The Trump campaign and prominent Republicans, including J.D. Vance, have been spreading false and unsubstantiated claims that Haitian immigrants living in Ohio cities are eating pets and local wildlife.
Obscene and racist social media posts baselessly claim that Haitian migrants to Springfield, Ohio, are stealing pets and local wildlife, including ducks and geese, and slaughtering them for food. Many of the posts, including one shared by the X account of a Republican member of the House Judiciary Committee, use AI-generated images to show Donald Trump embracing and protecting cats and ducks, portraying him as the town’s savior. Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas shared a meme image of two cats embracing each other and wrote, “Vote for Trump so you don’t get eaten by Haitian immigrants.”
The Springfield News-Sun reported Monday that police had “not received any reports of pets being stolen and eaten.”
The allegations appear to have started as comments made at a local town hall meeting and in a local crime watch Facebook group about immigrants catching, killing and eating ducks from the park, before being shared on other social media platforms and making a headline in the Daily Mail.
The misinformation about immigration in Springfield comes as the Trump campaign seeks to make immigration a central issue and link Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to towns that are unprepared for migrants arriving from the southern border. Springfield Mayor Rob Lu appeared on Fox and accused the Biden administration of “failing cities like ours and taxing them beyond their limits.”
According to the New York Times, the city is experiencing a large influx of Haitian immigrants, boosting the economy and straining the capacity of clinics, schools and other services due to concerns about staffing shortages. The Biden administration’s policy has provided temporary protection to hundreds of thousands of Haitian immigrants who left their home country due to ongoing violence. The Times said some estimates put the number of people who came to the city from Haiti at 20,000.
Last year, a van driven by an immigrant crashed into a school bus outside Springfield, killing a child, further raising residents’ concerns about immigration. Housing costs are also rising, limiting options for low-income residents of all backgrounds, the paper reported.
Residents appealed to elected officials at a recent city council meeting to do a better job managing the new residents. In one now-viral testimony, a woman said she and her husband may have to move out of their home because of ongoing issues with non-English-speaking men yelling at them in their front yard and throwing things into their yard.
Others have tried to link a woman recently charged with killing and eating a cat in Canton, Ohio, to the influx of immigrants in Springfield, another city more than 150 miles (241 kilometers) away. She does not appear to be Haitian.
Vance, the Republican vice presidential nominee, has been slamming Haitian immigrants in Ohio for months and posted about them on Monday. “Now we have reports of pets being kidnapped and eaten by people who should not be in this country. Where is our border control chief,” he wrote, referring to Sen. Kamala Harris.
The Trump campaign sent an email on Monday blaming the vice president for the unrest in Springfield, saying: “If Kamala Harris is elected in November, the same thing will happen in your city. It doesn’t have to be this way. From day one in office, President Trump will launch the largest mass deportation operation in American history because he will always put America and its people first.”
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost (Republican) announced Monday that he would use Justice Department resources to “investigate legal options to stop the federal government from sending unlimited migrants to Ohio communities.” He said the Justice Department is “exhausting all options” to address the immigration issue. He said complaints from residents include reports of migrants “killing wild animals for food.”