Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said Sunday that “the cats and dogs thing,” referring to Baseless allegations that Haitian immigrants are eating pets in Springfield, Ohioreceived “much more coverage than the actual impacts” of immigration.
He argued in “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that more attention should be paid to the effects that large numbers of migrants have on small communities in the United States.
“In the case of Springfield, there are literally thousands of people moving in. Charleroi, Pennsylvania, is a town of 4,000 people that’s taking in 2,500 migrants,” Rubio said. “In Springfield, we see reports, legitimate reports, of a dramatic increase in traffic accidents, which slows down police response times and overcrowds schools. I mean the strain that it puts on a community, and if you complain about that, you’re kind of a bigot, a racist, a hater.”
During the September 10 presidential debate, former President Donald Trump made a debunked claim about immigrants in Springfield, Ohio: “They’re eating the dogs, they’re eating the people who have come here, they’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people who live there.” ABC moderator David Muir immediately responded, citing a statement from Springfield’s city manager saying, “There have been no credible reports of specific complaints of pets being harmed, abused or mistreated by individuals within the immigrant community.”
Springfield’s mayor, police chief and Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, also say there have been no credible reports of pets being stolen and eaten by migrants.
A new CBS poll The survey results show that most voters believe the claims about pet consumption are false, but a large majority (69%) of Trump supporters believe they are probably or definitely true. Most voters disapprove of Trump’s statements, but two-thirds of Trump voters approve of his comments.
The Associated Press noted that after the pandemic, many Haitians moved to Springfield, which suffered a sharp decline in manufacturing in the 1990s and a shrinking population. In recent years, however, the city has seen a surge in demand for labor, with Haitians helping fill those jobs.
The vast majority of Haitian immigrants are in the United States legally and are authorized to work. Over the past two fiscal years, the United States processed 156,000 Haitian migrants at the southern border, according to figures from Customs and Border Protection.
DeWine defended the thousands of Haitian immigrants who live in Springfield, but noted there are challenges with 15,000 people moving into a city of fewer than 60,000 people in the past two years.
“These Haitians came here to work because there was work and they filled a lot of positions. And if you talk to the employers, they did a very, very good job and they work very, very hard,” he said.
Meanwhile, DeWine announced new state support for Springfield, which is dealing with a large number of Haitian migrants. DeWine’s office said Haitian migrants have generally had little to no health care services, including vaccinations. The state is dedicating $2.5 million to expanding access to primary health care for Springfield residents.
“I want the people of Springfield and Clark County to know that as we move forward, we will continue to do everything we can to help the community deal with this surge of migrants,” DeWine said. “The federal government has not demonstrated that they have any plan to deal with this problem. We will not walk away.”
Rubio, in “Face the Nation,” continued to defend residents of cities like Springfield, saying they have a right to be upset about the effects that an increase in migrants has had on their towns.
“This is a story where ordinary Americans are being driven to hate because they’re complaining about something that any of us would complain about,” Rubio said. “If any of us, no matter who we are, live in a town of 4,000 people and you bring 2,500 migrants overnight into one place, there’s going to be problems there. That doesn’t make you a bigot. That’s what we should be focusing on.”
There have been more than 30 Bomb Threats in Springfield, Ohiosince false allegations surfaced that Haitian migrants had been eating people’s pets, according to Dewine.
Rubio said Sunday of the role a foreign connection might play in these threats, saying it would be rare.
“A lot of these calls are police officers asking SWAT to come to someone’s house because there’s a murder in progress. A lot of these calls are coming from overseas as well,” Rubio said. “That doesn’t mean that these calls are being directed by a foreign government. That’s possible, I haven’t heard of it. But just because they’re coming from overseas doesn’t mean there’s a government behind it. But yes, we have those types of individuals all over the world who like to do this type of thing.”
