By The New York Times (U.S.) | Created at 2024-09-26 00:37:30 | Updated at 2024-09-30 07:30:31
4 days ago
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False claims about migrants in Springfield, Ohio, who are legal residents, became a campaign issue after Donald J. Trump brought them up at the presidential debate this month.
- Sept. 25, 2024, 8:36 p.m. ET
Representative Clay Higgins, Republican of Louisiana, advanced racist claims about Haitians in a post on social media that was subsequently deleted on Wednesday.
Mr. Higgins’s post on X was a response to an Associated Press article about a court filing by the leader of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, a nonprofit group. The group invoked a citizen’s right to file charges against former President Donald J. Trump and Senator JD Vance of Ohio, his running mate, for knowingly making false claims about Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, that caused panic, the filing said.
Mr. Higgins repeated some of those claims in his post on X.
“These Haitians are wild. Eating pets, vudu, nastiest country in the western hemisphere, cults, slapstick gangsters,” he wrote.
“But damned if they don’t feel all sophisticated now, filing charges against our President and VP. All these thugs better get their mind right and their ass out of our country before January 20th,” Mr. Higgins continued, referring to the date of the presidential inauguration.
Mr. Trump has pledged, if elected, to “get them the hell out,” referring to migrants in Springfield, most of whom are in the United States legally and have filled jobs in local industry.
Mr. Higgins’s post appears to have been deleted after he faced backlash. Democrats seized on his post. Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the House minority leader, said in a statement that Mr. Higgins “must be held accountable for dishonorable conduct that is unbecoming of a member of Congress.”
