Sometimes the disgusting sewer of presidential year politics hits a little too close to home, and you end up watching a national conversation play out largely divorced from reality or the actual experiences of communities intimately connected to your own life.
That’s what happened to me Monday as I watched Ohio U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance lie about legal Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, and — displaying no sense of conscience whatsoever — make an abhorrent insinuation about them. His purpose, it appears, was a trollish attempt to mislead the public and prey on people’s hatreds and fears. I suppose he thinks that’s good politics.
Meanwhile, after last week using Haitians in Springfield baselessly to attempt to justify his claim that migrants are “terrorizing our communities,” Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost followed up Monday by announcing court action to try to get a federal judge to limit migrants coming to Ohio.
Why is this all so disturbing to me?
Three generations of my family called Springfield home, and it’s played a huge role in my life. My parents both grew up in Springfield and I’ve been visiting my whole life. I had one grandfather who retired from International Harvester and another who was an insurance agent in Springfield for decades. I had one grandmother who was a librarian at North High School and another who worked for the local bank. Both of my parents (and two of my grandparents) graduated from Wittenberg. Mike and Rosy’s Deli, Cassano’s Pizza, fishing at the C.J. Brown Dam, family parties at the Polo Club, trips down to Young’s Jersey Dairy or Clifton Gorge, these are all staples of my childhood. I have nothing but love for Springfield and the whole area.
Meanwhile, my partner’s parents are Haitian immigrants who moved to America in their teens and have led such impressively successful lives it blows me away. They’ve shown me nothing but love and kindness and have also played a huge role in my life. Haitian food has become something I can’t go without. I have jars of epis and pikliz in my fridge at all times. I am obsessed with diri kole ak pwa and griot and boulette. I have been working on learning both Spanish and Haitian Creole for several years now; I read every book I can find on Haitian history; and have danced the night away with the most kind and loving people I can imagine more times than I can remember. I have nothing but love for them and their whole family.
Even though they’ve never lived in Ohio, this is what makes this conversation about Haitians in Springfield so difficult for me to stomach. Both the Haitian community and Springfield community live in my heart, and I’m disgusted by the politics being played on both of them.
Using people’s lives and communities as a political cudgel to stoke fear and hatred and outrage with lies and innuendo is a low, base, nasty, reckless, destructive thing to do, and I do not understand what is in the hearts of politicians who indulge in it.
So let’s just clear away the muck before we can proceed to a more adult conversation: Vance keeps incorrectly claiming the Haitian community in Springfield are illegal immigrants. They are not illegal immigrants. They are legal immigrants. They are lawfully in the country. Some are newly arrived legal migrants with work permits, some are fully naturalized U.S. citizens.
What Vance insinuates about “pets” is indefensible. It’s sad that the Springfield News-Sun even had to fact-check it. It’s a disgusting racist lie from the extremist right-wing internet, and Vance perpetuated it to millions of followers. Shame on him.
As for Vance’s claim that Haitians are “causing chaos all over Springfield,” and Yost pointing to Haitians in Springfield as an example of migrants “terrorizing our communities,” I have no idea what they’re talking about. Go to Springfield and tell me where to find the chaos and terror, because every time I’ve been the last four years, I haven’t seen it.
Something extraordinary has happened in Springfield since the pandemic though, with the influx of thousands of Haitian immigrants. The actual number is hard to pin down. City officials have estimated up to 20,000, but estimates of 10,000 and 15,000 have also been made.
The New York Times reported last week, “By most accounts, the Haitians have helped revitalize Springfield. They are assembling car engines at Honda, running vegetable-packing machines at Dole and loading boxes at distribution centers. They are paying taxes on their wages and spending money at Walmart. On Sundays they gather at churches for boisterous, joyful services in Haitian Creole.
“But the speed and volume of arrivals have put pressure on housing, schools and hospitals. The community health clinic saw a 13-fold increase in Haitian patients between 2021 and 2023, from 115 to 1,500, overwhelming its staff and budget.”
The Times details how, after decades of shrinking and uncertainty, Springfield was able to attract new manufacturing and business with a strategic plan, and by 2020 had drawn in food-service firms, logistics companies, and a microchip maker, among others:
“But soon there were not enough workers. Many young, working-age people had descended into addiction. Others shunned entry-level, rote work altogether, employers said. Haitians who heard that the Springfield area boasted well-paying, blue-collar jobs and a low cost of living poured in, and employers were eager to hire and train the new work force. The Haitians had Social Security numbers and work permits, thanks to a federal program that offered them temporary protection in the United States. Some had been living for years in places like Florida, where there is a thriving Haitian community.”
So what, in fact, do we have going on here?
We have a large population increase over a short period of time; we have a language barrier that can cause various strains; we have housing, schooling, and health services that need adequate resources to deal with a massive and rapid adjustment.
We also have an eager, dutiful, law-abiding, and peaceful workforce helping revitalize a city and helping local businesses thrive; we have a city’s population swelling instead of declining; we have an influx of new taxpayers and consumers filling blue-collar jobs, paying property taxes, shopping at local stores, and contributing to their community.
Are there struggles? Absolutely.
Is it chaos and terror? Absolutely not.
Is there opportunity for both the city of Springfield and the Haitian community to thrive together? Without a doubt.
Will it all be easy? No. Will it be worth it in the long-run? Yes.
Serious people should discuss serious solutions to serious issues. Politicians using dangerous rhetoric to whip people up into a frenzy of misinformed anger and viciousness is not needed and not helpful.
With Nazis already marching through downtown Springfield, I’m sickened that statewide elected leaders would instigate and inflame the situation even further.
We must be better than that, and we must demand better than that from our elected officials.
To any Haitians new to Springfield, “Sak pase, zanmi m. Mwen akeyi ou!”
And to my friends and family in Springfield, I hope you will welcome the stranger, too. In them you’ll find some of the kindest, warmest, most remarkable people you will ever meet.
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