A nonprofit immigration advocacy group has filed criminal charges against former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, over their comments about members of Springfield’s Haitian community stealing pets and eating them.

The Haitian Bridge Alliance filed the bench memorandum Tuesday alleging Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance “led an effort to vilify and threaten the Haitian community in Springfield.”

“HBA filed this criminal charge to hold Trump and Vance accountable for the devastating harm they caused our community in Springfield and has impacted Haitians around the United States,” HBA Executive Director Guerline Jozef said in a statement.

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The group is asking a Municipal Court judge to charge the duo with disrupting public services, making false alarms, two counts of complicity, two counts of telecommunications harassment and aggravated menacing. The filing requests that the court look for probable cause and issue arrest warrants for both Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance.

“Like those who falsely shout ‘fire!’ in a crowded theater, Trump and Vance do not color within the lines of the First Amendment,” the filing said. “They commit criminal acts.”

Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance have amplified the rumors that Haitian immigrants in Ohio were taking and eating pets since the claim went viral earlier this month. Officials have said there is no evidence of pet-eating, but that hasn’t stopped the two from repeating comments, even on the debate stage.

“They’re eating the dogs. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people that live there,” Mr. Trump said in his debate against Vice President Kamala Harris.

Mr. Vance, a senator from Ohio, posted on his X account that his office has received “many inquiries” from Springfield residents “who’ve said their neighbors’ pets or local wildlife were abducted by Haitian migrants.”

“It’s possible, of course, that all of these rumors will turn out to be false,” he wrote in the post.

Subodh Chandra, the lead counsel on the case, said in a statement that, “The Haitian community is suffering in fear because of Trump and Vance’s relentless, irresponsible, false alarms, and public services have been disrupted.”

She said Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance “must be held accountable to the rule of the law. Anyone else who wreaked havoc the way they did have been arrested by now.”

“There’s nothing special about Trump and Vance that entitles them to get away with what they’ve done and are doing,” she said. “They think they’re above the law. They’re not.”

In a statement, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said, “President Trump is rightfully highlighting the failed immigration system that Kamala Harris has overseen, bringing thousands of illegal immigrants pouring into communities like Springfield and many others across the country.”

It was all started after a social media post by a city resident claimed that the person’s “neighbor’s daughter’s friend” saw her lost cast “hanging from a branch, like you’d do a deer for butchering, & they were carving it up to eat.”

The post, made reportedly by resident Erika Lee, was recounting a conversation she was told by her neighbor, Kimberly Newton. It went viral after it was screenshotted from a local Facebook page and posted on X.

“I didn’t think it would ever get past Springfield,” Ms. Lee told NBC News.

Ms. Newton, however, told The Epoch Times that she “didn’t say what [Lee] wrote” in the initial post.

“It was a five to 10-minute conversation,” Ms. Newton said. “All I said was, ‘Hey, I heard some things you might want to watch out for your cats because they go in and out, there is a house in the neighborhood with Haitians, and there have been reports from residents at city council meetings who said pets were missing.”

“I didn’t tell her anything about the cat hanging in the tree, being butchered like a deer. I didn’t say that to her. Those were not my words,” she said, adding that the owner of the missing cat wasn’t even her daughter’s friend.

However, despite officials saying there have been no reports or evidence of the Haitian residents eating anyone’s pets, the city has been inundated with negative attention and dozens of bomb threats against schools and government buildings.

Haitian immigration is specifically mentioned on the city of Springfield’s website, which says they are in the city legally under the Biden administration’s Immigration Parole Program.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has defended their residency in the city, saying they have contributed to an economic resurgence.