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As former President Donald Trump and Ohio Sen. JD Vance have spread the false and ridiculous claim that Haitian immigrants are eating pets in Springfield, Ohio, local leaders have reiterated that the community is grappling with real immigration-related issues that need attention, including housing, health care and public education.
Trump tried to describe some of those issues during a Sept. 18 rally in Uniondale, New York. But in his telling, the community’s leaders have taken extreme measures to assist Haitian children in public schools, including hiring a private interpreter for every student.
"So, the mayor of Springfield, and I think he's a very nice person," Trump said about 48 minutes into his speech. "But instead of saying, ‘We're getting them all out, we're getting them out,’ he says very simply, ‘We're hiring teachers to teach them English.’ Could you believe it? We are hiring interpreters. So, when they go to school and take the place of our children in school, we have an interpreter. Each one will have a private interpreter."
RELATED: PolitiFact: Vance cherry-picks data to claim 81% murder spike amid Haitian influx in Springfield
Springfield schools have hired staff to teach Haitian students and other English language learners, but we found no evidence that each student "will have a private interpreter." We also found no evidence that non-Haitian students have been displaced.
Here’s what we know.
Springfield population shift generates needs in schools
Springfield Mayor Rob Rue said in September that the city added 12,000 to 15,000 immigrants in the past four years. Most immigrants in Springfield are Haitian, but not all. In July, City Manager Bryan Heck cited a higher number of 15,000 to 20,000 Haitians arriving in Springfield over the last four years in a community of just under 60,000.
Many migrants were fleeing years of political unrest and seeking jobs in the city’s growing labor market and are in Ohio legally.
Springfield City Schools Superintendent Robert Hill said federal and state funding have not generated enough resources for local schools to meet the needs of the growing immigrant community, however.
"When you jump from 200 to approximately 1,200 in two years it puts a strain on the system but, as everyone is aware, we are legally required to educate every student who walks through our doors and we’ve done so and done so successfully and will continue to do so with the resources we have," Hill said during a Sept. 17 press conference.
Hill said the district had hired many teachers qualified to teach English as a second language while also forming university partnerships to help fill the need. He did not mention having interpreters for every Haitian student.
Asked for evidence behind Trump’s claim, a Republican National Committee spokesperson pointed PolitiFact to news reports about a rise in the city’s Haitian student population.
Dayton CBS affiliate WHIO-TV reported in August that the district had 1,600 non-English speaking students, up from 250 in 2017. The district said there were 18 English as a Second Language teachers and that it hired bilingual assistants to translate documents and communications with parents. The TV report said that students speak Haitian, French, Portuguese and Spanish.
"Everything that we’re doing now, we are having to make sure that we look at it through that lens of, how can we also serve not only our English-speaking students but our non-English students and families," Pam Shay, Springfield City School District director of federal programs, told the TV station.
The New York Times reported in September that "nearly 350 new students registered for elementary and middle school the first week of classes, most of them children of immigrants."
The Times wrote that "the school district has hired about two dozen teachers who are certified to teach English as a second language and several Haitian-Creole interpreters, thanks to federal and state pandemic-related funds."
RELATED: ‘I am afraid’: The aftermath of Springfield, Ohio, misinformation on Haitians who live there
NPR reported that the mayor said the local school system, on average, receives 40 new students every week, many of whom don't speak English.
None of those reports said that every child has or will have a private interpreter, nor did they say that non-Haitian students were blocked or removed from schools.
We contacted several school officials, including the district spokespeople, and asked about the number of Haitian students and interpreters but got no response. (The district has faced unprecedented attention, including bomb threats, in September following the false allegations about pet eating.)
Figures posted on the district’s website, however, say that about 15% of its 7,700 students are English language learners.
The numbers Hill cited in the Sept. 17 press conference matched numbers from June school board meeting minutes that showed that two years earlier, the district served approximately 250 English language learners. By the end of the 2023-24 school year, that had risen to about 1,200 students. Another 1,500 students were classified as nonnative English speakers, the minutes said.
Springfield’s population surge has created challenges for the city, health care system, housing and schools, Gov. Mike DeWine wrote in a Sept. 20 New York Times op-ed. "There is a desperate need for more Haitian Creole translators," wrote DeWine, a Republican and Trump-Vance supporter.
DeWine debunked the pet eating claims and said Trump and Vance "continue to repeat claims that lack evidence and disparage the legal migrants living in Springfield."
The Springfield News-Sun reported in September 2023 that the number of non-English speaking students, including hundreds of Haitian immigrants, in the schools had more than quadrupled over four years, prompting the district to add more multilingual resources and curriculum.
The News-Sun wrote "although Springfield schools devote quite a bit of resources and efforts to help ELL students, Shay said it doesn't take away from the English language students."
Shay said: "You would think that, but fortunately with various grants and funding sources that are geared towards these populations, it's not taking away from funding that's used for the English-speaking population." (Shay referred PolitiFact to the district communication’s staff.)
Schools must be open to immigrants
A 1982 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a Texas case, Plyer v. Doe, protects the rights of children to attend public school regardless of their immigration status.
Trump has referred to the Haitians as illegal immigrants, but they are legally in the U.S. under Temporary Protected Status, which has existed in federal law for decades. Obama announced the designation for Hatians in 2010 following a magnitude 7 earthquake there. Trump extended the status in 2017.
In 2023, the Biden administration started a humanitarian parole program that allows eligible Haitians to live and work in the U.S. for two years. In June, Biden extended and expanded Haiti’s Temporary Protected Status.
RELATED: Trump repeats false narrative about Haitians in Springfield, city leaders dispel rumors
Trump’s use of the phrase "take the place of our children" aligns with the Great Replacement Theory, white supremacist rhetoric warning of an elaborate conspiracy by Western elites to systematically replace white people of European descent with nonwhite people through immigration and interracial marriage.
"It might not be an explicit reference to far-right anti-Semitic replacement theories but it is definitely a hostile way of framing immigration — legal immigration at that — as an attempt to push out, ignore, and replace natural-born white Americans with foreign people of color," said Casey Ryan Kelly, a communication studies professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Our ruling
Trump said when Haitians go to school in Springfield they "take the place of our children in school" and "each one will have a private interpreter."
The Republican National Committee pointed to news articles showing that the numbers of non-English speaking students, including Haitians, have grown since 2017. The schools have hired teachers qualified to teach English as a second language along with bilingual assistants. But none of those articles showed that each student has or will have a private interpreter. Our review of school board meeting minutes and other coverage of the schools shows no plan to provide private interpreters to every student.
We also found nothing showing that Haitians "take the place" of other school children. A school official told the Springfield News-Sun in 2023 that English language learners do not take away from the English language students.
Although Springfield schools’ resources have been strained as leaders seek to meet the needs of more nonnative speakers, Trump’s statement does not reflect the facts.
We rate this statement False.
Our Sources
C-SPAN, Former President Trump Campaigns in Uniondale, New York, Sept. 18, 2024
Ohio Department of Education, Immigrant children in Springfield, Ohio schools, 2023-24
Gov. Mike DeWine op ed in the New York Times, I’m the Republican Governor of Ohio. Here Is the Truth About Springfield. Sept. 20, 2024
AP and Spectrum News, Overseas threats hit the Ohio city where Trump and Vance lied about Haitians eating pets, Sept. 17, 2024
Columbus Dispatch, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine press conference in Springfield after focus on bomb threats, immigration, Sept. 17, 2024
Springfield News-Sun, Interpreters, translators bridge gap between Haitian immigrants, community, June 26, 2023
Springfield News-Sun, Springfield schools face influx of non-English speaking students, Sept. 11, 2023
Springfield News-Sun, Springfield forms immigrant response team amid more resident complaints, Sept. 13, 2023
City of Springfield, Immigrant FAQs, Accessed Sept. 19, 2024
Springfield city schools, Board meeting minutes, Accessed Sept. 20, 2024
Ohio Department of Education and Workforce, Annual enrollment data, Accessed Sept. 19, 2024
Gov. Mike DeWine, Governor DeWine Sends Ohio State Highway Patrol to Provide Added Security in Springfield City School District, Sept. 16, 2024
Springfield city Manager Bryan Heck, letter to U.S. Senators Sherrod Brown and Tim Scott, July 8, 2024
WHIO, School district working to help migrant families in Springfield, Aug. 14, 2024
New York Times, How an Ohio Town Landed in the Middle of the Immigration Debate, Sept. 3, 2024
NPR, How Springfield Ohio took center stage in the election immigration debate, Aug. 12, 2024
American Immigrant Council, Public Education for Immigrant Students: Understanding Plyler v. Doe, Oct. 24, 2016
Washington Post The Fact Checker, Day by day, how JD Vance tweeted misinformation about Springfield, Sept. 19, 2024
PolitiFact, 1982 Supreme Court decision in Texas case said public schools must educate non-citizen children, Sept. 25, 2013
Republican National Committee, Statement to PolitiFact, Sept. 20, 2024
Email interview, David Leopold, lawyer at UB Greensfelder LLP, Sept. 19, 2024
Email interview, Casey Ryan Kelly, professor & director of graduate studiesUniversity of Nebraska–Lincoln in communication studies, Sept. 20, 2024
Email interview, Eric Oliver, political science professor at the University of Chicago and host of Nine Questions Podcast, Sept. 2024
Email interview, Dan Tierney, spokesperson for Gov. Mike DeWine, Sept. 20, 2024