate for other countries, even going as far to name Venezuela twice.
Harris’s response accused Trump of some of the very things he had ranted about earlier: “Well, I think this is so rich. Coming from someone who has been prosecuted for national security crimes, economic crimes, election interference, has been found liable for sexual assault and his next big court appearance is in November at his own criminal sentencing,” Harris then redirected the debate to the housing shortage issue.
Unfortunately, immigration did not end up being a very controversial topic during the debate, despite it coming up a few times through a few of Trump’s arguments early into the debate. While unfortunate, the debate did give some insight into the sides each candidate took on the topic, which could influence many citizens when it comes to the final decision.
