Sen. J.D. Vance acknowledged that reports of Haitian migrants in Ohio eating dogs and cats may not be accurate, but former President Donald Trump injected the issue straight back into the political bloodstream hours later in Tuesday’s debate.
The pet yarn has become the surprising focus of the presidential campaign. The Republican nominee said it’s a symptom of the broken border, and Vice President Kamala Harris called it a signal of how “extreme” Mr. Trump has become.
The evidence for Mr. Trump’s claims is iffy. He said he saw reports on TV.
Mr. Vance acknowledged they were only rumors but urged people to keep talking because it is the only way to get reporters to pay attention to illegal immigration.
“The media didn’t care about the carnage wrought by these policies until we turned it into a meme about cats,” Mr. Vance, the Republican vice presidential nominee, told CNN after the debate. “If we have to meme about it to get the media to care, we’re going to keep on doing it.”
Immigrant rights advocates are horrified and say the focus plays on “racist” stereotypes that dehumanize migrants.
SEE ALSO: Ohio attorney general backs claims about Haitians eating geese
“White supremacist and anti-democratic movements have always used the claim that so-called Black savages are coming to destroy, especially when political power is up for grabs,” said Erik Crew, an Ohio native and lawyer at the Haitian Bridge Alliance. “This is no different. This time, they are saying it is Haitians, and this time, it is being used to try to score political points around immigration as well.”
The story appears to have sprung from two incidents that are being conflated.
One involved a woman in Canton, Ohio, who was arrested last month. Police said she stomped on a cat’s head and began to eat it. That woman is not Haitian, according to The Associated Press.
Canton is a three-hour drive from Springfield, Ohio, which has had a massive influx of Haitian migrants. Residents report seeing some of them hunt for geese on local parkland.
On Wednesday, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said those reports are credible.
“There’s a recorded police call from a witness who saw immigrants capturing geese for food in Springfield. Citizens testified to City Council,” Mr. Yost said on social media.
He said those people “would be competent witnesses in court.”
When he first brought the matter to national attention this month, Mr. Vance sent reporters into a frenzy to try to undercut his claim.
“False,” proclaimed many outlets. Others labeled it “baseless.”
When Mr. Trump mentioned the claim during the debate, ABC’s moderator told him the Springfield city manager said no evidence supported the notion.
Mr. Trump was undeterred.
“We will find out,” he said.
Republicans say the broader truth of migrants threatening public safety is tough to dismiss.
During the debate, Mr. Trump mentioned a viral video from Aurora, Colorado, purportedly showing Venezuelan migrants armed with rifles taking over a housing project.
“I had to leave because I am not bulletproof,” Cindy Romero, who shot the video, said last week at a town hall meeting hosted by Rep. Lauren Boebert, Colorado Republican.
After initial pushback, local authorities acknowledged that the rise of Venezuelan gang activity was tied to an influx of migrants during the Biden-Harris administration. News reports do question whether the gun-toting migrants Ms. Romero captured on video were part of a widespread phenomenon.
Similar unrest has been reported in other cities.
In El Paso, Texas, the local Fox News station sent a camera inside a now-shuttered hotel where residents said the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua infiltrated. Nearly 700 police calls have been made to the address over the past year.
A police officer who investigated reported finding trash-strewn hallways, drug paraphernalia, prostitution and people with tattoos of AK-47s and basketball themes popular among Tren de Aragua members.
Springfield residents at this week’s city commission meeting told stories of tragedy at the hands of illegal immigrants.
One woman said her mother-in-law was struck and killed by a Haitian driving recklessly.
“I’m living in fear in my own city. It’s not safe,” the woman testified.
“Just as the Haitians were seeking a safe place to call home, I now have found myself in that same situation: wanting to abandon this city and all my efforts above in search of a safe place for my family.”
That Haitians and Venezuelans are the focus of the migrant debate is striking and a feature of President Biden’s policies.
Before Mr. Biden took office in 2021, the illegal immigration issue was centered heavily on Mexicans and Central Americans.
Under Mr. Biden, Haitians and others from around the globe have streamed to the U.S. in unprecedented numbers.
In December 2020, the last full month of Mr. Trump’s presidency, Customs and Border Protection recorded just 330 encounters with illegal immigrants from Haiti. By the spring of 2021, that number was in the thousands per month, and in September 2021, it reached nearly 18,000.
Haitians streamed across the Rio Grande into Del Rio, Texas, that month, creating an unprecedented beachhead on U.S. soil. They came and went freely between Mexico and the U.S. while the Border Patrol tried to gain control of the situation.
At one point, the Department of Homeland Security deployed agents on horseback to try to defend the banks of the Rio Grande, and they got into confrontations with Haitians who refused orders to turn back.
Photos of one confrontation showed a mounted agent with his horse’s long reins corralling a migrant, and press accounts accused agents of whipping Black men. Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris compared the Border Patrol to slave masters delivering whippings in the pre-Civil War South.
A lengthy CBP review cleared the agents, saying no migrants were whipped or struck, but it faulted several agents for using abusive language against them.
The number of Haitians dipped after the Rio Grande incident but has since soared. More than 205,000 unauthorized Haitian migrants have entered the U.S. this fiscal year, many of them through a fraud-plagued Biden “parole” program that skips the border and flies them directly to airports inside the U.S.
The Haitians are topped by those from Venezuela, where more than 280,000 unauthorized migrants have been encountered trying to enter the U.S. this year. Venezuelans are part of the same parole program as the Haitians.
The League of United Latin American Citizens, which advocates on behalf of Hispanics and immigrants, said the new arrivals are needed to sustain parts of the U.S. economy that tend to use migrant labor.
LULAC praised Ms. Harris’ support for legalizing illegal immigrants as part of a broader immigration debate.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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