Donald Trump Says He’ll Kick Out Legal Haitian Migrants if Elected, as GOP Ohio Officials Defend New Neighbors
“We’re a nation of immigrants and we have to continue to have people come into this country who want to work and want to contribute,” Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said
Donald Trump said that if he is elected president in November, he will remove legal Haitian migrants from the United States after he previously put a target on the growing Haitian population in Springfield, Ohio, by repeating a baseless, right-wing conspiracy theory that they were eating people's pets.
Trump, 78, told a NewsNation reporter on Oct. 2 during a fundraiser in Texas that he plans to "remove" Haitian immigrants from Springfield if he wins the 2024 presidential election. "It has nothing to do with Haiti or anything else. You have to remove the people, and you have to bring them back to their own country,” Trump told the outlet.
“Springfield is such a beautiful place. Have you seen what’s happened to it? It’s been overrun. You can’t do that to people. I’d revoke [their protected status], and I’d bring [the migrants] back to their country," he continued.
At the presidential debate against Vice President Kamala Harris on Sept. 10, Trump platformed the conspiracy theory about Haitian residents in Springfield that his running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, had shared on social media earlier in the week.
"In Springfield, [Ohio,] they're eating the dogs, the people that came in. They're eating the cats. They're eating the pets of the people who live there, and this is what's happening in our country,” he claimed on the debate stage, which was fact-checked as false in real-time.
Springfield has seen a wave of new Haitian residents that has put a strain on city services, but it has also helped the once-dying industrial town fill important job vacancies. The new residents — most of whom were fleeing the rampant gang violence that has overtaken Haiti's capital city — were all carefully vetted by U.S. authorities before being permitted to enter the States, and they have been granted temporary protected status.
Trump's sweeping allegations against Haitian people and immigrants quickly put a spotlight on the Ohio town and led to dozens of bomb threats throughout Springfield, causing the state's Republican governor and Springfield's Republican mayor to step up and defend their new neighbors.
“Their comments are just hurtful, they’re hurtful to a lot of people, and people listen and they hear that he’s kicking everybody out, anybody who’s not born here," Gov. Mike DeWine, 77, told Politico in an interview published Sept. 30, referring to Trump and Vance.
“We’re a nation of immigrants and we have to continue to have people come into this country who want to work and want to contribute,” DeWine said later on. “That’s how we have vitality.”
To show that he stands with the Haitian community as they face threats from MAGA Republicans, DeWine has attended Creole services at the town's St. Raphael’s Church, according to Politico. He has also been assisting the Bureau of Motor Vehicles to help get driving forms translated into Creole, the national language of Haiti.
Springfield Mayor Rob Rue told the New York Times in an interview published on Sept. 12 — days after the presidential debate and the comments baselessly claiming immigrants were eating pets — that Springfield is "hurting."
"Obviously, the negative response and threats are very sad and hard to handle,” he told the publication. “We want to move forward together, and it just makes it more difficult to do that when we have violent actions and threats."
Rue also called it "frustrating" when politicians "mischaracterize what is actually going on and misrepresent our community," when given a national audience, referring to another incident that put Springfield in the spotlight.
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The morning before the debate, Vance, 40, had posted on X (formerly Twitter) about the death of 11-year-old Aiden Clark, calling him a child "murdered by a Haitian migrant." Clark was killed when his school bus was struck by a minivan that happened to be driven by a Haitian man.
Aiden's father, Nathan Clark, seemingly called out Vance, claiming that the Ohio senator was exploiting Aiden's death for political gain.
"This tragedy is felt all over this community, the state and even the nation, but don’t spin this towards hate,” he said during a Springfield City Commission meeting on Sept. 10.
Rue has expressed sympathy to his community amid the bomb threats and political divide as a result of the false rumors spread by Trump and Vance.
“I am sorry this is going on in our community and that they have to endure this type of hate,” he told the New York Times.
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