Trump Says Legal Haitian Migrants Are Illegal ‘As Far as I’m Concerned’

Donald Trump threw logic out the window on Tuesday. During an interview with Newsmax, the former president claimed that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio — who haven been given Temporary Protected Status and are in the U.S. legally — are “illegal immigrants as far as I’m concerned.”

His remarks arrive amid a baseless and dangerous lie pushed by Trump and his running mate, Senator J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), that the town’s growing Haitian immigrant community is stealing and eating pet dogs and cats. The duo have made the debunked claims the centerpiece of their campaign during the final weeks of the 2024 presidential election. As a result, the small Ohio city has been inundated with bomb threats, forcing evacuations and closures of schools and government buildings.

“I mean, look at Springfield, where 30,000 illegal immigrants are dropped, and it was, they may have done it through a certain little trick, but they are illegal immigrants as far as I’m concerned,” ranted Trump on the network Tuesday. “They’re destroying the town, they’re destroying the whole — they’ll end up destroying the state. We cannot let this happen.”

The Republican candidate echoed his previous vow to revoke the Temporary Protected Status for Haitian migrants in Springfield and deport them if reelected. “You have to remove the people, and you have to bring them back to their own country. They are, in my opinion, it’s not legal,” Trump told NewsNation earlier this week.

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Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has called Trump’s lies about Haitian immigrants in Springfield “garbage,” and added, “This is a piece of garbage that was simply not true. There’s no evidence of this at all.” DeWine praised Haitians as a hard-working community of people who have brought “positive influences” to the city.

As the city of Springfield states on its website, approximately 12,000 to 15,000 immigrants live in Ohio’s Clark County, which has a population of approximatly 135,000. The government-run site also clearly states, despite what Trump and Vance may claim, that “Haitian immigrants are here legally” under the Immigration Parole Program. Immigrants are then eligible to apply for Temporary Protected Status (TPS), which is provided to nationals of certain countries where it would be unsafe to deport them there. The Secretary of Homeland Security has designated Haiti for TPS.