Several prominent Republicans, including the party’s vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, promoted false claims on Monday that Haitian migrants in Ohio are killing and eating family pets.
It’s the latest turn in a campaign that has increasingly embraced race-baiting messaging, questioning Vice President Kamala Harris’ racial identity while seeking to undermine her immigration policies.
The rumors center on the Ohio city of Springfield, which has experienced a surge in recent migration from Haitians seeking to escape a Caribbean country that has been rocked from years of natural disasters, political assassinations and gang rule.
A post in a Springfield Facebook group recently claimed a neighbor’s daughter’s friend found their missing cat hanging from a branch at a Haitian neighbor’s home, and it was being prepped to be eaten, according to the Springfield News-Sun. Those rumors were picked up by conservative media and then spread on X, where they gained widespread traction on Monday.
“President Trump will deport migrants who eat pets,” a Trump campaign account posted to X. “Kamala Harris will send them to your town next. Make your choice, America.”
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz posted a meme showing two kittens embracing. Text overlaid on the image reads: “Please vote for Trump so Haitian immigrants don’t eat us.”
Vance posted a video of himself discussing migration to Ohio at a recent hearing. “Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country. Where is our border czar?” Some accounts shared AI-generated pictures of Trump holding a cat in his hands while being chased by crowds of Black men.
The unsubstantiated claims appear to be the result of an unwieldy game of telephone that began as a rumor in a local Facebook group before spiraling to reach the highest echelons of conservative media and the Republican Party. They spread widely on X, whose owner, Elon Musk, has embraced the false rumors and posted several memes that promoted them.
Some accounts posted body-worn camera footage from an incident they said bolstered their claims. But that footage was shot in Canton, Ohio, which is more than 170 miles away from Springfield.
In a statement to CNN, a spokesperson for the City of Springfield said “there have been no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community.”
Democratic Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, a Haitian American who represents a district in South Florida, called both Vance and Cruz “disgusting” when asked about the rumors they helped spread Monday.
“And I say that because these are senators who are educated men, they have enough common sense to actually look into the issue and find out if it’s true, and they have a responsibility not to be spreading lies,” said Cherfilus-McCormick.
“So I think that’s a disgusting thing to do, especially when you’re in such a high office, to intentionally spread these lies,” she added. She said the actions of Vance and Cruz were especially disappointing because both senators have immigrants in their own lives; Cruz is the son of a Cuban immigrant, while Vance is the son-in-law of Indian immigrants.
In a FAQ section on its website, the city said there are an estimated 12,000 to 15,000 immigrants in the county that includes Springfield. Haitian immigrants are in the city legally under the Immigration Parole Program as they apply for temporary protected status, the city said.
Asked for comment Monday, a spokesperson for Vance said the senator had “received a high volume of calls and emails over the past several weeks from concerned citizens in Springfield” and added that Vance’s “tweet is based on what he is hearing from them.”
“Many residents have contacted Senator Vance to share their concerns over crime and traffic accidents, and to express that they no longer feel safe in their own homes,” the spokesperson said. “Unlike the liberal media, JD takes his constituents’ concerns seriously.”
Spokespeople for Cruz did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.
The Monday rumor mill is the latest time the Trump campaign has sought to stoke racial animus. Trump himself has repeatedly questioned the racial identity of Harris, falsely claiming she has only recently begun presenting herself as Black. Harris has long claimed being Black as part of her identity, attended a historically Black college and pledged to a historically Black sorority. Harris has largely declined to engage Trump’s claims about her race.
Haitians are an especially crucial voting bloc in Florida – a formerly politically purple state which then became staunchly red, but which the Biden and now Harris campaigns have believed could be in play.
A portion of the Haitian diaspora community votes Republican, said Cherfilus-McCormick, but they – along with other immigrant diaspora communities in Florida – might be “pushed away” by the rumors some Republicans have embraced, she said.
“I would expect this from somebody or people who had no connection to immigrant families, someone who didn’t know how hard we work and how we really push forward,” she said. “That’s who I would expect it from, but not from, you know, the son of an immigrant, nor someone who’s married into a family where you see the hard work we do every single day.”
This story has been updated with comment from Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick.
CNN’s Aaron Pellish and Kit Maher contributed to this report.
