Residents of a little city in the Buckeye State may soon have to start hiding their cats and dogs, as the Biden-Harris administration has dropped thousands of Haitian immigrants into the suburbs of small-town USA. Since taking office in 2021, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have imported over 100,000 Haitian immigrants into the U.S. Nearly 20,000 of those Haitians have been settled in Springfield, Ohio over the course of the past three years under Temporary Protected Status, increasing the city’s population of 60,000 by a third, overwhelming municipal services, and causing a spike in traffic accidents and crime.
According to locals, the massive influx of immigrants is crippling Springfield’s municipal and social services. Dr. Millie Chamberlin, a former high school principal, told The Washington Stand, “I think the overwhelming concern is that there was no preparation, no planning, no anything to help the schools or help the citizens adjust and accept this huge wave of people. And so now we have this burgeoning population that started a few years ago when a former mayor agreed to bring in 10,000 Haitians without telling anybody.”
On the first day of school, public school hallways were full of Haitian immigrants seeking to register their children for classes: within the first week of school, over 350 new students were registered. The public school system had to hire dozens of Haitian-Creole interpreters and new teachers to handle English as a second language. Over the past three years, the county school system has reportedly registered at least 1,600 non-English-speaking students, and 20-year-old Haitians are being placed in freshman high school classes with 13-year-olds.
At a Springfield City Commission meeting two weeks ago, residents explained that immigrants are being given preference over U.S. citizens for social services. “I have a 20-year-old granddaughter who works two jobs, pays city tax, a 23-year-old grandson who also pays city tax and federal, state and all the other stuff,” said Lisa Hayes, noting that immigrants are being given better benefits first. “She works two jobs, she’s pregnant, and it took us four months to get Medicaid for that young lady. And she couldn’t get any of her tests done.” It is estimated that 90% of those waiting in line for welfare and social services are Haitian immigrants, who cause hours-long wait times due to the language barrier and the fact that they bring no paperwork with them to collect welfare.
Dr. Yamini Teegala, CEO of the Rocking Horse Community Health Center, a federally-subsidized health center open to all, said that the strain placed on the city by the Biden-Harris administration’s shipment of immigrants is “not sustainable.” She explained that the average 15-minute consultation time has jumped to a new standard of 45 minutes, usually due to the language barrier, and that Rocking Horse Community Health Center has gone from spending $43,000 on translation services four years ago to $436,000 in 2024 alone. Hospital wait times have increased and American taxpayers are forced to fund health services for non-citizens, and often find that those services are so overwhelmed by immigrants that citizens themselves cannot access them.
One longtime Springfield resident explained that his new Haitian neighbors are being given $3,000 a month, in addition to food stamps, for meals and rent, while he himself is only offered $76 monthly in food stamps. Due to the money provided them through government programs, the immigrants are emptying out grocery store shelves and, in many cases, are able to pay higher rent than their working-class American neighbors, leading landlords and realtors to give preference to immigrants over Americans.
In some cases, landlords have even had American families vacate properties in order to rent them to higher-paying immigrants, and at least 200 properties in Springfield have been removed from a federal housing-voucher program for low-income families in order to profit from immigrants flush with government cash. Michelle Lee-Hall, executive director of Springfield’s housing authority, explained, “Here in Springfield, the new homeless are people who can’t afford to pay $2,000 or $3,000 a month in rent.”
Others are being forced from their homes and neighborhoods not by rising rent prices, but by the sheer chaos caused by the immigrants. One elderly Springfield resident told a commission meeting that she and her husband have been forced to leave their home of nearly 50 years because it has become “so unsafe in my neighborhood.” She explained that immigrant squatters camp on her front lawn, ignore her pleas for them to leave, and litter in her yard and on her street. “I have men that cannot speak English in my front yard screaming at me, throwing mattresses in my front yard, throwing trash in my front yard,” she recounted. The woman asked the mayor and commissioners, “I don’t understand what you expect of us as citizens. I understand they’re here under Temporary Protected Status and you’re protecting them… But who’s protecting us? If we’re protecting them, who’s protecting me?”
Additionally, Springfield residents say that Haitian immigrants are stealing local animals and eating them. In a Springfield neighborhood community group on Facebook, one local related how her friend’s cat had gone missing. “One day, she came home from work, as soon as she stepped out of her car, looked towards a neighbor[’]s house, where Haitians live, & saw her cat hanging from a branch, like you’d do a deer for butchering, & they were carving it up to eat.”
The Springfield resident added, “I’ve been told they are doing this to dogs, they have been doing it at [S]nyder park with the ducks & geese, as I was told that last bit by Rangers & police.” Another resident, Anthony Harris, told a Springfield City Commission meeting that immigrants are “in the park grabbing up ducks by their neck and cutting their head off and walking off with them and eating them.”
Another major concern among Springfield natives has been the increase in traffic accidents and mayhem caused by the influx of immigrants, very few of whom have U.S. drivers’ licenses. “These Haitians are running into trash cans. They’re running into buildings. They’re … flipping cars in the middle of the street,” Harris told Springfield commissioners. Another resident, Jeffrey Allen, suggested to commissioners, “Maybe we should open up go-kart land again so that people can have a chance to learn how to drive without being on these public streets.”
Mayor Rob Rue (R) acknowledged the pandemonium and chaos caused by the immigrants’ attempts to maneuver automobiles, announcing that he is working with the state government to devise a solution. “We’re asking for a program that will focus on reckless operators, speeding, red-light violations, dangerous driving,” he said, indicating the program would be “highly publicized” in order to minimize vehicular violence. Rue added, “I personally am concerned about the traffic. I have almost hit and been hit myself. I have kids that are learning how to drive well, and it is a concern. I have the same fears that you as grandpas and aunts and uncles have. I say this with passion.”
Last year, an 11-year-old child died when a Haitian immigrant ran his minivan into a school bus. Eleven-year-old Aiden Clark was flung from the bus and killed, and 20 other children were severely injured, when Haitian Hermanio Joseph, driving on a Mexican driver’s license, crashed into the bus in August of 2023. Joseph was convicted earlier this year of aggravated vehicular homicide and involuntary manslaughter.
Ohio native and Republican Senator J.D. Vance posted on social media, “In the last several weeks, my office has received many inquiries from actual residents of Springfield who’ve said their neighbors’ pets or local wildlife were abducted by Haitian migrants. It’s possible, of course, that all of these rumors will turn out to be false.” He continued:
“Do you know what’s confirmed? That a child was murdered by a Haitian migrant who had no right to be here. That local health services have been overwhelmed. That communicable diseases — like TB and HIV — have been on the rise. That local schools have struggled to keep up with newcomers who don’t know English. That rents have risen so fast that many Springfield families can’t afford to put a roof over their head.”
Vance noted that Springfield residents are “suffering under Kamala Harris’s policies,” pointing out that the vice president has bragged “about giving amnesty to thousands of Haitian migrants.”
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost (R) has officially launched an investigation to determine how to prevent the Biden-Harris administration from flooding the Buckeye State with third-world immigrants. Yost asked, “How many people can they be expected to take? What are the limits to the federal government’s power? Could the federal government simply funnel into Ohio all the millions of migrants flooding in under the current administration’s watch?”
The AG and his office are now working on a strategy to block the Biden-Harris administration from resettling immigrants in Ohio. Yost said, “There’s got to be a limiting principle. We’re going to find a way to get this disaster in front of a federal judge.”
S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.
