Pet-Eating Lies to Deportation Fears: Haitians in Trump’s Crosshairs

Summary

Podcast Summary: Reveal – "Pet-Eating Lies to Deportation Fears: Haitians in Trump’s Crosshairs"

Episode Information:

• Title: Pet-Eating Lies to Deportation Fears: Haitians in Trump’s Crosshairs
• Host: Al Edson
• Release Date: May 14, 2025
• Produced by: The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX

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Introduction

In this compelling episode of Reveal, host Al Edson delves into the heightened deportation efforts under the Trump administration, specifically targeting the Haitian immigrant community in Springfield, Ohio. Through in-depth interviews and firsthand accounts, the episode sheds light on the fears, challenges, and resilience of Haitians facing potential deportation amidst a climate of misinformation and racial prejudice.

Trump Administration’s Deportation Policies and Their Impact

Al Edson sets the stage by outlining the aggressive deportation policies implemented by the Trump administration, highlighting the targeting of thousands of immigrants, including those legally residing in the United States.

“In the first few months of his administration, President Trump has targeted and deported thousands of immigrants, many who are living in the US legally.”
— Al Edson [01:14]

The administration's actions have led to widespread panic and uncertainty within immigrant communities, with Springfield, Ohio, becoming a focal point of both policy impact and racial scapegoating.

The Springfield Incident and Its Aftermath

The episode recounts a tragic incident in August 2023, where a Haitian immigrant’s car accident resulted in the death of an 11-year-old boy on the first day of school. This event served as a catalyst for increased backlash and racism against the Haitian community.

“You might remember in Springfield, they're eating the dogs. The people that came in, they're eating the cats, they're eating the pets of the people that live there.”
— Donald Trump during a debate [02:46]

This false and racist narrative amplified during the election campaign has fueled fears and resentment, exacerbating the vulnerability of Haitian immigrants to deportation.

Personal Stories: Lindsey Eme’s Experience

Lindsey Eme, a Haitian immigrant and co-founder of the Haitian Community Help and Support Center in Springfield, provides a personal perspective on the community’s struggles and resilience.

“When you tell a Haitian he's a criminal is a big thing. You know, that's something that can make me feel like, go crazy.”
— Lindsey Eme [02:46]

Lindsey discusses the emotional toll of being stereotyped as criminals and the subsequent trauma it inflicts on individuals and the community as a whole. He emphasizes that many Haitians in Springfield are professionals who moved to the United States seeking better opportunities, not intending to engage in any wrongdoing.

Community Response and Organizational Support

Despite the threats, Springfield has been a relatively welcoming environment for Haitian immigrants, offering numerous job opportunities and a supportive community network. Lindsey highlights the role of the Haitian Community Help and Support Center in assisting immigrants with housing, employment, and legal interpretation.

“Springfield got a lot of job opportunities. So when you come here, you can start your life easy.”
— Lindsey Eme [03:55]

However, the threat of deportation has led to self-deportation, where immigrants choose to leave the country to avoid being labeled as criminals, further disrupting the community's stability.

Escalation of Deportation Threats Post-Incident

Following the August 2023 incident, the administration intensified its deportation efforts, leading to increased fear and uncertainty among the Haitian population in Springfield and beyond.

“Some people they already move to different states, some people they move to different countries... it's gonna complicate it and tough for some people who already have a base in the United States.”
— Community Member [05:50]

The community faces a dilemma: staying in the U.S. and risking deportation or leaving to face uncertain and often perilous conditions elsewhere.

Immigration Enforcement in Springfield

Lindsey Eme reports on the presence and activities of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Springfield, noting that while the Haitian community has not been as heavily targeted as others, the threat remains palpable.

“I saw a video where there's a prison who is available to take like 300 people and that's very scary.”
— Lindsey Eme [07:58]

The fear of sudden raids and arrests has led to heightened vigilance within the community, with many taking measures to avoid any interactions that could lead to deportation.

Advice and Support from the Haitian Community Help and Support Center

In response to the growing threats, the Haitian Community Help and Support Center provides crucial guidance to immigrants, emphasizing safety and legal compliance to minimize the risk of deportation.

“Stay safe, stay safe, stay safe.”
— Community Member [08:08]

The center advises community members to maintain all legal documents, avoid legal infractions, and stay informed about their rights and the current political climate.

Economic Impact of Potential Deportations

Lindsey underscores the significant economic contributions of the Haitian community to Springfield, illustrating the broader implications of mass deportations on the local economy.

“Imagine one day you lose like 12,000 people like that. So you hurt all the business in this city.”
— Lindsey Eme [15:28]

The departure of thousands of Haitian immigrants would not only dismantle community networks but also adversely affect local businesses that rely on their patronage.

A Glimpse into Haiti: The Reality of Returning

When questioned about returning to Haiti, Lindsey paints a grim picture of the current situation in the country, marked by rampant gang violence and instability, making deportation an untenable option.

“Every day we have more city controlled by gang members... it's not safe now to go out here.”
— Community Member [15:40]

This reality reinforces the community’s reluctance to consider deportation as a viable alternative, further entrenching their fear and uncertainty.

Family Separation and Immigration Challenges

Lindsey shares the emotional strain of having family members separated by deportation policies, highlighting the difficulties in reuniting families amidst frozen immigration processes.

“I'm still in the process to bring my son here in United States.”
— Lindsey Eme [16:46]

The bureaucratic hurdles and lack of clear communication from authorities exacerbate the stress experienced by immigrants striving to maintain family bonds.

Hopes for Springfield’s Future

Looking ahead, Lindsey expresses his aspirations for a harmonious and inclusive Springfield, where the Haitian community can thrive without fear of persecution.

“I would love to see Springfield in love, Springfield and peace with everybody.”
— Lindsey Eme [17:32]

He envisions a city where diverse cultures coexist peacefully, fostering mutual understanding and respect among all residents.

Conclusion

This episode of Reveal poignantly captures the plight of Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, under the Trump administration's stringent deportation policies. Through personal narratives and community insights, it underscores the profound human impact of political rhetoric and immigration enforcement. Lindsey Eme's story exemplifies the resilience and solidarity within the Haitian community as they navigate a landscape fraught with uncertainty and fear, holding onto hope for a more inclusive and just future.

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Learn More: To explore the administration's deportation efforts in-depth, listen to our related episode, Trump's Deportation Black Hole, where we investigate the removal of Venezuelans to a notorious prison in El Salvador.

Support Reveal: Reveal is a nonprofit, listener-supported podcast. Enhance our investigative reporting by becoming a member at revealnews.org/gift.

Transcript

[Lindsey Eme]

If they know you from United States, you will be the target. They will come after you. They might think you have a lot of money, you can get kidnapped and.

[Community Member]

People can kill you.

[Lindsey Eme]

I can go anywhere else, but I'm not gonna go down in Haiti, actually, until there's peace.

[Al Edson]

Today on more to the story. As the Trump administration is ramping up deportations, I sit down with Lindsey Eme, a Haitian immigrant in Springfield, Ohio. He talks about why moving back to Haiti is not an option and what it was like for his community to come under a national spotlight during the election. Stay with us.

[Sponsor]

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[Al Edson]

This is more to the story. I'm Al Edson. In the first few months of his administration, President Trump has targeted and deported thousands of immigrants, many who are living in the US Legally. Students have been taken off the street by plainclothes ICE officers. Entire families have been detained. Others have been forced onto planes and sent to prisons in countries thousands of miles away. At the same time, the administration is attempting to revoke legal protections for hundreds of thousands of other immigrants still in the country. This includes temporary Protected status, also known as tps. And the moves by the White House are causing panic and confusion in immigrant communities around the country, including in Springfield, Ohio, which became the setting for a false and racist storyline during the election. You might remember in Springfield, they're eating the dogs. The people that came in, they're eating the cats, they're eating the pets of the people that live there. And this is what's happening in our country, and it's a shame. And that was Donald Trump at a debate during the campaign. Lindsey Emme is a Haitian immigrant who lives in Springfield. He co founded the Haitian Community Help and Support center, an organization that works with the Haitian community to help with housing, jobs and language interpretation. I've spoken with Lindsay twice since January, and to him, Trump seems to be labeling his entire Haitian community as criminal.

[Lindsey Eme]

First of all, when you tell a Haitian he's a criminal is a big thing. You know, that's something that can make me feel like, go crazy. The fact you just tell him he's a criminal. And when you treat them as a criminal again, that can traumatize that person for the rest of his life. You Know why they're gonna see his face showing a camera has a criminal. And someone will come here with a degree, has a lawyer, has a doctor, has an engineer as whoever he is, because most of the people will come here in the United States. Actually, these people who have more money in Haiti. He's not poor. Who come in the United States for you to. To make the trip you need to have. So for you to see yourself in that situation, that very scary. Because that's why since President Donald Trump start talking about the massive deportation, I know there's a lot of self deportation. They say, okay, I'm not gonna let nobody treat me as a criminal. Cause I'm not a criminal. I come in the United States, I ain't do nothing wrong, so why treat me as a criminal?

[Al Edson]

Lindsey has lived in Springfield since 2019, and he says the city has largely been a welcoming place for immigrants.

[Lindsey Eme]

We. We feel like Springfield is a really.

[Community Member]

Good place for you to start over.

[Lindsey Eme]

Because there's a lot of migrants from Haiti. So they used to be engineer, there used to be a lawyer, there used to be, you know, doctor, medicine and everything. And when they come here, you're gonna take you a while for you to get used to it, you know, so all the job that you can access with go in a warehouse, get a job, you know, start your life over. Springfield got a lot of job opportunities. So when you come here, you can start your life easy. That's why there's a lot of friends. They invite people to come. And, you know, here in Springfield, you know, that's why we have a big Haitian community now. Some people come just in the summertime because most Haitian, we used to live in a tropical country, and we don't used to live in a cold country like that in Springfield, you know, you have to be minimized. It's a big change, man. It's a big change.

[Al Edson]

So when that winter comes, oh, my.

[Lindsey Eme]

God, and me, for me, I mean, it's like it was a bless for me to. So I could play with snow for the first time in my life. You know, I experienced snow in my life for the first time in Springfield. So when Haitian come here and, you know, they experience like minus 10, minus 0, minus 5, it's gonna, you know, it's.

[Al Edson]

Whoo. But things changed abruptly for Haitians in Springfield. And it didn't start with Trump. Instead, it began in August 2023. That's when a Haitian immigrant living in Springfield legally was driving home after a long shift at work. He crashed into a school bus killing an 11 year old boy on the first day of school. Backlash against the Haitian population grew and accelerated during the election. Today the 10,000 or so Haitian immigrants living in Springfield, along with hundreds of thousands of others around the US are being targeted for possible deportation. So what's the mood like in the Haitian community, specifically in Springfield? How are people reacting to these new orders?

[Community Member]

Some people they already move to different states, some people they move to different country and we have a cohesion, we'll go back to Haiti and well, we have those type of decision. People already take them already and it's going to, it's going to complicate it and tough for some people who already have a base in the United States for two years or a year and a couple months and to move to another country with your kids who might be speaking English, who have to move to another country where they're going to learn another foreign language and it's going to be another adaptation, it's going to be another culture, another school. And I think even me as a grown man, I don't feel like move nowhere because I don't feel like starting over again. And unfortunately there's a lot of people, they have no choice and they don't feel like comfortable with all that pressure and they don't know what to do. And some people, they have family who give them advice to move to another country or do something else.

[Al Edson]

So ICE has been pretty active in this new administration. Have they showed up in Springfield? Are you hearing stories about ICE taking people off the streets?

[Lindsey Eme]

I have a couple people in my.

[Community Member]

Community, they say yes, some people can see a couple cars, you know, they can identify has ICE and well they unfortunately they were, you know, put some, some Latinos on the irs. But the Haitian community is not affected too much in Springfield. So I'm, I'm really sorry about those people. And yes, they still in Springfield. And as I, I saw a video where there's a prison who is available to take like 300 people and that's very scary. When I saw the video and I shared with a couple of people in my community to tell them they have to behave and anytime soon they might be in our door.

[Al Edson]

Coming up, as the threat of deportations hangs over Springfield, Lindsey shares the advice his organization is giving to the Haitian community.

[Community Member]

We don't have any good news for now. No one can tell us like if the deportation going to be, you know, amplified or not. So all they can do, I keep you in prayer, keep you in prayer, keep your prayers. And we keep telling all our people who come in our office. Stay safe, stay safe, stay safe.

[Al Edson]

More with Lindsay in just a moment, but before that, I'm going to ask you to do me a favor. Have you followed or subscribed to Reveal in your favorite podcast app? If you have, would you give us a rating or review? And while I'm asking for things, how about sharing Reveal with your friends? All of these things help us build our Reveal community that you're already a part of. We can't do this without you. Okay, back in a moment with my chat with Lindsay. Don't go anywhere.

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[Al Edson]

Hey, this is Michael Montgomery, a producer and reporter at Reveal, and I'm talking to our genuine fans out there. Never miss an episode. Maybe you're rocking the T shirt right now. You know who you are. Well, the show you love is nonprofit and listener supported, which means we need fans like you to become members, just text the word give to 88857 Reveal. That's 888-577-3832 or visit revealnews.org donate a gift of any amount says you care about this show. It's more to the story. I'm Al Edson and I'm back with Lindsay Eme, a Haitian immigrant and community organizer in Springfield, Ohio. Tell me what it's like right now working at the Haitian Support Center. Like what are the concerns that people are coming to you with?

[Community Member]

And we have more and more people will come and asking question about so what they supposed to do, what's going to happen? Because they know we have connection and we have a conversation with so many leaders in our community and well, we do have a lot of workshop, we do have a lot of, you know, conversation with local leaders and some lawyers who come and sit down with us and tell us what the situation look like. And yes, we don't have any good news for now. No one can tell us like if the deportation going to be, you know, amplified or not. So all they can do keep you in prayer, keep you in prayer, keep you in prayers. And we keep tell all our people come in our office, stay safe, stay safe, stay safe, stay out of trouble. We'll make sure like we tell everybody if you're going to drive, make sure you have insurance, make sure you have a driver license, make sure everything is okay. You know, don't drink and drive, don't drive too fast to let people stop you to give you a ticket for any reason. You know, we try to do good as much as we can to avoid any contact or any type of punishment from a police officer or traffic ticket whatsoever.

[Al Edson]

Yeah. Because just the smallest infraction could lead to someone being deported back to Haiti without any real due process. I mean, we've been reporting in the news that all the due process that was in place prior to the Trump administration seems to no longer matter at all anymore. They're just taking people off the streets and sending them to El Salvador or holding them without giving them any rights or information or contact with anybody outside of the holding facility. I've got to imagine that knowing and hearing these stories that are happening all around the country has to really make you fearful, not just for your community, but for your family as well.

[Community Member]

Everybody tried to see if they can contact the lawyer to get some advice. This is what they supposed to do. And even a lawyer cannot tell you what to do. So all they can tell you is like try to stay Safe as much as you can stay away of trouble.

[Al Edson]

Yeah. I'm wondering what do you think would happen to Springfield if the whole Haitian community left?

[Lindsey Eme]

I don't know. All people can think like one day you lose like 12,000 customer. Because all the Haitians who are here in Springfield, they walk, they do grocery weekly in a supermarket, you know, they go to laundry, they put gas in their car and they walk in a place, you know, they pay rent monthly and they paying, you know, all the utilities bill monthly. And imagine one day and most of them they, they buy in a car from a dealer, they got money from bank, they taking a loan to, to buy houses and everything. Imagine one day you lose like 12,000 people like that. So you hurt all the business in this city. Because Springfield in 2019 when I came here and the Springfield that I'm living actually there's a big, big, big difference. I think the migrator, they bring a lot. So if you come down on a soft side, there's a lot of new businesses and if you go on the east side and I street and Main street, you will see there's a lot of business who come here and all of them, they're making profit.

[Al Edson]

So you told me back in January that you aren't going back to Haiti. Have you had any thoughts about that? Like if you had to leave the United States, where would you go?

[Community Member]

That's not a good idea to go in Haiti at all actually because every day we have more city controlled by gang members. They go in a hospital, they're shooting people and they try to break a prison and they free all the prisoners, prisoners and everything and they shooting, shooting, shooting. There's like about 600 people already die. That's what I heard from a news. If I can trust them. And it's kind of complicated down in Haiti actually and where there's a lot of prisoners who's on the street. You don't know who are they, you don't know who they are, you don't know where they go, you don't know what they gonna, you know what they've been doing. So. And it's not safe now to go out here.

[Al Edson]

So is your family still back in Haiti?

[Lindsey Eme]

Yeah, I got my son, I got a 12 year old son is still.

[Community Member]

Down in Haiti actually.

[Lindsey Eme]

So actually I'm still here with mother and sister and my wife as well. You know, my wife is actually in Springfield and my mom and my sister is in Miami.

[Community Member]

I got a lot of cousin, uncle.

[Lindsey Eme]

Auntie, everybody's in Miami, Jersey, New York Yeah.

[Al Edson]

So you have a son back in Haiti. Are you still trying to bring him.

[Lindsey Eme]

Back to the U.S. yes, I'm still.

[Community Member]

In process to bring my son here in United States. But, you know, immigration is kind of freeze. There's nothing, you know, was moving actually because this organization, he tried to put a hold on everything. But I still have a process for my son, but I don't know what's happened. Even I check on my lawyer to see how things going on and I can never get a good answer. And while my son is still in Haiti and try to talk to him every day over the phone and the situations get complicated all the time in Haiti.

[Al Edson]

Lindsey, can you tell me, like, what are your hopes for the future of Springfield?

[Lindsey Eme]

My hope for Springfield is see the Haitian community have all the freedom that they deserve and see all the, you know, local leaders, you know, they don't have all that pressure to protect the Haitian community while the government and I would love to see Springfield in love Springfield and peace with everybody. No matter where you are, no matter what is your color, no matter what your culture, your religion, everything can sit around a table where we can live together and talk to each other. And we know we have one government who is the government of United States, including all the migrants.

[Al Edson]

Lindsey, thank you so much for coming to talk to me today.

[Lindsey Eme]

I take all the pleasure of mine. Thank you for thinking about having me today. And I think you can make my speech go far, far away. Even I cannot even imagine.

[Al Edson]

That was Lindsay Eme, co founder of the Haitian Community Help and Support center in Springfield, Ohio. If you want to learn more about the administration's exploration expulsion of immigrants, check out our reveal episode, Trump's Deportation Black Hole, where we go deep into the deportation of Venezuelans to a notorious prison in El Salvador. We'll put the link in our show notes. Lastly, just a reminder that we are listener supported. That means listeners like you, you can help us thrive by making a gift today. Just go to revealnews.org gift again, that's revealnews.org gift and and thank you. This episode was produced by Josh sanburn and Kara McGurk. Allison theme music and engineering helped by Fernando my man. Yo Arruda and Jay Breezy. Mr. Jim Briggs, I'm Al Letson and you know, let's do this again next week. This is more to the story.

[Community Member]

From prx.