Republicans — including Senators Vance and Cruz and the House Judiciary Committee — are using online rumors that Haitian migrants in Ohio are stealing and eating pets as evidence of Biden-Harris’s failed immigration policy. The only problem is that no such reports have been brought to local police. 

According to a local newspaper at Springfield, the News-Sun, police at the central Ohio city have not received any reports related to pets being stolen and eaten. While the police were aware that the allegations were being shared on social media, such crimes are “not something that’s on our radar right now,” the police department told the Springfield News-Sun on Monday morning. 

The Springfield police department has not yet responded to the Sun’s request for comment. The accusations being levied against the Haitian community are being described by the New York Times as “false.” They are being used by Republicans to criticize the Biden-Harris administration’s immigration policies. 

“Months ago, I raised the issue of Haitian illegal immigrants draining social services and generally causing chaos all over Springfield, Ohio,” the GOP vice presidential nominee, Senator Vance, wrote in a post on X on Monday morning. “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?” 

Senator Cruz joined in by posting an image on X of two cats embracing with the text “Please vote for Trump so Haitian immigrants don’t eat us.” The House Judiciary GOP posted an AI-generated image on X of President Trump holding a duck and a kitten in his arms, adding, “Protect our ducks and kittens in Ohio.” 

Donald Trump Jr. shared an NBC news headline from June which announced that the Biden administration would provide temporary protected status to more than 300,000 Haitian immigrants. “Less than three months ago, Kamala Harris and her Administration blocked 300k unvetted Haitian Migrants from being deported out of our country,” the junior Mr. Trump wrote on X. “Today, those unvetted migrants are sucking up precious resources and destroying Springfield, Ohio. Kamala Harris did this.”

A former ambassador of Haiti to America, Raymond Joseph, called the rumors “despicable” and reflective of a “desperate” last-ditch effort to “make the Biden administration — and also Kamala Harris — look bad.” 

“These senators who are misusing Haitians’ name, I would ask them: Do they know what Haitians have done for the United States? Or what they are doing now for Springfield, Ohio?” Mr. Joseph tells the Sun. 

“We helped the United States become the country that it is,” he added, noting that the Louisiana purchase was facilitated by the Haitian revolution and that Haitians fought for America during the Revolutionary War.

The pet-napping allegations gained traction after a conservative pundit, Charlie Kirk, claimed on Sunday in a widely shared post on X that “Residents of Springfield, OH are reporting that Haitians are eating their family pets, another gift of the Biden-Harris mass immigration replacement plan.” 

“Liberals will soon be lecturing Americans on why they need to be sensitive to Haitian culture and accept this as the new normal,” Mr. Kirk added. “Those idiots deserve to be condemned and mocked mercilessly. Save our pets. Secure our borders.” Mr. Kirk shared a screenshot of a post made in a private Facebook group, Springfield Ohio Crime and Information, in which a local accused Haitian migrants of stealing and eating a neighbor’s lost cat. 

The cat, the anonymous user wrote, was found “hanging from a branch, like you’d do a deer for butchering” and the migrants were “carving it up to eat.” The user added: “I’ve been told they are doing this to dogs, they have been doing it at snyder park with the ducks & geese, as I was told that last bit by Rangers & police. Please keep a close eye on these animals.”

The post has since received more than three million views and counting. It even caught the eyes of Tesla’s chief executive, Elon Musk, who commented: “Apparently, people’s pet cats are being eaten.” 

The post echoes claims made during a city commission meeting last month, in which an angered local accused Haitian migrants of “grabbing up ducks by their neck, and cutting their head off and walking off with them. They’re eating them,” he added. 

In the past four years, Springfield, Ohio — which, in 2020, boasted around 58,000 residents — has taken in nearly 20,000 Haitian migrants seeking to fill job vacancies. The town’s Haitian migrants are credited by local businesses with helping to reignite Springfield’s lagging economy post pandemic, filling much-needed positions in warehouses, manufacturing, and the service industry. 

However, the population inflow has also prompted the town to face “a significant housing crisis,” Springfield’s city manager, Bryan Heck, wrote this summer in a letter to Senators Scott and Brown requesting federal financial aid. 

With tensions already brewing between locals and migrants over strained resources, the conflict came to a head last year when a Haitian driver was involved in a deadly car accident. The driver, who was carrying a foreign license, swerved into oncoming traffic and hit a school bus, killing an 11-year-old and injuring 23 other children. 
The accident was “the match on the tinder bundle,” said the Clark County health commissioner, Chris Cook.