Trump repeats false claim about Haitian migrants: 'I was just saying what was reported'

Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday doubled down on false claims that Haitian migrants are eating pets and promised to crack down on immigration in a pitch to undecided Latino voters as he and Vice President Kamala Harris are in a tight race for the White House.

Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, participated in a town hall in Miami-Dade County with Univision and fielded questions from undecided Latino voters in his home turf of Florida — as well as voters from key battleground states like Arizona. One attendee, Jose Saralegui, a registered Republican from Rio Rico, Arizona, asked Trump if he believes that Haitian migrants are eating the pets of the citizens of Springfield, Ohio, — a debunked online rumor that Trump and his running mate JD Vance have repeated several times.

"This was just reported," Trump said during the town hall. "I was just saying what was reported, that's been reported – and eating other things too, that they're not supposed to be."

The false claim, dismissed by authorities and officials in Springfield, caused turmoil among Haitian migrants, who said they felt unsafe in the community. It also spurred several bomb threats that forced the evacuation of public buildings and the deployment of state police to every school in Springfield.

Trump said during the town hall that he was heading to Springfield and would give a "full report" on the situation.

Mass deportations and the economy

During the town hall Wednesday, Trump answered several questions, ranging from the economy to immigration.

Showing his hands to the former president, Jorge Velázquez, of Santa Maria, California, told Trump that he has worked hunched over picking strawberries and cutting broccoli for several years. It’s a "tough job," Velázquez said, that many undocumented people do.

Velázquez had a simple question for the president on Wednesday: If you deport all the people who do that job, then what price would we pay for food?

Trump did not address whether food prices would increase if he followed through with his pledge to deport millions of people across the U.S. and claimed that he had a "great" immigration system that immigrants were coming through legally.

During his administration, Trump enacted several hardline immigration policies – both at the border and for those seeking other legal options to enter the U.S. Trump made it harder for foreign-born workers to get visas or come as refugees. He also issued fewer green cards to people not already in the United States, according to a 2021 report published by the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank.

"I'm the best thing that ever happened to farmers," Trump said during the town hall. "You know that I was great? You know, farmers are doing very badly right now – very, very badly under this administration."

Trump was also asked about the rising prices of groceries and attributed the hikes to the Biden-Harris administration, claiming there was "no inflation" under his administration.

Inflation in the U.S. began to rise during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, which led to a rise in goods and services, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics. Inflation hit a three-year low last month, with prices rising at 2.4% from a year ago, down from 2.5% in August.

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Trump on Harris: 'Seems to have a nice way about her'

The toughest question Trump said he received Wednesday — to name a few of Harris' virtues.

"Not a fan," Trump said. "I think she’s harmed our country horribly."

But the former president found at least three nice things to say about his opponent, including that she’s a survivor, had long-time friends, and "seems to have a nice way about her."

"She seems to have an ability to survive," Trump said of Harris. "She was out of the race, and all of a sudden she’s running for president. That’s a great ability that some people have and some people don’t have."

Harris was asked this same question about Trump last week at her town hall, but she could only think of one virtue of the former president — the love of his family.

Heading toward the final stretch

Trump and Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, are locked in a razor-tight election that will require the support of Latino voters in multiple battleground states like Arizona, Nevada, and Pennsylvania. Harris holds the majority of Latino voters but has seen support slipping among young Latino men.

According to USA TODAY/Suffolk University polls published last week, 57% of Latino voters in Arizona and 56% in Nevada support Harris. That number slightly trails the support Biden received in the 2020 election from those states. The polls found that 38% of Latinos in Arizona and 40% of Latinos in Nevada plan to vote or lean toward Trump.

Nationwide, 54% of Latino voters said they support Harris while 33% said they support Trump, according to a poll released this week by the Hispanic Federation and Latino Victory Foundation. Four percent of respondents said they would vote for another candidate and 9% said they were still undecided.

Last week, Harris participated in a town hall with Univision, where she answered roughly a dozen questions from Latino voters, ranging from health care to immigration to the Biden administration’s response to the catastrophic storms.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Univision town hall: Trump repeats false claim about Haitian migrants