Donald Trump and JD Vance are smearing Haitian immigrants in their anti-immigrant presidential campaign, according to Florida elected officials of Haitian descent. And Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is joining them, eight Floridians declared in a news release Sept. 12.
Those “dangerous falsehoods” include Trump’s untrue statement in Tuesday night’s presidential debate that Haitian immigrants are stealing and eating family pets in Springfield, Ohio. Law enforcement officials there have said no such thing is happening.
Yet when confronted with facts debunking his statement during the debate, Trump doubled down and claimed he had more accurate information than the local police.
In interviews after the debate, Vance defended Trump’s lie, without providing any evidence of their shared claim.
The official X account of the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee posted a meme showing Trump hugging a duck and a cat with the caption: “Protect our ducks and kittens in Ohio!”
Cruz’s official X account posted a meme showing two kittens with the caption: “Please vote for Trump so Haitian immigrants don’t eat us.”
However, the Judiciary Committee and Cruz’s tweets were published Sept. 9, the day before the debate. That means Trump, at the debate, was echoing what Cruz and other Republican leaders already were saying.
The Florida Haitians said it was these tweets that “fueled the lie” Trump insisted was truth.
“Donald Trump is once again fixating on fictitious stories rooted in racist stereotypes in hopes of scaring Americans into voting for him,” said U.S. Rep. Sheyla Cherfilus. “His outrageous comment about immigrants eating Springfield, Ohio, residents’ pets is nothing more than a desperate attempt to stoke fear and division. It’s insulting, it’s false, and it’s rooted in the worst kinds of stereotypes.
“Let’s be clear: Haitians and other immigrants come to this country committed to education, hard work and building a better life, not just for themselves but for all of us,” she added. “They contribute to our economy, enrich our culture and strengthen our communities. Trump’s comments are a distraction from the real issues we face, and we won’t be fooled.”
Dotie Joseph
As a lawyer, Vance should know how to research outrageous claims like these, said Florida Rep. Dotie Joseph, but he clearly didn’t care to do that.
“When you don’t have integrity, you don’t care about truth, you don’t care about the impact on people, and you just want attention,” she said. “I am also a graduate of Yale, and also happen to be a lawyer engaged in public service, but unlike the shameless conment, I believe in truth, integrity and loving thy neighbor.”
Joseph accused Trump and Vance of deflecting their own inadequacies “by scapegoating immigrants, especially Black ones.”
She also reminded the Republican candidates that the United States and Haiti were the first two countries to gain independence in the Western hemisphere — “albeit under markedly different circumstances of freedom for Black people versus bondage.” In fact, she said, “Haitians helped fight in the American Revolution.”
But that bit of history doesn’t fit the racist agenda of Trumpism, she added. “Perhaps that’s exactly your issue — a specific anti-blackness born out of the remnants of the peculiar institution that was American slavery, and Haitian’s indelible destruction of that system that sent shock waves throughout the slave-owning world.”
Marie Woodson
Florida Rep. Marie Woodson said, “Trump’s unhinged rants about migrants indicate he has no problem spreading lies and vicious characterizations about Haitians and others. Which group will he use next to divide and put fear in our neighbors, friends and workplaces? Migrants are human and should not be treated as pawns for a selfish goal of divide and conquer.”
Marleine Bastien
Miami-Dade Commissioner Marleine Bastien said comments like those of Trump and Vance “are part of a plan to demonize Haitians — and by extension, all immigrants and all people of color — as a step toward discrimination and persecution. Haitians are here because of generational trauma from past dictatorships, political and organized gang violence. They are honest, hardworking people who have contributed to build the social, economic and political fabric of our nation.”
Other Haitian-descent elected officials in Florida joining the attack on Trump and Vance included Coral Springs, Fla., Commissioner Nancy Metayer Bowen; North Miami Mayor Alex Desulme; city clerk of North Miami, Fla., Vanessa Joseph; and Tessaq Petit, executive director of the Florida Immigrant Coalition.
“Donald Trump’s fear-mongering lie accusing (Haitian) immigrants of stealing and eating people’s dogs is deeply racist and xenophobic and should anger us all,” Petit said. “These statements are not only disrespectful to the thousands of Haitians living in Ohio but endanger the lives of all immigrants who are valued contributors to our communities across the country. We won’t stand for being scapegoats for a failing campaign.”
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