North Miami Mayor Alix Desulme says former President Donald Trump's inflammatory remarks this week about Haitian immigrants abducting cats and dogs in Springfield, Ohio, were made to bully the community and is part of the anti-immigrant rhetoric of his presidential campaign.
In an interview on WLRN's South Florida Roundup on Friday, Desulme, one of South Florida's top Haitian-American elected officials, said the Haitian diaspora in the United States is outraged with Trump campaign's latest outburst. North Miami has one of the nation's largest concentration of Haitians.
Trump amplified the false rumors about Haitian immigrants on Tuesday night when he repeated the baseless allegations during the nationally televised presidential debate with Democrat Kamala Harris. Trump's running mate JD Vance is also pushing the groundless narrative.
Officials in Springfield, Ohio, have said there have been no credible or detailed reports about the claims.
What鈥檚 gotten lost in the latest commotion, says Desulme, is that more than a 1 million law-abiding, productive and culturally vibrant Haitians in this country are taking the brunt of one of the more hateful stunts ever seen in U.S. politics. He called Trump's comments "despicable," "racist" and "divisive."
Desulme spoke at length about the consequences of the Trump campaign's rhetoric in places like South Florida, home to about half the nation's Haitian residents, with South Florida Roundup 港澳天下彩host Tim Padgett. Below are highlights of their conversation.
READ MORE: Little Haiti VH1 star: Trump鈥檚 comments about immigrants eating pets 鈥榟urt a part of my heart鈥�
Padgett: I want to start with that disturbing moment in Tuesday's debate when Donald Trump pushed that lie. What ran through your head and your gut as you listened to him?
Desulme: It was deeply troubling to hear a presidential candidate of the highest office of these United States to stand on a debate stage [with] 67 million people watching to make these false statements. It's very, very despicable. It's racist and it's divisive.
Padgett: This isn鈥檛 the first time we鈥檝e heard former President Trump disparage Haiti and Haitians. During his presidency, for example, Trump called Haiti a 鈥� and I鈥檓 bleeping myself here 鈥� an s-hole country. But I get the feeling this is even more hurtful to the Haitian community here. Is it worse than what he said about Haitians back then?
Desulme: Oh, absolutely because what he said back then nobody knew of. As much as telling the truth, he went on and said it was between him and whoever was in the room. But, hearing him saying that is putting innocent lives in danger. I had constituents who had to pull their kids to the side to talk to them before they went to school the next day. I mean people are getting afraid to go to work. It's just the entire community that is bleeding from this, and we know what his rhetoric could do. Because, if you recall at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, he called it the China virus and Chinese immigrants had to close stores and all. This is almost the same type of damage. The sad part about this is they know exactly what they were doing.
Padgett: You this week that "whenever they need a group of people to bash on, it鈥檚 Haitians. They don鈥檛 look at us as people.鈥� Why do you feel Trump and his anti-immigration MAGA movement so hatefully scapegoat Haitians the way they do? Is it just racial, since most Haitian migrants are Black, or are there other factors that the diaspora here has to deal with, such as the crisis Haiti itself is going through today?
Desulme: I think it's a combination of both. But you are absolutely correct. These are bullies. They'll pick [those] who cannot defend themselves. And, I think the calculation was 鈥榦kay, let's go after these s-hole nations鈥� that he famously mentioned when he was president.
Padgett: Mayor Desulme, I want to turn here to a that Haitian journalist Frantz Duval wrote this week in a leading Haitian newspaper, Le Nouvelliste. He also argues that one of the reasons xenophobic demagogues like Trump find it easier to attack the Haitian community is that it is 鈥� compared to other immigrant groups like Cubans 鈥� what he calls 鈥減olitically invisible鈥� in America. We are seeing more Haitian elected officials like yourself 鈥� and South Florida Florida Congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick 鈥� in this country today. But the community is still woefully underrepresented in local, state and federal government here. What can be done to change that?
Desulme: Well, I must say, I'm one of the founding members of the , which is a group that was formed about 10 years ago ... after the election of president Barack Obama. It's a group with Haitian Americans elected throughout the entire country including the judicial members. We are over 200 members within that group. We are a small but mighty community. We still have progress to make but, I think that as small as a community as we are, we have made a lot of good progress especially in South Florida, New York, Connecticut鈥�
Padgett: Speaking of Congresswoman Cherfilus-McCormick, who represents parts of Broward and Palm Beach Counties, she issued a statement this week about the Haitian lie Trump broadcasted during Tuesday night鈥檚 debate. She called it an 鈥渋nsulting鈥� and desperate attempt to stoke fear鈥ooted in the worst kinds of stereotypes.鈥� She added, 鈥淗aitians and other immigrants come to this country committed to鈥uilding a better life, not just for themselves but for all of us. They contribute to our economy, enrich our culture and strengthen our communities.鈥� What do you, as a Haitian elected official here, want to remind Americans about the contribution Haitians make to this country and our communities?
Desulme: If it wasn't for Haiti鈥here would not be the Louisiana purchase and, thus, the entire U.S. We have been an integral part of the American fabric and contributing a lot. My parents came to this country, myself鈥ll we know about is to go to school and try to be better than the generation before us and, yet, we are subject to these lies and stuff, which is really bad.
The transcription has been edited for brevity. You can listen to the full conversation above or wherever you get your podcasts by searching: The South Florida Roundup.
