Fact check: The first 2024 US presidential debate

WASHINGTON, United States — US President Joe Biden and Republican challenger Donald Trump traded barbs Thursday in the first debate of the 2024 election campaign.

AFP fact-checked what the candidates said on key issues.

Trump falsely claimed that under Biden, "we don't have borders anymore."

"Because of his ridiculous, insane and very stupid policies, people are coming in and they're killing our citizens at a level that we've never seen. We call it 'migrant crime.' I call it 'Biden migrant crime.'"

Following criticism over record border crossings and a bipartisan immigration bill that faltered in Congress, Biden signed an executive order early this month to temporarily shut down the border to asylum seekers after certain daily limits are hit.

That has amounted to "increased enforcement at the border," according to Nicole Hallett, director of the University of Chicago Law School's Immigrants' Rights Clinic.

Despite a few high-profile incidents, including the killing of a university student in the state of Georgia, there is "no evidence" of the migrant crime wave Trump described, Hallett told AFP.

"Crime is down across the country, even as migration has increased," she said.

Violent and property crimes are near the lowest levels in decades, according to FBI data from 2022, the most recent year for which figures are available.

"The overwhelming majority of violent crimes are committed by citizens," said Columbia Law School professor Jeffrey Fagan.

A June 2023 study found a decline in incarceration rates among immigrants from all regions since 1960.

Other research has also found migrants commit fewer violent crimes than US citizens -- including a Cato Institute report published this week that found migrants are less likely to be convicted of murder in the state of Texas.

Michelle Mittelstadt, director of communications at the Migration Policy Institute, said there is also no evidence to support Trump's claims during the debate that prisoners and people from mental institutions are flooding across the southern US border.

Both Trump and Biden sought to defer blame for rising prices by criticizing each other's economic policies.

"He causes inflation. I gave him a