At least 33 bomb threats have been made in Springfield, Ohio, since false claims — which were pushed by former President Donald Trump and his running mate — surfaced about Haitian migrants’ eating people’s pets, the governor said.
All of the threats have been determined to be hoaxes. Some targeted Springfield schools, including elementary school campuses, Gov. Mike DeWine said Tuesday at a news conference after he met with city officials.
“Our children deserve to be in school. Parents deserve to feel that their children are being educated and that their children are safe,” DeWine said.
Last week, schools in the city of around 58,000 were evacuated after bomb threats were reported. City Hall also received a threat against city facilities.
The threats come in the days after Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, spread online a false claim that Haitian migrants were causing problems in Springfield and that “[r]eports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country.”
Trump repeated the false claim — which city officials and police have denied — onstage at the ABC News presidential debate the next day.
“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs. The people that came in, they’re eating the cats. They’re eating, they’re eating the pets of the people that live there,” Trump said at the debate.
Springfield police said they have no credible reports of immigrants’ harming people’s pets.
Mayor Rob Rue called it “a lie” that is being repeated online, and he called for it to stop.
DeWine said Monday that some of the threats are coming from overseas.
“Some of them are coming from one particular country,” he said. “We think that this is, you know, one more opportunity to mess with the United States. And they’re continuing to do that.”
Since the threats, tower cameras have been put in place in Springfield, the state has arranged for bomb-detecting dogs, and state law enforcement officers are being sent to help respond, officials said.
“The people who are doing this are doing this to sow discord in our community and to disrupt our ability to do our normal functions that we have to do,” said Andy Wilson, director of the state Department of Public Safety. “And we just can’t let them do that.”
There are 17 school district buildings in Springfield. The Highway Patrol will do sweeps before school in every building, regardless of whether they have been threatened, said DeWine, a Republican. He called the move an “extraordinary step.”
“Our schools must remain open. They’re going to remain open,” he said.
On Monday, the city government announced that its annual CultureFest celebration downtown, scheduled for two days starting Sept. 27, would be canceled because of security concerns.
More than 15,000 Haitians live and work in Springfield. Haitian migrants have been granted Temporary Protected Status by the U.S. government because of unrest in Haiti, including violent by gangs ruling the streets.
DeWine defended the Haitian migrants working in Springfield.
He said that Trump, Vance and any other politicians has a right to talk about immigration and issues at the U.S.-Mexico border and that “it is a legitimate issue.”
“I have a job, though, in regard to people who are here legally in Springfield and a community that is, you know, people are making comments about them,” DeWine said. “I have an obligation to speak out.”
“Following what the mayor has said, what the city manager has said and what the chief of police has said is: We have no evidence that anyone is eating someone’s pets in Springfield, Ohio,” he said later at the news conference.
