Members of the U.S. military patrol the banks of the Rio Grande as seen from Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua state, Mexico on May 8, 2023.

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Henrika Martinez/AFP via Getty Images

In Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance shied away from bombastic untrue claims about immigrants eating people’s pets and instead tackled issues such as the impact of immigrants on U.S.-born worker’s wages.

“You make it harder for illegal aliens to undercut the wages of American workers,” he promised. “A lot of people will go home if they can’t work for less than minimum wage in our own country. And by the way, that will be really good for our workers who just want to earn a fair wage for doing a good day’s work.”

Most labor economists disagree with the claim that immigrants depress native-born worker wages.

Vance carefully dodged questions regarding family separation, a policy that caused uproar during former President Donald Trump’s administration. He falsely claimed guns are smuggled into the U.S. over the border with Mexico (in fact, it’s the other way around), and spoke about immigrants as being responsible for the housing crisis — a complex issue that even conservative analysts say pre-existed the current wave of migration, but has been exacerbated by it.

Watch NPR’s post-debate analysis, with Asma Khalid, Susan Davis, Tamara Keith and Stephen Fowler.

Both candidates spoke about fentanyl as related to immigration, which remains a pervasive myth: Fentanyl is overwhelmingly brought into the U.S. by people crossing legally, through ports of entry. The street supply of fentanyl is also drying up.

For his part, vice presidential candidate Gov. Tim Walz reminded debate viewers of the bipartisan bill that would have strengthened border enforcement. It was killed at the behest of Trump, and Walz repeated the Democratic vow that if elected, Kamala Harris will sign it “on her first day in office.”

Video credit: CBS News Vice Presidential Debate.

Immigration is one of the top concerns for voters and seen as a weak spot for Democrats, who, in response, have been flexing their muscle. On her recent trip to the Arizona border, Harrris vowed to “set rules at our border and to enforce them, and I take that responsibility very seriously.”

Video credit: CBS News Vice Presidential Debate.

Still, on several occasions at Tuesday’s debate, Walz was critical of the Republican campaign’s rhetoric on immigration. He criticized Vance for how he spoke about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio.

“When it becomes a talking point like this, we dehumanize and villainize other human beings,” he said.

Vance did not repeat the false rumors that he helped amplify earlier this month regarding Haitian immigrants eating dogs and cats.

“The people that I’m most worried about in Springfield, Ohio are the American citizens,” Vance responded.