Vance’s Misleading Claim About Immigrants and Murders in Springfield, Ohio

Former President Donald Trump created a stir when he made the baseless claim in a Sept. 10 presidential debate that immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, are “eating the pets” of their new neighbors — repeating a rumor that his running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, circulated on social media one day earlier. Now, Vance has cherry-picked data to make the unfounded claim that immigrants are responsible for an 81% increase in the city’s murders. On CBS News’ “Face the Nation,” Vance was asked about his Sept. 9 post on X that immigrants are abducting and eating pets in Springfield. Vance deflected the question by talking about the “terrible problems caused by [Vice President] Kamala Harris’ open border in Springfield.” “Thanks to her open border, murders are up 81% in Springfield, Ohio,” Vance claimed in the Sept. 15 interview. The Springfield Police Division provided us crime data for the last 10 years, dating to 2014, that show there were nine murders in 2023. That’s a 50% increase from the six murders in 2022, and an 80% increase from 2021 — but one fewer than the 10 murders in 2020, when Trump was president. The number of murders in 2023 was equal...