Early in the presidential debate on Tuesday, Donald J. Trump invoked a town in Ohio to disparage immigrants and denounce Kamala Harris.

“You look at Springfield, Ohio,” Mr. Trump said. “You look at Aurora in Colorado. They are taking over the towns. They’re taking over buildings. They’re going in violently. These are the people that she and Biden led into our country, and they’re destroying our country. They’re dangerous. They’re at the highest level of criminality.”

Barely an hour before the debate, in Springfield, the father of an 11-year-old boy killed when an immigrant’s minivan crashed into a school bus, lashed out at Mr. Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, calling them “morally bankrupt” politicians spreading hate at the expense of his son, Aiden.

Speaking during public comment at a regular meeting of the Springfield City Commission, the father, Nathan Clark, said, “This needs to stop now. ”

The death of Aiden Clark, who was thrown from the bus after the minivan driver, who is Haitian, veered into oncoming traffic just over a year ago, shook residents of Springfield, a blue-collar town between Dayton and Columbus. And it touched off a wave of angry rhetoric over the thousands of immigrants from Haiti who have settled in the area since the pandemic.