'Pack your bags': Springfield's Haitian immigrants still reeling from Trump's threats
Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, are bracing for the worst as Donald Trump enters office after making them a centerpiece of his re-election campaign.
Then-candidate Trump promised "large deportations" from Springfield if elected after repeating his running mate J.D. Vance's baseless claims about Haitian immigrants eating dogs and cats, and the central Ohio town's thousands of migrants have been dreading the former president's return to the White House, reported the Columbus Dispatch.
"I think there is a kind of paradigm shift from the way the comments used to be to the way they are right now," said Vilés Dorsainvil, executive director of the Haitian Community Help and Support Center. "Before it was more calling people names, all type of names. Now it's changing to like 'You guys have to start packing up because Trump is coming.'"
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Vance forced them into the national spotlight in September after spreading baseless claims on social media about Haitian immigrants stealing and eating their neighbors' pets, then Trump repeated those bogus rumors during a presidential debate, although Springfield resident Dina Paul said she's felt supported by the community despite the controversy.
"Most of the local residents knew what was up and stood up for us," Paul said.
The Haitian Support Center has been hosting training sessions to help immigrants know what to do if they encounter U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, focusing primarily on their right to remain silent and how to designate guardians for their children in case they're detained, and Dorsainvil said he's spoken to Haitian residents who have been told to "pack their bags" while walking around town.
"We started way before today," Dorsainvil said on Inauguration Day.
Dorsainvil agreed with Paul that most residents have been supportive of the Haitian community, although pro-Haitian demonstrators were occasionally jeered Monday during a protest at a busy intersection, but some see more subtle signs of the impact of Trump's remarks.
"The thing that hurt through all that [is] I live on the south side, and walking around you could see children out playing," said Springfield resident Clara Copeland. "After, the Haitian people just went inside."