US President Joe Biden has called on Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to stop insulting migrants from Haiti. “What he’s doing has to stop,” Biden said at a meeting in the White House on Friday. There is a “proud Haitian-American community that is currently under attack in our country.” There is “no place in America” for such comments, the president continued. “That is simply wrong.”
Biden was referring to Trump’s continued false claims about Haitian migrants stealing and eating pets in the city of Springfield, Ohio. Authorities there have said such allegations have no basis.
Nevertheless, Trump repeatedly used the conspiracy narrative to stoke fears about immigrants. In a TV debate with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, for example, the right-wing populist declared that immigrants were eating the dogs and cats of the residents of Springfield.
Immigration is an important issue in the presidential election on November 5. Trump is using drastic anti-immigrant rhetoric in the election campaign. Springfield has around 58,000 residents and has seen an increase in immigrants from Haiti in recent years. A local newspaper estimated the number at 10,000 to 15,000.
The Caribbean state of Haiti has been plagued by political chaos and gang violence for years, especially in the capital Port-au-Prince, which has forced many people to flee.
