Former President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump says he will “absolutely” send Haitian immigrants back to their home country in a new impromptu interview, The Miami Herald reports.
During an interview with NewsNation, Trump attacked Haitians as part of his anti-immigration stance. The Haitian community in Springfield, Ohio, has been targeted after false claims that they are stealing and eating neighborhood pets; Trump said if he is elected, he plans to revoke their Temporary Protected Status (TPS), a protection granted by President Joe Biden that affords migrants from Haiti and 15 other countries in political turmoil to live and work in the U.S temporarily.
“In Springfield, what’s happening there is horrible…and about 30,000 were put into that community rapidly…you have to remove the people; we cannot destroy our country,” Trump told the NewsNation cable network reporter.
“You had a beautiful, safe community…and all of sudden in a short period, they have 32,000 more people there. It doesn’t work, it can’t work. It has nothing to do with Haiti or anything else. It doesn’t work. You have to remove the people, and you have to bring them back to their own country.”
When asked if he would revoke TPS for Haitians, he boldly responded, “Absolutely, I’d revoke it, and I’d bring them back to their country.”
According to HuffPost, the claims by Trump and his VP nominee, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, who continued the false claims during Vice Presidential debates on Oct. 1, have resulted in several attacks, including schools having to be evacuated because of bomb threats. Ohio’s Gov. Mike DeWine has to station Highway Patrol troopers on school grounds at district buildings as an extra precaution.
White supremacists were seen standing outside of Springfield’s City Hall building with a sign that read, “Haitians have no home here.” Residents bantered against them, saying the town is a place of love and not hate.
Unfortunately, this wasn’t the first time Trump has promised to remove TPS status from immigrants. In 2017, the Department of Homeland Security, under the 45th president’s reign, announced the end of TPS for Haitians,
claiming the protections caused the agency to conclude that Haiti no longer met the conditions. The decision came just two weeks after Trump terminated similar protection for 2,500 Nicaraguans that lasted nearly 20 years.RELATED CONTENT: Meet The Black-Owned Event Companies Helping Organize The Democratic National Convention