AP Photo/Rick Scuteri
Some Haitian migrants who made international headlines in September when then-candidate Donald Trump accused them of eating pets are leaving or plan to leave an Ohio city after he was elected earlier this month.
Trump created a stir during his presidential debate against Vice President Kamala Harris when he repeated unsubstantiated claims that Haitians who were in Springfield, Ohio, under Temporary Protected Status were eating cats and dogs.
“In Springfield, they are eating the dogs. The people that came in, they are eating the cats,” he said. “They’re eating – they are eating the pets of the people that live there.”
CBS News spoke to a number of the estimated 12,000 to 15,000 Haitians who had been settled in the small city. While some vowed to stay, others said they knew of others who were leaving Springfield. CBS reported:
[Haitian migrant Ketlie Moise], like most fellow Haitians in Springfield, is here legally through Temporary Protected Status, which Trump has vowed to end. The TPS program allows federal officials to grant deportation relief and work authorization to migrants from countries beset by war, environmental disaster or another “extraordinary” crisis.
Moise says she knows about 10 friends and neighbors who have recently left Springfield, along with several restaurant employees.
[…]
Moise’s own daughter is among those who have left Springfield. Moise said that when her daughter told her she wanted to leave, she considered joining her.
Trump has vowed to institute a policy of mass deportations that he has said will begin on day one after his Jan. 20 inauguration.
The president-elect stated on his social media platform last week he would declare a national emergency in order to expel millions of migrants who entered the country during President Joe Biden’s term in office.
Trump has tapped anti-illegal immigration hardliner and former acting ICE director Tom Homan to be his border czar.
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