The mayor of Springfield, Ohio, has admitted his “overwhelmed” city is struggling with the influx of Haitian migrants living there — but insisted everyone’s “pets are safe” as he shot down the wild claims that the asylum seekers were eating cats and dogs.
Mayor Rob Rue addressed the migrant crisis and the malicious animal-eating rumors during an interview with NewsNation’s “Cuomo” on Thursday night after former President Donald Trump helped amplify falsehoods about the city this week.
“Springfield is still beautiful and your pets are safe in Springfield, Ohio,” Rue said.
The beleaguered city has been pulled into the national spotlight in recent weeks after claims that Haitian migrants were killing local cats, ducks and geese for food went viral on social media.
The claims were amplified earlier this week when Trump took to the presidential debate stage and declared that migrants in Springfield were eating people’s cats and dogs.
“These claims are, they were just untrue,” Rue said. “There’s a lot of frenzy on the internet, but this is not what we’re seeing. It’s a bit frustrating.”
“What this has done is created a negative light, obviously, that we did not look for, we did not ask for these,” the mayor said of the national attention.
Rue went on to say that Springfield — a predominantly white, blue-collar city of about 60,000 — desperately needed help from the federal government in order to cope with its ongoing migrant crisis.
“We have been dealing with an infrastructure strain due to this immigration influx,” he said, referring to the roughly 20,000 Haitian migrants who have flooded into the city in just a few years.
“Any community in the United States that would receive 25 to 30 percent of their population in a short period of time is going to face infrastructure strain,” he continued.
“Our safety services are overwhelmed. Our hospitals are overwhelmed. Our school systems overwhelmed.”
His remarks come after Ohio’s Republican Gov. Mike DeWine said Tuesday he would add more law enforcement and health care resources to an aid package the state has already provided to Springfield.
The Ohio State Highway Patrol was also being dispatched to help local law enforcement with traffic issues that officials say have cropped up due to an increase in Haitians unfamiliar with US traffic laws using the roads.
