Springfield’s Haitian community ready for attention to move elsewhere
Resources are flowing into Springfield, Ohio, after weeks of negative attention fueled by Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and right-wing social media influencers.
Ohio state troopers are posted at schools, state health officials are opening clinics to assist over-stretched local providers, and civic organizations are raising money.
Springfield’s Haitian community, the subject of repeated smears, is exhausted and ready for the country’s attention to move somewhere else. But while they’re frustrated, they say they see the furor for what it is — manufactured, fanciful, political.
Community reaction
At the Haitian restaurant Rose Goute Creole, the line was long and the tables were packed. Many of the customers had made the trip from outlying cities like Columbus, looking to show support for the community in whatever small way they could.
Over a plate of spaghetti with chicken and hard-boiled eggs, Daniel Geffrard spoke with pride about his heritage.
“We know who we are. Haiti is the first Black republic. It is the second independent country (in the Americas) after USA,” he said. “We know that we are a great people, and the world knows who we are.”
Geffrard has been living in Springfield for three years. He works with Amazon and drives for Lyft as well. Geffrard stressed that he and others like him aren’t there to be a burden — they just want to work.
“We know,” he said again, jamming a finger into his chest for emphasis, “We know who we are, and we know why they say what they say.”
A couple miles away on the north side of town Philomene Philostin runs Creations Market. The shelves are packed with big sacks of rice and beans, dried jute leaves called lalo and bottled fruit juice or malt drinks.
“I heard a lot of people said they’re gonna leave,” she said.
Philostin described one customer whose husband has been living in the city since 2017.
“She have all those memories,” Philostin said, but their place in town suddenly feels tenuous.
“She have kids in school here, she have a newborn gonna be coming soon, and she want to leave Springfield,” she said.
If people feel threatened or endangered enough to want to leave, Philostin said she can’t blame them.
But she was clear-eyed about the purpose of the rhetoric and argued it will disappear once the election has passed. Donald Trump recently floated the idea of holding a rally in Springfield — Philostin said go ahead.
“He’s a former president,” she said, “He have right to come in whatever he want to come, whatever state he want to visit, because he have his people here. Who knows, I may be his people, too.”
Rinaldi Dessalines speaks four languages and works in Springfield as a translator.
“It’s because I’ve been in different places,” he explained.
Growing up in Haiti, he spoke French and Haitian Creole. He picked up Spanish after living in the Dominican Republic, and English here in the United States.
He said life was pretty nice in Springfield before it became the subject of baseless rumors.
“Everything was OK for me,” he said. “I can say my experience was amazing.”
But since then, “it’s like an earthquake, not only for the Haitian community, it’s for everybody.”
The experience has been rattling, and now residents are second-guessing the world around them as if questioning the ground beneath their feet. Dessalines said he’s frustrated at having his culture tarred for political gain.
“When you attack a culture of someone, it’s normal you’re gonna feel this kind of thing, you know, frustration when someone accused of something that you don’t do in your culture,” he said. “It’s not only about Haitian. It’s about everybody.”
Dessalines hasn’t been personally targeted, but he’s spoken to others who feel scared. He described how being forced into the national spotlight is strange and a bit eerie. Between bomb threats and reporters crawling all over the place, there’s a kind of nebulous threat hanging in the air.
“So when, in the atmosphere, even (if) the person doesn’t feel attacked or striked or targeted, it’s like this is a sign something not good is going on in your environment,” he said.
State support
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has forcefully rejected former President Trump and U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance’s false assertions about Haitian migrants eating domestic animals. He has dismissed the claims as “garbage,” and in a New York Times op-ed he insisted that rhetoric “hurts the city and its people.”
At the same time, DeWine finds himself walking a familiar tightrope — for all his frustration with what the former president says, he’s been reticent to make a break with the candidate himself.
Even as he criticized Trump and Vance’s repeated, baseless claims, DeWine’s op-ed reiterated his support for the GOP presidential ticket. He argued frustration with the Biden administration’s immigration policy is justified, but that anger is misplaced when it’s directed at the Haitian community.
While the governor attempts to thread the needle politically, he’s been far more direct when it comes to support.
Following more than 30 bomb threats that shuttered schools, hospitals and city hall, the governor dispatched the Ohio Highway Patrol. DeWine said they’d be present and visible for as long as necessary. Friday, a trooper was posted in the shade out front of Perrin Woods Elementary on Springfield’s south side.
As claims about eating pets have been debunked, Vance has reached for other negative impacts including rising rates of HIV and tuberculosis.
According to the Clark County Health Department, cases have gone up — but the numbers aren’t dramatic. In 2018, there were 10 new HIV diagnoses, in 2022, there were 13. Clark County has more recent data for tuberculosis. Between 2013 and 2019, the county reported one case or none each year. In 2023, there were four cases.
Still, the local health system is struggling to manage an increasing population, and to help meet those needs, state and county officials are setting up a mobile clinic this week.
In a press release, DeWine explained, “Our goal is to reduce wait times and to be able to provide the necessary health care services for everyone – whether you’ve lived in this community your whole life or you’ve just come into the community recently.”
The plan is to eventually transition that mobile clinic to a permanent site, but the location and timeline for that effort is still up in the air. According to the governor, the clinic will deliver primary care, vaccinations, lab testing and maternal and infant health services. DeWine’s administration has also committed to direct $2.5 million to expand access to primary healthcare in the city.
State Rep. Bernie Willis, R-Springfield, pinned the blame for stretched local resources on the Biden administration.
“There was no communication from the federal government that they were going to start sending migrants to Springfield and there also has been no support,” he said in a statement. “Springfield has been left on its own to figure out these problems.”
The federal government has not “sent” migrants to Springfield. By and large, the Haitian people living in Springfield have what’s known as Temporary Protected Status, or TPS. The program gives people whose home country is facing armed conflict or a natural disaster the right to remain in the U.S. and work temporarily. With that status they are free to find a home in the country where they like.
Willis added the greatest challenge presented by the arrival of Haitian residents is the language barrier.
“This is creating challenges for educators, law enforcement, health care professionals, and other service providers,” he said. “Translators are needed at public service departments and these additional costs are straining already stretched resources.”
The DeWine administration is working with federal officials to secure additional support. A spokesman noted part of the problem is federal resources follow people with different immigration statuses, like refugees, but not those on TPS.
Meanwhile the United Way of Clark, Champaign and Madison Counties has set up a fund for people who want to support the community.
“The Springfield Unity Fund will allow people across the nation to quickly and effectively provide targeted support to our Haitian families as we work together to ensure our neighbors feel welcomed, supported, and empowered to thrive,” executive director Kerry Lee Pedraza said.
The organization is putting donations toward services like early childhood education, English courses and driving instruction as well as employment and health care assistance.
Nick Evans has spent the past seven years reporting for NPR member stations in Florida and Ohio. He got his start in Tallahassee, covering issues like redistricting, same sex marriage and medical marijuana. Since arriving in Columbus in 2018, he has covered everything from city council to football. His work on Ohio politics and local policing have been featured numerous times on NPR. Follow Ohio Capital Journal Reporter Nick Evans on Twitter.
Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
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