‘The federal government simply has to be part of the solution. It’s their policies that have created these surges,’ Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said.
Ohio’s governor says he is sending law enforcement officials and millions of dollars in health care resources to Springfield, a city at the center of a national spotlight on Haitian illegal immigrants.
Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, said he doesn’t oppose the Temporary Protected Status program under which some 15,000 Haitians have arrived in the city of about 59,000 people since 2020. However, he said, the federal government must do more to help impacted communities.
In a news conference on Sept. 10, DeWine said that “dramatic surges” in illegal immigrants “impact every citizen of the community,” adding that the small Ohio cities of Lima and Findlay also have had influxes.
“The federal government simply has to be part of the solution,” the governor said. “They have to step up. It’s their policies that have created these surges.”
He said the influx affects “moms who have to wait hours in a waiting room with a sick child, everyone who drives on the streets, and it affects children who go to school in more-crowded classrooms.”
On Sept. 11, the Ohio State Highway Patrol is being dispatched to help local police with traffic issues in Springfield.
City officials and social media posts have indicated that Haitian drivers are frequently involved in accidents and crashes, the governor said.
“The goal, of course, is to reduce dangerous driving regardless of who the driver is,” he said.
DeWine said he is also earmarking $2.5 million over two years for more primary health care through the county health department and private health care institutions.
Controversy over migrants in Springfield erupted earlier this month after some social media users said that Haitian immigrants were eating people’s pets, as well as ducks from a park.
People who spoke at town hall events, videos of which were uploaded online, also said that the immigrants frequently crash their vehicles, camp, and squat on locals’ property, cannot speak English, and haven’t tried to assimilate into the broader American culture.
