Ohio senator and Republican Vice Presidential nominee J.D. Vance doubled down on his claims that Haitian migrants are “illegal aliens” after a reporter confirmed a majority of them are in the country legally, HuffPost reported.
During the Sept. 18 rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, Vance said he would continue to mislabel members of the Haitian community in Springfield, Ohio, after suggesting they have been stealing and eating neighborhood pets. When a reporter asked Vance how he plans to remove the estimated 12,000 to 15,000 immigrants living there, the senator pointed the finger at Vice
President Kamala Harris. “This is a media and Kamala Harris fact check that I want to clarify and clear up right now. The media loves to say that the Haitian migrants, hundreds of thousands of them by the way … they are here legally,” Vance said.“And what they mean is Kamala Harris used two separate programs, mass parole and Temporary Protected Status. She used two programs to wave a wand and say we’re not going to deport those people here. Well, if Kamala Harris waves the wand illegally and says these people are now here legally, I’m still going to call them an illegal alien.”
Vance continued to say that “an illegal action from Kamala Harris does not make an alien legal. That is not how this works.”
His comments about the Temporary Protected Status program are incorrect. Close to 300,000 Haitians have been granted residence in the United States under the program. According to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Department of Homeland Security extended the validity of certain Employment Authorization Documents (EADs) issued to Haitian beneficiaries under the program through August 2025.
It allows migrants from foreign countries facing disasters or political turmoil to live in the U.S. legally. In June 2024, the Biden administration extended TPS status for Haitians until Feb. 3, 2026.
Because of false claims that both Vance and Donald Trump have spread about the Haitian community, the mid-sized town has been riddled with bomb threats, school evacuations, and harassment toward its residents. According to NPR, Vance’s team reached out to city leadership to find out if the rumors were true, and after finding out they were lies, he continued to spread them anyway. “He asked point-blank, ‘Are the rumors true of pets being taken and eaten?’” Springfield City Manager Bryan Heck said.
“I told him no. There was no verifiable evidence or reports to show this was true. I told them these claims were baseless.” Springfield Mayor Rob Rue has called for the attacks from political leaders to stop attacking the community as the city has experienced over 30 bomb threats since.