(Photo: Emily Scherer for The 19th.)
This story was originally reported by Amanda Becker from 19.
Residents of Springfield, Ohio, were preparing for the arrival of immigration agents on Feb. 3, the day the Trump administration’s short-lived protected status for Haitians, who make up nearly a quarter of the city’s population, expired. A federal judge intervened at the last minute, extending the deadline indefinitely. The agents never arrived.
Still, the city found itself on the brink this month, and the threat is as disturbing as it is familiar: disinformation on the Internet, this time accusing the same people who are trying to protect their immigrant neighbors from deportation of child trafficking.
Before the 2024 elections, President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance, then candidates of the Republican Party, strengthened A rumor initially appeared in a local Facebook group that Haitian immigrants were eating local animals.
Last Wednesday, TikTok creators, failing to find the chaos they expected in Springfield, began suggesting that faith groups working with Haitian immigrants were misdirecting resources.
Then there were allegations that Haitians “were threatened by the local community.”
Within 48 hours of arriving, they came up with a conspiracy theory that churches and nonprofits were actually working to deport parents from Haiti in order to take their children.
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“The destructive power they have brought is almost immeasurable,” said one faith-based coalition leader, who was hesitant to operate her or her organization’s name because the creators had already taken their statements out of context and shared them on social media.
Americans around the world are trying to find out what’s happening in Trump administration immigration enforcement balmy spots like Minneapolis and Springfield. When searching for information on social media, they encounter a wave of disinformation, conspiracy theories and disingenuous propaganda. This comes from both political sides: there are liberal Americans using artificial intelligence to generate hidden faces of masked immigration agents, even though they may look nothing like they do in real life, and there are conservative Americans creating imitation images of white women greeting federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents as saviors.
Most of them focus on children or women. Community leaders across the country are warning that it could potentially destabilize neighborhoods and entire cities, as it did in Springfield.
The latest onslaught of misinformation to hit this city of about 60,000 is reminiscent of “Pizzagate,” when right-wing conspiracy theorists said during the 2016 presidential campaign that influential Democrats were running a pedophilia ring. It ended with a believer shooting at a popular pizzeria in Washington. The conspiracy echoed on the Internet for years, including: teenagers on TikTok accepting the cause.
That’s what happened this month in Springfield.
Finding no large-scale enforcement action by ICE agents on the street, TikTok creators, who portrayed themselves as pro-immigration and anti-deportation, cited reports from “real residents of Springfield” that groups helping Haitians were refusing to assist them. They sent people to the church who demanded evidence of the assist they provided. One creator misrepresented news reports, including The 19th, to construct the lie that churches and other groups “were trying to take these children from Haitians and allow them to be deported without helping them.”
The lies took on a life of their own, as viral stories often do. The creators relied on mutual rumors.
Creator Ohaji Free, who posted a video suggesting child trafficking is taking place, declined to discuss the issue with The 19th. Dai’Marr Keys, who has suggested that community groups are diverting aid from Haitians, wrote in an email that he did not remain in Springfield to confirm details because he had received threats.
Many creators shared photos of Pastor Carl Ruby, whose church welcomed believers from Haiti. Ruby soon began receiving harassing voicemails the news. The interlocutors said things like: “The whole of America knows that you are complacent about the trafficking of innocent children”, “What is happening to you guys, are you taking away their children?” and “Hi, Carl. I was just wondering why you’re into, you know, human trafficking and why you want to, like, take these children away from their families?”
Ruby talked to local police, then the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI. Schools and streets in downtown Springfield were closed Monday due to unspecified safety concerns. Ruby said federal authorities told him that “rogue content creators” played a key role in escalating the complaints of several disgruntled people, which led to the threatening messages he and his church received.
As the calls poured in, Ruby said in an interview Tuesday: “These attacks have just reinforced my motivation to stand with our Haitians and do everything we can to protect them… They cause a lot of trouble, but they don’t really get under my skin.”
Meet reporter Amanda Becker and read more of her reporting on gender, politics and politics.
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