Town at center of US migrant conspiracies hit with 33 bomb threats

The town of Springfield has seen some three dozen bomb threats as it endures being the center of Republican-boosted conspiracy theories about immigration, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said Monday.

"We have received at least 33 separate bomb threats," DeWine told a news conference in the city.

They were all hoaxes, he said, adding that some of them have come from a foreign country, which he did not name.

Racist rumors, amplified by top Republicans including presidential candidate Donald Trump, have falsely said that the town's Haitian immigrant community is stealing and eating people's pets and causing a crime wave.

Since Trump declared "they're eating the dogs" at last week's presidential debate, threats of bombings, shootings or other violence have poured in, including on Monday when two schools were shut down.

Some Haitians living in the city have told AFP they feared for their lives. The mayor has said he is receiving death threats.

It was unclear if DeWine's figure included the threats about shootings and other violence, or the bomb threat made Monday against the Ohio state legislature, in Columbus.

Two schools in Springfield were evacuated Monday, local media reported, though authorities had not yet released details about the threats that prompted the closures.

The local ABC affiliate in Columbus reported that the statehouse threat "included derogatory remarks about Springfield's Haitian's population."

"Our children deserve to be in school," DeWine said, announcing that 36 troopers from the state Highway Patrol would be stationed throughout the city to provide extra security.

The troopers will sweep the schools each morning and remain on site throughout the day, said DeWine, a Republican who has pushed back against the rumors amplified by his party.

DeWine did not elaborate on how many threats came locally versus from abroad.

"Some of them are coming from one particular country," he said.

"We think that this is one more opportunity to mess with the United States, and they're continuing to do that."

The mostly white town in the American Midwest has seen a boom in population in recent years, fueled mostly by Haitian immigrants attracted by its economic revival, and new businesses happy to attract laborers.

Frustrations over the growing pains of the city -- where some 10-15,000 Haitians have arrived, in a town that had fewer than 60,000 people in 2020 -- have spiraled into a racist backlash amid a heated political campaign leading up to November's presidential election.

nro/dw