Trump uses harsher rhetoric to describe Haitians in Ohio

Former President Donald Trump used increasingly harsh rhetoric Friday in describing Haitian migrants in Ohio, saying they’re “destroying their way of life” and threatened mass deportations.

He made his comments as he and some of his allies, including his running mate JD Vance, have claimed that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio are eating cats, dogs and geese, sparking a backlash from Democrats, including President Joe Biden.

“Illegal Haitian migrants have descended upon a town of 58,000 people, destroying their way of life,” Trump said during a news conference at his golf course in Southern California.

The focus on Haiti — the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere in the midst of a severe hunger crisis and intense political upheaval — is a departure for the migration debate, which tends to focus on movement across the southern border by migrants from Mexico, Central and South America. But Trump on Friday turned that focus to migrants who flew into the U.S. “right over the top of the border guards.”

About 15,000 Haitian migrants have moved to the town in recent years, the Associated Press reported , which Springfield Mayor Rob Rue attributed to economic opportunities and a “housing boom.” Residents of the town, which is largely white and blue collar, say the mass migration has caused housing prices to increase .

“There is a culture clash, and we see it and we know it, but it’s just all hitting us from all levels, and the federal leaders who had the national stage did not help us solve this problem,” Rue said Thursday on NewsNation .

Springfield officials have repeatedly denied reports of Haitian migrants eating pets — ABC News moderator David Muir fact-checked Trump live during Tuesday’s debate — but conspiracies about the migrants eating pets, or using them for sacrifices, have continued to spiral online. Some of those claims were pushed by a neo-Nazi group operating in the area, NBC News reported .

Rue acknowledged that the city has “been dealing with an infrastructure strain due to this immigration influx,” but emphasized “under the current federal policy, they’re here legally.”

“As a community, we’re trying to embrace them,” he said.

The White House also weighed in Friday, with Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre — who is Haitian American — calling the situation “extremely sad and concerning.” She said the Department of Homeland Security had been “directly engaged” with Springfield since the spring.

During a White House brunch on Black excellence, Biden said the Haitian American community is “under attack in our country right now.”

“It’s simply wrong. There’s no place in America,” Biden said. “This has to stop, what he’s doing. It has to stop.”