This week, social media has been flooded with a wave of racist and xenophobic posts from the MAGA movement, targeting Haitian immigrants with false claims that they are abducting pets and wildlife in the United States.
One particularly viral heinous post came from JD Vance, Trump’s VP pick, on X (formerly Twitter). Vance stated that he previously raised the issue of “Haitian illegal immigrants draining social services and generally causing chaos all over Springfield, Ohio.” And that “reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country.”
X’s owner, Elon Musk, amplified the fake news with multiple posts and comments pushing a narrative accusing Haitian immigrants of grabbing ducks in parks and eating them.
These posts have generated hundreds of racist comments, with users questioning Haitian immigrants’ intelligence and accusing them of cannibalism, among other vile accusations.
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Musk continued using his platform to promote false claims about Haitians eating cats in Ohio, either by reposting content or commenting on it. For instance, he reacted to a post claiming that Haitian culture “has a documented history of feral behavior” by adding an exclamation mark for emphasis.
Republican analyst Andrew Surabian, a close associate of Steve Bannon, posted a tweet featuring a video of Kamala Harris discussing the Biden administration’s extension of TPS status to over 100,000 Haitian immigrants. Surabian’s post read, “As 20,000 non-citizen Haitians destroy a town in Ohio and reportedly kill and eat people’s pets, here is Border Czar Kamala Harris bragging about allowing them to flood into our country.” The video, which Elon Musk reposted, garnered over 35 million views.
Meanwhile, MAGA supporters flooded social media with AI-generated images, including cats wearing red MAGA hats with the caption “Cats for Trump.” Other images depicted Trump holding pets, accompanied by captions such as “Vote Trump to save our pets.” One widely shared image shows Trump running alongside a white duck while holding a cat, with what appears to be a crowd of Black people, supposedly Haitians, chasing him.
CBS News reported that Ohio officials say that they have no evidence or claims of pets that have been harmed or abused by immigrants.
Although these claims were widely debunked, Donald Trump repeated them during the presidential debate with Kamala Harris without directly mentioning Haitians. “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs. The people that came in, they’re eating the cats, they’re decaying the pets of people that live there,” he said.
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Mere hours before the Presidential debate yesterday, JD Vance posted on X that his office had received multiple inquiries from Springfield residents about Haitian immigrants abducting pets and local wildlife. While he admitted, “It’s possible, of course, that all of these rumors will turn out to be false,” he further fueled xenophobia by mentioning rising HIV and TB rates in the Haitian community, along with other baseless concerns.
In response to the posts circulating, many Haitians living in the U.S. posted images of themselves with pets and wildlife, mocking the baseless claims alleging that they are killing and eating pets.
“We are sickened by this defamation and the Haitian Bridge Alliance strongly urges VP candidate J.D. Vance to retract his dehumanizing speech against Black communities around the country,” wrote the Haitian Bridge Alliance on Facebook.
“As a proud Haitian-American, I’m just simply disgusted by the constant comments from the Republican Party, putting down Black immigrants and talking in the most xenophobic and racist ways,” said New York State Assemblywoman Michaelle C. Solages in a video on TikTok. Others are calling to support Haitian-led organizations assisting Haitian immigrants in Ohio.
When he became president in January 2017, over 50,000 Haitians were under Temporary Protected Status (TPS). But, in November, he ended the program. The decision was challenged in court and later, in 2023 the Biden Administration redesignated Haiti and extended TPS for Haitians. According to organizations advocating for immigrants Documented spoke with, a Trump presidency could be disastrous to TPS holders.
In 2018, Trump referred to Haiti as a “shithole country” during a meeting with a bipartisan group of senators at the White House. During this meeting, he said, “Why do we need more Haitians? Take them out,” according to a source familiar with the meeting reported by the Washington Post.
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Haiti, the first Black republic in the world, gained its independence in 1804 following a slave revolt that defeated one of the world’s most powerful armies. Since then, the country has been viewed by the West as a challenge to a world built on slavery. As a result, Western literature often portrayed Haiti as a place of cannibalism and sorcery.
Discrimination against Haitians persisted into the 20th century, with the U.S. government at one point accusing them of being a risk factor for HIV infection. This led to widespread bullying and ostracism, with many Haitian families in the U.S. encouraging their children to hide their identity or avoid speaking Haitian Creole to protect their opportunities. In 1983, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) wrongly grouped Haitians with homosexuals, hemophiliacs, and hypodermic needle users in the ‘4H’ risk group for AIDS. This stigma intensified in February 1990 when the FDA recommended that Haitians be barred from donating blood, labeling them a high-risk group for AIDS. In response, on April 20, 1990, tens of thousands of Haitians marched across the Brooklyn Bridge, protesting these baseless and discriminatory policies.
Xenophobia and discrimination against Haitians have influenced the current immigration detention system in the U.S. In 2021, images of Border Patrol agents on horseback using whips to chase Haitian asylum seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border in Del Rio, Texas, went viral, sparking outrage over their treatment.
On Sept. 10, the Haitian American Foundation for Democracy published a statement denouncing Vance and several congressional leaders for spreading “dangerous falsehoods, demonizing Haitian immigrants as homeless and hungry invaders that represent a threat to Ohioans — even suggesting they pose a danger to pets.”
“We urge all Haitian-Americans and our allies to counter these vile attacks by actively engaging in the democratic process, promoting inclusivity. By doing so, we can help ensure that all members of society are treated with fairness, dignity, and respect,” said the statement.
