US city receives bomb threat after Trump spread false anti-immigrant claims

Racist rumours continue to spread, with members of local Haitian community expressing concern for their safety.

Municipal officials in the city of Springfield, Ohio, have announced that the town’s city hall was evacuated due to a bomb threat, as conservative lawmakers in the United States continue to spread false claims about Haitian immigrants in the area.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Mayor Rob Rue said that the threat came from someone purporting to be a local resident and expressing ire towards increased immigration.

“Due to a bomb threat that was issued to multiple facilities throughout Springfield today, City Hall is closed,” the city government said on social media.

The incident comes after Republican US presidential candidate Donald Trump joined a chorus of right-wing voices spreading inflammatory — and unfounded — rumours that Haitian immigrants in Springfield were abducting and eating people’s pets.

“They’re eating the dogs, the people that came in. They’re eating the cats,” Trump said during a debate against Democratic nominee Kamala Harris on Tuesday. Rhetoric painting immigrants as a dangerous scourge has been a staple of Trump’s politics for years.