Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump pledged on Friday to conduct mass deportations of Haitian immigrants from the Ohio city of Springfield, even though the majority of them are in the United States legally.
The city for days has found itself at the center of a social media maelstrom after right-wing agitators latched onto false claims that Haitian arrivals were eating household pets.
“We will do large deportations in Springfield, Ohio,” Trump said at a press conference at his golf resort near Los Angeles.
The majority of the 15,000 Haitians in Springfield are there legally. Trump’s longstanding pledge to conduct mass deportations usually refers to those in the country illegally.
Trump did not repeat the assertion he made during Tuesday’s presidential debate with Democrat Kamala Harris that immigrants were eating dogs and cats, remarks that have been widely mocked.
Two elementary schools were evacuated and one middle school in Springfield was closed on Friday after anonymous bomb threats were made against the community for the second day in a row, according to ABC News.
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