'We need help, not hate:' Springfield, Ohio at center of national debate on immigration

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio – Springfield residents want to get back to normal.

In the last two weeks, the central Ohio city of nearly 60,000 has faced police cars outside of church services, 200 students absent from an elementary school amid bomb threats and a city commission meeting so packed that dozens of residents had to stream it on their phones outside the city hall.

After Ohio Sen. JD Vance posted claims without evidence about Haitian immigrants abducting and eating dogs and cats and after former President Donald Trump repeated the claims during a presidential debate, residents and local officials have been left to deal with security issues, national media attention and hateful flyers and phone calls.

Springfield's moment in the national spotlight is going to continue as Trump says he is going to the city in the coming weeks.

State and local officials say Trump's claims about Haitians eating dogs and cats are false. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources also could not find evidence to support reports that immigrants were stealing geese around local parks and trails.

The claims have meant less attention to the real challenges facing Springfield and how it deals with the influx of Haitian migrants, according to Springfield Mayor Rob Rue, a Republican.

“If I knew that my words were hurting people consistently, I would want to change that and I would want to not do that,” Rue said. “I’m just asking them to move on and quit using us as a political tool. We want to get out of this political vortex that we’ve been caught up in.”

In an interview on CNN last week, Vance said he was trying to draw attention to the immigration issues in Springfield. "If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that's what I'm going to do," he said.

A rust belt town with growing pains

Springfield has been an industrial town since the late 1800s, but the city's median income dropped between 1999 and 2014 when manufacturing jobs declined in the U.S.

Springfield made an effort to attract more businesses and companies expanded in the city in 2022. Those jobs in turn attracted immigrants and word spread quickly among the Haitian community.

Pierre Eric Jean, a Haitian resident of Springfield, said he moved to the city because it was the first place in America he had heard of.

"We Haitian people are here to work hard and help our family in Haiti," he said.

The city now has a "Little Haiti" neighborhood, a library branch with a French language section for Haitian residents, two Haitian restaurants and seven Haitian grocery stores.

City officials have wrestled for years with the impact of Haitian migration, which increased the population by an estimated 25%. Rue said the school district went from 200 to 2,000 non-native English-speaking students. He said their emergency responders are among the busiest in the state and end up providing primary care to residents because the health care system is overtaxed.

Back in July, Springfield City Manager Brian Heck penned a letter to federal officials – including Ohio’s senators – asking for help to address the city’s housing crisis. The letter, read by Vance during a committee hearing, led to a Fox News interview with Heck and Rue.

Springfield resident Heidi Earlywine said she noticed more complaints related to immigration at city commission meetings last year and believes it was related to the end of Medicaid continuous enrollment in March 2023 and increased visibility of homeless people in the city after a homeless shelter closed.

"What happens when you drive through town in 2023 is you see unhoused people and now you don't have your benefits anymore, right? And so those two things were a confluence of events where some people in town started rabble-rousing at city meetings," she said.

Then the bus wreck happened, Earlywine said.

In August 2023, Hermanio Joseph, an immigrant from Haiti, was driving a minivan and struck a Northwestern Local Schools bus that overturned. 11-year-old Aiden Clark died after being ejected from the bus and more than 20 other students were injured in the crash.

Joseph was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and vehicular homicide and sentenced to a minimum of nine years in prison and a maximum of 13 ½ years in prison in May.

"When that happened, it really made everything extra bad," Earlywine said.

Don and Marie Owens, Springfield residents of 40 years, agreed. They said the crash "absolutely" increased tension in the city.

Nathan Clark, Aiden's father, publicly asked residents and politicians last week to stop using his son's death as an excuse to say hateful things about immigrants. Clark asked politicians, including Vance and Trump, who've brought up his son's death, to apologize. He said to use his son as a political tool is "reprehensible."

But national attention on Springfield didn’t stick until the days before the presidential debate when Vance and other Republicans amplified rumors about Haitian immigrants eating people’s pets.

Once Trump repeated the claim to a national audience, everything changed, Rue said.

“They’re eating the dogs. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people that live there,” Trump said during the ABC debate with Vice President Kamala Harris.

City reckons with national attention, international threats of violence

Since the presidential debate, Springfield City Hall, two elementary schools, two hospitals, three grocery stores, two colleges and the Ohio Statehouse have received threats.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said Springfield was the target of 33 bomb threats, which all turned out to be hoaxes. Still, the threats derailed government and school operations and forced organizers to cancel its annual cultural festival.

“As a human being, I hate to see a broad brush of lies spread against any group,” Rue said. “My heart goes out to those in the Haitian community that are experiencing this fear and this hate and would like it to stop.”

Some residents spoke about the increased immigration at the Springfield City Commission meeting on Sept. 10, describing it as an "invasion" and expressing concerns about homelessness and fear of rising rents and housing prices and increased response times from police.

Don and Marie Owens said their neighborhood was predominantly Black when they moved in in 1992 and now the neighborhood includes several Haitian families. Their grandson played with the children of a Haitian family growing up and now has a Haitian friend in school.

They have concerns about rising house prices but were upset to hear the rumors about geese and cats and say the Haitians in Springfield "got a raw deal."

Marie Owens said the situation is unfair to the Haitians and other Springfield residents.

"It's unfortunate that Trump said it and he had no clue whether it was true or false," she said. "It's a publicity stunt at our cost."

Some Haitians in Springfield are afraid to leave their houses

Luckens Merzius immigrated to Springfield from Haiti with his wife and two daughters six years ago. The family attends First Baptist Church in the city, where Sunday's church program includes a prayer request for the people of Haiti.

Merzius said many Haitians left Haiti for political reasons and a fear of violence and now they once again are feeling scared in their community.

Earlywine said she witnessed several phone calls to members of the Haitian evangelical church in Springfield in which the anonymous caller said "Go back to your f-----g country" and hung up. There were three police cars outside the church's service on Sunday.

Myriam Joseph, a Haitian woman who moved to Springfield in 2020, works as a home health care nurse and primarily cares for white residents. She said she feels afraid when she goes into their homes and residents ask her about politics, like whether she likes Trump or Harris.

Joseph said her 15-year-old son called her last week and asked to be picked up from Springfield High School because he was scared.

DeWine announced the Ohio State Highway Patrol will conduct daily bomb sweeps at Springfield schools and encouraged parents to send their children back to school. Springfield City School District Superintendent Robert Hill said attendance has been down in the district and there were 200 students absent from an elementary school with an enrollment of 500 students on Tuesday.

What's next for Springfield?

Local officials are concerned about a potential visit from Trump and say resources in the city are strained.

Rue noted at a news conference Tuesday that just a week ago, the city was not facing the threats it's facing now.

“We’re trying to do these interviews to let the world know that Springfield is a beautiful city,” Rue said. “We’re a hardworking city. We’re a city that wants to move forward together. We’ve always had to struggle for success, but we are here, we are trying to be a vibrant community, and we need help, not hate. We need peace, not unrest."

Cincinnati Enquirer reporters Amber Hunt and Scott Wartman contributed reporting.

Erin Glynn and Haley BeMiller are reporters for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio. Reach out to Glynn at [email protected].