Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Friday pledged a mass deportation of Haitian immigrants from the city of Springfield, Ohio, even though most of them are living in the US legally.
The city has been the center of controversy on social media for several days, as right-wing protesters falsely claimed that people from Haiti were eating household pets.
“We will be deporting a large number of people to Springfield, Ohio,” Trump said at a news conference at his golf resort near Los Angeles.
Most of the 15,000 Haitians in Springfield are there legally. Trump’s longstanding vow to carry out mass deportations usually refers to those in the country illegally.
Trump did not repeat his comment during Tuesday’s presidential debate with Democrat Kamala Harris that immigrants were eating dogs and cats, a comment that was widely mocked.
Two elementary schools in Springfield were evacuated and a middle school was placed on lockdown Friday after bomb threats were made against the community for the second day in a row, according to ABC News.
At the White House, President Joe Biden urged an end to attacks on the Haitian community.
“This is just wrong. There’s no place for this in America. This has to stop — what he’s doing. This has to stop,” Biden said.
In June, the Biden administration granted temporary protected status to hundreds of thousands of Haitians in the United States, a decades-old program that protects legal immigrants from deportation and gives them work permits. Gang warfare in Haiti has displaced more than half a million people and about half a million face severe food insecurity.
Trump has called the tensions in Springfield another example of the need for stricter immigration policies. The influx of Haitians has boosted the economy but also put a strain on social services.
“I’m outraged by the occupation of Springfield, Ohio, by illegal Haitian immigrants,” Trump said at a rally in Las Vegas on Friday. “You see this mess, don’t you?”
“I am outraged by the rape and murder of young American girls who come to our country too easily, but too illegally,” he said later in his speech.
Haitian community leaders across the United States said the Republican candidate’s comments could endanger lives and further escalate tensions in Springfield.
“We need help, not hate,” Springfield Mayor Rob Rue told ABC News.
City officials say they have not received any credible reports of anyone eating domestic animals. City spokeswoman Karen Graves said she was not aware of any recent hate crimes targeting Haitians, but some have been victims of “crimes of opportunity” such as property theft.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
