UPDATED: At a Univision town hall tonight, Donald Trump‘s did not back away from his claim that Haitian migrants in Springfield, OH were eating cats and dogs.
Appearing in Doral, FL, Trump contended that he was merely citing reports of what happened, although fact checkers say that they are based on unfounded rumors on social media.
Trump initially made the claim during the ABC News presidential debate last month, but he was fact-checked by co-moderator David Muir, who noted that Springfield’s city manager said that there was no evidence that immigrants were eating people’s pets.
At the Univision town hall, one questioner, Jose Saralegui, identified himself as a registered Republican, but said that he was undecided.
Saralegui asked, “During the campaign there has been some conspiracy theories in use. … The authorities in Springfield, Ohio have more than one time clarified that the Haitians are not eating their cats and their dogs. Nonetheless, you want to revoke the permit they have to legally reside in this country. My question to you, respectfully, is: Do you really believe that these people are eating people’s pets?”
Donald Trump attends a town hall hosted by Univision and moderated by Enrique Acevedo
Chandan Khanna / AFP / Getty Images
Trump responded, “This was just reported. I was just saying what has been reported, and eating other things too that they are not supposed to be. All I do is report. I was there, and I am going to be there, and we are going to take a look. And I will give you a full report when I do. That’s been in the newspapers and reported pretty broadly.”
Trump then defended his focus on Springfield, telling the audience that the city has seen a flood of migrants that have put on a strain on city resources. “If any of that happened, it would be a disaster for you and you wouldn’t be happy. We want to make our people safe and secure and we want to make them happy.”
“You can’t put, in a very short period of time, 32,000 people into a 50,000 people town and expect things to go well.”
According to the New York Times, the number of recent Haitian immigrants is closer to 20,000. Trump’s claim of migrants eating cats and dogs was rated as false by Politifact, citing city officials and police. And the reports have come from unverified social media claims, not mainstream news outlets, per Politifact.
The Univision town hall event was moderated by Enrique Acevedo.
Per Univision, the event also included questions on inflation, the border and the January 6th attack on the Capitol. On immigration, Trump at one point said, “The prison population around the world has decreased a lot, and it is all coming to the United States of America.”
One man, Jorge Velazquez, a farmer, said that he worked with undocumented people who had jobs picking strawberries and cutting broccoli. “If you deport these people, who would do that job, and what price would we pay for food?”
“We have to have a lot of people come into our country,” Trump said. “We just want them to come in legally through our system.” He went on to claim that the Biden administration was releasing “hundreds of thousands of people who were murderers, drug dealers, terrorists.”
“A lot of the jobs that you have and other people have are being taken by these other people that are coming in,” Trump said, claiming that African Americans and Hispanics were losing jobs because of the flow of undocumented immigrants. He went on to say that migrants were coming in from mental institutions and insane asylums. “From all over the world they are being let in,” he said. Politifact has rated Trump’s claims that immigrants with criminal records coming into the country as a “gross exaggeration.”
Trump also was asked the same question that was asked of Kamala Harris at a Univision town hall last week: Name three virtues of your rival.
“That’s a very hard question,” Trump said. “…I’m not a fan.”
He said that “she seems to have an ability to survive,” noting that she was out of the presidential race and now she is running again. Harris ran unsuccessfully for president in 2020, then got into the 2024 race after Joe Biden dropped out.
He said that “she seems to have some pretty longtime friendships.” He also said that “she seems to have a nice way about her.” He still said that she would be “very bad for our country.”
Donald Trump attends a town hall hosted by Univision and moderated by Enrique Acevedo
Chandan Khanna / AFP / Getty Images