Donald Trump, the former president, is causing a stir over accusations that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, have been kidnapping and eating pets. Trump’s offensive and dangerous rhetoric was further confirmed during a live television debate with Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday.
“There is even talk that they eat the dogs. They eat the cats. They will eat the pets of those who live there,” Trump said while making reference to folks in Springfield that had come to hear these unfounded allegations about them. Nevertheless, Trump is also known for weaponization of immigrant bashing, among many ways to incite terror with no base.
Kamala’s reaction to the claims made by Donald Trump
Kamala Harris told Trump to his face that his comments were extreme while dismissing his allegations as well. And the debate moderators pointed out that the officials from the city including the mayor already denied these statements to be true.
There are no credible claims of violence towards pets made by the immigrant population as well, the office of Bryan Heck, Springfield city manager has also repeated. “However, I must repeat, there are no recorded allegations or instances of pet ownership threatening in anyway. Such claims and reports are very well grounded and substantiated,” Heck said.
From where the rumors started?
The disinformation started on sept 6, when a social media post claimed that Haitian immigrants in Springfield were up to no good when it came to pets. One image in particular which showed a Black man with a Canada goose outside of a jet was picked up and expanded by political operatives including JB Vance’s office reminding Republican Senator JD Vance. Vance’s office accepted that the rumors may have been untrue, but in any case the heresy had already been thoroughly registered.
This timing meant that hours before it, the candidates would be made aware of the debate published by the former reality television star, and which would again amplify the controversy, showing images of cats and pets, surrounded by them and positioned appealingly around them, or images of cats in a make America great again hat with rifles.
Official and community responses
The Governor of Ohio Mike DeWine made no comment on the claims and instead pushed the burden to local authorities. However, DeWine also defended entitled position to attack Haitian immigrants and explained why his family had humanitarianism in Haiti.
Conversely, extreme behavior mongers citing the springfield rumors related to an unrelated case in canton. Last month, Allexis Ferrell was arrested and charged with animal cruelty by the Canton police for duct-taping the mouth of the torturing and naked cat and then killing the animal. However, Ferrell is not a Haitian only as she is a non-immigrant known for several criminal records which have nothing to do with immigrant affairs.
Impact on Haitian communities
Activists for the rights of Haitian immigrants like Guerline Jozef of the Haitian Bridge Alliance have spoken about the virus of disinformation in strong terms, calling it unreasonable. “We are always at the back of all of such narratives barbaric and inhuman,” said Jozef. This worry was shared by John Kirby, a spokesman for the White House national security who appeared to consider how such disinformation could target innocent civilians and more likely lead to violence perpetrated against them.
Context of haitian immigration in the US
With a little over 60, 000 residents, Springfield has lived a historic increase of Haitian population. The Haitians living in this region are most of the time on legal status provided by federal policies for the reasons of Burke’s and so forth. The Biden government has further temporally legal status to an estimated 300, 000 Haitians living within the US due to violence in Haiti.
