Some Republicans, including Donald Trump\u2019s running mate JD Vance, on Monday amplified the false and dehumanizing claim that immigrants in Ohio who came into the country during the Biden-Harris administration are injuring and eating Americans\u2019 pets.<\/p>\n
The baseless and bizarre belief drew Republicans\u2019 attention Monday after Vance \u2014 who has long claimed that immigrants are draining resources in towns like Springfield, Ohio \u2014 shared a post on X in which he cited unnamed \u201creports\u201d claiming that people in the town west of Columbus \u201chave had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn\u2019t be in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Police in Springfield told local news outlets that there are no reports of pets being stolen or eaten in the city.<\/p>\n
Still, Vance tied the baseless suggestion that immigrants are hurting animals to the Biden-Harris administration, in what appeared to be an effort to attack Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere is our border czar?\u201d Vance said in his post on X \u2014 calling Harris by a label Republicans have given to the vice president, despite there being no position by that name in the Biden administration.<\/p>\n
Though Harris was not in charge of border policy during the Biden administration, she was tasked with meeting with the leaders of Central American countries to discuss the factors that push immigrants out of their home countries \u2014 a role Republicans have sought to use to tie the issue of immigration to her on the campaign trail. Spokespeople for the Harris campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Republicans\u2019 attacks.<\/p>\n
On Monday, Vance\u2019s sentiment attacking Harris and demonizing immigrants in Springfield was quickly echoed by the Trump campaign and other Republicans in Congress, including Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.). In a news release, the Trump campaign said residents of Springfield have \u201cbeen left in terror as migrants overtake the once-quiet city\u201d and that migrants were \u201cdumped\u201d \u201cunvetted\u201d in the city because of the Biden-Harris administration\u2019s policies.<\/p>\n
While Vance, who represents Ohio in the Senate, and the Trump campaign appeared to suggest that Haitian immigrants in Springfield arrived illegally and without proper vetting, the growing population of Haitian immigrants there live and work in the United States legally, according to an FAQ put together by the City of Springfield. Per the document, Haitian immigrants in Springfield arrived under the Immigration Parole Program and were allowed to apply for temporary protected status, an authorization that gives them the ability to work legally in the United States. To receive such status, immigrants must maintain a clean crime record.<\/p>\n
In a statement to The Washington Post, a spokesperson for Vance said the senator received a \u201chigh volume of calls and emails over the past several weeks from concerned citizens in Springfield,\u201d which prompted his tweet attacking Harris and citing the unverified reports about immigrants.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany residents have contacted Senator Vance to share their concerns over crime and traffic accidents, and to express that they no longer feel safe in their own homes,\u201d the spokesperson said. \u201cJD takes his constituents\u2019 concerns seriously,\u201d the spokesperson added.<\/p>\n
The baseless notion that immigrants are hurting animals in Springfield appears to come from a viral Facebook post first shared in a Springfield Facebook group in which a user claimed that their neighbor\u2019s daughter\u2019s friend had found her lost cat hanging from a branch at a home where a Haitian neighbor lives.<\/p>\n
The user then claimed, without evidence, that \u201cRangers & police\u201d had told them that Haitian neighbors had also been hanging ducks and geese for butchering. Per the Springfield News-Sun, Springfield Police said Monday they are aware of the social media posts but that there was no evidence of such claims and that the issue is \u201cnot something that\u2019s on our radar right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the police statement did not stop Republicans from amplifying Vance and the Trump campaign\u2019s messaging against Harris and immigrants. The Trump campaign, in its news release, cited a Daily Mail story covering the Facebook user\u2019s baseless claims and, in a post shared on X, the Trump War Room said Trump, if elected \u201cwill deport migrants who eat pets. Kamala Harris will send them to your town next. Make your choice, America.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cruz on X shared an image of two cats hugging each other with overlaid text reading: \u201cPlease vote for Trump so Haitian immigrants don\u2019t eat us.\u201d Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-Tex.) shared a video on X that contained AI-generated footage of Trump kissing a duck and knitting next to a cat.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe cannot allow our pets to become a hot lunch for Kamala\u2019s newcomers,\u201d Hunt said in his post. \u201cThis November, you can do your part. Protect the Animals. Vote Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n
And, also on Monday, Republican Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced that his office would \u201cexhaust all possibilities\u201d to address the arrival of \u201can unlimited number of migrants to Ohio communities,\u201d arguing that residents have, among other things, complained that migrants were reportedly \u201ckilling wildlife for food.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is absurd \u2014 Springfield has swollen by more than a third due to migrants,\u201d Yost said in a statement. \u201cThe problem is not migrants, it is way, way too many migrants in a short period of time.\u201d<\/p>\n
The baseless claims that migrants have killed pets and wildlife are part of Trump\u2019s broader pattern of using dehumanizing language when discussing immigrants, which during this election cycle has included portraying migrants as violent criminals \u2014 despite there being little evidence immigrants cause more crime than native-born Americans \u2014 and saying that they are \u201cpoisoning the blood of our country.\u201d He\u2019s also touted plans for militarized mass deportations of migrants, should he win back the White House.<\/p>\n
Vance, specifically, has previously derided Haitian immigrants in Springfield, claiming that migrants have stressed the city\u2019s ability to provide housing opportunities to residents, strained public resources and lowered the wages of American workers. He said that about 15,000 to 20,000 immigrants have arrived in the city of about 60,000 in the past four years \u2014 similar numbers as those cited by the City of Springfield, including its mayor, Rob Rue, who in a July interview with \u201cFox & Friends First\u201d said the city needed federal aid for support as it adjusts to the influx of migrants, many of whom said are Haitian.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are doing the best we can to take care of those who have come to us as visitors, those who have come in due to protected asylum,\u201d Rue told Fox News. \u201cThe growth has been so large that this is causing difficulties for us to safely serve this community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meryl Kornfield contributed to this report.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Some Republicans, including Donald Trump\u2019s running mate JD Vance, on Monday amplified the false and dehumanizing claim that immigrants in Ohio who came into the country during the Biden-Harris administration are injuring and eating Americans\u2019 pets. The baseless and bizarre belief drew Republicans\u2019 attention Monday after Vance \u2014 who has long claimed that immigrants are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":9258,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}