WASHINGTON — Several Democrats warned this week that unfounded Republican accusations about Haitian immigrants eating people’s pets could lead to violence against the Haitian community.
“The biggest problem with this kind of really psychotic rhetoric is that, unfortunately, there are sad and demented people in our country that then do believe these things and eventually attack,” Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) told HuffPost on Wednesday.
White House national security spokesperson John Kirby on Tuesday made a similar statement, warning that “somebody could get hurt.”
The rumors centered on the Haitian community in Springfield, Ohio. On Thursday, officials evacuated Springfield City Hall in response to a bomb threat . Springfield Mayor Rob Rue said the threat came from someone purporting to be from the city who was upset about its handling of the local Haitian population, according to the Springfield News-Sun .
Former President Donald Trump during Tuesday night’s presidential debate blamed Vice President Kamala Harris for allowing Haitian migrants to enter the U.S. and supposedly devour people’s dogs and cats, citing an internet rumor about Haitians in Springfield.
“They’re eating the dogs. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people that live there,” Trump said.
The Springfield city manager told The Associated Press on Wednesday that “there have been no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community.”
Reps. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) also warned earlier this week about the possibility of violence resulting from the baseless stories about Haitian migrants.
Told of the bomb threat in Springfield, neither Frost nor Ocasio-Cortez claimed a link between the smears and the threats but said it’s the kind of thing that can happen.
“I don’t know about that specific situation, but it makes sense,” Frost said. “I mean, this wouldn’t be the first time that a right-wing leader like Donald Trump has gotten people scared of a certain ethnic group or certain people and pushed them to do something like this.”
“When it comes to this specific incident,” Ocasio-Cortez said, “we’ll have to wait on the details and what gets confirmed, but we do know that this is a pattern that Republican and extreme right-wing organizations have used.”
The Trump campaign pointed to a story on the Federalist, a right-wing news site, about an August phone call to Springfield police from a resident who reported seeing people he believed were Haitians abducting geese from a public park. County police told another reporter they haven’t uncovered any other “record” of Haitians harvesting geese or eating pets.
Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, said it’s possible the pet-eating stories are untrue, but that his office had been hearing about it from constituents.
“Whether those exact rumors turn out to be mostly true, somewhat true, whatever the case may be,” Vance said on CNN , “this town has been ravaged by 20,000 migrants coming in — health care costs are up, housing costs are up, communicable diseases like HIV and TB have skyrocketed in this small Ohio town. This is what Kamala Harris’ border policies have done.”
In Springfield, an influx of Haitians has strained city resources and aggravated some residents, The Associated Press reported this week, but also provided a source of labor for the post-COVID local economy and helped revitalize its downtown. Haitians now make up about 15% of the population.
Haiti has suffered multiple catastrophes in recent years that have added to a long and often tragic history. In 2021, it suffered a massive earthquake that registered 7.2 on the Richter scale and the assassination of its president, Jovenel Moise.
Haiti is one of four countries where the U.S. has tried to ease legal immigration hurdles as a way to make illegal immigration less attractive, setting up a program for migrants who paid their own way and could prove they had financial sponsorship in the country. In addition, the Joe Biden administration expanded the Temporary Protected Status program for Haitian immigrants recently, allowing 300,000 of them already in the country to remain in the U.S. and look for work
Some Republicans have cautioned members of their party to back off the incendiary claims.
“I’ve not seen anything to independently verify these claims,” said Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), who also said his district just north of New York City along the Hudson River includes one of the largest Haitian diaspora communities in the country.
“I urge caution with everybody from making broad-based statements on this stuff,” Lawler told reporters on Thursday. “Obviously, if there’s a specific incident to refer to, refer to the incident. But at the end of the day, this idea the Haitian people are doing certain things is wrong.”
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), a frequent Trump critic, also warned that the pet-eating rumors would result in people being targeted.
“It’s really unfortunate when President Trump promotes some kind of theory or some conspiracy or something that’s been untested, where people are going to be targeted unfairly,” Romney told HuffPost on Thursday. “It’s very, very disheartening to watch.”
Igor Bobic contributed reporting.
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