Trump and Vance foment racial hatred and xenophobia in Ohio and across America
Former President Donald Trump used increasingly harsh rhetoric Friday in describing Haitian migrants in Ohio, saying they’re “destroying their way of life” and threatened mass deportations.
He made his comments as he and some of his allies, including his running mate JD Vance, have claimed that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio are eating cats, dogs and geese, sparking a backlash from Democrats, including President Joe Biden.
“Illegal Haitian migrants have descended upon a town of 58,000 people, destroying their way of life,” Trump said during a news conference at his golf course in Southern California.
The focus on Haiti — the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere in the midst of a severe hunger crisis and intense political upheaval — is a departure for the migration debate, which tends to focus on movement across the southern border by migrants from Mexico, Central and South America. But Trump on Friday turned that focus to migrants who flew into the U.S. “right over the top of the border guards.”
About 15,000 Haitian migrants have moved to the town in recent years, the Associated Press reported, which Springfield Mayor Rob Rue attributed to economic opportunities and a “housing boom.” Residents of the town, which is largely white and blue collar, say the mass migration has caused housing prices to increase. [Continue reading…]
While the arrival of thousands of Haitian immigrants has strained schools and some government services, most of the Haitians are in the United States legally and many have filled jobs in local industry.
But it was the death of 11-year-old Aiden Clark, killed last year when his school bus was struck by a minivan driven by a Haitian immigrant, that began fueling anger and anxiety, ultimately thrusting Springfield into a vitriolic national debate over immigration.
On Tuesday, Mr. Vance referred to Aiden in a post on X, saying that “a child was murdered by a Haitian migrant.”
Later that day, Aiden’s father, Nathan Clark, lashed out at Mr. Vance and others he said were exploiting his son’s death for political gain.
“My son was not murdered. He was accidentally killed by an immigrant from Haiti,” Mr. Clark, a teacher, said at a Springfield City Commission meeting. [Continue reading…]