Voters heard a lot about immigration during Tuesday night’s debate — they just didn’t hear much of anything new. At least not anything new and truthful.
Again and again, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris fell into their familiar talking points about immigration and border security.
In classic Trump fashion, the former president spouted old conspiracy theories about undocumented immigrants voting, committing crimes and getting gender-affirming health care.
But his newest attack — that immigrants are eating cats and dogs — may be his weirdest yet.
“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs. They’re eating — they’re eating the pets of the people that live there,” Trump said, spreading an unproven conspiracy theory about Springfield, Ohio.
Throughout the debate, Trump made a concerted effort to demonize immigrants and blame Harris for border crossings.
“These are the people that she and Biden let into our country, and they’re destroying our country,” Trump said. “They’re dangerous, they’re at the highest level of criminality, and we have to get them out.”
“They’ve taken their criminals off the street and they’ve given them to her to put in to our country, and this will be one of the greatest mistakes in history,” Trump continued. “And I think they probably did it because they think they’re going to get votes.”
Harris, for her part, brought up her history as a prosecutor and Trump’s role in killing a bipartisan border bill in the Senate.
“I’m the only person on this stage who has prosecuted transnational criminal organizations for the trafficking of drugs, guns and human beings,” Harris said.
“The United States Congress, including some of the most conservative members of the United States Senate, came up with a border security bill, which I supported,” she continued. “Donald Trump got on the phone, called up some folks in Congress and said, ‘Kill the bill,’ and you know why? Because he preferred to run on a problem instead of fixing a problem.”
As immigration has risen in importance for voters, both parties have sought to capitalize. Democrats have traditionally been on the defensive, but Harris showcased how the messaging for her party has changed, particularly after Democrats largely supported the border security compromise that Trump and Republicans scuttled.
Meanwhile, Trump returned to his more traditional messaging — that immigrants are a cause for crime and are taking jobs from current citizens.
The moderators did push back on some of the points spouted by Trump, pointing out that violent crime is down, according to FBI statistics, and that border crossings are also declining. (They also pointed out there have been no substantiated reports of migrants eating pets.)
Still, Trump used immigration to make his argument for minorities voting for him.
“They’re taking jobs that are occupied right now by African Americans and Hispanics, and also unions,” he said. “Unions are going to be impacted very soon.”
Conservative groups have pushed the idea that immigrant labor is bad for the working class. The claim shows up in Project 2025 and in Trump’s Agenda 47. But as the U.S. faces a labor shortage in certain industries, experts have pushed back on the claim.
All the same, the Trump campaign is trying to expand its base, with some evidence of limited success, and one recent poll suggests that smaller segments of these groups are warming to Republicans.
“Harris is sticking with what works with voters: taking border security seriously, leaning into how she’s addressed the issue and how she will continue to tackle it,” Beatriz Lopez, deputy director of the pro-immigrant group Immigration Hub, told NOTUS. “It’s in stark contrast to Trump, who continues to demonize immigrants and offering no solutions or policy.”
“He made zero effort to win over Latino voters, none. Instead, he made up random and unproven conspiracies about immigrants eating dogs in Ohio,” Democratic pollster Matt Barreto said. “Worse, Trump promised to use the military and local police to terrorize immigrant communities and separate families. This does not win over anyone, Latino or non-Latino.”
Some were disappointed by the degree Harris pushed back on Trump.
“She has not been as assertive as she should have been,” Oscar Chacón, co‐founder and senior strategy adviser of Alianza Americas, said. “But most of all, I am disappointed with the moderators.”
But not everyone thought Trump’s appeal to voters would fall flat. Asked if Trump’s immigration framing would work, GOP consultant Mike Madrid told NOTUS, “More than people think.”