WASHINGTON: Bogus stories that immigrants from Haiti are eating neighborhood pets and ducks from public parks in a mid-western US town exploded in public sphere on the eve of the Presidential debate on Tuesday as MAGA activists sought to put Kamala Harris on the back foot on the hot button immigration issue.
Sketchy reports and unsubstantiated rumors about grisly excesses by Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, had been circulating on the fringes of social media for days before Donald Trump, Elon Musk and other MAGA principals amplified it this week, adding to an already fervid tirade against illegal immigration.
Springfield, an Ohio town of around 50,000 people, is reported to have up to 15,000 immigrants under an Immigration Parole Program that gives them temporary protected status. Like with many small communities in the US which have had to host refugees and asylum seekers from across the world, there is an undercurrent of resentment among some locals who have had to share social services and foot the bill for taking care of them.
In an effort to tap into the resentment and fire up his nativist base, Trump has repeatedly invoked dodgy reports of Venezuelan gangs taking over apartment complexes in Colorado, warning his MAGA flock that soon their homes will be stolen from them. He now has a powerful ally in Musk, who, notwithstanding the fact that he is himself a South African immigrant, amplified several unsubstantiated reports about illegal aliens overrunning the country, eating everything from pet cats to bald eagles, and violently taking over American homes.
“Mad Max is becoming real fast,” Musk said on Monday, in response to a post about Venezuelan gangs taking over a hotel in El Paso, Texas, referring to an Australian movie series about social collapse and dystopian future. Musk also argued that unchecked immigration into the US would result in perpetual one-party because immigrants would end up voting for Democrats.
Trump himself has repeatedly talked up another bogus story about American public schools forcibly subjecting children to sex change operations, wildly exaggerating the more accommodating Democratic position on LGBTQ rights. On Monday, his campaign gave credence to the grisly “Haitians eating cats” story with a social media post that read: “President Trump will deport migrants who eat pets. Kamala Harris will send them to your town next. Make your choice, America.”
Trump’s running mate JD Vance posted a video of himself discussing migration to Ohio at a recent hearing, saying, “Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country. Where is our border czar?”
The “Haitians eating cats in Springfield” rumor appeared to originate in an incident in Canton, Ohio, some 100 kms away, where a woman named Telia Ferrell was arrested for killing a cat. In video footage shared on social media, the police are heard asking her “Did you eat that cat?” without any response from the woman, who appears to be in a daze. Ferrell is said to be a US citizen with no links to Haiti.
The crude exercise of linking Harris to such incidents on the eve of the Presidential debate appear to be aimed at portraying her as a fifth columnist out to destroy America by streaming in millions of immigrants. The right wing echo chamber also circulated an unrelated clip of Harris saying the Biden administration has given Temporary Protection Status (TPS) to 100,000 Haitian migrants, linking it to unsubstantiated reports about pets being abducted for consumption.
Despite officials in Springfield clarifying that “there have been no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community,” Trump and his MAGA associates continue to whip up a frenzy, ostensibly in an effort to move the needle on the 2024 election that polls show the two candidates tied.
AI generated visuals of Trump coddling cats and ducks flooded the MAGA-sphere ahead of the debate on Tuesday. “Please vote for Trump…so Haitian immigrants don’t eat us,” Republican Senator Ted Cruz said in one post.
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Publish date : 2024-09-10 03:22:00
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