(NewsNation) — Immigration has been a much-discussed issue in the 2024 presidential race between Democratic candidate Kamala Harris and Republican candidate Donald Trump.
Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, and Harris’ vice presidential pick, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, have fought over the issue as well.
This is what Vance has said about immigration.
Vance wants Trump’s border policies back
During the first debate between the vice presidential candidates, Vance advocated for reinstating policies enacted during the Trump administration, including mass deportations and military involvement on the border. Vowing to remove migrants who have committed “some form of crime,” Vance repeatedly blamed the Biden-Harris administration for the number of immigrants coming across the border. In response, Walz criticized Vance’s approach as demonizing immigrants.
At a recent campaign event in Peoria, Arizona, Vance said he wants to stop “doing mass grants of temporary protected status,” though he later deflected questions from local reporters about the possibility of deporting Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients and restarting family operations, The New York Times reported.
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NewsNation partner The Hill writes that the Ohio senator has backed finishing constructing the wall all along the U.S.-Mexico border. Opposed to “every attempt to grant amnesty” to undocumented immigrants, Vance said he instead supports merit-based reforms.
When he first ran for Senate in 2022, Vance, in an ad, claimed, “Joe Biden’s open border is killing Ohioans.”
Misinformation about migrants
Throughout his vice presidential campaign, Vance has spread false claims about Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio.
He and Trump have lied about them abducting and eating pets, even though Springfield city officials say there’s no evidence of them doing so.
Springfield Mayor Rob Rue, a Republican, said the sheriff’s department went back through the last 11 months and “have no verifiable claim that this has actually happened.”
Gov. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, refuted the claims about Haitian migrants as well on ABC.
“There’s a lot of garbage on the internet and, you know, this is a piece of garbage that was simply not true,” DeWine has previously said, adding that the Haitians who are in Springfield are legal and “here to work.”
Springfield says the Haitian immigrants are in the United States legally under a federal program that allows them to remain in the country temporarily.
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Such falsehoods amplified by the Trump-Vance campaign, however, have led to multiple bomb threats being made against schools, government buildings and politicians’ homes, forcing evacuations and closures.
Vance defended himself by saying he wanted to draw attention to Harris’ immigration policies, which he criticized as lax.
Asked by CNN’s Dana Bash about whether he knew the Haitian migrant rumors were false, Vance answered, “If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do.”
“I say that we’re creating a story, meaning we’re creating the American media focusing on it,” Vance said.
The White House has slammed Trump and Vance for repeating the misinformation.
“What’s deeply concerning to us is you’ve got now elected officials in the Republican Party pushing yet another conspiracy theory that’s just seeking to divide people based on lies and, let’s be honest, based on an element of racism,” National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby said at a Sept. 12 press briefing. “This kind of language — this kind of disinformation is dangerous because there will be people that believe it no matter how ludicrous and stupid it is, and they might act on that kind of information and act on it in a way where somebody could get hurt.”
NewsNation digital producers Anna Kutz and Damita Menezes, as well as The Associated Press, contributed to this article.
