“People Are Afraid”: Haitians in
U.S. Face Hate, Threats as Trump
and Vance Spread Racist Lies
Watch Full Show"As Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and running mate JD Vance continue to spread debunked, racist lies that Haitians living in Springfield, Ohio, are eating people’s pets, we speak with Guerline Jozef from the Haitian Bridge Alliance, an immigrant advocacy group, about threats of violence that have forced closures and evacuations at hospitals, colleges and City Hall in Springfield, with some threats citing anger over the city’s resettlement of Haitian immigrants. This comes as Trump continues to promise mass deportations if he is reelected, starting in Springfield, even though the Haitians there were welcomed under the Temporary Protected Status program.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.
We begin today’s show looking at the escalating threats of violence against Haitian immigrants as Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance continue to double down on their racist lies, falsely accusing Haitians living in Springfield, Ohio, of eating people’s pets and other animals in the outdoors. On Saturday, two Springfield hospitals were forced to go on lockdown after receiving bomb threats. This was at least the fourth such case, after a bomb threat on Thursday prompted authorities to order the evacuation of Springfield City Hall and several municipal buildings. Springfield Mayor Rob Rue said the threat came in an email from someone angry over the city’s resettlement of Haitian immigrants. Two colleges in Springfield, Wittenberg University and Clark State College, also received shooting and bombing threats over the weekend, prompting officials to cancel events and move classes online.
On Sunday, Vance defended the far-right racist lies during an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash.
DANA BASH: The Clark County sheriff and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources reviewed 11 months of 911 calls. They only identified two instances of people alleging Haitians were taking geese out of parks. They found zero evidence to substantiate those claims. Also, other evidence that you have talked about, even you’ve retweeted, alleged evidence, are unsourced social media videos from a different city, apparently no connection to Haitians, and this is from a conservative activist who offered a $5,000 reward for such things.
And then, going just back to the schools and the hospitals and so forth being overwhelmed, nobody is disputing that the town of Springfield, Ohio, needs help. But you’re not just a bystander; you’re the senator from Ohio. So, instead of saying things that are wrong and actually causing the hospitals, the schools, the government buildings to be evacuated because of bomb threats because of the cats and dogs thing, why not actually be constructive in helping to better integrate them into the community, because there are a lot of employers there who say that the Haitian workers are helping fill jobs that they need desperately filled?
SEN. JD VANCE: Dana, first of all, let me just respond to a couple things that you said, but I want to start with something you said which I think is, frankly, disgusting and is more appropriate for a Democratic propagandist than it is for an American journalist. There is nothing that I have said that has led to threats against these hospitals. These hospitals, the bomb threats and so forth, it’s disgusting. The violence is disgusting. We condemn it. We condemn all violence —
DANA BASH: Senator —
SEN. JD VANCE: — and threats of violence.
DANA BASH: This happened after you and President Trump were on the —
SEN. JD VANCE: But to say — no, no, Dana.
DANA BASH: — on the debate stage —
SEN. JD VANCE: No, Dana. To say —
DANA BASH: — said that cats
SEN. JD VANCE: Dana, no. You asked — you asked a —
DANA BASH: — and dogs were being eaten.
AMY GOODMAN: Meanwhile, Republican Ohio Governor Mike DeWine told ABC News Sunday Trump and Vance’s remarks about Haitians were “garbage” and “simply not true.”
MARTHA RADDATZ: And here’s a question I never thought I would have to ask, but do you see any evidence, as governor of the state, that Haitian immigrants are eating pets?
GOV. MIKE DEWINE: No, absolutely not. That’s what the mayor has said. That’s what the chief of police has said. I think it’s unfortunate that this — this came up. Let me tell you what we do know, though. What we know is that the Haitians who are in Springfield are legal. They came to Springfield to work. Ohio is on the move, and Springfield has really made a great resurgence, with a lot of companies coming in. These Haitians came in to work for these companies. What the companies tell us is that they are very good workers. They’re very happy to have them there. And, frankly, that’s helped the economy.
AMY GOODMAN: So, that’s the Republican governor of Ohio, Mike DeWine.
Meanwhile, during a campaign event in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, Trump repeated his threats of carrying out mass deportations, beginning in Springfield, if he’s reelected in November.
DONALD TRUMP: We’re going have the largest deportation in the history of our country, and we’re going to start with Springfield and Aurora.
AMY GOODMAN: Trump was referring to Springfield, Ohio, and Aurora, Colorado.
For more, we’re joined here in our New York studio by Guerline Jozef, co-founder and executive director of Haitian Bridge Alliance, which is an immigrant advocacy organization that provides humanitarian assistance to Haitians and other Black immigrants from the Caribbean and Africa.
Welcome back to Democracy Now! It’s great to have you for the first time in our New York studio, Guerline. If you can talk, first of all, about what’s going on in Springfield, Ohio? But when you receive, when the community receives threats like this in one city, from the hospital lockdown, elementary schools closed, colleges going online, threats of bombings, threats of school shootings, this affects more than the community of Springfield.
GUERLINE JOZEF: Thank you so much, Amy, for having me.
And that is the reality, and that’s what we continue to say. Those type of narratives, when they think they’re only attacking one person, one community, it has ripple effects. The reality now in Springfield, the entire community’s lives are at risk. And what we are saying is currently this has been a tactic that’s been used: fear, division. And this is a time for all people in cities like Springfield to come together and fight against those hateful speech, that literally are creating the security issues in Springfield and also in other places across the United States.
AMY GOODMAN: Let’s talk about the tens of thousands of Haitians who have come to Springfield, the Republican governor himself saying these are legal immigrants who have come to work, the corporations here love them. We’re talking about a dying Rust Belt town.
GUERLINE JOZEF: Absolutely. And we have a cohort. The Haitian Bridge Alliance has a cohort of people that we have been working with to really train them to have them to fill those extremely needed positions. And what we’ve seen, what we know and understand, is that as the city of Springfield was in a decline, those Haitian people came there, they revitalized the economy, they pay their taxes, and they are really supporting to create a vibrant community in Springfield. And that is the reality.
And that is the story that needs to be done, just like the elected officials in Springfield — you heard from the governor, you heard from the mayor, you heard from the Sheriff’s Office — that these people are there, and they are supporting, revitalizing the economy, revitalizing the culture. And we need to make sure that is the reality, because this false narrative that continues to create this atmosphere of fear, not only for the Haitian community, but for every single person living in Springfield, is dangerous and cannot continue.
AMY GOODMAN: The mayor of Springfield was pleading for the federal authorities. Now, let’s remember, JD Vance is not only the vice-presidential nominee, he’s the Ohio senator. In fact, he represents all of Springfield. Talk about why tens of thousands of Haitians were essentially invited to Springfield.
GUERLINE JOZEF: They needed help, basically. And I remember in one of the earlier articles from The New York Times, it literally said, “We prayed for a miracle, and the Haitians came.” That’s what someone from Springfield said when they really were trying to say what are the contributions of the Haitians. “We prayed for a miracle, and the Haitians came.” And that’s the reality. And as we are looking into people who are supposed to be leading our country, people who are supposed to be creating opportunities, they are the same ones creating the division. And we really understand this is really rooted in anti-Black racism and in white supremacists.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to go to Haitians living in Springfield, Ohio, who said they feared for their safety after JD Vance made false and derogatory claims about their community members eating pets. This is Rose-Thamar Joseph, secretary of the Haitian Community Help & Support Center in Springfield.
ROSE-THAMAR JOSEPH: Since Monday, after the tweet of the Senator Vance, the Haitian community in Springfield are a little bit — are shocked and frustrated. And a lot of them are maybe talking about leaving Springfield. A lot of them ask — there is so much fears in the community. … Haitian people are hard workers. And this is the first reason that Haitian people are here in Springfield. It’s because they heard about the job opportunities in Springfield and around Springfield.
AMY GOODMAN: And this is a Haitian who has been living in Springfield for a year and has two young children. Marc did not want to reveal his last name, did not want to be seen on camera. He told reporters his children have been bullied by other kids, also threatened by teachers. He said he also had to quit his job because he was being harassed at work.
MARC: Since last year, they are facing a lot of problems at school, like they were bullied by other kids. And I had to send email, address the situation several times to the principal. And I had to move to another neighborhood because I was, like, scared for them, and they were, like, very traumatized, especially after all these things they’re saying in the social media, that we’re eating dogs. In our culture, we don’t eat dogs. That’s ridiculous. And even we have local officers say that there’s no evidence. And we see people out there are very aggressive against us in Springfield. I quit my job last week because I was harassed, retaliated. Even, like, they tried to demote me, because other guy employees would call me “[bleep] Haitian,” call me “[bleep]” at work, and the company didn’t do nothing. And I think it is not good. But I don’t really feel like actually I am welcome in Springfield.
AMY GOODMAN: So, that’s a Haitian resident of Springfield, Ohio. Also this weekend, far-right groups started to come into town, like the Proud Boys, who marched Saturday in some parts of Springfield. Guerline Jozef, if you can talk about the program under which Haitians legally come to the United States, Temporary Protected Status? While Trump wanted to end it, he didn’t. He couldn’t. And the Biden administration didn’t start it, but has continued TPS.
GUERLINE JOZEF: Yes. Thank you so much, Amy. And there are two programs. There’s the CHNV program that is for Cubans, Haitians, Venezuelans, Nicaraguans. A lot of people have come legally, regularly through the program. They have people who sponsor them when they come. And then, TPS, Temporary Protected Status, is, as you mentioned, a protected status that former president 45 tried to eliminate, and, you know, the community and organization advocates took him to court, and we were able to fight it. And right now we have a new designation and extension of TPS for Haitians who are already in the U.S. So, therefore, those people, they have their work permits, and they are able to really provide for themselves. And not only that, they pay their taxes. And they are able to really continue to be a part, an integral part, of the American society.
And I also want to highlight that the Haitians have always been an integral part of the very fabric of the United States. That has been historically the fact. And we have people — I personally know people who have been in Ohio, in Springfield, since the 1950s, Amy. So, these people have not only been there continuously to provide and support. And now we have a new flow of Haitians who are coming and also fulfilling not only their dreams, but also the dreams of cities that they are in.
But that is not the first time that we hear those narratives, from the United States, you know, really blaming Haitians for bringing HIV/AIDS into the United States, from 45 saying that he doesn’t want people from S—hole countries, such as Haiti and Nigeria, but he does want people from Eastern Europe who are blue eyes, blonde hair. So we really, really understand those realities also, that when we talk about immigration and we talk about the people we don’t want here, we are talking about Black and Brown. And we want to highlight that.
And to go back to the TPS, we continue to ask for TPS for majority-Black countries and for South American countries, for Honduras and Mauritania, and those haven’t happened. But when it came to other countries — and what we tell the United States and what we tell the Biden administration, as well, is, the way we received the Ukrainians should not be an exception, it should be the rule.
And we really cannot allow people like Mr. Vance and Mr. Trump and Elon Musk and all those people to continue those narratives that are literally taking every ounce of dignity, every ounce of humanity out of my community. I and my community, the Haitian community, have given their lives for the United States. We have the people such as Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, who is the founder of Chicago. We have Karine Jean-Pierre, who is the — literally, you know, the press secretary. So, these are the people —
AMY GOODMAN: For the White House. For the —
GUERLINE JOZEF: For the White House. These are the caliber of people. And it is insulting for Mr. Vance and for 45 Jr. to come to the media and say Haitians have low IQs. Because we are coming from a Third World country, therefore we have low IQs. The disrespect that they continue to bring is just unacceptable.
AMY GOODMAN: In 2016, then-presidential candidate Donald Trump spoke on the campaign trail when he visited Little Italy — rather, Little Haiti in Miami, Florida. He vowed to be a champion for the Haitian American community.
DONALD TRUMP: Whether you vote for me or you don’t vote for me, I really want to be your greatest champion. And I will be your champion, whether you vote for me or not.
AMY GOODMAN: Yet you have, of course, Trump reportedly calling African nations, El Salvador and Haiti — I won’t say the word — “S—hole countries,” sparking an international firestorm, when he reportedly said during a meeting with lawmakers at the White House, “Why do we want all these people from Africa here? These are S—hole countries. We should have more people from Norway.” If you could talk about — I mean, in the last two months, there have been two assassination attempts against Donald Trump, which, of course, should make him even more sensitive to violence against people, targeting people, the kind of fears that the Haitian community feels around the United States right now. During the debate, because President Trump made all these kinds of comments, that have led to thousands of memes of ridicule of President Trump talking about eating pets, did you feel that Kamala Harris spoke out enough against the stereotyping, the caricaturing, the vilification of immigrants in that debate?
GUERLINE JOZEF: It is unfortunate, Amy. The reality is we have not seen the support that is needed. At this point, we are in a state where we have one party that is dragging us into the mud, and that is literally creating hate speech that could turns into violence, and we have not received the support that we need from a vice president in the Democratic Party. So we do hope that they do bring more support into pushing back against those false narratives, because at the end of the day, it is part of what we are trying to create, a better world for all people. So, we really would like to see more of support coming from that side, as well.
AMY GOODMAN: And you’re going to the White House next?
GUERLINE JOZEF: Yes. So, we continue to push, and we are having different meetings. We are looking into how to make sure that — because the reality, Amy, history will judge all of us harshly if we don’t handle this properly, if we don’t support those who are in need, if we don’t make sure that we remove those anti-Black, racist and white supremacist ideologies.
AMY GOODMAN: In terms of electoral politics, the race that might be most affected by this is the very closely contested Ohio Senate race of longtime Senator Sherrod Brown, up against Trump-backed Republican candidate Bernie Moreno, who went to Springfield on Saturday morning and said he supports deporting the Haitians of Springfield.
GUERLINE JOZEF: I don’t — you know, Amy, I think most of people are so confused, they don’t even understand what they are talking about. Deporting the Haitians of Springfield to where? They don’t understand that those people are an integral part of the community, integral part of the economy. They pay their taxes. Even when they talk about the strain that’s being put into, you know, the school, and they have to hire more translators and more interpreters — that’s what happens, and those people are paying into the taxes to be able to get those services. They are not free services, right?
And we really want people to understand, it’s not just, “Hey, these are happening,” but we have to have the context behind the realities. The realities are, we have a city that was in decline, and they made a plea, and people came, and those people happen to be Black and they happen to be Haitian, and they happen to be doing the work that is needed. They are at work on time. They are providing for their families. They are putting into in the economy by paying their taxes. And that is the reality we need to highlight as we continue this unfortunate debate.
AMY GOODMAN: What has horrified many Republican candidates around the country and supporters of Trump is the woman that he’s traveling with, seems to be everywhere. I’m not talking about Melania Trump — she hasn’t been seen since the campaign — but Laura Loomer. I think she’s a 31-year-old far-right influencer. She is seen everywhere with him. Looking at a BBC report right now, “Trump said he was repeating claims he had heard on television, but the theory was aired by Ms Loomer just a day before the debate. On Monday, the fringe pundit and social media influencer repeated the claims to her 1.2m followers … An anonymous source close to the Trump campaign told US news outlet Semafor that they were '100%' concerned about Ms Loomer’s proximity to Trump.” Your final comments?
GUERLINE JOZEF: Anti-Black racism, white supremacist. And that, we just have the proof. And at this point, we feel like — as you mentioned earlier, in 2016, he came and said, “We are going to be your champion.” Now he completely is saying, “I don’t care.” Right? And the reality is, we have to understand that this is about race. It is about the future of America. It is about pushing back against the narrative of the browning of America. It is about keeping America white. It is about making sure that Black and Brown immigrants are vilified. It is about creating division.
But we are calling on the American people, from Ohio to California, from New York to Chicago, to stand against this false narrative, to say, “No, not in our names.” We will not continue to allow people to be dehumanized, to be demonized, to be vilified for the purpose and personal gains of certain people, who absolutely right now cannot and should not be in power.
AMY GOODMAN: Guerline Jozef, co-founder and executive director of Haitian Bridge Alliance, an immigrant advocacy group that provides humanitarian assistance to Haitians and other Black immigrants from the Caribbean and Africa.
When we come back, we look at the ongoing Gaza ceasefire negotiations as Israeli forces continue their attacks on multiple fronts. We’ll speak with an Israeli and a Palestinian: Israeli peace negotiator Daniel Levy and Palestinian journalist Amjad Iraqi, senior editor at +972 Magazine. Stay with us."
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