SPRINGFIELD, Ohio—They live on separate sides of Springfield, but Rhonda Zimmers and Melissa Skinner noticed gradual changes to their neighborhoods in this Ohio city midway between Dayton and Columbus, starting around three years ago.
“Longtime residents who I used to see were no longer there. They moved out, and Haitian migrants moved in. They didn’t speak English. I started to see a lot of foot traffic on the streets. And you could see a dozen or more people coming and going from the houses. It was clear there were a lot of people living in the houses,” Zimmers told The Epoch Times.
Skinner, who serves with Zimmers on the city’s Board of Zoning Appeals, observed a similar transition in her neighborhood.
“We used to know everyone, and mostly everyone got along, but then we started seeing more turnover on our street. We no longer knew many of our neighbors,” Skinner said.
“It used to be a quiet and peaceful place to live. Now, we have several houses where several Haitian families are living in a home intended for one family. And sometimes we get harassed by people who are yelling at us in a foreign language. We have to be more cautious. This is not the Springfield I once knew,” Skinner said.
A blue-collar city that saw many of its factories shut down decades ago, Springfield’s population declined to less than 60,000—until the last few years. An estimated 15,000 to 20,000 Haitian migrants have arrived here over that span.
Residents have voiced concern and frustration over safety issues and a strain on resources. City leaders have acknowledged that changes must be made to effectively accommodate its residents and the migrants.
The conversation was mostly confined to Springfield and Clark County until the presidential debate earlier this week. At an Aug. 27 city council meeting, some residents alleged that Haitians were killing cats, dogs, ducks, and geese for food.
Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), former President Donald Trump’s running mate, said that his office had been inundated with those claims.
Vance wrote on X that “Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country.”
Early in the Sept. 10 presidential debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump said, “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs. The people that came in, they’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”
City officials and police said they had not received reports of Haitians eating animals.
In a statement on Sept. 10, a Springfield police spokesperson said the same thing.
He also noted that citizens testified to city council about incidents of Haitian migrants killing geese.
“These people would be competent witnesses in court. Why does the media find a carefully worded City Hall press release better evidence?” Yost wrote.
Over the last week, tension has risen in Springfield.
On Sept. 12, Springfield City Hall and an elementary school were evacuated after multiple city facilities received bomb threats, according to police. Clark County officials reported that every county building was closed that day out of “an abundance of caution.”
The next day, two elementary schools were evacuated and a middle school was closed in Springfield “based on information received from the Springfield Police Division,” according to school officials.
Outside of Ohio, many Americans had never heard of Springfield until Trump’s comments. Now, residents told The Epoch Times, it is drawing national attention for the wrong reasons.
“The animal reports are good for media clickbait, but the real story here—what has created a crisis—is how the residents are being negatively impacted,” Zimmers said.
“This wasn’t put to a vote. We didn’t ask for this, and our city leaders did not put proper infrastructure in place to prepare for the migrants and to address the challenges it would cause for the residents who are U.S. citizens,” Skinner said.
In 2023, the U.S. State Department urged U.S. citizens to leave Haiti amid widespread violence and unrest after the assassination of its president, Jovenel Moise, in 2021.
The country is currently listed by the U.S. Embassy as “Level 4–Do Not Travel” because of crime, kidnappings, poor health care infrastructure, and unrest.
Springfield had a small Haitian population before 2021, when illegal border entries began to break records. A shortage of entry-level and blue-collar workers made the city an ideal destination, especially because of its low cost of living compared to major metro areas.
While companies needing to fill vacant positions welcomed the surge of Haitian migrants, challenges escalated in the city.
Kyle Koehler, a former state representative in the district that represents Springfield, is a candidate for state Senate in the region that covers three counties, including Clark, where Springfield is located.
The cultural differences between residents and migrants have resulted in tension, he said.
“They don’t understand the laws; they don’t understand some of our customs. We don’t understand some of their customs, and that clash and the overwhelming amount of people that have come at one point has really caused some issues,” Koehler said.
In a recent campaign speech, Koehler said that the Haitian migrants in Springfield receive between $600 and $1,600 a month on debit cards through the Refugee Cash Assistance program. They can also access public assistance programs available to U.S. citizens.
“As of this month, our local Job and Family Services has registered over 20,000 Haitian refugees in our county and city. Springfield, which had a steady population of 58,000 … now has an additional 20,000 new residents in and around Springfield—20,000 people in just under four years,” Koehler said.
He said that Springfield’s public school system now has more than 1,600 non-English speaking students.
“Our Federally Qualified Health Care (FQHC) called Rocking Horse is overwhelmed with the increase in Haitians that are automatically qualified for Medicaid services. City, county, and state leaders are overwhelmed with complaints that they can do very little about fixing,” he said.
Before arriving in Springfield, Haitian migrants had little or no health care services.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced earlier this week that he is dedicating $2.5 million toward expanding primary care access for Springfield residents. He has directed the Ohio Department of Health to work with the Clark County Health Department and other health care providers.
“We will continue to do everything we can to help the community deal with this surge of migrants,“ DeWine said at a Sept. 11 press conference. ”The federal government has not demonstrated that they have any kind of plan to deal with the issue. We will not walk away.”
Part of DeWine’s plan includes the creation of a school-based health clinic in the Springfield City School District, increasing support for vaccinations and health screenings through the local health department.
Also, allocating additional funds to the Clark County Department of Job and Family Services for translation services, providing funding to Clark State College for services to teach English to Haitians, as well as providing driving simulators, and offering driver education classes targeted to the Haitian community, and working with the Springfield School District.
DeWine implored the federal government to provide more resources.
“These dramatic migrant surges impact every citizen in the community—the moms who have to wait hours in a waiting room with a sick child, everyone who drives on our streets, and the children who go to school in more crowded classrooms,” the governor said.
“The federal government does not have a plan to give any support to the communities impacted by surges, and we have absolutely no indication that a plan is coming in the near future.”
Yost recently said he is ordering an investigation into ways to halt what he describes as “extreme population growth” attributed to migrants moving to Springfield.
“The problem is not migrants; it is way, way too many migrants in a short period of time,” he said.
“The problem is a massive increase in the population without any communication or assistance from the federal government.”
The immigration debate among residents, local officials, and migrants reached a breaking point last summer when 11-year-old Aiden Clark was killed in a traffic accident that involved a Haitian migrant.
The boy was aboard a school bus that collided with a minivan that crossed over the dividing line driven by 36-year-old Hermanio Joseph.
Joseph was sentenced to nine to 13-and-a-half years in prison for first-degree felony involuntary manslaughter and fourth-degree felony vehicular homicide.
Nathan Clark, Aiden’s father, chastised conservative politicians for using the child’s death for political gain.
“My son, Aiden Clark, was not murdered. He was accidentally killed by an immigrant from Haiti,” Clark said at a recent city council meeting.
“They can vomit all the hate they want about illegal immigrants, the border crisis, and even untrue claims about fluffy pets being ravaged and eaten by community members,” he said. “However, they are not allowed, nor have they ever been allowed, to mention Aiden Clark of Springfield, Ohio.”
Last December, a day after her 71st birthday, Springfield grandmother Kathy Heaton was killed when a car driven by a Haitian migrant struck her while she was gathering her garbage cans.
Prosecutors decided that the driver of the car, 38-year-old Robenson Louis, wouldn’t be charged.
At a city council meeting earlier this week, Mandy Heaton, Kathy’s daughter-in-law, said the decision left their family “devastated.”
Louis was operating a car with expired license plates.
On Sept. 11, DeWine dispatched the Ohio State Highway Patrol to help local law enforcement with traffic issues in Springfield.
Residents have complained for months that Haitian migrants are getting temporary driving permits but not getting licenses.
One resident, who asked to remain anonymous because of her position in the public eye, told The Epoch Times that there are “several accidents every day,” and she has seen cars “drive into buildings and onto sidewalks, go the wrong way down one-way streets, make U-turns right in the middle of the road, and run over street signs and into yards.”
“They get behind the wheel with little or no education and training about driving laws here, and many of them don’t understand English, so they can’t read the street signs,” Zimmers said.
Malc Joseph arrived in Springfield last year with his 11-year-old son, Marcley. They fled from Haiti and lived in Philadelphia before moving to Ohio because of the lower cost of living.
“We were welcomed when we got here, and it was good because there was a big adjustment coming from a big city. After the accident, it started to change. I’m afraid for my safety. People are saying we are eating cats and dogs. That’s not part of our culture. We don’t do that,” he said.
Lindsay Aime is the treasurer for the Haitian Community Help and Support Center in Springfield. He told The Epoch Times that he acknowledges that there are cultural differences and encourages residents to be patient as the Haitian population adapts to American customs.
“Learning the language and the culture takes time. I don’t think Americans understand how difficult it is. We don’t have an established Haitian community here like in bigger cities. We need more time to integrate ourselves here. Just give us time,” Aime said.
“We are good workers, hard workers. We are paying taxes. We are customers for businesses. We want to have a positive presence here, and we’re here to stay. We can’t go back to Haiti.”
B.J. Newman is a pastor who works in Springfield. He told The Epoch Times he sympathizes with the Haitian migrants but also believes that residents should be shown more understanding.
“I’m extraordinarily compassionate to the plight of the immigrants. We just need to make sure that compassion goes in both directions. If you drive through Springfield, it doesn’t look like there’s anything out of the ordinary. This isn’t like the BLM riots, where there is violence and destruction on the streets. But there is a crisis. This happens when such a high number of refugees come here in a short time,” he said.
“Anytime you have a population jump of 20,000 in a short time, problems are bound to happen. The fact that they’re from a very different culture, I think, is what’s creating the real friction.”
Kelly Combs is a Registered Nurse who worked for a health care network on a team that provides perinatal outreach to at-risk families, including Haitians in Springfield.
She told The Epoch Times she empathizes with migrants and residents alike.
“They came here for a better life, but now many of them are afraid to leave their homes,” Combs said about the Haitian migrants. “Residents feel like it is an invasion because the refugees don’t know proper etiquette, and there is a drastic cultural difference that is creating tension.”
Combs works as a nursing instructor at Clark State Community College, which is located in downtown Springfield. She lives with her husband in a village five miles outside the city limits, so she is insulated from the migrant crisis there, but she worries about driving downtown.
“There is an intersection I pass through every day I’m at work, and there are accidents there seemingly every day,” Combs said. “You have to be attentive when you’re driving here. You can’t afford to get distracted.”
Housing is also a critical issue in Springfield.
The number of affordable housing vouchers has declined as some landlords have moved to market-based rents, which increased amid higher demand.
Multiple residents told The Epoch Times that landlords have kept increasing the rents for local residents to the point they can no longer afford to pay, choosing instead to attract Haitian migrants.
Fred Stegner is president and founder of the Springfield Soup Kitchen, which serves a free hot meal to anyone who walks through the door on Mondays and Wednesdays from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.
He told The Epoch Times that landlords raising their rents to a level where residents can no longer afford to pay has contributed to the homeless problem in Springfield.
“It makes me angry. I’m a veteran, and I’ve had many veterans come in here telling me they are getting evicted because they can’t pay their rent. This shouldn’t be happening to U.S. citizens. I know the migrants are escaping a difficult life, but there should be a compound set up for them to live. And landlords shouldn’t be allowed to drive out the residents because they know they can make a lot of money off the Haitians,” he said.
Stegner mentioned that homeless shelters in the community have closed, and he is concerned about the safety of the homeless population, with winter just a few months away.
