‘This town is dead’: Haitian migrants flee Ohio amid Trump deportation threat

The Telegraph via Yahoo ^ | 1/04/25 | Benedict Smith

[Libloather]

A message circulating on a Haitian WhatsApp group in Springfield, Ohio, lists the best destinations for those fleeing the town in the wake of Donald Trump’s election win.

All of them are states run by Democrats who could provide sanctuary for Haitians worried about being deported following Mr Trump’s election victory: New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Vermont, Massachusetts and California.

It is believed that thousands have left for those states in the weeks after polling day. More of Ohio’s sizeable Haitian population is preparing to follow.

Springfield has had an uneasy time in the political spotlight since Mr Trump declared, at the presidential debate in September, that Haitian residents were eating cats and dogs and the “pets of the people that live there”.

Before that, it had been remembered – if it entered the minds of the American people at all – as a manufacturing hub that produced most farming equipment in the United States, before sliding into rust-belt decline in the late 20th century.

But it was Mr Trump sweeping to power last month that truly put the nail in Springfield’s coffin for Haitian residents.

None of the criticism that followed the president-elect’s unsubstantiated claims about the town’s new arrivals eating habits persuaded him to apologise, and three days later he doubled down.

“We’re going to have the largest deportation in the history of our country,” Mr Trump declared. “And we’re going to start with Springfield and Aurora [in Colorado].”

Nobody is sure how many Haitians moved to Springfield in the waves of migration between 2016 and 2022, but it is estimated at between 12,000 and 15,000 in what locals call a “small town” – technically a city – with a population of 58,000 in 2020.

[Sequoyah101]

There goes the Mayor’s rental business. What will he do now? What will he do?

[hal ogen]

Dearest haitian invaders: GTF OUT!