Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance are facing criminal charges for inducing public panic and violence against Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio.
“Criminal acts have been committed, and charges need to be pursued,” attorney Subodh Chandra, who is representing the Haitian Bridge Alliance, told Ethnic Media Services Oct. 3. An Ohio state statute, R.C. 2935.09, allows private citizens to file criminal charges in situations where there is more than a “mere suspicion” of an offense.
Arrest Warrants
“In a matter of days we should be seeing the court issue, arrest warrants for Trump and Vance. And if they don’t, my clients will be very concerned that Trump and Vance are being held to a different standard than the rest of us would be if we had engaged in the same kind of outrageous conduct with the kind of severe harm that Trump and Vance have inflicted on the community,” stated Chandra. “If anyone else had done this, they would already be in jail.”
The case will be heard by a judge in Clark County Municipal Court, Ohio. A judge will also decide whether there is sufficient evidence of criminality for state prosecutors to take over the case.
No Immunity
On July 1, the Supreme Court ruled that Trump was presumptively immune from criminal liability while acting in an official capacity. But Chandra said that ruling would not affect the present case. “He has no immunity at all, as the criminal conduct was not conducted in any sort of official capacity,” said the attorney, who formerly represented the family of Tamir Rice, wrongfully fatally shot by a police officer in 2014, when he was just 12 years old.
In early September, Vance in tweets and interviews said migrants from Haiti were stealing pets in Springfield, and barbecuing them. The senator from Ohio said he was hearing “complaints from my constituents.” Springfield is home to about 15,000 Haitians who hold Temporary Protected Status, and are therefore legal.
False Accusations
Springfield city officials said there was no evidence to back such claims. Karen Graves, strategic engagement manager for Springfield, told CBS News: “In response to recent rumors alleging criminal activity by the immigrant population in our city, we wish to clarify that there have been no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community.”
But Vance did not back down on his claims. And Trump continued to spread the debunked accusations onstage at the Sept. 10 Presidential debate. In his match-up against Democratic Presidential candidate Kamala Harris, Trump claimed: “These people coming in…they’re eating the dogs. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”
Inducing Violence
“There’s no truth to this,” said Chandra in the interview with EMS. “And yet they persist relentlessly. Every time they do, they know that they’re stoking threats, violent threats,” he said, noting there have been 33 bomb threats in the community since Vance first started making his claims.
“There have been school closures and evacuations, college closures and evacuations, hospital lockdowns, government buildings evacuated and closed, and parents having to keep their kids home from school and explain all of these fearful things to them,” said the attorney, who lives in Ohio. He noted that Ohio Governor DeWine, a Republican, has asked Trump and Vance to stop making their baseless claims.
Republican Governor Mike DeWine
In July, DeWine sent a letter to Trump, praising his choice of running mate. But in a Sept. 20 guest essay for The New York Times, the governor said he was disappointed that Trump and Vance are continuing their baseless claims.
“I am saddened by how they and others continue to repeat claims that lack evidence and disparage the legal migrants living in Springfield. This rhetoric hurts the city and its people, and it hurts those who have spent their lives there,” wrote DeWine.
Guerline Jozef, Executive Director of Haitian Bridge Alliance, said in a press release that her organization is non-partisan. “This is not about one candidate or political party. This is about confronting white supremacy, anti-Black rhetoric, and hate speech that seems to be a constant in U.S. politics and that continues to cause suffering.”
“No one is above the law,” said Jozef.
