Details of Haitian Bridge Alliance’s criminal complaint released

A man carries an AI-generated image of Donald Trump taking cats away from Haitian immigrants, a reference to falsehoods spread across Springfield, Ohio, during a Trump campaign rally at the Tucson Music Hall in Tucson, Arizona, on September 12, 2024. | Source: REBECCA NOBLE / Getty

The Haitian Bridge Alliance (HBA), a nonprofit organization that advocates for fair and humane immigration policies, has filed charges against former President Donald Trump and his vice presidential running mate, JD Vance, for the baseless and racist lies they spread across the Haitian community. in Springfield, Ohio, late last month.

During an interview with CNN’s Laura Coates last Thursday, Guerline Jozef, co-founder and executive director of the HBA, outlined the extensive charges detailed in their complaint filed September 24 in Clark County Municipal Court. The organization is seeking to hold Republicans accountable for issuing false alarms, telecommunications harassment, aggravated threats and aiding and abetting, among other charges, stemming from their allegations that members of Springfield’s Haitian community stole the pets of local residents have eaten.

“We believe in the rules of the law, and we believe that no one is above the law, so we trust that we will prevail, and because if we don’t, history will judge us harshly,” Jozef said. . “We cannot have this kind of rhetoric in 2024, looking ahead to the elections, from people in power, people who are supposed to represent the population…whether they are immigrants or not.”

Schools and hospitals in Springfield were on high alert as bomb threats increased in the city following Trump and Vance’s racist rumor. In response, the Ohio State Police have significantly increased their protective efforts. According to the Associated Press, as of September 17, authorities announced that the Ohio State Highway Patrol would deploy additional officers to local schools to protect students and teachers after several bomb threats. Officers conducted morning checks on each building before staff and students arrived. In addition, security cameras were set up at strategic locations in the city and a bomb sniffing dog was available 24 hours a day.

The Independent noted that two local hospitals in Springfield were also threatened over the damaging lies. Both facilities – Kettering Health Springfield and Mercy Health’s Springfield Regional Medical Center – were briefly placed on lockdown the morning of September 15 after receiving bomb threats. The hospitals at the heart of Trump’s false claims have since returned to normal operations. Police and hospital security conducted a thorough investigation and found no suspicious objects.

When Coates asked Jozef about the ultimate goal behind the complaint calling for the arrest of Trump and Vance for their egregious actions, the human rights attorney expressed hope that “justice” would be served. She emphasized that this would send a clear message to Republican politicians that such behavior will not be tolerated.

“Currently the city of Springfield is under siege. You have school children who can’t go to school, not just Haitian students, all the students in Springfield, the churches, the banks, the offices, even the cultural event that was supposed to happen, the city was canceled because of the threats that are out there. get out of the situation,” Jozef explained. “So we have to keep pushing back. We have to say: not, not now, not never. We can’t go back. The year is 2024. This rhetoric has no place in our community. It has no place in our society. But we do understand that anti-Black racism and white supremacy exist on every street in the United States. So we oppose that.”

Vance has made immigration a central issue of his campaign, joining Trump’s demands for stricter border policies and mass deportations while also calling for the resumption of border wall construction. Neither side has apologized for perpetuating damaging rhetoric about the Haitian community. In a mid-September interview on CNN, Vance, the Ohio senator, defended the damaging rumors, claiming that the media had “completely” ignored the issue until he and his running mate brought it to public attention.

“If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do,” he told CNN.

“It comes from first-hand accounts from my constituents. I say we create a story, which means we create the American media that focuses on it.”

Josef and the HBA also hold the Biden administration responsible for their failure to protect Haitian immigrants seeking asylum in the US.

Jozef and the HBA are also going after the Biden administration, urging the president to grant protection to Haitian immigrants seeking asylum in the United States.

In an Instagram post shared on April 9, the nonprofit revealed that more than 160,000 people have been displaced in the island’s capital, Port-Au-Prince, due to deteriorating conditions around the metropolitan area and “armed gangs” seizing the capital.

“Haitians fleeing violence, persecution and poverty need support, not punishment,” the HBA wrote in an open letter on Instagram. “The Biden administration has the power to build an equitable humanitarian protection system that welcomes refugees regardless of race, ethnicity, background or country of origin. Seeking asylum is a human right and it is crucial that we do everything we can to ensure that we comply with international law and human rights law.

The letter added: “We must IMMEDIATELY halt deportation flights to Haiti. Returning people to such deplorable conditions is unconscionable and a violation of human rights.”

According to the HBA website, the Transnational Legal Clinic at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, in collaboration with the Haitian Bridge Alliance, and several other institutions, requested a thematic hearing with the Inter-American on December 12, 2022 Commission on Human Rights. The request was aimed at addressing the ongoing deportation of Haitian nationals by the United States and called for the granting of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) so that immigrants from the island can seek safety in the US.

“Deportations pose a serious risk to life and personal safety, especially as the Haitian government has begun immediately detaining many deported persons directly from the plane and placing them in prison indefinitely without legal justification, in the hope to obtain a ransom,” the letter said.

The organization sent a follow-up letter in March.

SEE ALSO:

CBC President Steven Horsford rips GOP Rep. Clay Higgins’ racist social media post about ‘thugs’ Haitians

Woman Admits She Was Wrong About Stealing Haitian Cat After JD Vance Used Her Police Report To Support Lies

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