Biden Condemns Trump’s Attacks on Haitian Americans: “This Has to Stop”

Biden Condemns Trump’s Attacks on Haitian Americans: “This Has to Stop”

President Joe Biden on Friday assailed the spate of election-season attacks against the Haitian American community as fear and division incited by Republican leaders.

Biden told guests at a White House ceremony celebrating Black brilliance that members of the Haitian American community in the United States were “under attack” as he decried toxic rhetoric aimed at them.

Biden’s comments also had the unmistakable weight of an attack on Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, along with his vice-presidential running mate JD Vance, both of whom have been peddling unfounded claims about Haitian migrants and asylum seekers.

“It’s simply wrong,” said Biden, though not naming Trump. “There’s no place in America for that kind of rhetoric. This has to stop.

Trump and Vance have struck the most strident tone on immigration, choosing to capitalize on fears of migration and crime at rallies.

The swelling Haitian American populace in Springfield, Ohio, a Rust Belt city that once struggled but has embarked on revitalization efforts, some say partly due to its openness to new arrivals, has garnered a fair deal of attention.

But with estimates putting the Haitian American population between 4,000 and 15,000 residents, the backlash from locals has grown right along with it.

Longtime residents have been speaking out, and city officials have tried to balance competing concerns. Tensions came to a head this August 2023 after a Haitian national was in a car accident that killed an 11-year-old boy.

Despite that call for unity from the victim’s family, anti-immigrant sentiment has escalated and spread nationally. A baseless rumor went viral online that Haitian Americans were eating pets-an old anti-immigrant trope in U.S history. The rumor seemed to come out of a Facebook group, and local officials have universally denied any truth in it.

Even JD Vance, while repeating the rumor, acknowledged it was likely spurious. “It’s possible that all of these rumors will turn out to be false,” he said in a September 10 post on social media.

But that has not stopped Trump – and Vance himself – from publicly repeating the claim, as they did during a debate watched by millions on September 10.

The spotlight on Springfield has only exacerbated tensions: threats have indeed been called in towards local institutions. Bomb threats issued against city hall and a number of schools prompted evacuations – further stoking fear in the community.

But despite the uproar, Trump poured fuel on the fire in a news conference in California when he said Springfield, Ohio, and Aurora, Colorado, would be at the center of his immigration crackdown if he’s re-elected. He promised mass deportations: “We’re going to start with Springfield and Aurora.”

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Trump comments continue stirring controversy because his campaign puts an anti-immigrant platform front and center in the campaign, which Biden and other critics say is dangerous and divisive.