Ohio Republican Governor Mike DeWine condemned comments made by former President Donald Trump and U.S. Ohio Senator JD Vance about his state, describing them as “disappointing” and “harmful” in an opinion column in The New York Times on Friday.
Amid the 2024 presidential election where immigration is a hot topic issue, Trump and Vance, the former president’s running mate, have repeatedly promoted claims that Haitian immigrants, who are in the United States legally, have been “eating the pets” of their neighbors in Springfield, Ohio. During Trump’s debate with Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris on ABC News earlier this month, Trump said dogs and cats were being eaten by the migrants, despite local officials already saying there were no credible reports of this happening.
“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs—the people that came in,” Trump claimed about Haitian immigrants. “They’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people that live there, and this is what’s happening in our country, and it’s a shame.”
In an X, formerly Twitter, post earlier this month, Vance said his office had received “many inquiries from actual residents of Springfield who’ve said their neighbors’ pets or local wildlife were abducted by Haitian migrants.”
He added in a separate X post: “In short, don’t let the crybabies in the media dissuade you, fellow patriots. Keep the cat memes flowing.”
Springfield has faced a wave of bomb threats since Vance and Trump began amplifying the discredited claims about Haitian immigrants in the city. Hospitals, government buildings and local public schools have all been targeted, causing significant disruptions and concerns within the community.
Meanwhile, during a rally in New York on Wednesday, the former president announced that he would be visiting the city in the next few weeks.
In his op-ed for the Times titled, “I’m the Governor of Ohio. I Don’t Recognize the Springfield That Trump and Vance Describe,” DeWine wrote, “Springfield has a rich history of providing refuge for the oppressed and being a place of opportunity. As a stop on the Underground Railroad, the Gammon House, which still stands, was a safe haven for escaped slaves seeking freedom. It is disappointing to me that Springfield has become the epicenter of vitriol over America’s immigration policy, because it has long been a community of great diversity.”
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The governor added: “As a supporter of former President Donald Trump and Senator JD Vance, I am saddened by how they and others continue to repeat claims that lack evidence and disparage the legal migrants living in Springfield. This rhetoric hurts the city and its people, and it hurts those who have spent their lives there.”
DeWine also condemned the Biden administration’s approach to its immigration policy, writing: “The Biden administration’s failure to control the southern border is a very important issue that Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance are talking about and one that the American people are rightfully deeply concerned about. But their verbal attacks against these Haitians—who are legally present in the United States—dilute and cloud what should be a winning argument about the border.”
Newsweek has contacted the Trump campaign and the Harris campaign for comment via email.
After half a century of economic decline, Springfield worked hard to lure back the manufacturing industry. The plan worked and began creating jobs that ended up attracting immigrants. Between 15,000 and 20,000 Haitian migrants have moved to the city, which had a population of just under 60,000 in 2020, over the space of four years, city officials say.
They are in the country legally, the City of Springfield’s Immigration FAQ page says, many under the Immigration Parole Program, which, under certain conditions, allows noncitizens to remain in the U.S. temporarily without meeting standard visa or immigration requirements.
During an interview with ABC News’ This Week on Sunday, DeWine was asked about the claims amplified by the Republican presidential ticket and conservative influencers online.
Do you see any evidence, as governor of the state, that Haitian immigrants are eating pets?” host Martha Raddatz asked the Ohio Republican.
“No, absolutely none,” DeWine responded. “…There’s a lot of garbage on the internet and this is a piece of garbage that was simply not true, there’s no evidence of this at all.”
Springfield’s Mayor Rob Rue also criticized politicians for spreading misinformation about his city.
“All these federal politicians that have negatively spun our city, they need to know they’re hurting our city, and it was their words that did it,” he recently told local ABC affiliate channel 6 WSYX.
Where Did the ‘Eating the Pets’ Claim Originate?
A Springfield resident by the name of Erika Lee made a Facebook post alleging that local Haitian immigrants were “eating pets,” which led to significant national attention on the small city. Her post detailed the disappearance of a neighbor’s cat and included her neighbor’s suspicions that their Haitian residents were involved in the incident.
She admits that she had no direct evidence supporting such a claim and that the incident has left her ridden with guilt and anxiety due to the controversy it generated.
“It just exploded into something I didn’t mean to happen,” Lee told NBC News last week.
According to NewsGuard, an organization dedicated to combating internet misinformation, Lee was one of the first to spread the baseless rumor on social media, the screenshots of which were widely shared. The neighbor, identified as Kimberly Newton, reportedly got the information about the alleged incident from a third party, as per NewsGuard’s findings and reported by NBC News.
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