The father of an 11-year-old Ohio boy killed when he was hit by a Haitian immigrant on a school bus last year delivered his harshest and most explicit refutation of Donald Trump’s lies about immigration on Tuesday.
The Republican campaign posted a photo of his son Aiden on X and claimed he was “murdered on his way to school by a Haitian immigrant who was allowed into the country by Kamala Harris,” Nathan Clark attacked Trump and his running mate J.D. Vance in an emotional speech and asked them to stop using his son’s death as a “political tool.”
“They can spread as much hate as they want about illegal immigrants, the border crisis and even false claims that pets are being destroyed and eaten by community members,” however.
“The last thing we need is to have the worst day of our lives repeatedly and violently thrown in our faces,” Nathan Clark said during a public comment session at a Springfield, Ohio, City Commission meeting. “But even that’s not enough for them.
They go one step further and make it look like our Aden applauds their hate, that we should retaliate for their hate. And look what they’ve done to us. We need to get up here and beg them to stop. Using Aden as a political tool is reprehensible, to say the least,” he added. “It has to stop now.”
In a three-minute words, Nathan Clark and his wife—who looked to be fighting back tears—stated that their kid did not actually die, but rather that he perished unintentionally in August 2023 when the bus he was riding in collided with a Haitian driver who had crossed the street the wrong way.
Hermanio Joseph, the driver, was found guilty of both vehicular and accidental death and received a sentence ranging from nine to thirteen years in jail. Twenty additional students were hurt in the crash.
The tragedy unleashed a wave of anger against the thousands of Haitian immigrants who have settled in the Springfield, Ohio area in recent years. They are immigrants who are legally living in the country and who came to the area primarily to fill manufacturing jobs.
In recent days, however, the Trump campaign and Vance have incorporated the area residents’ outrage into the national political discourse as part of their anti-immigrant rhetoric. A day after the Trump War Room, an account used by the Trump campaign, posted about Aiden’s alleged murder, Vance repeated the lie on his personal account: “A child was murdered by a Haitian immigrant who had no right to be here,” he wrote.
In the same post, the Republican vice presidential nominee continued to spread falsehoods about Haitian immigrants kidnapping and eating neighbors’ pets in Springfield — a lie that Trump repeated during Tuesday’s presidential debate, even though officials insisted it was a false claim.
Speaking before the City Commission, where Springfield residents have gone to complain about the presence of Haitian immigrants in their community since Aiden’s death, Nathan Clark cited four politicians he described as “morally bankrupt” for using Aiden to advance their own interests: Trump, Vance, Ohio Republican Senate candidate Bernie Moreno and Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas. “They have used my son’s name and his death for political gain,” he said, adding that he would listen to them just one more time “to hear their apologies.”
“Do you know that one of the worst feelings in the world is not being able to protect your child? Even worse, we can’t even protect his memories when he’s gone. Please, stop hating,” the father pleaded.