Editors' Notes: Will Springfield Be the Next Minneapolis?

For as long as I live, I will never forget the moment in the 2024 election when the Trump campaign decided they were going to make an example of the Haitian immigrants living in Springfield, Ohio. A brazenly racist campaign to spread the smear that they were kidnapping and eating their neighbors' cats was amplified, first by Vance and then by Trump himself, repeatedly. For a few weeks it was the central message coming out of the campaign. Christopher Rufo stuck his nose in to offer some grainy pictures of what is likely chicken on a grill, being cooked by African immigrants in a different town entirely.

It seemed obvious that the Springfield Haitian community's troubles were not over, now that Trump was in office and actively pursuing his mass deportation agenda. Back in January they appeared to be poised to make Springfield the next target for a large scale ICE operation, but a district court halted the termination of the Haitians' TPS status, and for once the administration decided to wait to see how that played out.

Now, it has played out: Samuel Alito has made it clear there can be no racially motivated actions that white conservatives can take, so long as they have some other motive too or another that can be ascribed to them by him. Attempts to help racial minorities, mind you, are all racist against white people.

Since January I've been thinking about what might happen if they go into Springfield like they did in the Twin Cities, and now seems like the right time to revisit those thoughts.