No, Haitian Immigrants Are Not Eating Pet Cats

Unfortunately, both candidates tend to run to the extreme on immigration. Those who are here legally shouldn’t just be sent back, while I believe those who are here illegally should be. Further, immigration should be limited, and should be done in a way advantageous to U.S. interests. My personal feelings on how immigrants should be treated is very similar to what Theodore Roosevelt wrote:

“In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person’s becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American …

There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn’t an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag … We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language … and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.” —

Theodore Roosevelt

Emphasis above mine. It’s easy to decry those against open borders as xenophobic or racist, when really, we just want immigration in measured amounts and done legally. And yes, we want people to obey our laws, learn our language, learn to drive if they are going to do that, and assimilate into our culture. You remember the idea of the “great American melting pot?” They can worship (or not) as they please, and have pride in their national origins and way of life, but to live here they should respect our cultural norms, how we treat people (particularly women and children), respect property rights, and so forth. This wasn’t always a radical idea, but if believing that makes me radical now, I’m happy to wear the label.

As to selecting a candidate, one of them has a goal of keeping the borders completely open (in spite of mealy-mouthed comments otherwise and some small amount of deportations here and there) and one does not want to do that. There is a lot of extreme rhetoric going around, which is often unhelpful, but the fact is, if we don’t have a border, we don’t really have a country, so which of those positions is likely to get my vote should be obvious. And this is only one issue. Both candidates are far from perfect, but I still have information enough to make a choice I can live with.

What does that have to do with the question of whether the stories about eating pets and animals from local parks are true?

When you can provide some reputable sources or local Springfield authorities who will vouch for the story, then it's a conversation. So far there haven't been any.