Friday, October 11, 2024

Opinion

Trumps Is Now Threatening All Immigrants, “Illegal” or Not

Edith Olmsted
THE NEW REPUBLIC
Wed, October 9, 2024 at 8:21 AM MDT·2 min read


Donald Trump has taken yet another page out of the fascist handbook and decided that immigrants in the United States with legal status aren’t actually legal.

During an interview Tuesday night on Newsmax, Trump said he didn’t care about what legal processes the Haitian immigrants of Springfield, Ohio, had gone through. They’re still “illegal” to him.

“I mean, look at Springfield where 30,000 illegal immigrants are dropped, and it was—they may have done it through a certain little trick, but they are illegal immigrants as far as I’m concerned. They’re destroying the towns, they’re destroying the whole—they’ll end up destroying the state!” he ranted.


The Haitian immigrants in Springfield are in the country under temporary protected status, which Trump has already pledged to revoke if he is put into office. The Republican presidential nominee’s reckless disregard for legal processes isn’t surprising, but it is alarming, as it widens the field of whom he hopes to displace in his plan to carry out the largest mass deportations in U.S. history. Whether you’re in the country legally or not legally depends entirely on whether you’re a convenient scapegoat for the former president.

Vice presidential nominee JD Vance has also stated that he doesn’t care about the legal status of immigrants. “Well, if Kamala Harris waves the wand illegally, and says these people are now here legally, I’m still going to call them an illegal alien,” Vance said during a campaign event in North Carolina last month. “An illegal action from Kamala Harris does not make an alien legal. That is not how this works.”

Trump has been not-so-subtly increasing the number of Haitian immigrants in Springfield every time he mentions it. In reality, there are between 10,000 and 12,000 Haitian immigrants in Springfield, according to CNN. Using fake numbers, and even faker stories, Trump has repeatedly exaggerated the supposed negative effect of immigrant communities on American cities.
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Ohioans know Trump’s claims about immigrants are false — but they still plan to vote for him

Alex Woodward
Thu, October 10, 2024 

Most voters in Ohio do not believe Donald Trump’s racist falsehood that Haitian immigrants are “eating the pets” of Springfield.

But the Republican presidential candidate is still leading Vice President Kamala Harris by roughly six percentage points in the state, maintaining his lead from his 2016 and 2020 victories, according to polling from The Washington Post.

Roughly 55 percent of Ohio voters, including nearly every Democratic voter in the survey, correctly believe that the debunked viral claim that Haitian immigrants in the state are eating people’s cats and dogs is false.

But 42 percent of Ohio Republicans believe Trump, the poll found. Taken together with the respondents who say they’re “not sure,” that figure is 68 percent.

Law enforcement and city officials in Springfield have firmly rejected the allegation — which was amplified by Trump on the debate stage and by his running mate JD Vance and their allies, dovetailing with Republican campaign promises and inflated claims on immigration and the US-Mexico border.

The claims appeared to fuel death threats as well as hoax bomb threats that temporarily closed schools and city buildings and forced hospitals into lockdown.


An electronic billboard in North Carolina displays a message against Donald Trump referencing his false claims that immigrants in Ohio are eating pets. (REUTERS)

Governor Mike DeWine, a Republican who supports Trump, wrote an op-ed for The New York Times defending the city’s “rich history of providing refuge for the oppressed and being a place of opportunity.”

Haitian immigrants, who are living there legally, have been an economic boon to the city amid a population decline and a depressed business outlook as the city’s labor force dried up, DeWine said.

“As a supporter of former President Donald Trump and Senator JD Vance, I am saddened by how they and others continue to repeat claims that lack evidence and disparage the legal migrants living in Springfield,” DeWine wrote. “This rhetoric hurts the city and its people, and it hurts those who have spent their lives there.”

Trump won the state by roughly eight percentage points in 2016 and 2020 after Democratic candidate Barack Obama carried the state in 2008 and 2012.

Ninety percent of Republican voters in the state plan to vote for Trump in 2024, while 95 percent of Democrats plan to support Harris, according to the poll.

The Washington Post poll also found that the race for Ohio Senate is in a dead heat, with incumbent Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown at 48 percent and his Republican rival Bernie Moreno at 47 percent — within the poll’s margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

Ohio voters don’t back Trump’s false claims about Haitian immigrants, poll says

David Rees
Thu, October 10, 2024



COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Although former President Donald Trump holds an edge over Vice President Kamala Harris in Ohio, a majority of voters in the state do not believe the false claim that Haitian immigrants in Springfield are “eating people’s pets,” a new poll shows.

About 57% of Ohio voters said the debunked comments are probably or definitely false, while 24% said Trump’s claim is probably or definitely true, according to a new Washington Post poll that surveyed 1,002 likely Ohio voters. The poll comes after Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, have pushed untrue claims about Haitian immigrants eating cats and dogs in Springfield, even as local officials have said there is no evidence for such claims.

“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs. The people that came in, they’re eating the cats. They’re eating — they’re eating the pets of the people that live there,” said Trump during a debate with Harris on Sept. 10.

About 55% of Ohio voters said they back Gov. Mike DeWine’s assertion that Trump’s claim is not true, and that those Haitian immigrants are in the state legally. Still, about 4 in 10 Ohio voters, about 42%, said Haitian immigrants in the state make the communities they live in worse, while 32% said they make them better.

His son died in a crash with a Haitian immigrant. He says Trump, Vance are using it for ‘political gain’

Trump has said he would deport Ohio’s Haitian immigrants if elected, vowing to revoke the migrants’ temporary status that allows them to remain in Springfield legally. Trump said that, in his opinion, “it’s not legal” and that Springfield has “been overrun.”

“Absolutely, I’d revoke it, and I’d bring them back to their country,” Trump said in an interview with NewsNation’s Ali Bradley at a Texas fundraising event. “They’ll receive them. If I bring them back, they’re going to receive them.”

Even through the Springfield controversy, the poll found Trump holds a six-point advantage, 51% to 45%, over Harris among likely Ohio voters, which is similar to his eight-point winning margin over President Biden four years ago. Ohio voters have a more favorable view of Trump, at 47%, compared to an unfavorable rating of 46%. Ohio’s view of Harris is reversed, with an unfavorable rating of 51% compared to 43% favorable.

Vance holds the state’s highest favorable rating at 49%, compared to an unfavorable of 42%. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris’ running mate, holds a favorable view of 42% to an unfavorable of 43%.

Meanwhile, voters are about evenly split in Ohio’s U.S. Senate race, with 48% supporting Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown and 47% supporting Republican Bernie Moreno. Voters said Brown has a lead on handling issues, like abortion, health care and helping the middle class, while Moreno has an edge on immigration, taxes and crime.

Voters prefer Brown to Moreno by 13 points to handle abortion, after Ohio approved a measure last November to establish the right to abortion in the state constitution. Still, Moreno holds an advantage in that 51% of Ohio voters want Republicans to control the U.S. Senate, compared to 42% who wants Democrats to control the chamber.

Brown is more popular than Moreno, with 45% rating the Democratic senator favorably and 42% unfavorably. Moreno’s image is underwater, with 37% favorable and 46% unfavorable. The poll also found that Black voters in Ohio favor Brown by 72% to 24% for Moreno, similar to Harris’s margin over Trump, 70% to 24%.

Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. 

Most in Ohio survey say baseless Trump claim that immigrants are eating pets is false

Tara Suter
Thu, October 10, 2024 




Most in a new Ohio survey from The Washington Post said baseless claims about immigrants eating pets are false.


Fifty-seven percent of registered voters in the Buckeye State labeled a claim by former President Trump that “Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, are eating people’s pets” as “definitely false” or “probably false.” About 24 percent labeled the claim as “definitely true” or “probably true.”

The false claim came into the national spotlight during last month’s presidential debate between Trump and Vice President Harris, with the former president stating that Haitian migrants are “eating the dogs” in the Ohio city.

“What they have done to our country by allowing these millions and millions of people to come into our country — and look at what’s happening to the towns [in the] United States, a lot of towns don’t want to talk. Not going to be Aurora [or] Springfield,” the former president said. “A lot of towns don’t want to talk about it because they’re so embarrassed by it. In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs.”

When asked about “Haitian immigrants in Ohio” and how they affect “the communities they live in,” 32 percent of registered voters said they believe they “generally make” the communities they live in “a lot better” or “a little better.” Forty-two percent said they believe Haitian immigrants in their state generally make the communities they live in “a little worse” or “a lot worse.”

The Post poll was conducted Oct. 3-7 with 1,002 Ohio registered voters and has a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.

Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. T


 

 













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