Donald Trump and his running mate continued to disparage Haitian migrants in an Ohio community on Friday, adding further fuel to false claims Republicans have promoted even as the city saw bomb threats and school evacuations and local officials called for a cooling of anti-immigrant rhetoric.

“We are going to do major deportations from Springfield, Ohio,” Trump said Friday during a press conference in California, adding that he could possibly hold a campaign event or town hall in the city, arguing that the migrants are “ruining the way of life.”

Ohio authorities have said there are no credible or detailed reports to support the dismissed allegations circulated this week by both Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, on Haitian immigrants eating pets and birds in the city’s public parks. Trump mentioned the claims during a debate Tuesday with her Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, who made her laugh and call the GOP presidential candidate “extreme.”

After city officials were hit with a bomb threat, Springfield Mayor Rob Rue on Thursday urged politicians to tone down the rhetoric.

“All these federal politicians that have been spinning our city negatively, they have to know they’re hurting our city, and it was their words that did it,” Rue said in an interview with WSYX.

A city spokesperson said an email threat claimed bombs had been planted at the homes of Springfield’s mayor and other city officials. A second email claimed bombs had been placed at locations including Springfield City Hall, a high school, a middle school, two elementary schools and the local office of the state Bureau of Motor Vehicles.

The buildings were evacuated and authorities with explosives dogs swept and cleared them, officials said.

On Friday, President Joe Biden said the Haitian community is “under attack” right now and called for an end to the Republicans’ comments.

“It is simply wrong. There is no place in America,” Biden said, speaking at a White House luncheon. “This has to stop, what he’s doing. It has to stop.”

Trump suggested Friday that local officials are not being truthful about the problem because of its severity. While he said the “real threat” of immigration is at the southern border, he said, “Ohioans are scared.”

In a post on X on Friday, Vance stated, without evidence, that Springfield has experienced “a massive increase in communicable diseases, rents, car insurance rates and crime.”

“Don’t let biased media shame you into not discussing this slow-moving humanitarian crisis in a small Ohio town,” he said.

Vance repeated those claims in another X post later Friday, though he added, “Nothing justifies violence or the threat of violence against Springfield or its residents. We condemn both.”

Trump and his supporters have used anger over migrants in the Ohio community to draw attention to Trump’s signature campaign issue of immigration reform, blaming Harris for an influx of migrants into the United States. It’s a theme that Trump has used throughout his bid for public office.

The situation surrounding Springfield, a city of roughly 60,000 residents located west of Columbus, began with an online post fueled by far-right social media activists. Vance amplified the posts from his own X account.

“Reports are now showing that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who should not be in this country,” Vance wrote on Monday, X.

“Where is our border tsar?” Vance asked, referring to a label some used to refer to Harris, whom Biden tapped to address some issues related to immigration in 2021.

In a later post, Vance said his office “has received numerous inquiries from actual Springfield residents who have said that their neighbors’ pets or local wildlife were kidnapped by Haitian migrants,” adding, “It is, of course, possible that all of these rumors will turn out to be false.”

Springfield has seen its Haitian population grow in recent years. It is impossible to give an exact number, according to Citybut it estimates that Springfield’s entire county has a total immigrant population of 15,000.

The city also says Haitian immigrants are in the country legally under a federal program that allows them to stay in the country temporarily. Last month The Biden administration granted authorization for temporary legal status to approximately 300,000 Haitians already in the US as conditions in Haiti are considered unsafe for them to return. Haiti’s government has extended a state of emergency to the entire country due to endemic gang violence.

After Vance’s initial post, the internet subsequently exploded with AI-generated images of Trump appearing to save dogs, cats and birds from harm, with Trump posting several of the memes on his own Truth Social account.

Trump repeated the claim during Tuesday’s debate.

“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs. The people that came in, they’re eating the cats,” Trump said Tuesday. “They’re eating the pets of the people that live there. And this is what is happening in our country. And that’s a shame.”

Debate moderators pointed out that city officials have said the allegations are not true.

Republican Gov. Mike DeWine — whose family runs a charity in Haiti in honor of his late daughter, Becky, who died in a car accident — said this week he would add more law enforcement and health care resources to an aid package the state has already given Springfield. DeWine said the Haitians who have moved to Ohio are generally hardworking people who love their families and are trying to escape the violence in their homeland for good jobs in the state.

On Wednesday, DeWine said he believed the Springfield mayor’s assessment that the claims were unfounded, telling CBS News that the Internet “can be pretty crazy sometimes.”

There have been other responses, including from the father of an 11-year-old Ohio boy who was killed last year when a Haitian immigrant driver drove a school bus. At a Springfield City Council hearing Tuesday, Nathan Clark pleaded with Trump and other politicians to stop invoking his son’s name in the immigration debate.

Democrats have addressed the situation, and the Democratic National Committee sent out a fundraising email Wednesday with the subject line “Chaos, Cats and Conspiracy.”