In Tuesday’s presidential debate, Republican candidate and former President Donald Trump said that Haitian asylees in Springfield, Ohio, are “eating the pets of people that live there,” repeating a claim that has gone viral on social media in recent weeks.
After being challenged by debate moderator and journalist David Muir, who said the claims had been debunked, Trump doubled down on his statement, Politifact reported.
The allegations started spreading last month when a man who spoke at a Springfield City Commission meeting claimed Haitian migrants killed ducks at local parks to use as food.
“They’re in the park grabbing up ducks by they neck and cutting they head off and walking up with them and eating them,” the man said, per the New York Post.
Another resident claimed in a Springfield Facebook group that a friend lost their cat, which was later allegedly seen hung up at a Haitian asylee’s property.
A viral Reddit post in a Columbus group shared a picture of a man holding a goose while walking through a neighborhood.
Nevertheless, officials in Springfield denied claims that Haitian asylees were eating pets or wild animals in their community.
Springfield police said they had no reports of pets being stolen and eaten, the Springfield News-Sun reported Monday in response to social media posts claiming otherwise.
Karen Graves, a spokeswoman for the City of Springfield, similarly told The New York Times, “There have been no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community.”
An estimated 20,000 Haitian migrants have moved to Springfield in recent years, which increased the town’s population by approximately 34%, according to local officials. The influx of new arrivals has helped revitalize the town, by some accounts, but at the same time, has put a strain on housing, schools, and hospitals.
A tragic traffic incident last year further fueled heated debates about migration and border security in the small town. A Haitian migrant driving with a foreign license struck a school bus last year in Springfield, killing one child and injuring 23 others.
Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) weighed in on the pet-eating allegations in a tweet on Tuesday.
“In the last several weeks, my office has received many inquiries from actual residents of Springfield who’ve said their neighbors’ pets or local wildlife were abducted by Haitian migrants,” he wrote. “It’s possible, of course, that all of these rumors will turn out to be false.”
“Do you know what’s confirmed?” he continued. “That a child was murdered by a Haitian migrant who had no right to be here. That local health services have been overwhelmed. That communicable diseases — like TB and HIV — have been on the rise. That local schools have struggled to keep up with newcomers who don’t know English. That rents have risen so fast that many Springfield families can’t afford to put a roof over their head.”
Vance noted that Vice President Kamala Harris previously boasted about the number of Haitian migrants welcomed into the country under the Biden administration.
“We extended Temporary Protected Status to over 100,000 Haitian migrants for that very reason that they need support, they need protection,” she said.
Mass numbers of Haitians have fled their home country in recent years amid spikes in gang violence, famine, and political unrest.