Trump, at Latino event, stands by false claims of immigrants eating pets

By Alexandra Ulmer and Costas Pitas

(Reuters) -Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Wednesday stood by debunked claims that immigrants in Ohio were eating pets, telling Latino voters during a town hall he was "just saying what was reported."

Trump in recent weeks has amplified a false claim that has gone viral that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were stealing residents' pets or taking wildlife from parks for food.

There have been no credible reports of Haitians eating pets, and officials in Ohio - including Republicans - have repeatedly said the story is untrue.

At a town hall hosted by Spanish-language TV Univision, an undecided Mexican-born Latino Republican voter from Arizona, a battleground state, asked Trump in Spanish whether he truly believed that immigrants were eating pets.

"I was just saying what was reported... And eating other things too that they're not supposed to be. All I do is report," Trump replied during the event held in Miami. "I was there, I'm going to be there and we're going to take a look."

Trump added that "newspapers" had also reported on the claim, without naming any or providing any details.

Trump, who has not yet traveled to Springfield, has previously said he would conduct mass deportations of Haitian immigrants from the Ohio city, even though the majority of them are in the U.S. legally.

The city has faced bomb threats since Trump began repeating the false accusations about Haitians.

In the final weeks before the Nov. 5 election, Trump is increasingly resorting to darker and more violent language about illegal immigration, an issue that opinion polls show resonates with many voters, especially Republicans.

He is competing against Democratic candidate Kamala Harris for key votes from the growing Latino population. Latino voters have typically backed Democrats, but the Trump campaign is hoping to win over more of them, especially men, on the back of economic discontent.

Harris led Trump by eight percentage points - 47% to 39% - among Hispanic voters in Reuters/Ipsos polling conducted between Sept. 11 and Oct. 7. Harris held her own Latino town hall last week in Nevada, a battleground state with a significant Hispanic population.

FARM WORKER QUESTIONS TRUMP

At the town hall, Trump was asked another immigration question by a Mexican-born California farm worker, who spoke of picking strawberries and broccoli for years. He asked who would do hard farm labor if Trump goes through with his plans to deport millions of people who are in the United States illegally, and how that would impact food prices.

Trump dodged the question, instead claiming that African Americans and Hispanic Americans were losing their jobs because of illegal immigration. He also repeated baseless claims that Latin American countries were emptying out mental institutions and jails to send people to the United States.

Trump has previously used dehumanizing terminology to describe immigrants in the U.S. illegally, calling them "animals" when talking about alleged criminal acts, and saying they are "poisoning the blood of our country," a phrase that has drawn criticism as xenophobic and echoing Nazi rhetoric.

(Reporting by Alexandra Ulmer and Costas Pitas; Editing by Colleen Jenkins, Deepa Babington and Jamie Freed)