All roads lead to Springfield. At least for Donald Trump and JD Vance, who in recent weeks have made the Ohio town the focus of their anti-immigrant rhetoric and, by extension, their campaign. Their repeated false claims that the local Haitian immigrant population is eating their neighbors’ pets have done so much damage that local authorities have received more than 30 bomb threats and the mayor, Republican Rob Rue, says he would prefer the Republican not to visit the town. Trump, for his part, insists he will go even if he does not come out alive.
“I’m going there in the next two weeks. I’m going to Springfield,” the Republican presidential candidate said Wednesday during a rally in New York. “You may not see me again, but that’s okay. I have to do what I have to do. ‘What happened to Trump?’ ‘Well, he never left Springfield,’” he added, suggesting that his life was in danger.
The former president was speaking just a day after Mayor Rue said a Trump visit would be “an extreme strain” on city resources. “I would be fine with them deciding not to do that visit,” Rue said Tuesday. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a fellow Republican, echoed his sentiment, saying during the same press conference that while a Trump visit would be “generally very, very welcome,” it would pose challenges. “I have to tell you the reality: We’re stretched thin here, and that’s a fact. We’re focused on getting kids back to school,” he said, adding that the city “is stretched thin.”
DeWine was referring to the fact that many Springfield parents are worried about sending their children to school after at least 33 bomb threats were reported at high schools and other locations in the city, including City Hall, in the past two weeks. Although all of the threats have been false alarms, they have prompted numerous evacuations and temporary closures of schools and municipal buildings, contributing to fear among the 60,000 residents of this small town, which has welcomed nearly 20,000 immigrants in the past four years, many of them Haitians.
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Both Rue and DeWine, along with local authorities, have attempted to debunk the Trump-Vance campaign’s lies about the Haitian community in Springfield, though apparently without success. City police have said there are “no credible reports” of Haitian immigrants harming domestic animals, and the mayor, in interviews with several media outlets, has called for an end to the hate against this community. Speaking to The New York TimesRue said his city “is hurting” and that “it is frustrating that national politicians, on the national stage, distort what is really happening and discredit our community.” The Republican added that he regretted that the Haitian community had to “endure this kind of hate.”
Gov. DeWine went a step further, calling the hoax “garbage,” though he stopped short of directly condemning Trump or Vance. “This is garbage that is simply not true. There is no evidence for this at all,” he said in an interview with ABC News.
An electronic billboard in reference to Donald Trump’s false claims about Springfield’s immigrant population, on Thursday in North Carolina.Jonathan Drake (Reuters)
“I will continue to call them illegal”
In the same interview with ABC News, which aired Sunday, DeWine added that while the arrival of thousands of people since 2020 has brought some “challenges,” Springfield’s Haitian residents are there legally and are benefiting the city economically. “This discussion about Haitians eating dogs is not helpful,” he said. “These people are here legally and they want to work, and they are actually working. And when you talk to business owners, what they tell you is that they don’t know what we would do without them. They are working, and they are working very hard,” he continued.
Most Haitian immigrants are in the country legally through the temporary protected status, or TPS, program, which allows people from countries designated by the Department of Homeland Security to legally live and work in the United States for 18 months, a period that the department can renew indefinitely. TPS does not include a path to permanent residency or citizenship.
In Haiti, the Obama administration granted this protection to Haitians living illegally in the United States in 2010, and the Biden administration renewed it last June.
Vice presidential candidate JD Vance speaks during a rally in Atlanta, Georgia, on September 16, 2024. ERIK S. LESSER (EFE)
Despite these facts, both Trump and Vance insist that immigrants in Springfield are not only stealing and eating their neighbors’ pets, but should also be deported because, they claim, they are in the country illegally. In fact, last week Trump said his plan to carry out the “largest deportation” in U.S. history would begin in Springfield.
And Vance said Wednesday that he will continue to call it “illegal aliens” to Haitian residents of Springfield even though they are not. “If Kamala Harris waves the wand illegally and says these people are now here legally, I will continue to call them illegal aliens,” the vice presidential candidate said in response to a reporter’s question after a rally in Raleigh, North Carolina. “An illegal action by Kamala Harris does not make an alien legal.”
Trump has long been critical of the TPS program, even going so far as to try to end it during his presidency. Now, his running mate is echoing those criticisms and saying the program is illegal. It is not.
