In Springfield, Ohio, Haitian migrants who fled gangs in their homeland now fear racist violence since Donald Trump revived the false accusation that they are pet-eating murderers.
In this small, predominantly white town in the northeastern United States, several schools and the town hall were evacuated this week after threats of all kinds (including bomb threats) against the Haitian community increased.
Romane Pierre, a Haitian restaurant manager, closed early Thursday, worried that his employees would have to walk home late at night. He said several Haitian migrants had already left the city and others were considering leaving.
In recent days, Republicans led by Donald Trump have again spoken of an alleged “invasion” of migrants in Springfield, falsely accusing them of attacking local residents’ dogs and cats to eat them.
“They eat dogs,” the former president said during the debate he held with his Democratic opponent Kamala Harris on Tuesday, raising the tension to a head. Both the local police and fact-checking media, including AFP, denied these reports. “It is a sad reality, which causes panic,” Viles Dorsainvil, the director of a Haitian residence, told AFP. On Thursday night he received threats that the federal police are investigating. Dorsainvil claims to have been the target of insults and incitements to “leave” the city, which he said are based on a “political agenda” of raising the spectre of illegal migration.
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