Haitian group files charges against Trump and Vance over racist allegations

Donald Trump and JD Vance's racist scaremongering about Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, has led to threats of violence against the community and the city. Now a Haitian community group is seeking to file charges against Trump and his running mate, citing inaction by local prosecutors.

Guerline Jozef, the executive director of the national nonprofit Haitian Bridge Alliance, filed charges on behalf of the group in Clark County Municipal Court on Tuesday. The lawsuit relates to statements Trump and Vance made at campaign rallies and on national television and social media. The affidavit asks the court to consider probable cause and issue arrest warrants against them on several offenses, including false alarm, aggravated threat and harassment by telecommunications.

“[I]F “If anyone else had done what they did, with the devastating effects in Springfield, police and prosecutors would have filed charges by now,” the filing states.

It is rare in Ohio for private citizens to file affidavits against others, but state law allows it. Hearings must be held before the affidavit can be filed, but none had been scheduled as of Tuesday afternoon, NBC News reported.

According to NBC News, the group's lawyer, Subodh Chandra, said Jozef exercised his right to file charges in private due to the inaction of a prosecutor.

Steven Cheung, communications director for the Trump-Vance campaign, told NBC News in a statement that Trump is “right to denounce the failed immigration system that Kamala Harris has overseen.” He went on to falsely label Springfield's Haitian population as “illegal immigrants.” (Many of the city's Haitian residents are in the U.S. legally under the federal government's Temporary Protected Status program.)

Trump and Vance have repeatedly and falsely claimed that Haitian immigrants in Springfield are eating their neighbors' pets and spreading contagious diseases. As a result, Haitian residents have reported harassment and said they are afraid to leave the house. In addition, the small Ohio town has been the target of several bomb threats – 33 of them in the past two weeks, the filing says.

Republican presidential candidates have admitted they have no credible evidence to support these claims, and Vance has even suggested they may be fabricated. Local authorities have said there have been no credible reports of pet consumption and that there has been no rise in contagious diseases. Last week, the Wall Street Journal traced a specific claim to a Springfield resident who said her missing cat was found in her basement days later and that she apologized to her Haitian neighbors.