By Ted Hesson, Andy Sullivan and Gabriella Borter
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Haitian Americans said they fear for their safety after Donald Trump repeated a false and derogatory claim during this week's presidential debate about immigrants in Ohio.
Haitian community leaders across the U.S. said the Republican candidate's remarks about immigrants eating household pets during his debate with Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris could put lives at risk and further inflame tensions in the small city of Springfield, Ohio, where thousands of recent Haitian arrivals have boosted the local economy but also strained the safety net.
"We have to be careful where we go," said Viles Dorsainvil, 38, who says the Haitian community center he heads in Springfield has received threatening phone calls. The hostility has prompted one friend working at an Amazon warehouse to consider leaving, he said.
"He said that things are getting out of hand now; the way people are treating us, making bad comments about us," Dorsainvil said.
Trump's Tuesday remark that "they're eating the dogs, the people that came in, they're eating the cats" is the latest in a long line of lies about immigrants that have defined his political career. It followed a similar false claim spread by his running mate, U.S. Senator JD Vance of Ohio, on social media about Springfield's new residents.
City officials say they have received no credible reports of anybody eating household animals. Karen Graves, a city spokesperson, said she was not aware of recent hate crimes targeting Haitian residents but that some had been victims of "crimes of opportunity," such as property theft.
The Haitian Times reported that some Haitian families in Springfield, Ohio, were keeping their children home from school, while other sources told the newspaper that they were subject to bullying, assaults and intimidation in front of their homes amid racist rhetoric amplified by social media.
The lie fed on frustrations of some in the western Ohio city, who say the 15,000 Haitians who have arrived in recent years to fuel the city's economy, have also stressed limited resources at local schools and health clinics and driven up rents.
Tensions have increased since a Haitian driving without an Ohio license struck a school bus in 2023, killing 11-year-old Aiden Clark and injuring 26 other children.
"People are getting really fed up," city resident Richard Jordan said at a city council meeting on Tuesday. "Things are going to get ugly."
At that same meeting, Clark's father Nathan Clark criticized Trump and Vance for exploiting his son's death.
"They can vomit all the hate they want about illegal immigrants, the border crisis, and even untrue claims about fluffy pets being ravaged and eaten by community members," Clark said. "However, they are not allowed, nor have they ever been allowed, to mention Aiden Clark from Springfield, Ohio."
Last month, a white supremacist was ejected from a city council meeting after he made threatening statements towards Haitian immigrants.
'MY HEART FELL'
Ahead of the debate, billionaire Elon Musk amplified the lie further on his X social media platform, as did Republicans on the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee.
Guerline Jozef, who heads the national advocacy group Haitian Bridge Alliance, said her group had been trying to knock down the rumor before the debate.
When Trump mentioned it, "my heart fell to the floor," she said. "This has become a nationwide lie that people everywhere are repeating."
For Taisha Saintil, now an analyst with the immigrant advocacy group UndocuBlack Network, said Trump's remark brought back painful memories of being taunted when she arrived at a Florida elementary school in 2006.
Some 1.1 million Haitian Americans live in the U.S., about half of whom are immigrants, according to the Census Bureau. Long established in Florida and New York, Haitian immigrants have recently been moving to states like North Carolina and California to pursue work, Jozef said.
SEEKING WORK
Springfield officials say the majority of Haitian migrants are in the country legally, drawn by jobs at warehouses and factories. They have opened two restaurants and seven groceries, according to a city fact sheet.
“While we are experiencing challenges related to the rapid growth of our immigrant population, these challenges are primarily due to the pace of the growth," city manager Bryan Heck said in a video on Wednesday.
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, a Republican, said on Tuesday the state is providing $2.5 million to help the new residents get vaccines and other health services, and state police are being brought in to help enforce traffic laws. He said President Joe Biden's administration should also provide aid to cities like Springfield that see a sudden increase in new migrants.
Trump's comments could energize his supporters to help him win over undecided voters, particularly aggrieved white voters who feel a sense of their own decline in this country, said Republican strategist Mike Madrid, founder of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project.
"The attempts to dehumanize people is a long-proven strategy to work at a time when society's undergoing change," he said.
But that strategy risks spurring violence, Haitian American leaders said.
Democratic Representative Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, the only Haitian-American in Congress, said Trump's rhetoric endangers Haitians across the country.
"We've heard these stereotypes for years about Haitian people, Black immigrants, doing all these things that we know aren't true,” she said.
Gepsie Metellus, who heads the Sant La Haitian neighborhood center in North Miami, said Trump's comment was viewed as a "cheap political shot" in her community, but directly endangers those in Springfield.
"This rhetoric has a way of turning out really badly," she said.
(Additional reporting by Bo Erickson, Jason Lange, Helen Coster and Howard Schneider; Editing by Scott Malone and Aurora Ellis)
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