The unfounded claims made by former President Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, weaken the Republican Party's message on the border, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine wrote in an opinion piece published Friday.
“The Biden administration’s failure to control the southern border is a very important issue that Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance are talking about, and one that the American people are rightly deeply concerned about,” Republican DeWine wrote within the New York Times.
“But their verbal attacks against these Haitians – who are legally in the United States – dilute and cloud what should be a winning argument about the border,” he said.
The view that President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have didn’t stem the influx of asylum seekers on the southern border has long been a central message for Republicans on every ballot – and not only in Trump's re-election campaign.
Trump's recent claims about immigration thrust Springfield, Ohio, into the national highlight after he and Vance – who represents Ohio within the Senate – spread unfounded rumors that Haitian immigrants were stealing and eating townspeople's pets.
DeWine and native officials have repeatedly denied the allegations.
“As a supporter of former President Donald Trump and Senator JD Vance, it saddens me that they and others continue to repeat unsubstantiated claims and denigrate legal immigrants in Springfield,” Springfield-born DeWine wrote Friday.
“This rhetoric is damaging to the city and its people, and it is damaging to those who have spent their lives there.”
In the times since Trump and Vance spread the unfounded rumors – which the Trump team knew to be false, based on Wall Street Journal – Dozens of bomb threats led to the evacuation and closure of faculties in town of Springfield.
DeWine announced Monday that Ohio State Police would conduct morning and evening raids on town's schools. The threats, which officers revealed were a hoax, were also directed at city government buildings and a neighborhood hospital.
William Martin, a spokesman for Vance, told NBC News that the Republican vice presidential candidate was “glad” that DeWine was supporting the Trump-Vance campaign, but Vance and DeWine “do not always agree on every issue.”
In his comments, DeWine highlighted the role of Haitian immigrants in revitalizing Springfield's economy, which he said had experienced “tough times” within the Eighties and '90s.
“Now, however, Springfield is experiencing a boom in manufacturing and new jobs being created, thanks in part to the large influx of Haitian migrants who have come to the city to fill jobs over the past three years.”
“You are here legally. You are here to work.”
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