A pastor whose church has links with Springfield, Ohio, has told Newsweek that he believes Donald Trump and JD Vance have been listening to neo-Nazis and nationalists for their information on Haitian migrants.
Ben Marsh, who leads First Alliance Church in Winston, North Carolina, said Friday that Christians needed to speak out about the things being said about their Haitian family members: claims that they have been eating and stealing pets.
The unfounded claims started circulating around a week ago, with a post online claiming a woman had eaten a cat outside a home in Springfield—a town that has seen a large influx of migrants in the past two years. These were then picked up by Vance and Trump, who repeated them on the debate stage Tuesday night.
“My understanding is he’s picking up on this information that began on online forums among neo-Nazis that gets filtered through a nationalist, conservative information channel to his vice presidential candidate, JD Vance,” Marsh told Newsweek.
Center: Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump, speaks during a campaign event at the Linda Ronstadt Music Hall on September 12, 2024 in Tucson, Arizona. Trump has claimed that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, have been eating and stealing pets and livestock.
ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP/Justin Sullivan/Scott Olson/Getty Images
“Vance is the one who, with the Ohio connection and has this worldview of limiting immigration now, is passing it along to Trump to make it an issue in public speeches.”
Trump repeated the claim, saying “They’re eating the dogs!” during his debate with Vice President Kamala Harris in Philadelphia as he referred to immigrants. He has then repeated the claims about Springfield in rally speeches this week, saying in Tucson, Arizona, Thursday that Springfield was once a beautiful place.
Vance continued to push the narrative Friday in a post on X, formerly Twitter, adding that there had been “a massive rise in communicable diseases” and adding that this was Vice President Kamala Harris’ plan for “every town in our country”.
In Springfield, Ohio, there has been a massive rise in communicable diseases, rent prices, car insurance rates, and crime. This is what happens when you drop 20,000 people into a small community.
Kamala Harris’s immigration policy aims to do this to every town in our country.
— JD Vance (@JDVance) September 13, 2024
Newsweek reached out to the Trump and Harris campaigns for comment Friday afternoon via email.
City officials have said the claims, which also included allegations of poor driving and squatting, were unfounded and have had to repeatedly say that pets are safe.
Marsh, who is the pastor of First Alliance Church in Winston, North Carolina, which has links to ministry in Springfield, said those reassurances appeared to have fallen on deaf ears.
“There’s been reports from Haitians in Springfield that they have been threatened, that there has been some violence, that people have had their cars ruined, families have had to keep kids indoors or away from school,” Marsh explained. “And there’ve been bomb threats.”
Those threats came Thursday, with city buildings and schools evacuated after bomb threats arrived via email early in the morning. Two elementary schools and one middle school were cleared Friday also.
A Haitian community leader who spoke to Newsweek on Wednesday backed up Marsh in saying local migrants were living in fear, with some thinking of leaving the city altogether due to the anti-immigrant sentiment which has been growing for months, not just days.
Springfield officials estimate between 12,000 and 15,000 immigrants have arrived in the town in recent years, with the majority being Haitian.
Some reports have suggested they have revitalized a town that had been struggling in recent decades, bringing in new businesses and helping to grow the economy. Some residents have complained that this growth has led to higher house prices and too much pressure on local services.
A man carries an AI-generated image of former President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump carrying cats away from Haitian immigrants, a reference to falsehoods about Springfield, Ohio, during a campaign rally for Trump in Tucson, Arizona, September 12, 2024. Springfield Mayor Rob Rue ripped federal politicians who have “negatively spun our city” as baseless claims about migrants in Springfield spread.
REBECCA NOBLE/AFP via Getty Images
Marsh said that whatever their frustrations, migrants should be welcomed by Christians in the community.
“These folks are working. They are godly folks, and they are folks that have endured incredible hardship and deserve our solidarity,” the pastor said.
Other faith leaders have also called for a kinder approach, with some gathering in Springfield Thursday.
“We hope that if we still stand together, and we believe in each other, one day we will be the beacon of the world as a community in Springfield,” Pastor Viles Dorsanvil, director of the Haitian Community Help and Support Center, said.
Another community group representing Haitian migrants said that when migrants become the subject of conspiracy theories, it can lead to “dangerous outcomes” and said it echoed language used to attack Jewish communities in centuries past.
“We do not need additional proof to demonstrate that hateful rhetoric that is rooted in antisemitic, white nationalist ideas results in real life tragedies,” Naomi Steinberg, HIAS VP of U.S. Policy and Advocacy, told Newsweek.
“We now call on political candidates and elected officials across the United States to immediately stop trading in dangerously falsehoods about Haitian immigrants.”
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