This combination of photos shows Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump, left, and Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris during an ABC News presidential debate at the National Constitution Center, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump went full throttle on immigrants during the Sept. 10 presidential debate, vowing to deport at least 15 million migrants immediately after taking office.

“These people coming in…they’re eating the dogs. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people that live there,” said the former President, referencing debunked reports of Haitian migrants trapping animals and barbecuing them in Springfield, Ohio.

Karen Graves, strategic engagement manager for Springfield, told CBS News there was no evidence to substantiate such claims. “In response to recent rumors alleging criminal activity by the immigrant population in our city, we wish to clarify that there have been no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community,”she said.

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Sen. Ted Cruz, and X/formerly Twitter owner Elon Musk posted similar claims a day before the debate.

Immigration was at the center of the evening debate, which took place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a key battleground state. “Pennsylvania is the battleground of battlegrounds. It’s where everything’s going down,” Mohan Seshadri, executive director of the Asian Pacific Islander Political Alliance, told reporters at a Sept. 6 EMS news briefing.

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Trump kept invoking immigration into almost every question asked by ABC News reporters David Muir and Lynsey Davis. He blamed migration for high inflation levels. “We have millions of people pouring into our country from prisons and jails, from mental institutions and insane asylums. And they’re coming in and they’re taking jobs that are occupied right now by African-Americans and Hispanics and also unions.”

Trump blamed immigrants for high levels of crime, saying that their home countries, conversely, had seen a drop in crime as more criminals allegedly flood the US. “They are taking over the towns. They’re taking over buildings. They’re going in violently. These are the people that Harris and Biden led into our country. And they’re destroying our country. They’re dangerous.”

Muir asked Trump about his plan to deport more than 11 million migrants, asking if border patrol agents would “go door to door.” Trump evaded the question, saying the numbers were closer to 21 million people. He has said he will use the National Guard, the US military and local law enforcement to carry out the largest mass deportation in US history.

Throughout the debate, which went over its 90-minute time schedule, Harris, the daughter of an Indian immigrant mother, and a Jamaican immigrant father, did not once defend or champion immigration and migration.

The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy released a report in August noting that in 2022, undocumented immigrants paid nearly $100 billion in federal, state and local tax revenue, an average of roughly $9000 per person.

Undocumented immigrants that year paid $25.7 billion in Social Security taxes, $6.4 billion in Medicare taxes, and $1.8 billion in unemployment insurance taxes in 2022. But they are barred from receiving Social Security, Medicare, or unemployment benefits.

If implemented, Trump’s draconian mass deportation plan would “create a perfect storm of economic hardship for California and other major agricultural states,” said Edward Kissam, in a recent op-ed for EMS. Undocumented immigrants add about $2 billion annually to California’s coffers.

“Given that at least four out of five undocumented farmworkers plan to keep on working in agriculture for 5+ years, why deport them when labor shortages have been a constant challenge for the industry for at least two decades?,” questioned Kissam, noting that undocumented immigrants serve not only in the fields, but also as supervisors, production managers, packing house workers, technicians, truck drivers, and warehouse workers.

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During the Covid-19 pandemic, the US relied on nurses from the Philippines, who make up about one-third of foreign-born LVNs. Filipina nurses served on the front-line of the pandemic, working directly with patients in hospitals and assisted living facilities. Conversely, white nurses worked largely in outpatient settings, according to a report from the Berkeley Interdisciplinary Migration Initiative.

In total, immigrants account for 17% of U.S. GDP, amounting to $3.3 trillion annually.

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As Vice President, Harris has been tasked with getting the US border under control and getting at the root causes of migration from Central America. At the debate, Trump lashed into Harris’s failures in controlling the border, and claimed that millions of migrants had poured into the country under her watch.

Moderator Muir noted that illegal border crossings had reached an all time high over the past three years, and asked why the Biden Administration had waited until 6 months before the election to enact new policies.

Harris fought back with remarks she has made several times on the campaign trail. “I’m the only person on this stage who has prosecuted transnational criminal organizations for the trafficking of guns, drugs, and human beings.”

She noted that members of Congress last year came up with a bipartisan bill to secure the border, which she supported. “That bill would have put 1,500 more border agents on the border. It would have allowed us to stem the flow of fentanyl coming into the United States and put more resources to allow us to prosecute transnational criminal organizations for trafficking in guns, drugs, and human beings.”

“But you know what happened to that bill? Donald Trump got on the phone, called up some folks in Congress, and said, ‘kill the bill.’ Because he’d prefer to run on a problem instead of fixing a problem,” said Harris. “The people of our country actually need a leader who engages in solutions, who actually addresses the problems at hand.”

Moments after the debate, Harris got a much-anticipated endorsement from mega-star Taylor Swift, who, in a rebuff to Trump’s running mate JD Vance, posted her endorsement on Instagram alongside a photo in which she hugged her cat. (Ethnic Media Services)

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