In a campaign event Friday, Donald Trump vowed to oversee the “largest deportation in the history of our country,” starting in Springfield, Ohio, if he is elected in November.
Springfield was vaulted into the public eye this week when Ohio woman Allexis Telia Ferrell, who is not from Springfield, was allegedly arrested in the county for killing a cat by stomping on its head, after which she ate the animal “in a residential area in front of multiple people,” police said. Canton Police Department spokesman Lt. Dennis Garren said that “we have no reason to believe that [Ferrell] is not a U.S. citizen. She has lived in Canton for quite some time; for sure since she was a juvenile.”
Trump’s campaign nonetheless amplified unverified claims that Haitian immigrants in Springfield eat dogs, cats, and geese, posting on social media that “President Trump will deport migrants who eat pets. Kamala Harris will send them to your town next. Make your choice, America.” The town of 58,000 has welcomed nearly 15,000 Haitian immigrants in the past few years, an influx some community members say has caused cultural strife, increases in crime, and a welfare and housing crisis.
“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs — the people that came in. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people that live there. And this is what’s happening in our country, and it’s a shame,” Trump said during his first presidential debate with Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday.
The Republican hopeful doubled down on these claims in Los Angeles on Friday and said that “we will do large deportations in Springfield, Ohio,” even though local officials say that there have been no credible reports of immigrants killing pets. Although a similar claim of Haitian immigrants eating geese went viral after the Federalist published an audio recording of a police call, Clark County Police told National Review that “we have no other information to provide on this call, or possible outcomes as this was our only record of the incident. At this time we have not found any other record concerning Haitians harvesting geese.”
“At this time, we have not found any record of Haitians eating pets,” police told NR on Thursday.
Conservative journalist Christopher Rufo published a report, which has been unconfirmed by police, on Saturday claiming that African migrants in a neighboring town, Dayton, allegedly grilled a cat in a residential area.
Springfield’s mayor Rob Rue said that leaders should help, not “hurt a community like, unfortunately, we have seen over the last couple of days” in an interview with the Washington Post. The town’s City Hall was evacuated on Thursday after a bomb threat that specifically “used hateful language towards immigrants and Haitians in our community.”
“Springfield is a community that needs help,” Rue said.