Haitian immigrants fight back against Trump's false claims

Haitian Americans across the country are pushing back against former President Trump's baseless claims about them by protesting, promising to vote and coming together to celebrate their culture.

Why it matters: As Trump makes immigration the closing argument of his 2024 campaign — without much regard for whether his claims about immigrants are true — Haitian American communities are fighting back by emphasizing their culture and their contributions to U.S. economy.

Driving the news: Haitians in Spring Valley, N.Y.; Boston, Mass., and North Miami, Fla., have organized rallies to protest Trump's false characterizations of Haitian immigrants "eating pets" in Springfield, Ohio.

• This past weekend, 800 women of Haitian descent gathered in Washington, D.C., for three days of celebration and community building, with Trump's attacks very much on their minds.
• "Putting us at a center of an election is unexpected, shocking, obviously painful and dangerous," Ariel Dominque, co-founder of the Haitian Ladies Network, told Axios.
• "So there is a response in terms of how people feel and how people react, and definitely it will have an impact in mobilizing the Haitian American community to vote. "

Zoom in: The annual gathering had outsized importance this year as attendees heard from Haitian icons such as fashion designer Stella Jean and actress Garcelle Beauvais, along with traditional Haitian folk dancing.

• Meanwhile, a network of Haitian American elected officials met to discuss best practices to keep their communities safe in the wake of Trump's attacks.

Flashback: Trump has a history of allegedly disparaging Haitian immigrants, in separate incidents in 2017 and 2018.

What they're saying: "It's not who we are," Dominique said. "We come here, put our heads down and work very hard and very quickly, we become CFO of AT&T, president of Rice University, former president of Harvard University, White House press secretary."

• "When the Haitians came, they brought the culture, they bought their full selves, they started working and literally [contributing] to the revitalization of Springfield (Ohio)," said Guerline Jozef, executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, which filed a complaint against Trump and Ohio Sen. JD Vance over the false claims.
• Ohio's Republican Gov. Mike DeWine agrees."What the companies tell us is that [Haitians] are very good workers. They're very happy to have them there, and frankly, that's helped the economy," DeWine said on ABC.

The big picture: Trump's rhetoric has had real consequences for the thousands of Haitians living in the small Ohio town.

• Ohio community organizer Sophia Pierrelus, who has been helping immigrant families in Springfield, says she's spoken to 10 to 15 families who now want to move away.
• They are concerned about continued bomb threats and of being wrongfully accused of crime, and their kids are fearful of being bullied in school, she says.
• Pierrelus says her own home in Columbus, Ohio, was swatted after someone mentioned her 26-year-old son and listed her address in an email falsely accusing him of killing his wife.