Trump threatens to deport immigrants from Haiti if elected
Báo Dân trí•15/09/2024
(Dan Tri) - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump announced that he will deport a large number of immigrants from Haiti in the city of Springfield, Ohio.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump (Photo: Bloomberg).
"We're going to do mass deportations in Springfield, Ohio," former President Donald Trump said at a news conference at his golf resort near Los Angeles on September 13. Springfield has been the focus of social media attention for days after reports emerged that Haitians who arrived there were eating their pets. Two elementary schools were evacuated and a middle school in Springfield was closed on September 13 after anonymous bomb threats were made. During a debate with Vice President Kamala Harris on September 11, Trump falsely claimed that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were stealing people's pet dogs and cats and eating them. "In Springfield, they're eating dogs. People come in, they're eating cats. They're eating the pets of the people who live there," Trump said. Harris responded: "You're talking extreme." Earlier this week, the Springfield Police Department said it had received no reports of pets being stolen and eaten. The majority of Springfield’s 15,000 Haitians are legal immigrants. Trump’s pledge to conduct mass deportations has often referred to illegal immigrants. At the White House, President Joe Biden called for an end to attacks on the Haitian community. The Biden administration in June extended Temporary Protected Status, a decades-old program that shields legal immigrants from deportation and grants them work permits, to hundreds of thousands of Haitians in the United States. Gang wars in Haiti have displaced more than half a million people, and nearly 5 million face severe food insecurity. Trump has cited the tensions in Springfield as an example of the need for tough immigration policies. The influx of Haitians has boosted the economy but also strained social services. Haitian community leaders across the U.S. said the Republican presidential candidate's comments could endanger lives and add to tensions in Springfield. "We need help, not hate," Springfield Mayor Rob Rue said. City officials said they had not received any credible reports of anyone eating pets. City spokeswoman Karen Graves said she was not aware of recent hate crimes against Haitians, but some had fallen victim to "crimes of opportunity," such as property theft.
Comment (0)