Conservative figure Charlie Kirk has attacked what he called the “Biden-Harris mass immigration replacement plan” while sharing claims that migrants are eating people’s pets in an Ohio city.
Springfield, which had a population of around 60,000, has recently been at the center of the immigration debate, with its Haitian community growing to between 15,000 and 20,000 over the last four years, according to city officials.
The past few days have seen locals report that some of these people have been killing and eating folks’ pets.
Kirk posted about this on Sunday, when he wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “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. Those idiots deserve to be condemned and mocked mercilessly. Save our pets. Secure our borders.”
He also shared a screengrab of a post which appears to have been shared in the private Facebook group Springfield Ohio Crime and Information, which detailed some of the pet-eating allegations.
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… pic.twitter.com/LTnlaL4N0v
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) September 8, 2024
Someone wrote: “Warning to all about our beloved pets and those around us. My neighbor informed me that her daughter’s friend had lost her cat. She checked pages, kennels, asked around, etc.
“One day she came home from work, as soon as she stepped out of her car, looked toward a neighbor’s house, where Haitians live, and saw her cat hanging from a branch, like you’d do a deer for butchering and they were carving it up to eat.
“I’ve been told they are doing this to dogs, they have been doing it at Snyder Park with the ducks and geese.”
X-founder Elon Musk has also repeated the claim, writing: “Apparently, people’s pet cats are being eaten.”
AP
A local made similar accusations during a City Commission meeting on August 27. A recording of the meeting shows a man saying: “Bro, they’re in the park grabbing up ducks by their necks and cutting their heads off and eating them.”
Newsweek has contacted the Clark County Sheriff’s Office, via email, to ask whether it has received any reports of this behavior. Newsweek has also contacted the Harris campaign, via email, for a response.
Last August, things reached boiling point in and around Springfield, when a Haitian driver, Hermanio Joseph, was involved in a school bus crash which killed 11-year-old Aiden Clark and injured 20 other students.
Joseph, in his late 30s, ended up being convicted of aggravated vehicular homicide and involuntary manslaughter. He did not have a valid Ohio driver’s license, according to The News-Sun’s reports of the trial at the time.
There is nothing to point to the Haitian immigrants in Springfield being there illegally, with the City of Springfield explicitly saying on its immigration FAQs page: “YES, Haitian immigrants are here legally, under the Immigration Parole Program.”
The community has often come from places such as Florida, flocking to Springfield after it worked hard to create jobs when industries were struggling.
The Haitians’ increasing Springfield’s workforce is often credited as something that helped drive Springfield’s economic boom.
McGregor Metal, a family-owned business, told The New York Times how it was lacking workers after it had invested in upping production before “the Haitians were there to fill those positions,” chief executive Jamie McGregor said.
But the increase in population also contributed to mounting pressure on housing, schooling and the medical system.
For example, at the Rocking Horse Community Health Center, a 15-minute consultation could go up to 45 minutes because of language barriers, chief executive officer Yamini Teegala told the NYT.
On July 8, Springfield City Manager Bryan Heck wrote a letter to Ohio Senators about its “housing crisis.”
“Springfield has seen a surge in population through immigration that has significantly impacted our ability as a community to produce enough housing opportunities for all,” Heck said.
Donald Trump’s running mate JD Vance referred to Springfield in a speech at the National Conservatism Conference in July, when he said: “Go to Springfield, go to Clark County Ohio, and ask the people there whether they have been enriched by 20,000 newcomers in four years.”
He went on: “You don’t have to believe, of course, that the 20,000 newcomers are bad people. In fact, I imagine that many of them are very good people. But my interest is not in protecting the good people of another country, I’m a Senator for the state of Ohio, our leaders have to protect the interests of this country and the fact that this has happened is evidence that they’re not.”
Newsweek has contacted Vance via email for further comment.
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