Former president Donald Trump pledged at a Friday rally in Los Angeles to carry out mass deportations of Haitian immigrants from the Ohio city of Springfield, even though most are in the U.S. legally. The city of about 60,000 residents, including 15,000 Haitian migrants, has found itself in the headlines this week after Trump falsely accused immigrants of eating people’s pets. “We will do large deportations in Springfield, Ohio,” Trump said at a press conference at his golf resort near Los Angeles. Trump did not repeat his widely-mocked claim from Tuesday night’s presidential debate that Haitian migrants are “eating the pets.” The Haitian community has rebuked the former president’s claims, saying they will inflame tensions in Springfield. “We need help, not hate,” Springfield’s mayor Rob Rue told ABC News. On Friday, two schools were evacuated and one middle school in Springfield was closed on Friday after anonymous bomb threats were made against the community for the second day in a row, ABC News reported.
