Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio that were falsely accused of eating residents’ pets by then-candidate Donald Trump are leaving the town after he was elected earlier this month.
In September, then-Republican Vice-Presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) promoted the lie about Haitian migrants eating residents’ pets in Springfield on social media.
The false claim was later amplified by Trump during the presidential debate with Vice-President Kamala Harris.
“In Springfield, they are eating the dogs. The people that came in, they are eating the cats,” he said. “They’re eating – they are eating the pets of the people that live there.”
According to CBS News, some of the Haitian migrants who live the city are leaving or planning to leave fearing deportation under Trump.
Ketlie Moise, a migrant who fled violence in Haiti, told the outlet she knows about 10 friends and neighbors who have recently left Springfield, along with several restaurant employees.
Moise plans to stay in Springfield after working two jobs and was recently able to open a restaurant. But, her daughter is among the Haitian migrants who have left since Trump was elected. Moise said that when her daughter told her she wanted to leave, she considered joining her, but had no idea where she was going to go.
While living in Springfield, Moise learned that her mother was killed at their family business in Haiti and if she returned she will also be killed.
“I’m scared because my business in Haiti was bombed, I lost my mom,” Moise told CBS. “Someone come in the business, they shoot my mom with a gun, bomb my business…If I get deportation to go back to Haiti, for me especially, I’m going to die, I’m going to be dead.”
Moise is among the estimated 12,000 to 15,000 Haitian migrants who live in Springfield legally under Temporary Protected Status (TPS). Trump has promised to end the program and “have the largest deportation in the history of our country, and we’re going to start with Springfield..”
The president-elect has chosen immigration hardliner Tom Homan as his ‘borders czar’ to oversee the mass deportation policy.
