‘They Want to Dehumanize the Immigrant Population in This Country’
Trump receives across-the-board pushback over absurd claims of pet-eating in Ohio
Donald Trump is facing widespread condemnation for the bizarre, racist and false claims he and his running mate have been making about Haitian immigrants in Ohio eating their neighbors’ pets.
Trump only has been repeating the offensive and hurtful claims he raised during last week’s debate against Vice President Kamala Harris — even after debate moderators told him that his allegations are totally false.
The former president has been amplifying these bizarre statements despite the fact that his comments are causing threat to the Haitian immigrant community in Springfield, Ohio.
Trump has insisted on spreading falsehoods that Haitian immigrants in Springfield have been stealing and eating dogs, cats and other animals.
Haitian Americans and Haitian immigrants have faced race-based attacks due to these claims. Haitian residents – some of whom have lived in the town for years – have since had windows broken and acid thrown on their cars as a result of the hoax.
Trump’s false claims also have caused bomb threats in Springfield, a municipality over fewer than 60,000 residents in southwestern Ohio.
President Biden forcefully condemned Trump’s claims, as did his White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre. Jean-Pierre, herself, is a Haitian-American.
“I want to take a moment to say something like many Americans like Karine, a proud Haitian-American. A community that is under attack right now. Simply wrong. There is no place in America. This has to stop. It has to stop,” Biden said Friday at the White House. “Recognize that this nation would not exist and this letter without the blood, sweat and tears, the determination and contributions of Black Americans. That is a fact. This place would not exist.”
While some Republicans are joining with Trump in this disinformation, others are speaking out.
“There is strategic importance to the Trump campaign for doing this. They want to dehumanize the migrant populations in this country because you can’t talk about rounding up millions of people and tearing them away from their country that they have lived in, some of them their entire lives, from their families, unless you dehumanize them,” said Brendan Buck, who worked for two Republican speakers of the House, referring to Trump’s plans for “mass deportations” of millions of immigrants. “I think that is ultimately what this is about and why they are leaning into the Haitian community.
“It is not lost on anybody there is a racial component to this, as well. I think this is an important point: On the Republican right, there is no limit on how out-there you can be on immigration.”
Rep Shontel Brown, a Democratic congresswoman from Ohio, also is repudiating Trump and others who engage in this rhetoric.
“Here we are talking about Donald j. Trump and J.D. Vance and their continued efforts to try to disparage, disrespect, dehumanize, demonize Black people,” said Brown, herself a Black American. “This man has been married to two immigrants and we do not hear him talking about immigrants like that. To me it is very clear where his disdain is pointed. It is directly at Black and brown people, the same man who called Mexicans thugs. We are clear about who Donald Trump is and what a person shows you who they are, we should believe them.”
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