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Trump says he would deport Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, “back to Venezuela”
Former President Donald Trump said Friday that if he becomes president, he will execute large-scale deportations of migrants, beginning in Ohio and Colorado.
“We’re going to have the largest deportation in the history of our country,” he told reporters during a news conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. “And we’re going to start with Springfield and Aurora.”
This vow came on the heels of his debate with Vice President Kamala Harris earlier this week, when he made the debunked claim about migrants in Springfield that “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.” Although ABC moderator David Muir said the city manager disputed this claim, which was also made by Sen. JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, Trump insisted he had seen people saying so on television. After the debate, Trump also shared AI-generated posts that showed pets supporting his presidential candidacy.
Speaking at his golf course at a vista above the Pacific Ocean, the Republican presidential nominee said he’s going to bring those migrants “back to Venezuela,” although most of the migrants in Springfield are Haitian. Thousands of Haitians have moved to the 58,000-person town of Springfield in the last few years, which Ohio’s Republican governor says has burdened the local health care infrastructure.
But the vast majority of Haitian migrants are in the U.S. legally and are authorized to work. In the last two fiscal years, the U.S. has processed 156,000 Haitian migrants at the southern border, according to Customs and Border Protection figures. Of those, about 98% of them have been processed at legal entry points, mostly after securing appointments through a U.S. government app to enter the country legally.
Thousands of Haitians are in the U.S. legally under two programs: Temporary protected status, or TPS, provides deportation protections and work permits to immigrants from countries experiencing armed conflict, environmental disasters and other humanitarian emergencies. The program does not offer permanent legal status. During the Biden administration, the U.S. also began a new humanitarian parole program for Haitians, Nicaraguans, Cubans and Venezuelans that would allow people from these countries to live and work in the U.S. for two years without fear of deportation if they have a sponsor here who would provide them with financial support.
The Associated Press notes that after the pandemic, many Haitians moved to Springfield, which suffered a heavy decline in manufacturing in the 1990s, resulting in a shrinking population. But in recent years, the city has seen an uptick in labor demand, and Haitians have helped fill the jobs.
Springfield’s mayor, police chief and Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, all say there have been no credible reports that pets are being stolen and eaten by migrants.
Some Springfield government and school buildings were closed Thursday due to bomb threats, according to a city statement. Vance is still casting Springfield as an example of poor immigration policy.
“In Springfield, Ohio, there has been a massive rise in communicable diseases, rent prices, car insurance rates, and crime,” Vance posted to “X” on Friday. “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.”
Gov. DeWine announced new state support for Springfield as it deals with large numbers of Haitian migrants. DeWine’s office said the migrants from Haiti have generally had little or no health care services, including vaccinations. The state is dedicating $2.5 million to expanding primary care access for Springfield residents.
“I want the people of Springfield and Clark County to know that as we move forward, we will continue to do everything we can to help the community deal with this surge of migrants,” DeWine said. “The federal government has not demonstrated that they have any kind of plan to deal with the issue. We will not walk away.”
Mr. Biden on Friday blasted the rhetoric from Trump and other Republicans about Haitians in the U.S. during an event honoring Black excellence at the White House.
He referred to Haitians in Springfield as “a community that’s under attack in our country right now. It’s simply wrong.” Mr. Biden said of Trump, “This has to stop, what he’s doing. It has to stop.”
contributed to this report.
TRENTON, N.J. — Democratic Newark City Council President LaMonica McIver has defeated Republican small businessman Carmen Bucco in a contest in New Jersey’s 10th Congressional District that opened up because of the death of Rep. Donald Payne Jr. in April.
McIver will serve out the remainder of Payne’s term, which ends in January. She and Bucco will face a rematch on the November ballot for the full term.
McIver said in a statement Wednesday that she stands on the “shoulders of giants,” naming Payne as chief among them.
She cast ahead to the November election, saying the right to make reproductive health choices was on the ballot as well as whether the economy should benefit the wealthy or “hard working Americans.”
“I will fight because the purpose of politics and the purpose of our vote is to give the people of our communities and our nation a bold voice,” she said.
Bucco congratulated McIver on the victory in a statement but said he’s looking forward to the rematch in November.
“I am not going anywhere,” he said in an email. “We still have a second chance to make district 10 great again!”
Who are LaMonica McIver and Carmen Bucco?
McIver emerged as the Democratic candidate in a crowded field in the July special election. A member of the city council of New Jersey’s biggest city since 2018, she also worked for Montclair Public Schools as a personnel director and plans to focus on affordability, infrastructure, abortion rights and “protecting our democracy,” she told The Associated Press earlier this summer.
Bucco describes himself on his campaign website as a small-business owner influenced by his upbringing in the foster system. He lists support for law enforcement and ending corruption as top issues.
The 10th District lies in a heavily Democratic and majority-Black region of northern New Jersey. Republicans are outnumbered by more than 6 to 1.
It’s been a volatile year for Democrats in New Jersey, where the party dominates state government and the congressional delegation.
Among the developments were the conviction on federal bribery charges of U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, who has denied the charges, and the demise of the so-called county party line — a system in which local political leaders give their preferred candidates favorable position on the primary ballot.
Democratic Rep. Andy Kim, who’s running for Menendez’s seat, and other Democrats brought a federal lawsuit challenging the practice as part of his campaign to oust Menendez, who has resigned since his conviction.
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Sean “Diddy” Combs at same Brooklyn detention center that held R. Kelly, Sam Bankman-Fried, other high-profile inmates
A second judge refused to grant bail to Sean “Diddy” Combs on Wednesday and he could remain in federal custody at a Brooklyn detention center until his trial for sex trafficking charges. Combs joins other high-profile inmates, such as singer R. Kelly, fallen cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried, rapper Ja Rule —even Al Sharpton served a brief stint— who were held at the same federal detention center.
Notorious for its horrible conditions —inmates won a $10 million class action settlement after enduring frigid conditions during an 8-day blackout in 2019— the waterfront industrial complex, MDC Brooklyn, houses 1,200 inmates.
JOHANNES EISELE/AFP via Getty Images
Violence and corruption have long plagued the facility; U.S. District Judge Gary R. Brown of the Eastern District of New York wrote the detention center had “dangerous, barbaric conditions” in a recent sentencing opinion. Two inmates were stabbed to death in recent months and several correction officers have been convicted for smuggling contraband and accepting bribes.
Combs joins a list of high-profile personalities that have landed at the MDC Brooklyn, partly because the city’s other federal detention center, MDC New York, closed in 2021, also due to horrible conditions. The disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide in his cell there in 2019. “Numerous and serious” instances of misconduct among corrections staff gave Epstein the opportunity to kill himself, a subsequent federal watchdog investigation found.
Kelly sued the federal detention center in 2022 for wrongly putting him on suicide watch after his sentencing. Kelly sought $100 million because he said the detention center knew he wasn’t suicidal after he was convicted in 2021 for racketeering and violating the Mann Act, which bars transporting people across state lines for prostitution.
Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Former crypto billionaire Bankman-Fried survived on bread, water and sometimes peanut butter when he was in the MDC Brooklyn, his attorney said, because the detention center continued to serve him a “flesh diet” despite requests for vegan dishes.
Ja Rule stayed at the MDC Brooklyn for a brief time before being released after serving most of his two-year sentence for illegal gun possession. Most of his prison time was spent in a state prison in New York.
Sharpton served a 90-day sentence in 2001 and went on a hunger strike for protesting the U.S. Navy bombing of the island of Vieques, in Puerto Rico.
Combs was taken into custody on Monday and according to an indictment unsealed Tuesday he was charged with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution.
His attorney Marc Agnifilo told CBS News, “It’s impossible to prepare for a trial from where he is,” after a first federal judge denied Combs bail on Tuesday.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Robyn Tarnofsky agreed with prosecutors who argued the hip-hop mogul, who is accused of using his business empire as a criminal enterprise to conceal his alleged abuse of women, is a flight risk and poses an ongoing threat to the safety of the community.
Agnifilo said the part of the detention center where Combs is being held is “a very difficult place to be.”
contributed to this report.
