Lies About Immigration Help No One

On the campaign trail, Trump has said that immigrants are "animals" and "not human," and implied that millions are crossing the border each month; publicly available data show that the real number has never exceeded 200,000 a month this year. When Vance took to X to declare that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating their neighbors' pets, and Trump repeated the lie in a nationally televised debate the next day, those of us who have studied the United States' history of dehumanizing immigrants felt as if the clock had turned back 150 years, to when the same specious claim was used to justify vigilante violence against Chinese Americans, and laws including the Chinese Exclusion Act.

Trump and Vance's claims, along with other copycat assertions meant to imply that nonwhite immigrants are inherently immoral, such as the one about "Haitian prostitutes" aired at a Springfield city-commission meeting, have surfaced throughout American history. This summer, a survey ... found that nearly a quarter of Americans now believe that immigrants are "poisoning the blood of our country" and that "many immigrants are terrorists." More than a third of respondents said that "millions of undocumented immigrants illegally cast votes in our elections."

American voters have consistently indicated that they want order at the southern border, yet many economists agree that the large amount of immigration the U.S. experienced in recent years is a major reason the economy bounced back from the COVID-related downturn faster than that of any other nation in the world[EM]. This complex picture of immigration and its implications calls for the hard work of policy making and statesmanship. Again and again, misinformation and fearmongering have only made things worse.

#11

As usual, totally false on a number of fronts.

Temporary Protected Status, as the program is known, is given to qualifying individuals allowing them to remain in the country because conditions are considered unsafe in their home countries. The authorizations are temporary but can be renewed repeatedly as long as recipients stay in good standing and their prior homes are still considered unsafe.

Haitian nationals were first eligible for the status in 2010 when an earthquake destroyed much of the country's infrastructure.

The growth of the Haitian population in Springfield comes from actions undertaken by local officials. Springfield, which had shrunk in population for several decades, needed workers. Those opportunities, a relatively low cost of living and support from the community played big roles in drawing Haitians to the city, according to a 2023 Dayton Daily New article examining Springfield's growing Haitian population.

The city began pitching itself after 2014 to potential employers as a good place for new factories and distribution hubs, and several new companies opened facilities there by the end of the 2010s, the New York Times reported. A lack of workers opened the door for Haitian immigrants to work, and word of mouth helped rapidly draw more to the city, experts told the Times for that story.

It's the height of idoicy for dingbats to keep insinuating that Harris personally can be tied to Springfield in her role as VP. Anyone ever seen Mike Pence be blamed for Trump's Muslim ban, or his anti-immigrant rhetoric of not-even veiled racism and prejudice?

Springfield is responsible for the influx of immigrants into their community, though responsibility lies with governments at all levels to meet the needs of its citizens. I wonder if JD Vance advocated for federal assistance instead of demonizing immigrants only there to provide their labor in support of local businesses, how much better the city and its immediate outlook might be. But trying to turn people against each other is all Trump/Vance offers to this nation while morons like Visitor happily tote their polluted water, drinking the poison and regurgitating its toxicity wrapped up tightly in their own ignorance.

To qualify for Temporary Protected Status, which maybe renewed indefinitely under Biden/Harris

any sitting US President, because it's a federal regulation which Donald Trump tried to unilaterally take away from the Haitian immigrants for no other reason than his deeply-held racism, and he was rebuffed by our federal courts.

A small town losing population due to a high unemployment rate that has been averaging 7% above US unemployment rate from 2019-2023,

Another easily disproven lie.

Except for the Covid months of April-September 2020, Springfield Ohio's unemployment rate never exceeded 7% which makes it impossible for it to be 7% higher than the national average.

When a liar disrespects your intelligence to your face - ignore whatever the liar says without attribution because you already know that it and the truth have never met.

To qualify for Temporary Protected Status, which maybe renewed indefinitely under ~~Biden/Harris~~

any sitting US President, because it's a federal regulation which Donald Trump tried to unilaterally take away from the Haitian immigrants for no other reason than his deeply-held racism, and he was rebuffed by our federal courts.

A small town losing population due to a high unemployment rate that has been averaging 7% above US unemployment rate from 2019-2023,

Another easily disproven lie.

Except for the Covid months of April-September 2020, Springfield Ohio's unemployment rate never exceeded 7% which makes it impossible for it to be 7% higher than the national average.

When a liar disrespects your intelligence to your face - ignore whatever the liar says without attribution because you already know that it and the truth have never met.