Haitian-Americans in New Jersey are demanding a retraction from former President Donald Trump and his vice presidential candidate, J.D.

Vance, for inflammatory comments claiming Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, are eating their neighbors, cats, dogs and other pets.

The infamous and false claims made by the former president during last week's presidential debate sparked outrage from those in and outside the Haitian community for fueling racism.

The baseless rumors have caused the small town in Ohio to shut schools and businesses due to threats.

New Jersey is home to the fourth largest population of Haitian residents in the country, according to the 2022 census count, with the majority living in East Orange and its neighboring towns.

So what kind of impact is it having on the residents here?

I asked Bergson Leneus, the first Haitian-American to be elected to the East Orange Council.

For his take.

Councilman, thanks for taking a couple of minutes to chat with us.

We know that this rhetoric targeted at immigrants in Ohio has resulted in bomb threats, school lockdowns, schools being evacuated, kids being kept home, property damage.

What impact has it had on the community in New Jersey?

Just thank you so much again for this opportunity.

You know, just over the past few several days, the Trump campaign has created a maelstrom of xenophobic rhetoric, baseless and blatant lies that have caused tremendous amount of harm to specifically those migrants in the Springfield, Ohio, community.

And here in New Jersey, As you know, the diaspora, many of my constituents, many of my colleagues, many of family members are a deep concern with regard to what potentially is to come based off of these baseless and blatant lies that the Trump campaign are spewing.

And more than anything, it's emotional.

You know, because of our history in this country and because of the things that that have taken place back in the nineties, there was a a rally in a rallying cry from the Asian community with regard to the baseless lies and of the xenophobic rhetoric centered around the HIV AIDS epidemic, and that Haitians were the proponents and the originators of this serious disease.

And, you know, there was a strong fight for it to fight against it.

And this recent attack is taking us back to that place.

And so it's stirring up a lot of old and hurtful memories.

And it is it is really galvanizing the community to fight and stand against this once again.

Yeah, I was going to bring that up.

I mean, some of these tropes and stereotypes are deep rooted in the US.

What's different about this?

What's different about these comments, this rhetoric, these attacks?

The difference is the source of the source is, you know, a former president and a current the sitting senator.

You know, who were sworn to protect and uphold the communities of which which they represent.

And for someone who is in a position of power that former President Trump intended events are in, for them to directly be stating these baseless claims as opposed to innuendo and or rumor that was taking place in the early nineties.

They are actually saying it and they are in a position of power.

And, you know, words matter and words and words matter and they have meaning and they rile up certain basis based groups.

And that's what their intent is, is to rile up their base and to galvanize their constituents.

Credibility.

Is what I hear you saying.

What do you want elected leaders to do both here in New Jersey and at the federal level?

We must be proactive.

We know what's coming.

We we can anticipate what is to come based off of these most recent comments.

And so we must galvanize our people.

We must protect them via legislation.

We must galvanize and get our people to register to vote.

And of course, we must get our people to the polls to ensure that this group is never in a position of power again in this country and in this state.

East Orange Councilman Bergson Leneus.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much.

Just a pleasure.