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Haitian Americans fear for their safety after presidential debate

12/9/2024 5:51
        Haitian Americans said
        they fear for their safety after Donald Trump repeated a false
        and derogatory claim during this week's presidential debate
        about immigrants in Ohio.
        
        Haitian community leaders across the U.S. said the
        Republican candidate's remarks about immigrants eating household
        pets during his debate with Democratic Vice President Kamala
        Harris could put lives at risk and further inflame tensions in
        the small city of Springfield, Ohio, where thousands of recent
        Haitian arrivals have boosted the local economy but also
        strained the safety net.
        
        "We have to be careful where we go," said Viles Dorsainvil,
        38, who says the Haitian community center he heads in
        Springfield has received threatening phone calls. The hostility
        has prompted one friend working at an Amazon warehouse to
        consider leaving, he said.
        
        "He said that things are getting out of hand now; the way
        people are treating us, making bad comments about us,"
        Dorsainvil said.
        
        Trump's Tuesday remark that "they're eating the dogs, the
        people that came in, they're eating the cats" is the latest in a
        long line of lies about immigrants that have defined his
        political career. It followed a similar false claim spread by
        his running mate, U.S. Senator JD Vance of Ohio, on social media
        about Springfield's new residents.
        
        City officials say they have received no credible reports of
        anybody eating household animals. Karen Graves, a city
        spokesperson, said she was not aware of recent hate crimes
        targeting Haitian residents but that some had been victims of
        "crimes of opportunity," such as property theft.
        
        The Haitian Times reported that some Haitian families in
        Springfield, Ohio, were keeping their children home from school,
        while other sources told the newspaper that they were subject to
        bullying, assaults and intimidation in front of their homes amid
        racist rhetoric amplified by social media.
        
        The lie fed on frustrations of some in the western Ohio
        city, who say the 15,000 Haitians who have arrived in recent
        years to fuel the city's economy, have also stressed limited
        resources at local schools and health clinics and driven up
        rents.
        
        Tensions have increased since a Haitian driving without an
        Ohio license struck a school bus in 2023, killing 11-year-old
        Aiden Clark and injuring 26 other children.
        
        "People are getting really fed up," city resident Richard
        Jordan said at a city council meeting on Tuesday. "Things are
        going to get ugly."
        
        At that same meeting, Clark's father Nathan Clark criticized
        Trump and Vance for exploiting his son's death.
        
        "They can vomit all the hate they want about illegal
        immigrants, the border crisis, and even untrue claims about
        fluffy pets being ravaged and eaten by community members," Clark
        said. "However, they are not allowed, nor have they ever been
        allowed, to mention Aiden Clark from Springfield, Ohio."
        
        Last month, a white supremacist was ejected from a city
        council meeting after he made threatening statements towards
        Haitian immigrants.
        
        
        
        'MY HEART FELL'
        
        Ahead of the debate, billionaire Elon Musk amplified the lie
        further on his X social media platform, as did Republicans on
        the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee.
        
        Guerline Jozef, who heads the national advocacy group
        Haitian Bridge Alliance, said her group had been trying to knock
        down the rumor before the debate.
        
        When Trump mentioned it, "my heart fell to the floor," she
        said. "This has become a nationwide lie that people everywhere
        are repeating."
        
        For Taisha Saintil, now an analyst with the immigrant
        advocacy group UndocuBlack Network, said Trump's remark brought
        back painful memories of being taunted when she arrived at a
        Florida elementary school in 2006.
        
        Some 1.1 million Haitian Americans live in the U.S., about
        half of whom are immigrants, according to the Census Bureau.
        Long established in Florida and New York, Haitian immigrants
        have recently been moving to states like North Carolina and
        California to pursue work, Jozef said.
        
        
        
        SEEKING WORK
        
        Springfield officials say the majority of Haitian migrants
        are in the country legally, drawn by jobs at warehouses and
        factories. They have opened two restaurants and seven groceries,
        according to a city fact sheet.
        
        “While we are experiencing challenges related to the rapid
        growth of our immigrant population, these challenges are
        primarily due to the pace of the growth," city manager Bryan
        Heck said in a video on Wednesday.
        
        Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, a Republican, said on Tuesday the
        state is providing $2.5 million to help the new residents get
        vaccines and other health services, and state police are being
        brought in to help enforce traffic laws. He said President Joe
        Biden's administration should also provide aid to cities like
        Springfield that see a sudden increase in new migrants.
        
        Trump's comments could energize his supporters to help him
        win over undecided voters, particularly aggrieved white voters
        who feel a sense of their own decline in this country, said
        Republican strategist Mike Madrid, founder of the anti-Trump
        Lincoln Project.
        
        "The attempts to dehumanize people is a long-proven strategy
        to work at a time when society's undergoing change," he said.
        But that strategy risks spurring violence, Haitian American
        leaders said.
        Democratic Representative Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, the
        only Haitian-American in Congress, said Trump's rhetoric
        endangers Haitians across the country.
        
        "We've heard these stereotypes for years about Haitian
        people, Black immigrants, doing all these things that we know
        aren't true,” she said.
        
        Gepsie Metellus, who heads the Sant La Haitian neighborhood
        center in North Miami, said Trump's comment was viewed as a
        "cheap political shot" in her community, but directly endangers
        those in Springfield.
        
        "This rhetoric has a way of turning out really badly," she
        said.
        



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