Republicans at the highest levels of government are spreading a bizarre message: that Haitian immigrants are killing and eating pets.

One of the most prominent purveyors of this strange claim is JD Vance, the Republican vice presidential candidate. On Monday morning, Vance posted on X the false claim that “reports now show people have had their pets kidnapped and eaten by people who don’t belong in this country.” In the same tweet, he claimed that “illegal immigrants from Haiti” are “causing chaos all over Springfield, Ohio.”

Just to be clear, there is no evidence that a Haitian immigrant ate a cat in Springfield, Ohio, or anywhere else in the United States. But the lack of factual evidence has not stopped Republicans from pushing the nativist narrative that seems designed to stoke bigotry and distrust against the predominantly black population of Haitian immigrants.

More than 300,000 previously illegal immigrants from Haiti were granted temporary protected status in June, meaning these Haitian immigrants are now legally in the United States – despite Vance’s claims to the contrary. Still, the attacks on these immigrants by Vance and other Republicans come at a time when more Americans have become skeptical of immigration.

Shortly after President Joe Biden took office, the United States experienced an influx of migrants at its southern border – much of it fueled by unrest in several Caribbean and Latin American countries as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Republicans used this wave of migration to attack Biden’s border policies and claim there was a crisis at the border. Meanwhile, Republican politicians in border states bused large groups of migrants to towns and villages across the country, bringing many Americans into contact with migrants for the first time.

All this comes amid a hotly contested 2024 presidential race in which both candidates are portraying themselves as tough opponents of immigration policy. Former President Donald Trump has long promoted restricting immigration, while Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris is touting a tough border security law that she supports – and that Trump used to bring down his fellow Republicans.

These factors—and especially the growing anti-immigrant sentiment—presumably explain why one sitting senator thought it wise to share a meme claiming, “If Americans don’t vote for former President Donald Trump, immigrants will eat their cats.”

The idea of ​​Haitians roaming the streets kidnapping pets seems to have originated in Vance’s state of Ohio.

Springfield police said Monday that there have been no reports of pets being stolen or consumed in the city. However, there was reportedly an incident in Canton, Ohio – nearly a three-hour drive from Springfield – in which a woman was charged with animal cruelty for allegedly killing and consuming a cat. However, there is no evidence that this woman is of Haitian descent.

Despite this lack of evidence, the woman appears to have been identified in far-right tweets as being of Haitian descent.

In recent days, this completely unfounded vilification of Haitian immigrants began to spread outside of far-right circles after several prominent far-right figures tweeted it with faith. On Sunday, provocateur Charlie Kirk tweeted the claim, attaching a screenshot of a pseudonymous Facebook post claiming that Haitian immigrants in Springfield were slaughtering and eating dogs. Shortly after, billionaire Elon Musk chimed in, claiming that “people’s pet cats are getting eaten.”

By Monday morning, the claim had made it to Vance – before being picked up by other prominent elected Republicans and official Republican Party accounts.

Vance has long tried to stoke anti-Haitian sentiment in Springfield, a small Ohio city that recently attracted as many as 20,000 Haitians seeking work in newly opened factories and warehouses. Tensions between the new immigrants and some of the city’s long-time residents rose after a Haitian immigrant was convicted of manslaughter following a fatal bus crash in 2023. Vance claims the city is “overwhelmed” by the new residents.

At the same time, as migration at the southern border has increased in recent years, skepticism about immigration has grown across the country.

Not surprisingly, then, many prominent members of the Republican Party—a party that frequently denounces individual crimes committed by immigrants to stoke nativist sentiment—pounced on an unsubstantiated Internet rumor about Haitians and cats, taking it as “proof” that immigrants were a problem (that Republicans could solve).

None of this, however, changes the fact that Republicans at the top of the party—including sitting U.S. senators and even one of the party’s two statewide candidates—see no downside to spreading racist and completely unfounded rumors based on random social media posts by far-right trolls.