How life in Springfield has been disrupted by lies about its Haitian community

It’s been a week since Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance threw an ugly spotlight on the small city of Springfield, Ohio, by spreading unverified claims about Haitian immigrants killing and eating people’s pets. Since then, the city has seen multiple bomb threats, school closures and growing fear within the city’s immigrant community. William Brangham reports.

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Amna Nawaz: It’s been a week since former President Donald Trump and his running mate, J.D. Vance, threw an ugly spotlight on the small city of Springfield, Ohio, by spreading unverified claims about Haitian immigrants killing and eating people’s pets.

Since then, the city has seen multiple bomb threats, school closures, and growing fear within the city’s immigrant community.

William Brangham, who was in Springfield earlier, just checked back in with residents and city officials.

He joins us now.

So, William, these city officials are now dealing with a White House national spotlight, with threats coming in. What do they tell you about how they’re handling all this right now?

William Brangham: They’re having a hard time with it.

I mean, they have had over 33 different kinds of threats. This is to city hall, local public schools, universities, community centers, either threats coming in via phone or e-mail saying there will be an attack or a bomb will go off in your facility.

Those are under investigation locally, and the FBI is now helping out with those. None of them have turned out to be real, we should say. No bombs have been found. No attacks have happened. Ohio’s Governor Mike DeWine, who I know you’re talking with later, said some of these threats are coming in from overseas, from some foreign nation.

He didn’t specify which nation it was. But as Springfield’s city manager, Bryan Heck, told us, they have to treat every single one of these threats as real. He says, look, we do have problems with all of this, a large population that has come into our community. But them eating pets is not a problem, but these bomb threats really are.

Bryan Heck, City Manager, Springfield, Ohio: I’m not going to lie. It’s been difficult. It’s been a challenge for us. We were already facing the challenges and we were facing them head on as it related to the pace at which we have seen our population increase over the last couple of years.

But now to be thrust into the national rhetoric of a highly heated presidential election cycle has just made it very difficult.And it’s really unfortunate that our residents have had to endure the impact that they have, especially based off of false claims and false narrative that we have seen here during this presidential election cycle.

William Brangham: Hate groups like the Proud Boys have also been marching through the city. Residents last week found these fliers from a group affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan saying that Haitian immigrants in Springfield were — quote — “disease-ridden and filthy.”

Partly because of these threats, the city canceled a 20 year tradition in the city, its CultureFest. That’s been canceled now. And there is an anti-immigrant march scheduled for the end of the month.

Amna Nawaz: William, as challenging as this must be for city officials, I have to imagine it’s even worse for the Haitians living in Springfield. What do you hear from them?

William Brangham: A lot of fear, a lot of concern, a lot of confusion.

We spoke to one man yesterday who is a father of two young children. He and his wife say they live in constant fear. He has two full-time jobs, and he said, I will only talk to you if you blur my face out and don’t use my name, because I don’t want any additional publicity. Here’s a little bit of what he said.

Man: It’s not safe for Haitians in Springfield right now, because myself — today’s my day off. Usually, I take my son and go bike in the park, and I cannot do that anymore, because I’m scared.

When you see accusations like that, lies about the Haitian community, it’s pure hatred. So people actually hate us. So we don’t know who’s going to hurt us or who’s not going to hurt us.

William Brangham: That’s a very common sentiment.

We spoke with another woman named Philomene Philostin. She is a local pastor. She also runs a grocery store that caters to the Haitian community. She was followed around in her car by a man who followed her after a church service for several blocks. She tried to shake him, and she said he would only leave when she finally pulled up next to a police car and started talking to the police.

She said that all of the vitriol that’s being directed at the Haitians in Springfield overlooks what she argues is the enormous contributions those Haitians have made to the city of Springfield. Here’s how she described that.

Philomene Philostin, Springfield Resident: It’s sad. Especially, it’s all over the news. And I ask myself is, why all those Haitians helped to build Springfield? So why they don’t see the good thing the Haitian, the immigrant do?

Please stop hurting us. We don’t deserve that.

Amna Nawaz: So, William, what about former President Trump and Senator Vance? Have they responded to any of this now?

William Brangham: Donald Trump was asked about this on Saturday, about the bomb threats that followed after he spread these unfounded rumors during the debate.

He denied any knowledge of them. Here’s what he said.

Donald Trump, Former President of the United States (R) and Current U.S. Presidential Candidate: I don’t know what happened. With the bomb threats. I know that it’s been taken over by illegal migrants, and that’s a terrible thing that happened. Springfield was this beautiful town, and now they’re going through hell.

William Brangham: I mean, to reiterate, the Haitians in Springfield, the majority of them are not here illegally. They’re covered by temporary protected status.

J.D. Vance, for his part, said on CNN this weekend that he had to create stories about immigrants in Springfield so that people would pay attention to the larger immigration debate.

And I put that assertion to City Manager Bryan Heck. And here’s what he said.

Bryan Heck: Any time that somebody wants to mislead or create stories to drum up attention, we know that’s problematic. And we’re seeing it played out and lived out in our community right now, how dangerous creating stories and spreading misinformation can be.

William Brangham: Vance also said on the campaign trail today that if these bomb threats are coming from another nation, that he and Donald Trump are blameless for any of the attacks that have been coming.

Again, we need to reiterate that there are no credible reports that Haitians have been harming people’s pets. We have asked the Vance campaign for any names of individuals who they say have contacted them. They have come up with nobody.

We also spoke with a woman named Casey Rollins. She works directly with the Haitian community in Springfield, and she says that seeing her city in the middle of this political campaign has been so dispiriting.

Casey Rollins, Executive Director and Board President, St. Vincent de Paul: I think everybody would agree, on this side of the situation anyway, that we are sort of being pawned. But if we could stop politicizing and criminalizing and dehumanizing the actual people and make this a people initiative, that’s all really we want to be able to do, is just care for the folks that are here. And we stay out of the political realm.

William Brangham: It does not seem, though, that Springfield is going to be out of the political realm any time soon. Donald Trump has said he plans to visit the town soon.

Amna Nawaz: William Brangham, thank you for covering this so deeply and empathetically. We appreciate that.

William Brangham: Thank you.