The scapegoating of Haitians in Springfield is being used as a distraction

Why, when presented with verifiable facts, did Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance double-down on lies that have subsequently terrorized his constituents in Springfield, Ohio with threats to more than 20 places so far? Why did the Republican candidate running against Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, Bernie Moreno, pile on to those lies with comments about “illegal” immigrants flooding the southwestern city when he also knew the vast majority of the Haitian immigrants were there legally?

Why did Ohio congressman and chair of the House Judiciary Committee, Jim Jordan, tweet about “illegal aliens” taking over Springfield when he, too, knew his home state had welcomed the legal Haitians to the city under a temporary protected status (TPS) allocated to them because of the violence and unrest in their country?

Why did Ohio’s chief law enforcement officer, Attorney General Dave Yost dismiss the response of Springfield’s mayor, city manager, police chief and others who refuted as “baseless” a vile, online falsehood about Haitians abducting and eating local pets? Yost suggested the ugly, evidence-free smears circulating on Facebook (that painted the Black outsiders as savages) carried more weight than hard evidence to the contrary.

“Why does the media find a carefully worded City Hall press release (on the facts in Springfield) better evidence?” Yost asked incredulously. What the state AG implied was that the unsubstantiated, racist rumors amplified to scare people were just as legit, if not more, than the substantiated reality easily determined by authorities. Astounding.

Yost knows, as do Jordan, Moreno and Vance, that the influx of immigrant workers to Springfield was crucial to reviving the local economy. Area factories and businesses were desperate for workers after labor shortages in the wake of the pandemic. Certainly there were challenges to the city whose population quickly swelled by 12,000 to 15,000 Haitian immigrants. It is an ongoing problem.

After state and national Republicans put Springfield in the crosshairs of a fringe, groundless, viral claim, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced new state support to offset the city’s depleted resources. More assistance is critical. But clearly the immigrants from Haiti have helped revive the struggling Ohio town. That’s a good thing.

Supporting Springfield’s turnaround economy with adequate funding and infrastructure to accommodate growing pains is obviously in the best interests of constituents. But what best serves Ohioans who live in the municipality is not in the best political interests of Vance, Moreno, Jordan, Yost and, unsurprisingly, the Republican presidential nominee who blurted out “They’re eating the dogs!” during last week’s presidential debate.

Vance is closely aligned with the architects of Trump’s potential policy agenda, Project 2025. As is Trump, as it was written by dozens of his former advisers. Vance is acutely aware of its religious-right goals to severely restrict abortion rights, override state laws like Ohio’s, use the 150-year-old Comstock Act to prosecute health care providers for mailing abortion pills and block access to contraception. But he and other shameless Republicans joining the chorus to malign human beings of color in Springfield needed a distraction.

Project 2025 promises a radical agenda in a second Trump term to strip away freedoms, undermine elections, workers and union rights, shred climate protections, disband federal agencies including the Education department, replace civil servants with party loyalists, suppress dissent, ban books, encourage censorship, etc. The Springfield lie gave extremists cover from the unpopular policies they embrace.

Besides, the truth about hard-working immigrants saving a declining Ohio city doesn’t fit their narrative of Black and Brown immigrants invading and destroying America. On Saturday, Vance twice reposted a viral video from the man who invented the critical race theory nonsense that showed a seemingly staged video of a skinned animal on a backyard grill purportedly in Dayton. Despite Dayton officials denouncing the post as BS, the Republican vice-presidential candidate tweeted, “Kamala Harris and her media apparatchiks should be ashamed of themselves. Another ‘debunked’ story that turned out to have merit.”

Except it didn’t, and he knew it.

On Sunday, Vance slipped up on a network news program and told the truth about Springfield (before catching himself) by saying if he has to “create stories so the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of American people, then that’s what I’m going to do.” He later claimed this referred to putting the spotlight on issues not inventing them. Never mind the real harm he has done to Ohioans suddenly besieged with multiple bomb threats and gripped by terror that he and (former immigrant) Moreno continue to seed to stoke fear and loathing of “others.”

Exasperated Springfield native, singer-songwriter John Legend, implored those tearing his city apart with despicable lies to honor the Christian ethos of treating “strangers as though they might be Christ.” He added, “How about we love one another?” and “when we talk about immigrants moving to our communities we don’t spread hateful, xenophobic, racist lies about them?

Too tall an order for Vance & Company. Why? Because we’re talking about Haitians eating dogs instead of a national abortion ban and a menu of lost freedoms.