Representative Clay Higgins, Republican of Louisiana, advanced racist claims about Haitians in a post on social media that was subsequently deleted on Wednesday.
Mr. Higgins’s post on X was a response to an Associated Press article about a court filing by the leader of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, a nonprofit group. The group invoked a citizen’s right to file charges against former President Donald J. Trump and Senator JD Vance of Ohio, his running mate, for knowingly making false claims about Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, that caused panic, the filing said.
Mr. Higgins repeated some of those claims in his post on X.
“These Haitians are wild. Eating pets, vudu, nastiest country in the western hemisphere, cults, slapstick gangsters,” he wrote.
“But damned if they don’t feel all sophisticated now, filing charges against our President and VP. All these thugs better get their mind right and their ass out of our country before January 20th,” Mr. Higgins continued, referring to the date of the presidential inauguration.
Mr. Trump has pledged, if elected, to “get them the hell out,” referring to migrants in Springfield, most of whom are in the United States legally and have filled jobs in local industry.
Mr. Higgins’s post appears to have been deleted after he faced backlash. Democrats seized on his post. Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the House minority leader, said in a statement that Mr. Higgins “must be held accountable for dishonorable conduct that is unbecoming of a member of Congress.”
Representative Steven Horsford, Democrat of Nevada and the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, said he would make a motion to censure Mr. Higgins for bringing “disgrace” to Congress.
A reporter asked the House speaker, Mike Johnson, Republican of Louisiana, about Mr. Higgins’s post in a news conference on Wednesday. Mr. Johnson said the congressman had “prayed about it, and he regretted it, and he pulled the post down.”
A spokeswoman for Mr. Higgins did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But Mr. Higgins told CNN later on Wednesday that he stood by his post.
Some Republicans have recently supported baseless claims that Haitian migrants in Springfield were stealing and eating their neighbors’ pets. Mr. Trump gave these falsehoods a national platform by advancing them onstage during the presidential debate this month.
In the days and weeks following, many residents have said these accusations have brought undue attention to the southwestern Ohio city. Springfield has faced a wave of bomb threats and threatening messages to its Haitian community.
Mr. Vance previously said he stood by debunked claims about Springfield, though he added that he was willing “to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention.”
Subodh Chandra, a lawyer representing the Haitian Bridge Alliance, and its director, Guerline Jozef, condemned Mr. Higgins’s post as “the trumpeting of a clear threat,” and suggested that the representative face an ethics investigation.
“All the hate does is cause more distress and fear,” Mr. Chandra said in an interview.
Mr. Higgins is a member of the House committees on homeland security and oversight, including a subcommittee on national security and the southern border.
Donald Trump Jr., Mr. Trump’s son, piled on with racist comments this month, baselessly suggesting that Haitians who come to the United States have low intelligence, in an interview on Real America’s Voice, a conservative broadcaster.
Several Haitian advocacy groups have also condemned the recent claims as false and racist.
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