Haitian Americans fear for their safety after presidential debate
12/9/2024 5:51
Haitian Americans said
they fear for their safety after Donald Trump repeated a false
and derogatory claim during this week's presidential debate
about immigrants in Ohio.
Haitian community leaders across the U.S. said the
Republican candidate's remarks about immigrants eating household
pets during his debate with Democratic Vice President Kamala
Harris could put lives at risk and further inflame tensions in
the small city of Springfield, Ohio, where thousands of recent
Haitian arrivals have boosted the local economy but also
strained the safety net.
"We have to be careful where we go," said Viles Dorsainvil,
38, who says the Haitian community center he heads in
Springfield has received threatening phone calls. The hostility
has prompted one friend working at an Amazon warehouse to
consider leaving, he said.
"He said that things are getting out of hand now; the way
people are treating us, making bad comments about us,"
Dorsainvil said.
Trump's Tuesday remark that "they're eating the dogs, the
people that came in, they're eating the cats" is the latest in a
long line of lies about immigrants that have defined his
political career. It followed a similar false claim spread by
his running mate, U.S. Senator JD Vance of Ohio, on social media
about Springfield's new residents.
City officials say they have received no credible reports of
anybody eating household animals. Karen Graves, a city
spokesperson, said she was not aware of recent hate crimes
targeting Haitian residents but that some had been victims of
"crimes of opportunity," such as property theft.
The Haitian Times reported that some Haitian families in
Springfield, Ohio, were keeping their children home from school,
while other sources told the newspaper that they were subject to
bullying, assaults and intimidation in front of their homes amid
racist rhetoric amplified by social media.
The lie fed on frustrations of some in the western Ohio
city, who say the 15,000 Haitians who have arrived in recent
years to fuel the city's economy, have also stressed limited
resources at local schools and health clinics and driven up
rents.
Tensions have increased since a Haitian driving without an
Ohio license struck a school bus in 2023, killing 11-year-old
Aiden Clark and injuring 26 other children.
"People are getting really fed up," city resident Richard
Jordan said at a city council meeting on Tuesday. "Things are
going to get ugly."
At that same meeting, Clark's father Nathan Clark criticized
Trump and Vance for exploiting his son's death.
"They can vomit all the hate they want about illegal
immigrants, the border crisis, and even untrue claims about
fluffy pets being ravaged and eaten by community members," Clark
said. "However, they are not allowed, nor have they ever been
allowed, to mention Aiden Clark from Springfield, Ohio."
Last month, a white supremacist was ejected from a city
council meeting after he made threatening statements towards
Haitian immigrants.
'MY HEART FELL'
Ahead of the debate, billionaire Elon Musk amplified the lie
further on his X social media platform, as did Republicans on
the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee.
Guerline Jozef, who heads the national advocacy group
Haitian Bridge Alliance, said her group had been trying to knock
down the rumor before the debate.
When Trump mentioned it, "my heart fell to the floor," she
said. "This has become a nationwide lie that people everywhere
are repeating."
For Taisha Saintil, now an analyst with the immigrant
advocacy group UndocuBlack Network, said Trump's remark brought
back painful memories of being taunted when she arrived at a
Florida elementary school in 2006.
Some 1.1 million Haitian Americans live in the U.S., about
half of whom are immigrants, according to the Census Bureau.
Long established in Florida and New York, Haitian immigrants
have recently been moving to states like North Carolina and
California to pursue work, Jozef said.
SEEKING WORK
Springfield officials say the majority of Haitian migrants
are in the country legally, drawn by jobs at warehouses and
factories. They have opened two restaurants and seven groceries,
according to a city fact sheet.
“While we are experiencing challenges related to the rapid
growth of our immigrant population, these challenges are
primarily due to the pace of the growth," city manager Bryan
Heck said in a video on Wednesday.
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, a Republican, said on Tuesday the
state is providing $2.5 million to help the new residents get
vaccines and other health services, and state police are being
brought in to help enforce traffic laws. He said President Joe
Biden's administration should also provide aid to cities like
Springfield that see a sudden increase in new migrants.
Trump's comments could energize his supporters to help him
win over undecided voters, particularly aggrieved white voters
who feel a sense of their own decline in this country, said
Republican strategist Mike Madrid, founder of the anti-Trump
Lincoln Project.
"The attempts to dehumanize people is a long-proven strategy
to work at a time when society's undergoing change," he said.
But that strategy risks spurring violence, Haitian American
leaders said.
Democratic Representative Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, the
only Haitian-American in Congress, said Trump's rhetoric
endangers Haitians across the country.
"We've heard these stereotypes for years about Haitian
people, Black immigrants, doing all these things that we know
aren't true,” she said.
Gepsie Metellus, who heads the Sant La Haitian neighborhood
center in North Miami, said Trump's comment was viewed as a
"cheap political shot" in her community, but directly endangers
those in Springfield.
"This rhetoric has a way of turning out really badly," she
said.
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