Immigrants
2024 March
2024-03-28 Michigan State Representative Matt Maddock posted on social media during March Madness, “Happening right now. Three buses just loaded up with illegal invaders at Detroit Metro. Anyone have any idea where they’re headed with their police escort? @petehoekstra”.
https://x.com/matthewmaddock/status/1773143040724451761
2024 September
2024-09-09 Trump reposted a tweet from JD Vance, “Months ago, I raised the issue of Haitian illegal immigrants draining social services and generally causing chaos all over Springfield, Ohio. Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country. Where is our border czar?”. Trump added “Border Czar Kamala Harris invited thousands of Haitian Migrants to flood into America and now a small town in Ohio is being torn apart because of what Kamala did”.
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/09/10/jd-vance-false-conspiracy-haitian-immigrants-john-kirby.html
2024-09-09 Ted Cruz posted a meme of two cats hugging, captioned “Please vote for Trump so Haitian immigrants don’t eat us”.
https://x.com/tedcruz/status/1833174142591365185
2024-09-10 JD Vance posted on Truth Social “In the last several weeks, my office has received many inquiries from actual residents of Springfield who’ve said their neighbors’ pets or local wildlife were abducted by Haitian migrants. It’s possible, of course, that all of these rumors will turn out to be false”.
2024-09-11 JD Vance defended spreading Springfield pet rumors on CNN, “When you have a lot of people saying ‘My pets are being abducted’ or ‘Geese at the city pond are being abducted and slaughtered right in front of us’, this is crazy stuff. And again, whether those exact rumors turn out to be mostly true, somewhat true, whatever the case may be – Kaitlan, this town has been ravaged by 20,000 migrants coming in. Health care costs are up. Housing costs are up. Communicable diseases like HIV and TB have skyrocketed in this small Ohio town. This is what Kamala Harris’s border policies have done. And I think it’s interesting, Kaitlan, that, that the media didn’t care about the carnage brought by these policies until we turned it into a meme about cats”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtRPLCso0Sw
2024-09-12 Days after Trump and JD Vance provoked fear about pets being eaten, Springfield experienced several days of bomb threats made to multiple county, school, and hospital facilities. Haitian
2024-09-15 During an interview with Face the Nation, JD Vance responded to Springfield bomb threats by condemning the media for reporting on it, “We don’t believe in a heckler’s veto in this country. You can condemn violence on the one hand, while also saying that there have been terrible problems caused by Kamala Harris’ open border in Springfield. Now, you said that these are false rumors, but I’ve heard about a dozen things…ten of them are verifiable and confirmable…maybe all of these constituents are lying to me, but I would appreciate if all of the media showed up and did some real investigation rather than amplifying the worst people in the world”.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jd-vance-ohio-haitian-immigrants-false-claims-face-the-nation/
2025 April
2025-04-30 The White House peddled an altered image of the alpha-numeric “M-S-1-3” across Abrego Garcia’s hand and claimed it was a tattoo. Trump insisted during an interview that the image was authentic.
2025 July
2025-07-01 Kristi Noem claimed an immigrant attempted to eat their own arm during a deportation flight.
2025 October
2025-10-05 Mike Johnson posted, “as a condition for ending the Democrat shutdown, Democrats want hospitals (to be) paid MORE to treat illegal aliens than American citizens”.
https://x.com/SpeakerJohnson/status/1974851480872980963
2025 December
2025-12-26 Right-wing vlogger Nick Shirley alleged widespread childcare fraud involving Somali communities. The claims prompted investigations, funding freezes, and harassment directed at Minnesota childcare centers. Both JD Vance and Pam Bondi publicly praised Shirley. Did You Know? The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 page 482 and 486 mandate defunding and dismantling childcare?
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/minnesota-fraud-nick-shirley-video-day-care-investigation/
https://www.npr.org/2025/12/30/g-s1-104049/trump-minnesota-child-care-funding-freeze-fraud-schemes
https://x.com/AGPamBondi/status/2005764911427731459?s=20
https://docs.house.gov/meetings/GO/GO00/20260107/118796/HHRG-119-GO00-20260107-SD091.pdf
https://www.congress.gov/119/meeting/house/118871/documents/HHRG-119-JU08-20260121-SD032.pdf
2025-12-27 JD Vance praised Nick Shirley “This dude has done far more useful journalism than any of the winners of the 2024 @pulitzercenter prizes.”