The mayor of the Ohio city at the center of a firestorm over immigration says that his town needs help — not the hate that has been stirred by politicians and extremists.

“We are hurting,” the mayor of Springfield, Rob Rue, said in an interview with The New York Times on Thursday.

The tensions over the growing Haitian population in Springfield exploded this week after former President Donald J. Trump used the presidential debate to spread debunked rumors that Haitians were stealing pets and eating them.

On Thursday, bomb threats led to the evacuation of Springfield City Hall, two schools and the state motor vehicle agency’s local facility. .

Mayor Rue said that the threats, which came by email, were a “hateful response to immigration in our town.”

“Obviously, the negative response and threats are very sad and hard to handle,” he said. “We want to move forward together, and it just makes it more difficult to do that when we have violent actions and threats.”