Springfield Suit Says Neo-Nazis Led Anti-Immigrant Campaign

An Ohio city that was racked with chaos and threats last year related to an influx of Haitian immigrants has sued a neo-Nazi group that it alleges was at the heart of the onslaught. The City of Springfield, Mayor Rob Rue, and several others sued the Blood Tribe, leaders Christopher Pohlhaus and Drake Berentz, and seven unnamed followers in US District Court in Dayton. They accuse the group of "engaging in, and inciting, a campaign of harassment and intimidation, motivated by ethnic and racial hatred, against those who supported Springfield's Haitian community in the face of Defendants' racist attacks," the AP reports.

With legal help from the Anti-Defamation League, the plaintiffs are asking the court for a jury trial seeking to block the group from making further threats and to impose damages. Springfield, a city of roughly 60,000 west of Columbus, has seen its Haitian population grow to about 10,000 people in recent years, as Haitians have fled violence in their home country in search of stability and employment. Their growing numbers caused friction with residents, as schools, roads, hospitals and social programs were taxed by the large population—and, particularly, after a child was killed in 2023 when a Haitian immigrant driver hit a school bus.

As a candidate, Republican President Trump honed worldwide attention on the city during a September presidential debate with Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, when he amplified false claims that Springfield's Haitians were abducting and eating cats and dogs. Thursday's complaint alleges that the Blood Tribe first coordinated a "hit" against the city before that, in July, casting the influx of Haitians as an "invasion" that was threatening Springfield's "good White residents." It says the Blood Tribe showed up at the city's jazz and blues festival in August, displaying guns, waving swastika flags, and wearing matching clothes and ski masks, per the AP. They made their way to City Hall, where Berentz delivered a "racist and antisemitic rant," to which followers responded with chants of "Seig Heil" and Nazi salutes.

(More Haiti US immigration stories.)