America’s Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric and Scapegoat Culture Today

Photo via Reuters

KAHWIT TELA: “In Springfield, they are eating the cats. They’re eating the dogs. They’re eating the pets of the people that live there.” 

During the first presidential debate between Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump falsely claimed that Haitian immigrants from Springfield, Ohio eat household pets. This claim was fact-checked and disproven by ABC News’ David Muir. However, the former president's claim had already left its toll on the Springfield community.

From political leaders “creating” false narratives in Springfield, to bomb threats being called on local schools, the rumors have left immigrant communities like Springfield, a place with a large Haitian population, scared for their safety. 

The animal-eating claims seemed to stem from a Facebook post by Springfield resident Erika Lee within a private Facebook group. In the now-deleted post, Lee claims that a neighbor went where “the Haitians live” and supposedly saw a Haitian resident with household pets being prepared for consumption.

The post, along with the claims and conspiracies that followed, would prove to be false. Lee, who didn’t imagine the impact of the post, soon regretted her action. “I feel for the Haitian community,” said Lee in an interview with NBC News. “If I was in the Haitians’ position, I’d be terrified, too, worried that somebody’s going to come after me because they think I’m hurting something that they love and that, again, that’s not what I was trying to do.”

Despite the post being disproven, this claim didn’t stop immigrants from becoming the scapegoat for America’s problems.

During the 2024 Vice Presidential Debate on Oct. 1, Republican candidate JD Vance mentioned how resources in Springfield and across the country were being taken away by undocumented immigrants. “...you got schools that are overwhelmed, you got hospitals that are overwhelmed, you got housing that’s totally unaffordable because we brought in millions of illegal immigrants to compete with Americans for scarce homes,” said Vance during the debate. Vance continued “The people that I’m most worried about the most in Springfield, Ohio are the American citizens who had their lives destroyed by Kamala Harris’ open border….”

Just like his running mate, Vance’s claim on immigrants was quickly fact-checked by CBS News’ Margaret Brennan, as the Haitian immigrants in Springfield have legal status. This vitriol towards immigrants in our country isn’t new and the same goes for Trump’s racist and anti-immigrant remarks.

While there have been many instances of Trump’s inflammatory remarks, the one that burns in my mind is his infamous “shithole countries” comment in 2018. During a bipartisan meeting regarding immigration, Trump said “Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” The countries that Trump was referring to included Haiti and African countries. Around this time, I distinctly remember when the comments were made and a classmate saying to my face that my family comes from one of the “shithole countries.” I was crushed to see how the rhetoric was spreading and crushed to see this hatred continue to spread.

Every word we say can have consequences if we aren’t thoughtful enough. In the case of Trump’s comments towards the Haitian community in Springfield, the community has been torn down by the harmful rhetoric and will continue being torn down all because of a racially insensitive hoax.

I’m proud to be the son of immigrants and forever will be proud of the immigrants who come into this nation. I believe that immigrants, like the Haitian community of Springfield, make America the country that should be. 

For a nation that claims to be the land of the free and a melting pot of multiple nationalities, America has long made immigrants the scapegoats for our bigotry. America continues to prove how unwelcoming it is to anyone who isn’t seen as “American enough.”

America is a country that has the potential to be great but fails to do so because it often ceases to take into consideration who makes the country. America isn’t made up of one nationality, race, religion, or lifestyle. This nation isn’t an “all-American” nation and it certainly isn’t an all-white, Christian, straight country. 

America has been and will always be a country where people from all walks of life from around the world should have the opportunity to flourish. It’s a country where immigrants can come to receive opportunities that might not have been available elsewhere. They can raise their children to have a better life than they had.

America is the land of opportunity and freedom. Or at least it should be.

Kahwit Tela is a Staff Writer for On The Record from Nashville, Tennessee. He is a second-year Master of Professional Studies in Journalism student at The School of Continuing Studies. He is passionate about human rights advocacy, reporting on global affairs, and making comic book zines.