TikTokers came to Springfield looking for ICE. Then the child trafficking rumors began.
This story was originally reported by Amanda Becker of The 19th. Meet Amanda and read more of their reporting on gender, politics and policy.
The residents of Springfield, Ohio, had prepared for the arrival of immigration agents on February 3, the expiration date set by the Trump administration for Temporary Protected Status for Haitians, who account for nearly a quarter of the city’s population. A federal judge intervened at the last minute, pushing the deadline indefinitely. The agents never arrived.
Still, the city has found itself on edge this month and the threat is as unsettling as it is familiar: online misinformation, this time accusing the very people trying to protect their immigrant neighbors from deportation of trafficking their children instead.
Ahead of the 2024 elections, President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, then Republican running mates, amplified a rumor initially shared in a local Facebook group that Haitian immigrants were eating area pets. Last Wednesday, TikTok creators, finding none of the mayhem they expected to see in Springfield, started suggesting that faith-based groups working with Haitian immigrants were misdirecting resources. Then came allegations that Haitians were “under threat from the local community.” Within 48 hours of their arrival, they concocted a conspiracy theory that the churches and nonprofit organizations were, in fact, working to deport Haitian parents to take their children.
“The destructive force they have brought is nearly immeasurable,” said one leader in a faith-based coalition, who was hesitant to use her name or the organization’s since the creators have already taken their statements out of context and shared them on social media.
Americans everywhere are trying to figure out what is happening in the Trump administration’s immigration-enforcement hot spots like Minneapolis and Springfield. As they search for information on social media, they are encountering a torrent of misinformation, conspiracy theories and deceptive propaganda. It comes from both political sides: there are liberal Americans using AI to generate the obscured faces of masked immigration agents, though they may not look anything like they do in real life, and there are conservative Americans creating fake images of White women welcoming federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents as saviors.
Much of it focuses on children or women. Community leaders across the country are warning that it has the potential to destabilize neighborhoods and entire cities, just as it did in Springfield.
The latest bout of misinformation to hit this city of about 60,000 residents echoes “Pizzagate,” when right-wing conspiracy theorists said during the 2016 presidential campaign that high-profile Democrats were running a pedophilia ring. It culminated in a believer shooting up a popular Washington pizzeria. The conspiracy echoed around the internet for years, with teenagers on TikTok adopting the cause.
This is how it happened in Springfield this month.
Finding no large-scale enforcement action by ICE agents on the street, TikTok creators, who presented themselves as pro-immigrant and anti-deportation, cited reports from “actual Springfield locals” that the groups helping Haitians were refusing them aid. They sent people to a church who demanded to see evidence of the help they were giving. One creator misrepresented news coverage, including by The 19th, to construct the lie that churches and other groups were “trying to take these kids from Haitians and allowing them to be deported without helping them.”
The lies took a life of their own, as viral stories often do. The creators built on each other’s rumors.
Creator Ohaji Free, who posted the video suggesting child trafficking was at play, declined to discuss it with The 19th. Dai’Marr Keys, who suggested community groups were diverting help from Haitians, wrote in an email that he did not stay in Springfield to confirm details because he received threats.
Multiple creators shared photos of Pastor Carl Ruby, whose church has welcomed Haitian congregants. Ruby soon started receiving harassing voicemail messages. Callers said things like, “All of America knows you are complacent in the trafficking of innocent children,” “What is going on with you guys taking their children?” and “Hi, Carl. I was just wondering why you are into, you know, human trafficking and why you want to, like, take these children from families?”
Ruby talked to the local police, then spoke to the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI. On Monday, Springfield’s schools and downtown streets closed due to unspecified security threats. Ruby said federal authorities have told him that “rogue content creators” played a key role in amplifying complaints from several disgruntled individuals, and that led to the threatening messages he and his church have received.
Ruby said in an interview on Tuesday, as calls continued to come in: “These attacks have just made me more motivated to stand with our Haitians and do everything we can to protect them … They’re causing a lot of hassle, but they’re not really getting under my skin.”
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