Trump defends immigrant pet-eating claim at Latino event

Former president Donald Trump on Wednesday reinforced his previous statement about Haitian immigrants consuming pets of the local Ohio residents, Reuters reported.

Trump’s controversial stance on immigrants has been a salient feature of his bold rhetoric. Recently he emphasised on falsely accusing immigrants for eating people’s pets, which was widely criticised especially after his last debate with Democratic rival Kamala Harris.

The officials in Ohio including Republicans have repeatedly clarified that there have been no visible evidences to prove Trump’s claims.

While addressing from a town hall hosted by Spanish-language TV Univision, Trump said: “I was just saying what was reported… And eating other things too that they’re not supposed to be. All I do is report, I was there, I’m going to be there and we’re going to take a look.”

Without specifying the sources, Trump claimed that some “newspapers” have also validated the claim.

Trump who is yet to travel to Springfield, earlier pronounced that he will conduct mass deportations of Haitian immigrants from the Ohio city.

“I’m angry about illegal Haitian migrants taking over Springfield, Ohio, you see that mess, don’t you?” said Trump at a rally in Las Vegas.

After Trump’s questionable and unproven allegations surfaced, the Ohio city has encountered bomb threats.

Furthermore, Trump evaded from answering more questions on immigrants regarding migrants putting intensive hard farm labour, who if deported might lead to extreme hikes in food prices.

Instead, he kept frequently repeating that “African Americans and Hispanic Americans are losing their jobs because of illegal immigration.”

Notably the Latino voters have traditionally backed Democrats, but Trump campaign seeks to win over them as Harris led Trump by eight percentage points from 47% to 39% among Hispanic voters as shown in polls conducted by Reuters/Ipsos.