The ongoing immigration crisis has turned every state into a border state, as one small city in Ohio is finding out the hard way.
Springfield, Ohio, a city of less than 60,000 people, has found itself on the receiving end of an estimated 20,000 migrants from Haiti, and the ensuing upheaval has been nothing if not predictable. At a recent city commission meeting, residents of Springfield told horror stories about the impact the influx of Haitian migrants has had on their community.
“These Haitians are running into trash cans, running into buildings … They’re flipping cars in the middle of the streets,” one man said. “They’re in the park, grabbing up ducks by their neck, and cutting their head off and walking off with them. They’re eating them.”
At the same meeting, a Springfield woman told the city commission that she and her elderly husband were forced to leave their home of 45 years due to disruptive activity from migrant squatters.
‘It is so unsafe,’ she said. ‘I have men that cannot speak English in my front yard screaming at me, throwing mattresses … [and] throwing trash in my front yard.’
Stories also emerged earlier in September of migrants eating residents’ pet cats, which city officials have denied. Nevertheless, the migrant influx has already spurred a terrible tragedy, which has shaken the city to its core. In 2023, a 36-year-old Haitian migrant driving without a license crashed into a school bus, hospitalizing 20 children, and killing 11-year-old Aiden Clark. While much of the press has fixated on innuendo about migrants eating pets, we should all remember that a little boy is now dead, and the lives of his family are forever altered because of unchecked migration. It is simply mind-boggling that the federal government believed they could send 20,000 Haitian migrants into a small city of less than 60,000 people without any problems.
Not only have stories of human tragedies surfaced, but the migrant influx is also predictably increasing costs for city residents. One Springfield resident said that the number of car accidents in the area has increased, leading to skyrocketing insurance costs. Rent prices in the state have increased by nearly 44% over the past year, pricing many of the city’s residents out of rental opportunities. Ultimately, the influx of Haitian migrants will also lead to the city needing to spend more on law enforcement and social services.
All of this is occurring because the Biden Administration is abusing its parole authority to import tens of thousands of migrants every month from countries including Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela and Nicaragua. However, instead of sending these migrants to major sanctuary cities that have touted their support for anti-borders policies, the administration is sending many Haitian refugees to places like Springfield and Sylacauga, Alabama, small cities that do not have the resources to handle such an influx. The motivations behind the administration’s actions are open to debate, but neither the federal government nor anti-borders activists have bothered to explain why it’s a good idea to import large numbers of Haitian migrants into small American cities.
To say the present situation in Haiti is a mess would be a massive understatement. The Caribbean nation currently has no recognized governing authority and is now under the control of a violent war lord and gang leader. The country is one of the most violent in the world, with a homicide rate nearly seven times as high as the U.S. The State Department has issued a Level 4 travel advisory for Haiti, strongly warning Americans to avoid the country.
By all measures Haiti is an extremely violent, chaotic and unstable country. It makes sense why so many Haitian nationals are looking to leave and migrate to countries like the U.S. What is happening in places like Springfield, Ohio, is not an indictment of the Haitian people but an indictment of the Biden Administration, which has made a mockery of federal immigration law and refuses to impose basic vetting procedures before allowing foreign nationals to roam freely throughout the country. The U.S. is a sovereign nation with a responsibility to protect the safety and security of its people first and foremost. Resettling countless unvetted migrants from a violent, war-torn nation like Haiti is the antithesis of this mandate.
The U.S. government has made clear its position that Americans should not go to Haiti, so why are they trying to bring Haiti here? A country that imports the Third World will begin having Third World problems, as we are now seeing in Springfield and other areas across the country. The decision by the Biden Administration to imperil the safety and security of its people at the altar of anti-borders politics should be remembered as one of the greatest betrayals of the American people by its government in the history of our republic.
William J. Davis is a communications associate for the Immigration Reform Law Institute, a public interest law firm working to defend the rights and interests of the American people from the negative effects of mass migration.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller.
