By Alexandra Ulmer, Nandita Bose and Gram Slattery
RANCHO PALOS VERDES, California (Reuters) -Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump pledged on Friday to conduct mass deportations of Haitian immigrants from the Ohio city of Springfield, even though the majority of them are in the United States legally.
The city for days has found itself at the center of a social media maelstrom after right-wing agitators latched onto false claims that Haitian arrivals were eating household pets.
"We will do large deportations in Springfield, Ohio," Trump said at a press conference at his golf resort near Los Angeles.
The majority of the 15,000 Haitians in Springfield are there legally. Trump's longstanding pledge to conduct mass deportations usually refers to those in the country illegally.
Trump did not repeat the assertion he made during Tuesday's presidential debate with Democrat Kamala Harris that immigrants were eating dogs and cats, remarks that have been widely mocked.
Two elementary schools were evacuated and one middle school in Springfield was closed on Friday after anonymous bomb threats were made against the community for the second day in a row, according to ABC News.
At the White House, President Joe Biden urged the attacks on the Haitian community to cease.
"It's simply wrong. There's no place in America. This has to stop - what he's doing. It has to stop," Biden said.
The Biden administration extended Temporary Protected Status to hundreds of thousands of Haitians in the United States in June, a decades-old program that protects legal immigrants from deportation and gives them work permits. Gang wars in Haiti have displaced over half a million people and nearly five million are facing severe food insecurity.
Trump has cited the tensions in Springfield as another example of the need for hardline immigration polices. The influx of Haitians has boosted the economy but also has strained social services.
"I'm angry about illegal Haitian migrants taking over Springfield, Ohio. You see that mess, don't you?" Trump said at a rally in Las Vegas, later on Friday.
"I'm angry about young American girls being raped and murdered by savage criminal aliens that come into our country very easily, but very illegally," he added later in his speech.
Haitian community leaders across the United States said the Republican candidate's remarks could put lives at risk and further inflame tensions in Springfield.
"We need help, not hate," Springfield's mayor Rob Rue told ABC News.
City officials say they have received no credible reports of anybody eating household animals. Karen Graves, a city spokesperson, said she was not aware of recent hate crimes targeting Haitian residents but that some had been victims of "crimes of opportunity," such as property theft.