But the gathering at Mt. Calvary Baptist Church occasionally grew heated. One speaker said Haitians “have smells to them. They’re not like us. They’re not here to be Americanized. They don’t care about schools. They’re scary, folks.”

Other comments dealt with city police, which some said don’t have enough officers or funding to deal with issues caused by immigration and proper code enforcement.

If the city was able to adequately enforce housing codes, some said, it would cause a homelessness problem.