SPRINGFIELD, OHIO—Residents gathered this week at a city commission meeting to speak out against the massive surge of Haitian migrants, which they say has harmed public safety and taken jobs away from American citizens.
The meeting came after as many as 20,000 Haitian migrants were resettled in the midwestern town of about 60,000, propelling Springfield into the center of America’s debate about immigration.
“I am a disabled, elderly woman, who has such high anxiety leaving my house that I rarely do. And when I do I’m armed and I have my 120-pound pitbull with me. I’ve been followed, I’ve been groped,” one Springfield community member said at the city commission meeting.
“The influx has come in so fast and they haven’t been educated on our ways, on our laws, they need to know these things.”
A disabled, elderly woman in Springfield, Ohio explains how the influx of Haitian migrants has put women like her in danger:
“I’ve been followed. I’ve been groped.”
I’m on the ground for @realDailyWire. pic.twitter.com/9RwEajplOs
— Spencer Lindquist 🇺🇸 (@SpencerLndqst) September 11, 2024
It isn’t violent crime, however, that worries many Springfield residents. Many say that the Haitian migrants often do not obey traffic laws or are unable to safely drive altogether.
Last August, a Haitian migrant ran into a school bus, killing 11-year-old Aiden Clark and injuring many other children. The road safety concerns led to an effort to ramp up law enforcement, but one resident, Mary Adkins, called it “a Band Aid on a hemorrhaging artery.”
“They’re trying to do a surge with the sheriff, police, state highway patrol, for the accidents on that but you know, our insurance rates are going through the roof because they’re saying Springfield is a high risk area,” another resident explained.
Springfield community members also told The Daily Wire that companies are hiring Haitian workers, often at the expense of American citizens who have found themselves out of a job in a town where cost-of-living is top of mind.
“I have a grandson who worked for Dole. He was out there a week,” Springfield community member Jack Oliver told The Daily Wire. “He was hired, went to work one day, suited up and everything else. A guy comes out and he says we don’t need you anymore, Haitians took over the job.”
Another resident claimed that Amazon is laying off American workers and replacing them with Haitian migrant workers at a nearby fulfillment center just outside of town.
“They’ve recently started laying off all the Americans and bringing in Haitian help that’s cheap, like two or three hundred,” Terry Adkins told The Daily Wire as the commission meeting came to a close.
Vice President Kamala Harris, who was tasked with stemming the flow of migrants to our southern border, boasted that the Biden-Harris administration extended temporary protected status to over 100,000 Haitian migrants, saying that they “need support” and “protection.”
