John Legend Criticizes Trump’s Lies About Haitian Immigrants in His Ohio Hometown: ‘How About We Love Each Other?’ – Essence

John Legend has taken to social media to counter former President Donald Trump’s recent provocative and false remarks about Haitian immigrants in Legend’s hometown of Springfield, Ohio. During Tuesday’s presidential debate, Trump made racist claims, suggesting that Haitian immigrants in Springfield were “eating dogs” and “eating cats” to local residents. His claims come just days after his vice presidential candidate, J.D. Vance, made the identical outrageous claims on social media.

Despite repeated fact-checks by ABC News debate moderators, who identified that city officials in the Ohio town had denied any evidence that immigrants actually eat pets, Trump doubled down, saying that “people on TV” were saying that. When pressed, Trump simply said, “We’ll find out.”

In his videoLegend addressed his supporters, saying, “You may have heard about Springfield, Ohio this week. In fact, if you watched the debate, our presidential candidates were talking about us, including a very unique, interesting man named Donald J. Trump.” He then gave some historical context in regards to the city, explaining, “Our city has been shrinking for decades. We didn’t have enough jobs, we didn’t have enough opportunity. So people were leaving and going somewhere else.”

Legend detailed how Springfield’s population “has declined from 75,000 to about 60,000 in recent years. However, with the emergence of new job opportunities under the Biden administration, including manufacturing jobs, the city has seen an influx of Haitian immigrants who have been granted visas for these positions.” He continued, saying, “At the same time, there was upheaval and unrest in Haiti, and the federal government granted visas and immigration status to a certain number of Haitian immigrants so they could legally come to our country.”

The singer said Springfield has added “about 15,000 immigrants” to its population of 60,000. “You can say, ‘Wow, that’s a lot of people.’ For a town that used to have only 60,000, that’s a 25 percent increase. That’s true.”

The singer also acknowledged that integrating a brand new population has its challenges, noting, “You can imagine that integrating a new population, a new language, a new culture, new dietary preferences, has its challenges. There are a lot of reasons why there might be growing pains — making sure there are enough services to accommodate a new, larger population that may need to be bilingual.”

Regardless, Legend said, “Bottom line, these people came to Springfield because there was work for them, they wanted to work and they wanted to fulfill the American dream.”

He compared the stories of those in Springfield to “your German ancestors, your Irish ancestors, your Italian ancestors, your Jewish ancestors, your Jamaican ancestors, your Polish ancestors. All of these ancestors were brought to this country, maybe not speaking the language that everyone else spoke, maybe not eating the same food, maybe having to adapt.” He continued, “But they all came because they saw an opportunity for themselves and their families in the American dream, and they came here to do it.”

Legend then spoke about welcoming immigrants into all communities. “Some facts about immigrants: They tend to do very well here. They’re hardworking, ambitious. They commit fewer crimes than native-born Americans, and over time they assimilate and integrate. But it takes time, so I think we all need to have the same kind of grace that we wish our ancestors had.” He added, “I was raised in a Christian tradition. We said to love your neighbor as yourself and treat strangers as if they could be Christ. How about taking that ethos when we talk about immigrants moving into our communities and not spreading hateful, xenophobic, racist lies about them?”

Legend vehemently rejected Trump’s xenophobic and racist rhetoric, declaring at the top of the video, “Nobody eats cats, nobody eats dogs. We all just want to live, thrive, and raise our families in a healthy and safe environment. How about we love each other?”