President Joe Biden has denounced attacks against the Haitian-American community in the United States during the election season, accusing Republican leaders of fearmongering.
On Friday, during a White House brunch billed as a “celebration of Black excellence,” Biden warned that Haitian Americans were a “community that is under attack in our country right now.”
His comments were a rebuke to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his vice presidential nominee JD Vance, who have spread unfounded rumors about Haitian immigrants and asylum seekers in the United States.
“It’s just wrong. There is no place in America” for that kind of rhetoric, Biden said, without naming Trump directly.
“This has to stop, what he is doing. This has to stop.”
Trump, a former Republican president, and Vance, a senator from Ohio, have campaigned on a predominantly anti-immigrant platform, stoking fears of mass migration and crime at rallies across the United States.
In recent weeks, both men have turned their sights on the burgeoning Haitian-American community in Springfield, Ohio, where racial and ethnic tensions have grown.
Springfield, part of the country's industrial Rust Belt, has sought to boost its local economy in recent years by welcoming newcomers to the city.
But as the Haitian-American community has grown, so has the backlash. An estimated 15,000 Haitian immigrants have moved to the area, though city commission officials last year cited a lower estimate of between 4,000 and 7,000.
Some long-time residents asked the city commission to “stop them from coming.”
Tensions escalated further in August 2023, when a Haitian national was involved in a car accident that overturned a school bus and killed an 11-year-old boy on the first day of school.
Although the boy's family has called on residents to end the “hate,” attacks against the Haitian-American community have continued to spread, drawing national attention.
In recent weeks, unfounded rumors have circulated online that Haitian Americans eat their pets, echoing an anti-immigrant cliché with a long history in the United States.
The rumor appears to have originated from a screenshot, purportedly taken from a private Facebook group. And city officials have publicly denied there is any basis for it.
Even Vance acknowledged the murky nature of the allegations. “It is possible, of course, that all of these rumors turn out to be false,” he wrote in a statement. social media post September 10th.
But Trump and Vance have since repeated the rumor several times, including at high-profile events like the Sept. 10 presidential debate.
“They are eating the dogs, the people who came,” he said in the televised debate, watched by 67 million people. “They are eating the cats.”
The increased scrutiny on Springfield has led to multiple threats, reportedly tied to anti-immigrant sentiments. On Thursday, City Hall was evacuated following a bomb threat. On Friday, other buildings in the city were also cleared out following emails warning of an explosive device, including several schools.
However, that same day, Trump resumed his attacks on the Haitian-American community at a press conference at his golf club outside Los Angeles, California.
“In Springfield, Ohio, 20,000 illegal Haitian immigrants have invaded a city of 58,000 people, destroying their way of life,” he said. “Even the city doesn’t like to talk about it because it seems so bad for the city.”
He said the city, along with Aurora, Colorado, would be a centerpiece of his immigration crackdown if he is re-elected in November.
“We’re going to have the largest deportation in the history of our country,” he said. “And we’re going to start with Springfield and Aurora.”
