Springfield, Ohio, has been dealing with bomb threats for two straight days after the city was catapulted into the international spotlight on Tuesday when former president Donald Trump pushed a narrative, without evidence, about Haitian immigrants during the presidential debate with Vice-President Kamala Harris.
“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs. The people that came in, they’re eating the cats. They’re eating — they’re eating the pets of the people that live there,” Trump said during the debate, which was watched by more than 67 million people.
ABC moderator David Muir fact-checked Trump during the live debate, but Trump refused to retract his statements. Both Springfield’s mayor and city manager have said there is no evidence to back up the viral claims and the Republican governor of Ohio, Mike DeWine, says he trusts the city officials.
The fallout of Trump’s remarks came quickly for the city of Springfield. Less than 48 hours after the debate, numerous government buildings and elementary schools received a bomb threat that the city’s mayor said included “hateful language” against Haitians. On Friday, two new bomb threats were made, targeting even more schools.
The first threat came in via email on Thursday morning just before 8:30 a.m. and were sent to multiple government agencies and media outlets, police Chief Allison Elliott said during a press conference. The emails threatened to target Springfield City Hall, two driver’s licence offices and two elementary schools.
All the locations in the email were evacuated and cleared by investigators, with the help of bomb-sniffing K9s.
On Friday morning, however, more two bomb threats came through, according to a statement shared with Global News by Springfield city official Karen Graves.
The first bomb threat was sent at 7:21 a.m. and targeted “several City Commissioners and a City employee,” the statement reads. The second was sent just over 20 minutes later and threatened city hall, two government buildings and three schools, including elementary, middle and high schools.
Again, authorities evacuated and cleared all the buildings named in the bomb threats.
Local law enforcement is working with the FBI to determine the origin of Thursday and Friday’s emails.
The mayor of Springfield has told numerous U.S. outlets that the bomb threats were motivated by racism towards the city’s Haitian community members. The threats “used hateful language towards immigrants and Haitians in our community,” Mayor Rob Rue told the Washington Post.
“It’s frustrating when national politicians, on the national stage, mischaracterize what is actually going on and misrepresent our community,” Rue told the New York Times.
The Trump campaign told the Post on Thursday that it condemned the bomb threat against Springfield and said they “believe those responsible should be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”
Haitian community members in Springfield say they’re feeling unsafe in the wake of the viral claims and Trump’s debate remarks, according to the Haitian Times. One resident told the outlet said she was scared to send her niece to school and others have been keeping their children home.
“We’re all victims this morning,” said the woman, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisal. “They’re attacking us in every way.”
The woman said her cars have been smashed and had acid thrown on them since the rumours about Haitian immigrants eating pets began.
The city estimates that about 12,000 to 15,000 Haitian immigrants have settled in the Springfield area, having been drawn to the area because of the “lower cost of living and available work,” according to a Frequently Asked Questions page about immigration on the city’s website. Officials have apparently been fielding questions about why immigrants aren’t working, prompting a written statement that the newcomers are filling important labour gaps in manufacturing, warehouse and service industries.
“Immigrants are working in Springfield—in various industries that are in great need of workers,” the site reads. “Springfield is also now home to ten newer businesses, opened by Haitian immigrants, including, 2 Haitian restaurants, 7 Haitian grocery stores and 1 Haitian food truck.”
The page also affirms that the immigrants “are here legally, under the Immigration Parole Program” — a federal program for people to temporarily settle in the U.S. “based on urgent humanitarian or significant public benefit reasons.”
Haiti has been wracked by gang violence since 2020 and was further destabilized in 2021 when President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated.
The influx of Haitian migrants to Springfield has proved to be a strain on the city’s healthcare and education systems, however. Ohio Gov. DeWine has earmarked US$2.5 million for the city over two years to support primary healthcare and ordered the Ohio State Highway Patrol to assist local law enforcement with traffic issues officials say have cropped up due to some Haitians being unfamiliar with U.S. traffic laws.
Trump’s running mate, Ohio senator J.D. Vance, acknowledged that the claims about Haitian immigrants in Springfield could “turn out to be false,” in a post on X, formerly Twitter. But he doubled down that his office has “received many inquiries from actual residents of Springfield who’ve said their neighbors’ pets or local wildlife were abducted by Haitian migrants.”
He told his supporters to “Keep the cat memes flowing,” in reference to a surge of AI-generated images of Trump saving cats after his debate remarks.
Vance also alluded to the death of 11-year-old Aiden Clark in his post, who was killed last year after a minivan driven by a Haitian immigrant struck his school bus. Clark’s father took issue with his child being used as a “political tool” and called Trump and Vance “morally bankrupt.”
“I wish that my son, Aiden Clark, was killed by a 60-year-old white man. I bet you never thought anyone would say something so blunt, but if that guy killed my 11-year-old son, the incessant group of hate-spewing people would leave us alone,” Clark said at a Springfield city council meeting.
Activists say this is not the first time the Haitian community has been targeted by racist rumours. The Haitian Bridge Alliance wrote on X that Trump and Vance’s “baseless claims” have led to “hostility” in Springfield.
“We are disgusted that bad actors are attempting to gain political points at the expense of defaming an already targeted community. Haitian migrants have been the backbone of so much of what makes this country great,” the nonprofit wrote.
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This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.