Republican presidential candidates traded barbs over illegal immigration, Mitt Romney’s vast wealth, and Newt Gingrich’s past work for the troubled mortgage giant Freddie Mac in a tense debate at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville.

When asked about illegal immigration, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum said he agreed with Mr Romney’s position that “self-deportation”, where illegal immigrants leave the US voluntarily, is a “possible solution.”

Texas congressman Ron Paul waded in saying the US spends too much time “worrying about the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan,” and should “use some of those resources on our own border,” said Paul.

But the debate really heated up when Mr Gingrich, who insisted the US cannot rationally deport millions of people, some who have lived here for decades was forced to defend his description of Mr Romney as “anti-immigrant.”

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