President Joe Biden has condemned campaign-season attacks targeting Haitian-American communities in the United States, accusing Republican leaders of stoking fear.
Speaking at a White House brunch on Friday “celebrating Black excellence,” Biden warned that Haitian Americans are “a community that is under attack in our country right now.”
His remarks were a rebuke of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his vice presidential nominee JD Vance for spreading unfounded rumors about Haitian immigrants and asylum seekers in the United States.
“That’s simply wrong,” Biden said, without mentioning Trump directly. “There is no place in America for that kind of rhetoric.”
“He has to stop what he’s doing. He has to stop.”
Former Republican President Trump and Ohio Senator Vance have campaigned largely on anti-immigrant platforms, stoking fears of mass migration and crime at rallies across the country.
In recent weeks, the two men have drawn attention to the vibrant and growing Haitian-American community in Springfield, Ohio, where racial and ethnic tensions are running high.
Springfield, a part of America’s industrial Rust Belt, has sought to bolster its local economy in recent years by welcoming new immigrants to the city.
But as the Haitian-American community grew, so did the backlash. About 15,000 Haitian immigrants have moved into the area, but last year city officials cited a lower estimate of between 4,000 and 7,000.
Some longtime residents have called on the city council to “stop them from coming.”
Tensions were further heightened in August 2023 when a Haitian national was involved in a traffic accident that overturned a school bus on the first day of school, killing an 11-year-old child.
The boy’s family has urged residents to stop the “hate,” but attacks on the Haitian-American community continue to spread and capture national attention.
In recent weeks, unsubstantiated rumors that Haitian Americans eat their pets have circulated widely on the Internet, reflecting longstanding anti-immigrant sentiments 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 it, saying it has no basis whatsoever.
Even Vance acknowledged the dubious nature of these claims, writing, “Of course, it is possible that all of these rumors may turn out to be false.” Social Media Posts September 10th.
But Trump and Vance have repeated the rumor several times since then, including at high-profile events like the September 10 presidential debate.
“They’re eating dogs and people coming in,” he said in a televised debate watched by 67 million people. “They’re eating cats.”
The increased surveillance in Springfield has led to several threats reportedly linked to anti-immigrant sentiment. On Thursday, City Hall was evacuated after a bomb threat. On Friday, other City Hall buildings were evacuated after emails warning of explosive devices were sent, including to several schools.
Nonetheless, on the same day, Trump held a news conference at his golf club outside Los Angeles, California, where he again addressed the attacks on the Haitian-American community.
“In Springfield, Ohio, 20,000 illegal Haitians came into a town of 58,000 people and destroyed their way of life,” he said. “Even the town doesn’t like to talk about it because it sounds so bad to them.”
He said if re-elected in November, the city would become a hub for immigration enforcement, like Aurora, Colorado.
“We are going to do the largest deportation in the history of our country,” he said. “And we are going to start in Springfield and Aurora.”
