Ohio’s Trump-supporting governor condemns ex-president’s attacks on Haitian migrants in emotional op-ed

Ohio’s Republican governor, Mike DeWine, denounced in a heartfelt op-ed the onslaught of attacks by Donald Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, against Haitian migrants in Springfield that have made the city the “epicenter of vitriol over America’s immigration policy.”

This month, Trump and Vance perpetuated groundless claims that Haitian migrants to Springfield, Ohio, were stealing and eating residents’ cats and dogs. Despite city officials and police officers calling the claims unsubstantiated, the allegations spread like wildfire and Springfield endured a barrage of threats, while the city’s migrant community faced racist remarks.

In an emotional op-ed in The New York Times on Friday, DeWine said it was “disappointing” that the 58,000-person city “has become the epicenter of vitriol over America’s immigration policy, because it has long been a community of great diversity.”

“Our people and our history deserve better than to be falsely portrayed,” he wrote.

He laid out the city’s history of “providing refuge for the oppressed and being a place of opportunity,” serving as a stop on the Underground Railroad and as a place that welcomed immigrants, who “helped build the city into what it is today.”

Although the city experienced economic hardship in the 1980s and 1990s, it is now bouncing back, in part because of “the dramatic influx of Haitian migrants” who have come to Springfield over the past three years to fill jobs. He made it clear: “They are there legally. They are there to work.”

The governor then took a jab at the former president and Vance, an Ohio senator, both of whom DeWine noted he supports. While he believes immigration is a “very important issue,” Trump and Vance’s “verbal attacks” against Haitian