Donald Trump’s claims about Haitian immigrants eating household pets during Tuesday’s debate with Vice President Kamala Harris went viral for being both false and ridiculous. But the Ohio town Trump referenced during the debate is experiencing real, and damaging, implications from those comments.
Haitian immigrants living in Springfield, Ohio have reportedly feared for their lives as other residents have begun to threaten their safety, according to the Haitian Times, despite the local police insisting there are no reports of stolen pets.
The jokes and memes online aren’t making matters better.
“I don’t think folks should be making jokes about the eating pets lie. It is so violently racist and we should not contribute to any normalization of that kind of anti-Blackness and fear mongering against our Haitian, and other migrant, siblings,” one tweet said.
“Mission accomplished. Demonize and dehumanize an entire group of people because hatred is the only “policy” they have,” another tweet said.
There have also been bomb threats targeted to Springfield’s City Hall, schools and other facilities throughout the city. Making matters worse, the Trump campaign has used the death of Aiden Clark, an 11-year-old boy, killed in a school bus crash caused by a Haitian immigrant as more fuel to make the community feel unwelcome.
Clark’s father Nathan Clark has since urged people to stop using his son’s name for political purposes.
“They have spoken my son’s name and used his death for political gain. This needs to stop now,” Nathan said at a Springfield City Commission meeting.
More than 15,000 Haitian migrants moved to Springfield in the last three years in hopes of discovering improved economic opportunities, according to Reuters.