Fear and frustration in Ohio city as political debate seizes on growing Haitian population

Rose Goute Creole restaurant does a bustling business in Springfield, Ohio, with clientele drawn from across the city to its heaping displays of patties and donuts, and pots of perfumed rice, fried pork and fish, and golden plantains.

Rose Goute Creole restaurant does a bustling business in Springfield, Ohio, with clientele drawn from across the city to its heaping displays of patties and donuts, and pots of perfumed rice, fried pork and fish, and golden plantains. Rosena Jean Louis runs the front, offering free cups of a powerful black coffee and patiently managing a jostling lunch crowd. She and her coworkers are proud of the food they serve, feeding a Haitian expatriate community that has grown quickly in Springfield over the past few years. “I’m always working at the restaurant,” she told CNN. “Everyone likes the food I cook.” But ask about a lie that has taken hold in some corners of the internet that their countrymen are stealing and eating people’s pets, and Rosena rolls her eyes in exasperation. “I said, ‘What? What is that?’” said the restaurant’s manager, Romane Pierre, when CNN visited on Wednesday, recalling his incredulity at the claim that went viral a few weeks ago and has been promoted by prominent national-level Republicans including the party’s presidential nominee Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance. Local officials at the city and state level have repeatedly tried to end the rumor. Springfield officials have told press and city commission meetings that are no credible reports of animal abuse “by individuals within the immigrant community.” The state’s highest Republican official, Gov. Mike DeWine, also dismissed the rumor firmly on Wednesday, noting there was “no evidence of that at all.”