The Ohio city that became a flashpoint of the immigration debate during the 2024 presidential election after Donald Trump amplified false rumors of Haitian immigrants “eating the pets” is suing a neo-Nazi group for unleashing a “campaign of hate and harassment” against residents who defended the city’s migrant population.
In a federal lawsuit filed this week in the U.S. District Court in Dayton, the city of Springfield alleged that the Blood Tribe and its leadership fueled fear and anger with its coordinated “hit” on the town to stop the “invasion” of Haitian immigrants. Springfield is seeking damages from the white supremacist organization for conspiracy to violate civil rights, public nuisance, telecommunications harassment, menacing, ethnic intimidation, and inciting violence.
The plaintiffs, which include the city and multiple residents and local officials, are being represented by lawyers from the Anti-Defamation League. Besides the Blood Tribe itself, the plaintiffs are suing the hate group’s leaders, Christopher Pohlaus and Drake Berentz, as well as seven other members of the organization.
The complaint points out that the Blood Tribe began targeting the city this past summer because of the increased number of Haitian immigrants who had moved to Springfield in recent years. The Haitian residents, the vast majority of whom were in the country legally due to Temporary Protected Status, came to Springfield for economic opportunity, as new businesses set up shop, and the city’s population had decreased substantially over the previous decades.
Claiming the new Haitian community threatened “the good White residents” of Springfield, Blood Trump members descended on the city in August during Springfield’s annual Jazz & Blues festival, marching downtown while displaying guns and waving swastika flags. Berentz would then deliver a racist speech at City Hall while his members chanted “Sieg Heil” and gave Nazi salutes. Berentz returned two weeks later to address the City Commission in a public meeting, ominously warning them that “if you keep importing Haitians, things will get worse.”
According to the complaint, “the Blood Tribe made good on those threats,” noting that the city and its residents received at least 33 bomb threats in subsequent weeks, the vast majority of which included complaints about the Haitian community. “And even though the bomb threats proved to be false alarms, they were frightening and disruptive and required the City of Springfield to expend extensive resources to assure the safety of the City and its residents,” the lawsuit adds.
“The Blood Tribe also identified Springfield residents who supported the Haitian community and set out to terrorize and intimidate them,” the complaint states. “The Blood Tribe sent suspicious packages designed to look like bombs, left harassing voicemails, sent hateful emails, demeaned the residents and their families on social media platforms, used dating apps to send men looking for drugs and sex to their homes late at night, and publicized their personal information, such as their telephone numbers, email addresses, and home and work addresses, all the while actively encouraging others to harass and intimidate them.”
The complaint further states that the Blood Tribe “ramped up their intimidating and hateful conduct” during the fall, with roughly a dozen members led by Berentz gathering outside Springfield Mayor Rob Rue’s house on September 28. Once again carrying swastika flags and covering their faces with masks, the group taunted Rue to “enjoy your peace for now” before heading to City Hall, where Berentz declared that “Springfield is property of Blood Tribe” and that “we are ready to face the enemies of the American people in the streets, until the problem is dealt with.”
The lawsuit also includes numerous examples of Blood Tribe members sending intimidating and inflammatory text messages and emails to local officials and private citizens who had openly defended the Haitian community amid the increased tensions that were fueled by Trump’s campaign rhetoric.
One screenshot included in the complaint shows a member discussing “exterminating” the Jews and people of color before hunting down “any and all race traitors like this skank,” adding that he’d “stomp her throat flat and sic the dogs on her without a single ounce of remorse.”
Besides highlighting the intimidation and harassment local residents felt, the complaint states that many targets of the Blood tribe took on significant costs to protect themselves, which included purchasing security windows and updated alarm systems. Berentz and Pohlaus could not be reached for comment.
This lawsuit comes as other far-right and extremist organizations have come on the losing side of lawsuits filed by their targets. For instance, it was just last week that a judge ordered the Proud Boys to give up its naming rights to a predominately Black church the group had vandalized following the 2020 presidential election.
At the same time, though, Trump’s electoral victory has left the city’s Haitian immigrants terrified that the president will make them an “example” amid his mass deportation campaign, worried that his immigration crackdown would target them despite their legal status. Indeed, during the campaign, Trump said he would specifically revoke the Temporary Protected Status of Haitians in Springfield — and his administration has already rolled back the protections Venezuelan migrants had received.
