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Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who are you calling “fickle?”

Repeatedly labeling former President Donald Trump as a man of “fickle leadership” was a go-to line for Walz during the first and only debate between the vice president running mates of Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.

But it was Walz who came off as unsteady, wavering and not in command of the dialogue.

And it will be immigrants who will suffer most for his failings. Immigrants were left undefended – target practice for the debate.

Vance accomplished this with a certainty in his voice, a strident tone of conviction, as if he believes the lies that he stated. He gave a masterclass on scapegoating. Walz did little to refute Vance’s assertions.

Walz stammered, in circular comments, then flubbed virtually every time that Vance teed up a preposterous statement about migrants or the U.S. southern border.

According to Vance, who absolutely knows better, immigrants are to blame for every woe that might be troubling voters.

You can’t afford a down payment for a starter home, or even rent for a two-bedroom apartment without paying more than 60 percent of your income to the landlord? Well, then, it must be those dastardly devious immigrants, moving into cities nationwide.

How about migrants in our schools? Vance argued, repeatedly and dishonestly, that children of migrants have overcrowded classrooms. And there was Walz who voiced a somewhat bumbling reply at one point about Vance’s demonization of immigrants.

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

He tried too hard to be amicable, giving too much credit to Vance, saying that he believes Vance does want to solve issues surrounding immigration.

No, he doesn’t. Vance threw the Haitians legally living and working in his state, Ohio, under the bus repeatedly. Those are the immigrants who Trump falsely claimed to be eating people’s pets.

Here’s what Walz should have said to the lying, twisting-in-the-wind debate performance of Vance: Immigrants, even the undocumented, do contribute to our economy, in labor, job creation, production, and taxes paid.

In 2022 alone, undocumented immigrants paid $22.6 billion into the Social Security system via taxes and $5.7 billion in Medicare taxes, according to the American Immigration Council. They’re not eligible for either program. That money pays for U.S. born people who receive the benefits.

As a nation, we’re not building enough new homes and we haven’t been doing so for several decades. Specifically, there is a shortage of smaller starter homes for individuals and young families.

In basic economic terms that is a supply shortage, when compared to demand. The inability to afford what is available, speaks to hiring and wages not keeping up with the rising costs of homeownership and the hefty down payments necessary.

Here’s a tidbit to make Vance’s head spin: Guess which group plays a large role in the construction of new housing? Answer: The same immigrants he is trying to isolate as the cause for the housing shortage.

Actually, JD, they’re doing more to alleviate the problem than you will ever accomplish via spinning these lies.

Fentanyl is brought into the nation at ports of entry, smuggled in most often by U.S. citizens, not transported across mountains by cartels.

Immigrants who are convicted of violent crimes are deported after they complete prison sentences. A mass deportation, just to satiate Trump’s screeds about migrants, would be untenable and unethical, likely harming the economy and innocent families.

The problem is, when it comes to immigration, the American public has been spoon fed so much misinformation, it is difficult to unravel the falsehoods.

Realistically, it would take an entire debate – scratch that – an entire day of discussion to even begin educating people on the complexities of immigration law, including the more than 3 million cases now backlogged in immigration courts.

Let’s start with some basic numbers – the demographics. The undocumented immigrant population of the U.S. is 3.3% of the population or about 11 million people, according to government statistics.

Vance, in yet another lie that he repeated several times during the debate, claimed the number was more than double what it is.

Here’s why he gets away with it. Over all, the foreign-born population of the U.S. was about 14.3% in 2022, according to Pew Research Center. The last time that the foreign-born population was close to this percentage in the overall population was 1890, way before the memory of anyone currently living. In 1890, a historic high point was reached at 14.8%.

So it is higher than it has been in recent generations. And that kind of change can be challenging for people. If the growth is dramatic, to a small town in a relatively short period of time, there will be some struggles to adapt.

Honest politicians should take that into account. They’d use it as a talking point to inform, not inflame, people about immigrants.

In an ideal world, there would be other politicians to call out their peers – no matter what party they belong to – if the latter voice inaccurate statements about immigrants. Clearly, that is not the political reality for voters in 2024.

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(Readers can reach Mary Sanchez at msanchezcolumn@gmail.com and follow her on Twitter @msanchezcolumn.)

©2024 Mary Sanchez. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.