Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota claimed Friday that an influx of 20,000 Haitian migrants “breathed a new life” into Springfield, Ohio, during a press conference.
Residents of Springfield interviewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation outlined how the community had struggled to handle the influx of migrants, who they say have contributed to an increase in traffic accidents and skyrocketing housing prices. Omar criticized former President Donald Trump and Republican Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio for bringing up unconfirmed reports of pets being stolen and eaten in the town by Haitian immigrants.
“I know, as an immigrant, what it feels to have a light shined on your community that threatens your very existence as you come into a country seeking safety after you’ve survived a tremendous journey,” Omar claimed. “I know what it means for the hopes and aspirations that you have in being welcomed into your new community be dashed, and so I deeply feel for our Haitian immigrants.”
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“These are people who have revived and breathed a new life into a community that was desperately seeking change,” Omar continued. “The kind of, the kind of ways in which their new employers and their new neighbors describe them is what every immigrant, when they come to this country, wants to be described. That they are hardworking, that they are warm, that they are friendly, that they are excited to be part of this new community that they find themselves. Because ultimately, that is what immigrants do and we should know that as a nation of immigrants.”
The Biden administration has allowed migrants from Haiti to come into the U.S. via the “CHNV” program, which allows Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans to receive parole and enter the country by plane, even if they might not normally receive visas, according to the America First Policy Center.
“We should know what it means for our country to have that renewed promise every single day of being a beacon of hope, of providing that opportunity,” Omar said. “And for us to want to be seen by the world as such and not be seen through the lens of small men like Trump and J.D. Vance, who have so much insecurities, that instead of uplifting people that they want to put them down. So I am so proud to be in this body with colleagues who have the bravery, the courage and the backbone to say we are not going to allow in our name for our Haitian siblings to come into this country and face this derogatory, demeaning narrative.”
While the DCNF has been unable to corroborate reports of pets being stolen and eaten, the Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project posted a portion of an August 28 police report obtained by the think tank to X on Tuesday, in which a resident claimed her cat had been stolen and butchered.
Ohio Republican Attorney General Dave Yost defended the citizens making the reports in a September 11 post on X.
“There’s a recorded police call from a witness who saw immigrants capturing geese for food in Springfield. Citizens testified to City Council,” Yost wrote. “These people would be competent witnesses in court.”
Featured Image Credit: Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America
