SPRINGFIELD, Ohio – Life here has been upended by days of putrid lies and vilification of Haitian American immigrants by Donald Trump, Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, and other MAGA extremists.
The lies have unleashed a wave of hate, bomb threats, and marches by neo-Nazis that threaten to tear apart the social fabric of Springfield. Ohio Republican Governor Mike DeWine ordered state troopers to Springfield after 33 bomb threats were reported. School administrators canceled classes and Clark State College and Wittenberg University canceled all public activities. Organizers canceled the annual CultureFest celebrating cultural diversity.
The poisonous atmosphere and ugly polarization created by Trump and his MAGA followers beg the question – does this herald Trump’s America if he wins in November? Trump’s stated plans include roundups of millions of immigrants into concentration camps for mass deportation. It’s an America where people, families, and communities live in a constant state of fear of threats of violence from an armed mob or knock on the door.
Refused to denounce hate
Trump and Vance, the Republican Vice-Presidential candidate, have refused to denounce the hate and threats of violence and bombings they unleashed. Trump vowed that as president he would begin mass deportations with Springfield by sending the Haitians “back to Venezuela.” It’s reminiscent of the hateful white supremacist rhetoric and atmosphere that marked Trump’s presidency.
On Sept. 15, Vance doubled down on and even admitted his brazen lies. In response to CNN State of the Union host Dana Bash calling him out for repeatedly making false claims that Haitian American immigrants are stealing and eating pet cats and dogs in Springfield, Vance said, “If I have to create stories so that the media pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do.”
Vance picked up and spread the lies from the online fascist community, falsely insisting they came from his constituents. Trump repeated the lie during the presidential debate with Kamala Harris even after moderator David Muir fact-checked him. These are among the many bizarre conspiracy theories riling up Trump voters.
No credible police reports exist to substantiate the claims over the last ten months, and the Clark County sheriff and other local officials have rejected them. Gov. DeWine also blasted the lies.
“No. Absolutely not. That’s what the mayor said. That’s what the chief of police has said,” DeWine told ABC’s This Week. “There’s a lot of garbage on the internet. And this is a piece of garbage that was simply not true. There’s no evidence of this at all.”
Meanwhile, Springfield civic and religious leaders have all denounced the lies and stood in solidarity with the Haitian American community. Local residents are showing support by packing Haitian restaurants. Nathan Clark, the father of Aiden Clark who was accidentally killed by a Haitian driver, demanded Trump and Vance to stop whipping up hatred and exploiting his son’s death for political gain.
The attack spurred a national outrage and outpouring of support, including from musician John Legend, a Springfield native.
“Nobody’s eating cats. Nobody’s eating dogs,” said Legend in an Instagram post. “We all just want to live and flourish and raise our families in a healthy and safe environment. How about we love one another?”
Trump and Vance falsely claim undocumented immigrants have “overrun” Springfield, just as they allegedly have the U.S. overall. They claim Springfield is a prime example of the consequence of tens of millions of people pouring “illegally” across the “open border,” bringing with them crime and drugs and “poisoning the blood of America” while the Biden-Harris administration does nothing.
However, Haitian American immigrants are legally in the U.S. and covered by Temporary Protected Status (TPS), which the Biden Administration extended through 2026. Some Haitian residents in Springfield are naturalized U.S. citizens, and many have lived in the U.S. for years.
The Springfield Chamber of Commerce and local industries recruited Haitian Americans to fill vacant jobs. Local employers, DeWine, and other state and county officials have praised the Haitians for their hard work and cultural and civic contribution to the city.
“The majority of us, we work in warehouses, factories—you can’t work there illegally,” Morvens Pierre said. “Obviously, we’re legally working.”
On Sept. 14, organizers turned a community meeting of Haitian Americans into a virtual event because of the bomb threats and far-right marchers.
Feels unsafe riding his bike
Jims Denis, a Haitian American resident of Springfield, now feels unsafe riding his bike or going to the park with his children.
“You know, with the bomb threats and everything that is going on, Haitians are not safe in Springfield anymore,” Denis said.
Springfield is a small industrial city northeast of Dayton with approximately 60,000 residents. During deindustrialization in the 1970s and 1980s, businesses shuttered, and Springfield fell on hard times. The city lost a substantial population as residents moved in search of work.
Recently, the city adopted a strategic economic revitalization plan. New businesses opened, and others expanded operations, requiring new workers. About 10-15,000 Haitians moved to Springfield to fill these jobs. The rapid influx created social pressures and taxed city hospitals, schools, and housing.
The attack on Haitian migrants is an act of political desperation by Trump, Vance, and MAGA because they know they are losing this election. They have calculated their only path to victory is mobilizing white voters by fueling fear, anti-immigrant hysteria, and racial hatred.
They may be trying to reverse inroads Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are making among white voters according to an ABC/Ipsos post-debate poll. The ugly attacks on Haitian immigrants could backfire and instead drive more white voters away.
But in the meantime their anti-immigrant attack has created an exceedingly dangerous situation for the Haitian Americans living in Springfield in the first place, as evidenced by the bomb threats and marches of right-wing militias.
The anti-immigrant attack is not just political theater. Trump’s campaign pledge of mass deportations of 11 million undocumented immigrants contained in Project 2025 will be a priority if he becomes president.
It’s easy to envision a Trump administration whipping up the same kind of hateful, anti-immigrant, and racist atmosphere nationwide. MAGA fascists would control the levers of government power, courts, and the national narrative.
To succeed, Trump will need to mobilize the nation’s law enforcement apparatus on a federal, state, and local level and create a climate of mass hysteria and fear to trample on civil liberties and rights and popular resistance.
A hysterical anti-immigrant atmosphere would place immigrant, African American, Latino, Asian, Indigenous, and other communities in constant danger, the object of right-wing bomb threats and acts of terror and hate by vigilantes, gangs, and militias.
The American people can prevent this nightmare scenario with a massive turnout of the anti-MAGA majority vote in November. Voters can send a message: we reject hate. We believe in a multiracial, multigender, multicultural democratic future.
CONTRIBUTOR
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