SPRINGFIELD, OHIO, WHERE THE PETS ARE FINE (The Daily Whatever Press) — “Now, we are all struggling. There are no people.” That’s Arturo Bojhay, who owns El Canario, an auto repair shop in Springfield, Ohio. He’s talking about his customers. A lot of them were Haitian. A lot of them aren’t there anymore.
The Washington Post put his line in a headline on Wednesday: “There are no people.”
I rarely read WaPo since their egregious decision to not endorse Kamala Harris for President. Seriously, fuck them and how they’re letting democracy die in darkness, mostly. But that headline took my break and transported me to September 10, 2024: Donald Trump, on a debate stage, in front of 67 million people:
“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs. The people that came in, they’re eating the cats.”
I remember the hilarious memes and songs people made with his audio. I remember thinking he was toast as a candidate after that comment. It wasn’t true, obviously. And neither were his claims — also obviously to anyone who isn’t a racist piece of shit MAGA assclown.
The city said so. The police said so. Ohio’s Republican governor said so. It didn’t matter.
What the lie did then
In the days after that debate, Springfield got 33 bomb threats. All of them were hoaxes, Gov. Mike DeWine said: “None of these had any validity at all.” City Hall was evacuated. Schools were evacuated. Two hospitals were locked down. Springfield’s Republican mayor, Rob Rue, said he’d received death threats against himself and his family.
And JD Vance, then a senator running for vice president, went on CNN and said this: “If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do.”
Let me say that again, only louder.
“If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do.”
He said that on CNN. Create stories. About a town in his own state. About people who’d moved there to work. And we rewarded him into the vice presidency. I will never, ever get over this.
Keket Moise owns a Haitian restaurant in Springfield called Keke Bon Gou. She told the Springfield News-Sun, “When they said we eat cats and dogs, those comments, this business slowly came down.”
What the government did next
The lie came first. The policy followed.
Kristi Noem’s Department of Homeland Security ended Temporary Protected Status for Haitians in 2025. A federal judge in Washington, Ana Reyes, blocked it in February 2026 and found the decision was likely racially motivated. Then on June 25, 2026, the Supreme Court ruled 6–3 in Mullin v. Doe that the courts mostly can’t review it. Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the majority. Justice Elena Kagan dissented, joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
The termination took effect July 27. Two days later, USCIS told employers that Haitian TPS holders’ work permits were no longer valid and they had to reverify those workers.
Somewhere between 330,000 and 350,000 Haitians across the country lost their status. In Springfield, estimates put the Haitian community at its peak at roughly 12,000 to 15,000 people, in a city of about 60,000. Nobody has an official count of how many are left.
What’s documented is bad enough. Haitians in Springfield were told to report to ICE offices, where they were fitted with ankle monitors. ICE arrested a pastor, Gilbert Joubert Adrien, who spent a month in detention before being released on bond. Agents picked people up in the parking lot of the Haitian Community Help and Support Center. Nearly 75 Ohio Haitians have been detained since July 27. At least five Springfield Haitians have been deported, according to a local advocate quoted by the Ohio Capital Journal. More than 470 people were deported from the United States to Haiti in just four weeks between August and September, to a country where, in DeWine’s own words, “The violent gangs run most of the country. The government barely functions.”
ICE’s spokesperson had a line for all of it: “Remaining in the country illegally, while fighting removal, is a choice.”
These people had legal status. The government took it away. Then it called staying a choice.
The town that was supposed to be saved
This is the part that makes me want to throw something.
The whole political story in 2024 was that Springfield was a town being ruined by Haitians. Now the Haitians are going, and the town is telling anyone who’ll listen that it’s hurting.
The Springfield metro area lost 1,100 jobs between December 2024 and December 2025, the worst of Ohio’s 11 metro areas, and 900 of those were in manufacturing. That’s preliminary data, and it came before TPS ended, so economists are careful about how much to pin on Haitian departures. The people who live there are saying it plainly.
Pastor Carl Ruby of Central Christian Church has said of the Haitians, “They fueled our economy.” Mayor Rue, a Republican, has asked Congress to act and said, “Many of those affected have become part of Springfield.” DeWine, also a Republican, told CNN in June, “It is not in the United States’ interest, certainly not in Ohio’s interest.” On October 14, DeWine and his wife sat in the pews at a solidarity Mass for Springfield’s Haitian community.
County health officials say about 1,300 children have been born to recent Haitian immigrants in Springfield. Those kids are American citizens. Some of their parents are wearing ankle monitors.
I’m a mom. I can’t stop thinking about that number.
The song we learned
GenX grew up on Schoolhouse Rock. We learned “The Great American Melting Pot” on Saturday mornings, between cartoons, from the same TV that taught us how a bill becomes a law. Somebody in that writers’ room believed it. A lot of us did.
The House passed a bipartisan bill in April to extend Haitian TPS through 2029. It’s sitting in the Senate, and the White House says Trump would veto it.
Who did this is not a mystery. Donald Trump told a lie on national television. JD Vance said he was willing to “create stories” to keep it going. Kristi Noem’s DHS ended the protections, and six justices said the courts couldn’t stop it.
Springfield’s own Republicans are begging for a fix. The Senate can pass the bill. And Donald Trump can decide whether he’d rather keep the lie or keep the town.
The pets were always fine. The people are the ones who are gone.
Hi, I’m Dana — and I Write Out Loud
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they, as Dems, should do the same.... idiotic bullshit claims about everything ones can think about... like "pedolf shitler moves to russia if loses midterms...most reps turn to Dems if lose...etc..🤔