Minnesota Democrat Gov. Tim Walz dismissed the immigration crisis overwhelming the blue-collar town of Springfield, Ohio, Tuesday as tens of thousands of Haitians have descended on the dilapidated community of roughly 60,000.

After complaining about congressional Republicans killing a catastrophic bill that would have codified an open border, Walz went on to admonish former President Donald Trump and Sen. J.D. Vance for “creating stories” about the “large number of people who were here legally in Springfield.”

“This is what happens when you don’t want to solve it,” Walz said, as if passing a bill to grant amnesty for all with 5,000 crossings permitted on a daily basis were solving anything.

Walz then accused Republicans of fomenting fear in Springfield for amplifying the concerns of residents now living among 20,000 new Haitian neighbors. “The governor had to send state law enforcement to escort kindergartners to school,” Walz said.

At a city commission meeting in August, however, locals detailed their own safety concerns with daily harassment and reckless driving. “I have men that cannot speak English in my front yard screaming at me, throwing mattresses in my front yard, throwing trash in my front yard,” a resident identified as Noel said. “Look at me, I weigh 95 pounds. I couldn’t defend myself if I had to.”

“I don’t understand what you expect of us as citizens,” she added. “Who’s protecting us if we’re protecting them? Who’s protecting me?”

Other residents shared similar experiences in interviews with The Federalist, but remained anonymous for fear of reprisal in a hostile media environment in which the press is eager to demonize locals who are frustrated with the flood of new migrants.

Vance responded by highlighting Vice President Kamala Harris’s record as the White House “border czar” who broke the border. “The people that I’m most worried about in Springfield, Ohio, are the American citizens who have had their lives destroyed by Kamala Harris’ open border,” Vance said.

The CBS moderators were eager to reinforce Walz against the Republican senator, who amplified the concerns of his constituents of his home state. “Just to clarify for our viewers,” Margaret Brennan said, “Springfield, Ohio, does have a large number of Haitian migrants who have legal status.”

Brennan continued to deny Vance a chance to respond until the Ohio lawmaker spoke over the moderators and forced the network to let him speak. “I think it’s important to say what’s actually going on,” Vance said. “So there’s an application called the CBP One App, where you can go as an illegal migrant, apply for asylum or apply for parole, and be granted legal status at the wave of a Kamala Harris open-border wand.” The mics were then muted as the two candidates began to speak over each other.

In September, ABC News similarly jumped at the opportunity to brand former President Donald Trump a conspiracist for claiming Haitian migrants were “eating the pets of the people” in Springfield.

“I just want to clarify here, you bring up Springfield, Ohio,” network moderator David Muir said. “ABC News did reach out to the city manager there. He told us there have been no credible reports of specific claims of pets being harm.”

While there were no public reports of Haitian migrants kidnapping domesticated cats or K-9s for animal sacrifice in underground voodoo rituals (which, according to National Geographic are apparently features of their Caribbean cultures), there had been multiple reports of migrant bird-hunting.

At the Springfield town commission meeting this summer, residents raised issues with the wildlife in the local parks.

“These Haitians are running into trash cans. They’re running into buildings. They’re flipping cars in the middle of the street, and I don’t know how like, y’all can be comfortable with this,” a resident named Anthony Harris complained to city officials last month. “They’re in the park, grabbing up ducks by the neck and cutting their heads off and eating them.”

Anthony Harris was not alone in making allegations of migrants hunting wildlife in the local parks. The Federalist had also exclusively reported just an hour before the presidential debate on an August phone call to police in which a man said he witnessed four Haitians each carrying a dead goose in Springfield.

“I was trying to get my phone out and I was trying to make it to this orientation on time,” the caller said. (Audio of the call can be found here.) “I’m time crunching here, and I saw that, I’m like, ‘Yeah this has got to be reported.’”

The Haitians with the geese were apparently gone by the time police arrived, but the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) confirmed days after the debate that a second call to authorities was placed in March.

“The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Division of Wildlife has a dedicated wildlife officer assigned to Clark County who routinely monitors Snyder Park in Springfield because it is a popular fishing area,” a statement from the agency said. “That Wildlife Officer received calls on two separate occasions from people who reported witnessing individuals of Haitian descent taking waterfowl out of Snyder Park.”

“The first incident was reported on March 27, and the caller claimed they saw three people grab a live duck and goose, place them in a trash bag, and drive away.” the ODNR added.

Both calls took place before testimonies from a recent city commission meeting went viral, thrusting the Ohio blue-collar community into the center of a presidential race in which immigration is a top issue.

The Heritage Oversight Project would go on to publish a police report from August of a woman who told authorities “neighbors stole her cat and chopped it up.”

While most of these reports didn’t surface until after the presidential debate between Trump and Harris, there’s no excuse for Walz to claim the Trump-Vance campaign was “creating stories” about the Haitian migrants in Springfield.

If the press is waiting for video footage of foreigners proudly taping what they know by now is taboo in their newfound country, then these stories will never be taken seriously by establishment media. The same media eager to write off these tales as a right-wing conspiracy also dismissed the Hunter Biden laptop bombshells as Russian disinformation, so voters have good reason to be skeptical whenever the press says something is blatantly false.