Photo provided Rep. Jim Lucas, R-Seymour, took a selfie in Springfield, Ohio, on his fact-finding mission about immigrant behavior in the city.
Rep. Jim Lucas, R-Seymour, recently traveled to a small Ohio city that has been inundated with bomb threats since the Sept. 10 presidential debate, when former President Donald Trump falsely accused members of the city’s Haitian community of abducting and eating cats and dogs.
Lucas, who is seeking reelection this year, said he traveled to the city on Saturday in what he described on social media as a “fact-finding mission” due to the national media coverage following the debate and drew what he claimed were parallels with the city of Seymour.
“Springfield has been in the national news for, I mean, the whole pet-eating thing and then their immigration challenges,” Lucas said. “And Seymour is facing the same challenges here with the amount of immigrants we have coming into our community, and I just wanted to go there and talk to people, everyday people, to get their opinion of what was going on and kind of either dispel or confirm the rumors of the pets being eaten or duck and geese.”
When asked what alleged similarities he was referring to between Springfield and Seymour, Lucas said, “you have thousands of people brought into your community that don’t speak your language, that don’t have the same cultural norms as you do, who don’t know how to drive.”
He also said the two cities have similar housing issues and that Seymour schools “are bursting at the seams,” largely with immigrant students.
Lucas, for his part, ran into some legal trouble last year over his driving, pleading guilty to two misdemeanor charges after police said he crashed his vehicle through an interstate guardrail while under the influence of alcohol and then fled the scene.
Since the debate, Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, have amplified debunked internet rumors about Haitian migrants as the Republican ticket criticizes the immigration policies of President Joe Biden’s administration that are supported by Trump’s Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, The Associated Press reported.
City officials have acknowledged growing pains from the influx of some 15,000 Haitian immigrants but say there is no evidence to support the claim that they are consuming anyone’s pets, according to wire reports.
More than 30 bomb threats have been made against schools, government buildings and Springfield city officials’ homes since last week, forcing evacuations and closures. The city of around 58,000 people about 40 miles west of Columbus, Ohio, canceled its annual celebration of diversity, arts and culture in response to the threats, and on Tuesday, state police were deployed to city schools.
Ohio’s governor, Republican Mike DeWine, said most of the threats are coming from overseas, though officials have not provided more information on how investigators determined they came from a foreign country, nor would they reveal the name of the country, according to the AP.
Lucas posted on Facebook that he visited the Springfield Police Department, Springfield Fire Department (which would not speak with him), a barber shop, homeless shelter and Walmart.
“To address the issue of pet buffets; none of the people I’ve talked to so far believe this to be true on a large scale and most are upset that that issue is distracting from the larger issue of way too many vastly culturally different people being pumped into a town that is already struggling with social services such as schools, police, fire, housing, healthcare, etc.,” Lucas said in a Facebook post. “However, many do believe that geese and duck are on the menu here.”
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources has found no evidence supporting claims that Haitian migrants have stolen or eaten waterfowl from parks in Springfield, according to The Columbus Dispatch and several other medial outlets.
City officials said that misinformation and falsehoods about Haitian immigrants have sowed fear and division, disrupted learning and cost taxpayer dollars, according to wire reports.
Springfield Mayor Rob Rue has said the immigrant influx is straining police, hospitals and schools. He has also criticized the federal government, saying the city asked for help months ago. But he called on national leaders to “temper their words and speak truth.”
Haitians in Springfield and elsewhere came to the U.S. to flee violence in their home country, according to the AP. Many Haitians in in the U.S. under a federal program called Temporary Protected Status, which allows them to temporarily live and work in the U.S. because conditions are considered too dangerous for them to return to Haiti.
After shedding manufacturing jobs toward the end of the century, Springfield has made a concerted effort to lure employers, and Haitian immigrants have helped meet rising demand for labor in factories and warehouses. Word spread, and Haitians began arriving in greater numbers over the last few years.
Members of the Haitian community have said they felt uneasy even before Trump and Vance picked up and amplified the lies about pet-eating, as longtime residents chafed at the new arrivals’ impact on jobs, housing and traffic, according to wire reports.
Lucas posted on his Facebook page what he described as a rough draft of a bill he plans to introduce in the Indiana House of Representatives next session that would add requirements for intercity buses that do not meet certain requirements, including following a “fixed schedule that is published in advance and available to the public,” charging passengers for the trip and do not operate trips on a predictable and recurring bases.
Those buses would be required to “submit an application to the chief of the police department of a city for approval to unload passengers in the city,” according to an image of the legislation’s rough draft.
“I’ve heard multiple reports, people sending me pictures and videos of buses coming to Seymour and dropping people off,” Lucas said. “There’s no way to track that, we’re not recording it. We don’t know how many people are coming into our community or who’s coming into our community.”
Earlier this year, false claims that buses of undocumented immigrants were being dropped off at Edinburgh Premium Outlets circulated on social media. The buses turned out to be transporting U.S military service members for training at Camp Atterbury.
At around the same time, Seymour residents packed city hall, with many people strongly opposed to a development plan that called for, among other things, an Immigrant Welcome Center. Lucas attended the meeting.
“I’ve said this publicly at a city council meeting,” Lucas said. “If you’re here legally and you’re properly vetted, and we know who you are, you are who you say you are, and you want to work and assimilate into how we do things here … we welcome you with open arms. We want you here. But those that are coming here and abusing the system, draining our resources and just making life generally more difficult (for) everyone, I’d like you to find another community or different state to live in.”
Lucas is facing Democratic nominee Trish Whitcomb in the upcoming election.
