‘Playing on Racist Tropes’: CNN Panelist Claims Saying Springfield Is ‘Overrun’ by Haitians ‘Dehumanizes’ Migrants

(DCNF)—A CNN political analyst accused a Republican panelist on “CNN NewsNight With Abby Phillip” of “playing on racist tropes” while discussing Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio Friday night.

The city of Springfield, Ohio, has struggled to handle an influx of at least 20,000 Haitian migrants, who have contributed to an increase in traffic accidents and skyrocketing housing prices, with many residents blaming President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas for the situation. Former Trump administration official Tricia McLaughlin explained why residents felt their town was being “overrun.”

“I mean, I haven‘t seen any evidence that there’s any dead cats or dogs at the hands of anyone, any human, much less these migrants who are, like you said, here, legally,” McLaughlin said. “Some of these citizens have testified in front of the city council saying that there’s … it’s really chaos at that there has been cars burning, cars flipped that they feel unsafe in their community, keep in mind this is just failed federal policy.”

“This is a community of about 60,000 people. I’m from Ohio, about 30 or 40 minutes from Springfield. This is a community that had a poverty rate of about 20%, very working community,” McLaughlin continued. “And so federal policy led, while these are illegal migrants, this is 20,000 people coming into a community of 60,000 people being completely overrun. It doesn’t matter if they’re migrants from Haiti or California. The schools are being overrun. The social services are being overrun. That is poor federal planning.”

CNN host Abby Phillip claimed that using words like “overrun” was “part of the problem,” while also citing Republican Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio about controversy over the initial reports of a pet cat being killed and used for food, calling it “a turn of phrase that is designed to make people feel like there is some kind of invasion.”

“That’s what the citizens are saying, that’s what the citizens on the ground are saying,” McLaughlin responded. “That’s not my words, that’s theirs. So let’s also listen to these people’s concerns. I don’t think it’s fair to pick apart rhetoric when these people are having real problems.”

“These people have been primed to use language like that,” Natasha Alford, senior correspondent for TheGrio, claimed. “They’ve been listening to this, hear me out, they’ve been listening to a president which has been fearmongering, scapegoating these individuals, these communities, playing on racist tropes, think about s-hole countries that were talked about. Those were countries with predominantly black and brown people, and one of them was Haiti.”

Alford later claimed that former President Donald Trump’s rhetoric “dehumanizes” Haitian migrants.

These are the facts: 20k migrants were dropped into a town of 60k people in less than 3 years. Springfield’s medical systems, schools, social services & housing infrastructure are not setup for such a drastic population increase. Yes, the infrastructure is being *overrun.* To say… pic.twitter.com/m0RL1uGEVO

— Tricia McLaughlin (@TriciaOhio) September 14, 2024

The initial claims about pets vanishing amplified other reports about the effects of the influx of as many as 20,000 Haitian migrants to Springfield. Residents of the town have also complained that the migrants do not follow traffic laws, a concern that was echoed by a reporter from the New York Post who witnessed a traffic accident caused by a migrant driver.

“To say that stating the facts is offensive/problematic is simply dismissing the testimony & suffering of the citizens of Springfield, OH and the welfare of those migrants,” McLaughlin posted on X Saturday afternoon.

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