JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
The fallout continues in Springfield, Ohio, the community that Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance has pointed to as a cautionary tale about immigration. Vance, who represents Ohio in the Senate, has repeatedly spread debunked claims that Haitian immigrants are abducting and eating pets in the city. Take a listen to what he had to say yesterday at a rally in Wisconsin.
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JD VANCE: When four, five, six, seven people are telling me they see something in Springfield - and on top of it, that there are certain people who refuse to listen to them, who refuse to take their concerns seriously - that's when it's my job as a United States Senator to listen to my constituents.
SUMMERS: Garry Pierre-Pierre is the founder of the American diaspora outlet the Haitian Times in New York. He joins us now. Welcome to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.
GARRY PIERRE-PIERRE: Thanks for having me, Juana.
SUMMERS: Since the city of Springfield - and by virtue of the baseless allegations by Republican Senator JD Vance, the Republican vice presidential nominee, and former President Trump - you know, they've really put the city of Springfield and the Haitian community there in the spotlight. Can you tell us a bit about what your reporting has been like on the topic since then?
PIERRE-PIERRE: Well, you know, we've been following Springfield's Haitian community for quite some time there, so a couple of years, at least. And so we were aware of some of the tensions that were brewing in town. And one of the things that we wanted to do beyond just straight reporting was to hold a town hall meeting and talk with residents and get the pinpoints, what's really happening. And that was last Saturday. We were supposed to do that Saturday and Sunday.
SUMMERS: OK.
PIERRE-PIERRE: Way before JD Vance and Donald Trump really made their comments. And so I was astounded when city officials told us that they could not guarantee our security because the situation was so tense in town. And so we've been covering it hard-hitting. We've explained to folks how the Haitians got here. And for a while, things were really working well. The employers, the business owners were really happy. Springfield was turning around.
At the same time, Juana, there were some tensions because a lot of the new immigrants, they came directly from Haiti. And they don't know basic civic American 101. And so there had been some tensions, and then we've been looking at it. So it's been rather holistic the way we've approached Springfield.
SUMMERS: You mentioned that your news organization had wanted to hold a town hall, to be there physically in Springfield, but we're told that you couldn't do so because of your safety. Can you say more about what happened there? What was the concern?
PIERRE-PIERRE: A lot of death threats. The hospitals were receiving death threats. The NAACP office was threatened. Schools in town had received bomb threats. So there were a lot of tension. And so we canceled the event, and we held it virtual because the idea was not to come in and be provocative.
SUMMERS: Right.
PIERRE-PIERRE: It was just basically as a media outlet that serves its community, and we wanted to know more and beyond just talking to three or four people.
SUMMERS: I'm hoping that you can help us paint a picture. Can you tell us anything about what life is like there, particularly in the Haitian community?
PIERRE-PIERRE: Well, life for the Haitians in Springfield is that of a newly arrived immigrant. They are building their community. They have stores, you have restaurants, sending their kids to school. They're struggling economically, but they're doing much better if they were in Haiti. And so that's essentially Springfield. That is also Indianapolis, where I now live. That's Columbus, Ohio, with a large community, parts of Alabama - just all across the Midwest and the Deep South, that's what Springfield, Ohio, is.
SUMMERS: Garry Pierre-Pierre is the founder of the Haitian Times. Thank you so much.
PIERRE-PIERRE: Thank you, Juana, for having me and for shedding light on this.
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