It can be legitimately argued that this presidential election has been the strangest in the country’s history. From the assassination attempts on former President Donald Trump to President Joe Biden being excommunicated, politically speaking, from running for reelection to Vice President Kamala Harris being anointed as the Democratic nominee, there has been a whirlwind of historic events in just a few months. Things took another strange turn last week during the debate between Harris and Trump when the Republican nominee for president cited a claim on social media that illegal immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were stealing people’s pets and eating them. 

Trump shared the anecdote to heighten awareness of the many problems with illegal immigration and the failed border security policies favored by the Democrats and implemented by the Biden administration. However, instead of focusing on questionable claims about pets eaten by illegal immigrants, Trump and the Republicans echoing these accusations should instead return their focus to the tragedies of Laken Riley and Jocelyn Nungaray — two people who were slain by illegal immigrants. Unlike the notion of illegal immigrants barbarically eating pets, there is no uncertainty as to whether illegal immigrants killed Riley and Nungaray.