Republican Ohio Sen. JD Vance and Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz met on Oct. 1 where they debated over abortion, foreign policy, the economy and other topics. Here are fact-checks on a few of their claims.

“And when Iranian missiles did fall near U.S. troops, and they received traumatic brain injuries, Donald Trump wrote it off as headaches.” -Walz

Former President Donald Trump said in January 2020 that U.S. troops suffered “headaches and a couple other things” after Iran attacked a U.S. base in Iraq in retaliation for the assassination of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, according to the Associated Press. 110 troops suffered traumatic brain injuries, with 35 being treated in Germany and the United States, per Radio Free Liberty/Free Europe.

CBS News reported in November 2021 that several U.S. troops were denied the Purple Heart in the aftermath of the attack. Trump said Oct. 1, in response to a question about the 2020 Iranian attack, that “What does injured mean? You mean because they had a headache? Because the bombs never hit the fort?”

While the missiles did not kill anyone at the base, newly declassified footage showed missiles hitting within the perimeters of the base, according to Military.com. At least 30 aircraft and 150 soldiers were at risk during the attack, the outlet reported.

“[Border] crossings are down compared to when Trump left office.” -Walz

Border crossings have fallen in recent months, from a high of 249,700 encounters on the southwest border in December 2023 to about 58,000 in August 2024, according to Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) data. Border crossings in Trump’s final year, though, were lower with 54,771 encounters in September 2020, per CBP data. (RELATED: Fact-Checking Donald Trump’s Claim That Kamala Harris Wants To Bring Back The Military Draft)

Check Your Fact has covered the border crisis multiple times during the Biden presidency. Read more here and here.

“Right now in this country, Margaret, we have 320,000 children that the Department of Homeland Security has effectively lost.” – Vance

In August 2024, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)’s Office of Inspector General released a report that indicated U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) “could not monitor the location and status of unaccompanied migrant children (UCs) or initiate removal proceedings as needed.” According to the same report, ICE transferred over 448,000 UCs to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) “from fiscal years 2019 to 2023.”

During the same time period, 32,000 UCs failed to appear in immigration court. Additionally, as of May 2024, more than 291,000 UCs did not receive a Notice to Appear (NTA) from ICE, so they do not have immigration court dates set, according to the same report.

ABC News published a piece about the report in August 2024, reiterating that it showed how ICE was “not able to account” for the locations of all the UCs who have entered the U.S. Newsweek also covered the report, saying that while 32,000 children failed to appear in immigration court, the number of children ICE couldn’t account for might actually be higher since 291,000 did not receive NTAs.

Following the October 1 vice presidential debate, USA Today fact-checked Vance’s claim, stating he’d combined the two numbers and that, according to the same report, the number of UCs who failed to appear in court “may have been higher than 32,000.” USA Today stated that the report “does not say those children were ‘lost.’”

“And I didn’t accuse Kamala Harris of inviting drug mules, I said that she enabled the Mexican drug cartels to operate freely in this country, and we know that they use children as drug mules, and it is a disgrace and it has to stop.” -Vance

There have been reports on border patrol discovering children being used to smuggle drugs over the southern border. United States Teens have been targeted by the Cartels to be used as drug mules. U.S. San Diego County has seen a spike in the number of teens that smuggle drugs over the border.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported in 2020 that a mother used her 13-year-old son to smuggle drugs over the border. Border security discovered bundles of fentanyl and  methamphetamine strapped to the child.  (Fact Check: Do These Images Show The Inside Of Diddy’s Home During Raid?)

The Department of Justice reported in 2018 saying, “In less than a year, at least 70 juveniles were arrested at the Port of Entry trying to smuggle methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin and deadly Fentanyl into San Diego County.”

This has been an ongoing issue for a long time. In 2012 CBS covered a story on a particular young person Luis Alberto, a 14-year-old, who was used to traffic methamphetamine.

“And the same thing goes with this and I ask you out there, teachers, nurses, truck drivers, whatever, how is it fair that you’re paying your taxes every year and Donald Trump hasn’t paid any Federal Tax 10 to last 15 years, in the last year as President?” -Walz

“Six years worth of former President Donald Trump’s federal tax returns were made public in December 2022, which found that he paid “very little” in federal income taxes during his first and last year of his presidency, according to CNN. Trump was able to make this possible by reporting large losses—a $105 million loss in 2015 and $73 million in 2016, the outlet reported.

The same report found that Trump paid no federal income tax in 2020, his last year as president, and that 4.1% was the highest effective tax raid he paid on his income during the period between 2015 and 2020, according to Bloomberg. Not paying federal income tax in 2020 was made possible because he reported $16 million loss from his real estate businesses, putting him nearly $5 million in the red for the year, according to The Hill.

Walz’s statement was likely referring to a New York Times report in September 2020 which found that Trump paid $750 in federal income taxes the year he won the presidency, then an additional $750 during his first year in the White House. The report found that he paid no income tax at all in 10 of the last 15 years. The outlet obtained data on Trump’s tax returns spanning over two decades, including his first two years in office, not including 2018 and 2019.”

 “So we’ve got 20, 25 million illegal aliens who are here in the country.” -Vance

Estimates vary, but most estimates appear to show that 11-12 million illegal immigrants are in the country, according to PolitiFact. (RELATED: Media Outlets Claim Trump Falsely Accused Harris Of Wanting ‘Transgender Operations’ On Imprisoned ‘Illegal Aliens’)

One estimate, from the Department of Homeland Security, states that 11 million illegal immigrants lived in the country as of January 2022. Another estimate from the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank that advocates for lower immigration, states there are 12.3 million illegal immigrants as of May 2023, though the group’s research director told PolitiFact that they estimated 14 million.

Simon Hankinson, senior research fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation’s Border Security and Immigration Center, previously told Check Your Fact that said an estimate of 20-30 million illegal immigrants in the country was “credible” based on studies conducted by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) and Yale University.

“Estimates of the number of people here in the U.S. illegally are just that – estimates. The number 12 million has floated around for over a decade and is surely too low. There are between 16.8 million and 29 million aliens illegally present in the US according to FAIR and Yale studies,” Hankinson said.

“That’s not what the [abortion] bill says.” Walz, when asked if he supports abortion into the ninth month. 

Minnesota does not have any restrictions on abortion based on gestational limits after Walz signed a bill overhauling abortion law in the state. Read more here.

Christine Sellers, Anna Mock, Joseph Caiseri and Elias Atienza contributed to this report.

Editor’s note: More fact-checks may be added to this article.