Republicans spread unfounded insults about Haitian migrants in Ohio city | Ohio

Republicans spread unfounded insults about Haitian migrants in Ohio city | Ohio

Prominent Republicans, including the Trump campaign and JD Vance, are sharing false and unsubstantiated claims that Haitian migrants in an Ohio town are eating pets and local wildlife.

The racy and often racist social media posts claim, without evidence, that migrants from Haiti to Springfield, Ohio, are stealing domestic animals and local wildlife like ducks and geese and slaughtering them for food. Many of the posts, including one shared by the X account for Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee, use artificial intelligence-generated images to show Donald Trump holding and protecting cats and ducks, portraying him as a savior of the city. Ted Cruz, the Republican senator from Texas, shared a meme of two cats embracing with the caption, “Please vote for Trump so Haitian immigrants don’t eat us.”

The Springfield News-Sun reported Monday that police “have not received any reports of pets being stolen or eaten.”

The claims appear to have originated with a commentator at a local town meeting, who said migrants were plucking ducks from the park to kill and eat, and from local crime-fighting Facebook groups. They were then shared on other social media platforms and made a headline in the Daily Mail.

The misinformation about migrants in Springfield comes as the Trump campaign has sought to make immigration a hot topic, linking Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to cities that are unprepared for migrants arriving through the southern border. Springfield Mayor Rob Rue went on Fox to blame the Biden administration for “failing cities like ours and taxing us beyond our limits.”

The city has seen a large number of migrants from Haiti, which has both helped the economy there, which has struggled with staffing, and stretched the capacity of some services such as clinics and schools, the New York Times reported. A Biden administration policy offered temporary protected status to hundreds of thousands of Haitian migrants, who left their home country because of ongoing violence. Some estimates say as many as 20,000 people from Haiti have come to the city, the Times reported.

Last year, a migrant traveling in a van outside Springfield collided with a school bus, killing one child, fueling concerns among some residents about migration. Housing prices have also risen, leading to fewer options for low-income residents of all backgrounds, the newspaper reported.

Residents at recent council meetings have called on their elected officials to better manage the new influx of residents. In a now-viral testimony, one woman said she and her husband may have to move out of their home due to ongoing problems with “men who don’t speak English in my front yard yelling at me” and throwing things in her yard.

Some have also tried to link a woman recently charged in Canton, Ohio, with killing and then eating a cat to the influx of migrants into Springfield, another city more than 150 miles (241 km) away. She does not appear to be a Haitian migrant.

Vance, the Republican vice presidential nominee, has spoken out against Haitian migrants in Ohio for months and posted about it again on Monday. “Reports now show people have had their pets kidnapped and eaten by people who should not be in this country. Where is our border czar?” he wrote, referring to Kamala Harris.

Trump’s campaign sent out an email Monday criticizing the vice president for the unrest in Springfield, saying, “It’s all coming to your city if Kamala Harris is elected in November. It doesn’t have to be this way. From day one, President Trump will begin the largest mass deportation operation in U.S. history — because he will always put America, and Americans, FIRST.”

On Monday, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, a Republican, announced that he would use his office’s resources to “explore legal avenues to prevent the federal government from sending an unlimited number of migrants into Ohio communities.” He said his office would “exhaust all avenues” to deal with the migrants. Among other complaints from residents, he said the migrants were allegedly “killing wildlife for food.”