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Vilbrun Dorsainvil said he fled his home country, Haiti, after someone tried to kidnap him.
Three years later, he says he’s afraid for his and his community’s safety in the U.S.
“Before I was not, but right now I can say I am afraid,” Dorsainvil said. “Right now, I’m afraid there may be a mass shooting on us. That would be terrible.”
Dorsainvil’s fear started during ABC’s Sept. 10 presidential debate from Philadelphia, when former President Donald Trump repeated a debunked claim about migrants in this small city about 45 miles west of Columbus, the state’s capital. Trump referred to “Springfield” three times.
“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats,” Trump, the Republican nominee, said. “They’re eating, they’re eating the pets of the people that live there.” ABC host David Muir fact-checked Trump onstage. City officials had debunked the claim.
“There have not been any credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured, or abused by individuals within the immigrant community,” Springfield Mayor Rob Rue said at a city commission meeting a few hours before the debate.
No correction could stop the real-world chaos that followed.
On Sept. 12, Springfield City Hall closed following a bomb threat “sent to multiple agencies and media outlets.” Rue told The Washington Post the threats “used hateful language towards immigrants and Haitians in our community.”
On Sept. 13, the morning after Trump repeated the false claim at his Tucson, Arizona, rally, the Springfield City School District evacuated two elementary schools following an email threat. A middle school had been closed all day because of threats.
PolitiFact visited Springfield to follow the aftermath of Trump’s misinformation in a county that he carried by 60% in 2020. Journalists with cameras, tripods and microphones filled the small city’s downtown after the debate.
Many residents seemed hesitant to speak to news outlets; they didn’t want themselves or their small business in the conversation.
Some residents told PolitiFact there has been a clear increase in the number of Haitian migrants moving to the city in the past few years. Some residents expressed concerns about road safety and resource constraints in recent months as a result. None of them said they’d witnessed or had evidence of people taking pets or wildlife and eating them.
Emma Miller, a small-business owner and lifelong Springfield resident, said she and her husband started an English as a second language class for their Haitian neighbors. The classes had been growing.
“But this past week, only about half the people showed up because they genuinely didn’t feel safe leaving their houses,” Miller said.
The class was before the debate.
How the lie about Haitian immigrants started online
Dorsainvil, who was a doctor in Haiti, now works as a nurse assistant at Springfield Regional Medical Center. He was at work a few weeks ago when a co-worker first showed him a rumor on Facebook about Haitians eating their neighbors’ pets.
According to local news outlets, the claim originated on Facebook in late August. A user said her neighbor told her that her daughter’s friend had lost a cat and she had found it “where Haitians live” hanging from a tree branch and being carved to eat.
NewsGuard, a company that tracks online misinformation, interviewed the original poster who said she had no evidence of the event.
Dorsainvil said his co-worker’s wife commented on Facebook posts, saying the claim was untrue and that she worked with many Haitians.
“When I heard this kind of stuff, I just laughed in my mind, because I know it’s not true,” Dorsainvil said. “It’s just nonsense.”
The rumor quickly gained traction online.
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