February 10, 2025
Springfield, the small Ohio city that faced chaos, threats, and drama in 2024 over its Haitian immigrant population, is taking legal action.
The small Ohio city that was caught up in chaos, threats, and drama in 2024 over its Haitian immigrant population is taking legal action.
Springfield Mayor Rob Rue and several others are suing the neo-Nazi group Blood Tribe, accusing the group of “engaging in, and inciting, a campaign of harassment and intimidation, motivated by ethnic and racial hatred, against those who supported Springfield’s Haitian community in the face of Defendants’ racist attacks.”
According to the Associated Press, Springfield city leaders named the group’s leaders, Christopher Pohlhaus, Drake Berentz, and several others, in the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court in Dayton.
In September, Springfield’s city hall was evacuated after city officials received bomb threats after President Donald Trump falsely accused Haitian immigrants of eating residents’ pets during his Sept. 10 debate with Vice President Kamala Harris.
Then-Ohio Senator JD Vance, now Trump’s vice president, also spread rumors that Haitian immigrants were abducting pets and eating them. He later admitted to making false claims to highlight immigration issues nationwide.
Close to 300,000 Haitians were granted residence in the United States under the Temporary Protected Status. In June 2024, the Biden administration extended TPS status for Haitians until Feb. 3, 2026.
Following Vance and Trump‘s lies, Springfield was riddled with bomb threats and school evacuation. Residents were harassed.
The plaintiffs are asking the court for a jury trial to block the group from making further threats that impose damages. According to the Associated Press, the complaint alleges that the Blood Tribe first coordinated a “hit” against the city in July and called Haitian immigrants an “invasion” that was threatening Springfield’s “good White residents.”
The lawsuit doesn’t directly reference Trump’s or Vance’s remarks. However, it notes that the group’s leader, Pohlhaus, “gleefully took credit for the growing notoriety” of the spread of false claims.
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