Trump digs in on immigration lies: “Crime has gone down in the rest of the world, but it has skyrocketed here” | US Elections

The latest hoax Donald Trump has invented made its way into Tuesday’s presidential debate. From his podium, the Republican candidate repeated the lie propagated by his campaign and his supporters that immigrants in the country are eating citizens’ pets. “In Springfield, [Ohio]people coming into our country are eating the dogs, the cats, the pets of the people who live there. That is happening in our country, it is a disgrace,” he said. Moderator David Muir tried to clarify that there is no evidence that this is happening and that local authorities in Ohio have denied the former president’s statement, but it was of no use. As usual, the Republican dug in on this and other lies about immigration.

“I’ve seen people on TV saying ‘they took my dog ​​and ate him,’” Trump continued, despite Muir’s rebuttal. Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, for her part, simply stared at the former president with a look of disbelief before laughing at him.

This hoax was born as a strategy of Trump’s campaign to criticize the vice president’s handling of issues related to border immigration. This lie, which went viral as a meme, is based on two other falsehoods propagated by the Republican: that Harris is responsible for the rise in illegal immigration and that this increase in the arrival of immigrants to the country has led to a rise in all types of crimes, now including theft and the eating of domestic animals.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks to reporters after his debate with Democratic candidate Kamala Harris on Tuesday in Philadelphia.

Matt Slocum (AP/ LaPresse)Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris celebrates with supporters in Philadelphia following the outcome of the debate.
Jacquelyn Martin (AP/LaPresse)Donald Trump speaks to reporters after the debate with candidate Kamala Harris, on September 10 in Philadelphia. Matt Slocum (AP/ LaPresse)David Muir and Linsey Davis after the debate.Brian Snyder (Reuters)People gather to watch the debate in Philadelphia on the evening of September 10.Morry Gash (AP)Presidential candidates in the debate organized by ABC television.Brian Snyder (Reuters)Haitian-Americans react to the debate between the two US presidential candidates on Tuesday at a restaurant in Miami. Rebecca Blackwell (AP)Republican candidate Donald Trump during the debate.
Alex Brandon (Associated Press/LaPresse)A woman reacts to Republican candidate Donald Trump’s remarks during the debate on Tuesday in Portland, Maine. Associated Press/LaPresse (APN)A screen shows both candidates at the Pennsylvania convention center.Chip Somodevilla (Getty Images)Republican candidate Kamala Harris gestures during the debate.Associated Press/LaPresse (APN)Dozens of people gather at the Berkeley Art Museum and the Pacific Film Archive to watch the debate. Gabrielle Lurie (AP)Republican candidate Donald Trump speaks during the debate.Associated Press/LaPresse (APN)Members of a Republican club gather to watch the debate in Escondido, California.Mike Blake (REUTERS)Donald Trump and Kamala Harris shake hands before the debate.Brian Snyder (REUTERS)The stage for Tuesday night’s televised debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.Win McNamee (Getty Images)

However, none of this is true. For starters, Trump has said — and he repeated it again during the debate tonight — that President Joe Biden put Harris in charge of managing the country’s southern border as his “border czar.” In reality, she never held that position or had direct responsibility for the border, but she was tasked at the beginning of Biden’s term with coordinating diplomatic relations with the so-called Northern Triangle of Central America — El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras — to address the “root causes” of migration from these three countries.

On the other hand, as for Trump’s insistence that immigrants are driving up crime rates in the country, the data says otherwise. Several reports, including FBI figures, suggest that most crime has declined in the United States.

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But these facts matter little to Trump, as he demonstrated again tonight. “There are millions of people coming through our borders, we have to get them out,” he said in response to the first question of the debate (on the economy). He dropped similar lines in response to other questions throughout the debate, but when the focus turned to immigration, on the fourth question of the night, Harris forced him to deviate from his script for at least a few minutes. The vice president used most of her time in her response to mock Trump’s rallies. “I encourage you to attend a Trump rally because it’s an interesting event,” she said, and continued to mock the size of the Republican’s campaign events, insisting that many attendees decide to leave early because they are “bored.”

The Republican candidate speaks during his participation in the debate.

Alex Brandon (Associated Press/LaPresse)

The personal attack derailed the conversation on immigration right at the time it was being discussed. A visibly angry Trump accused Harris of busing people to her rallies and tried to defend his own campaign events.

The moderators soon returned to the topic of immigration, asking Trump how he intends to carry out “the largest deportation in the history” of the United States. The Republican gave few details about the operation, which would involve the expulsion of around 11 million people, and instead accused the Democratic Party of having “destroyed the social fabric of our country.” “Millions of people have arrived and in the rest of the world crime has gone down” while “here it has skyrocketed,” he insisted.