Trump's 'mass deportation' threat evokes images of WW2 internment camps

WASHINGTON: The Springfield, Ohio woman whose social media post sparked rumors of Haitians eating pet cats says she heard it from a friend who heard it from an acquaintance who heard it from another friend's daughter. City officials in Springfield say "there have been no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community."

Elsewhere, officials in Colorado say Venezuelan gangs have not taken over apartment complexes in Aurora, much less the city itself. A video of a woman alleged to have killed a cat and trying to eat it turns out to be from a Canton, Ohio, not Springfield, and she is an American citizen with no ties to Haiti. And a blurry photo of a man carrying what appears to be a dead goose is from a different city, Columbus.

But extrapolating and tying together these disparate, sketchy accounts, MAGA supremo Donald Trump is doubling down on his threat to begin mass deportation of Haitian immigrants, starting from Springfield, even though most of them are in country legally under program called Temporary Protected Status. "We're going to have the largest deportation in the history of our country," Trump said at a news conference at Trump National Golf Club in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. "And we're going to start with Springfield and Aurora."

The pledge has triggered joy among his more radical MAGA followers amid reports of the neo-fascist militant group Proud Boys marching through Springfield and bomb threats against schools hosting immigrant children. Asked about the threats which led to evacuations in some schools and shutting down of others, Trump told reporters in Las Vegas, “I don’t know what happened with the bomb threats. I know that it’s been taken over by illegal migrants and that’s a terrible thing that happened."

"Springfield was this beautiful town and now they’re going through hell. It’s a sad thing. Not gonna happen with me, I can tell you right now,” he added, even as his mass deportation threat raised visions of internment camps during World War Two. There are an estimated 12 million unauthorised immigrants in the US -- Trump puts it at over 20 million -- and the MAGA supremo, referencing the spurious story of Venezuelan gangs taking over Colorado, has said "getting them out will be a bloody story.”

According to local accounts, Springfield, a city of around 50,000 residents, is hosting nearly 15,000 Haitian asylum seekers under TPS. Like many towns in the rust belt which have lost manufacturing jobs, the city was reported to be in decline and losing population when the Haitians arrived, some by invitation.

It is not unusual for US cities to reinvigorate their economy with immigrant enterprise once they are settled in, as has happened in Lewiston, Maine, a city of around 40,000 that took in 12,000 Somali refugees starting 1999. Although there was white nationalist resistance to the Somali influx in Lewiston too, the city stood by them (with support from the state's then two Republican Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins). In 2010, the local media reported that Somali entrepreneurs had helped revive downtown Lewiston by opening shops in previously closed storefronts.

No such accommodation is seen from the MAGA extremists who are backing up sketchy allegations of Haitians eating dogs, cats, and geese -- given validation by Trump -- with grisly videos and photos on social media of dogs and cats being grilled, claiming it features Haitians from Springfield. Such videos are swamping testimonials from some local business leaders that immigrant Haitians are contributing to the local economy.

Meanwhile, the woman whose social media post triggered the "immigrants eating cats frenzy" is full of remorse. "It just exploded into something I didn't mean to happen. I'm not a racist," Erika Lee told NBC News, adding that she and her daughter are of ethnically diverse backgrounds and she is a member of the LGBTQ community.