Haitians in the US, fed up with Trump

MIAMI (EFE).— The Haitian community in the United States, a country where there are at least one million people, half of them in South Florida, is tired of the comments of former president and Republican candidate Donald Trump about eating dogs and cats.

Outraged, citizens of that country in Little Haiti in Miami tell EFE that Trump and his candidate for vice president, Ohio Senator JD Vance, must stop telling “those dangerous lies” that only seek to demonize them.

Sitting in front of a colorful house next to a van where she sells clothes, Yolande Fertil, 75, can’t stop shaking her head because of the discomfort Trump’s words make her.

“In Springfield (Ohio) the people who arrived are eating the dogs, they are eating the cats, they are eating the pets of the people who live there,” said the New York magnate in his debate on Tuesday in front of the vice president and Democratic candidate, Kamala Harris.

“It’s wrong, wrong, wrong. We Haitians are angry,” Fertil, who on November 5 is going to vote “democratic,” tells EFE.

Looking at some cats drinking water inside a local barbershop, one of the workers there touches his head in disbelief and unwilling to talk.

One of the clients, who does not want to give his name, assures that Trump “does not respect any country or anyone and only plays politics.”

“He doesn’t want them to vote for Kamala,” he says, explaining that the Republican incites racism.

While cleaning the floors of the First Interdenominational Haitian Church, Virginia Francois tells EFE that it is just a matter of respect. “Respect people so that people respect you,” he exclaims.

For Paul Christian Namphy, political director of the Family Action Network Movement (FANM), it is “very serious” that Trump has repeated these lies in a debate “of the highest office in the country, in front of the entire nation.”

They are “insulting, ugly words, demonizing our community,” says the activist from one of the largest Haitian organizations in Florida, recalling that this conspiracy against Haitians dates back to days before. “It is a plan to demonize not only the Haitian community, but all immigrant communities, and it is also an attack against people of color in general,” he says.