Ohio’s Catholic Governor Welcomes Haitian Immigrants…But Ignores Residents

While the Biden-Harris administration can be blamed for opening the border to allow more than 10 million migrants into the country, the truth is that none of this would have been possible without the assistance of state officials—including some Republican governors—who not only facilitated the migration but also encouraged it in a misguided attempt to bring cheap labor into their states. 

Ohio’s Governor Mike DeWine is one of those governors. In a recent op-ed published in The New York Times, the Republican governor said the quiet part out loud when he defended the decision to bring close to 20,000 Haitians to Springfield, Ohio—a town of about 60,000 people. Suggesting that the Haitians are doing the work that Springfield’s residents were unable to do, DeWine wrote: “On Monday, I met with Springfield manufacturing business owners who employ Haitians. As one of them told me, his business would not have been able to stay open after the pandemic but for the Haitians who filled the jobs.”

Born in Springfield, Ohio, but living in a suburb 10 miles from the city, Governor DeWine waxes nostalgically about the Springfield of the past when he and his wife were dating and went to the movies at the now-abandoned Regent Theater, which closed in 1992, or “ate fried clams” at the now-shuttered Howard Johnson’s. Extolling the hardworking immigrants from Ireland, Greece, Germany, Italy, and other countries who helped build Springfield, the governor admits that Springfield “hit tough times in the 1980s and 1990s, falling into serious economic decline as manufacturing, rail commerce and good paying jobs dwindled.” 

Yet, today—according to Governor DeWine—Springfield is having a resurgence in manufacturing and job creation “thanks to the dramatic influx of Haitian migrants who have arrived in the city over the past three years to fill jobs,” adding that the Haitians are “there legally. They are there to work.”  

Critical of former President Donald Trump and Ohio’s Senator J.D. Vance, the governor wrote that he was 

saddened by how they and others continue to repeat claims that lack evidence and disparage the legal migrants living in Springfield. This rhetoric hurts the city and its people, and it hurts those who have spent their lives there…Their verbal attacks against these Haitians who are legally present in the United States—dilute and cloud what should be a winning argument about the border.

But it is the very people of Springfield—those who have spent their lives there, not those who live 10 miles away—who have expressed their own sadness and frustration that their city is being decimated by an influx of Haitian immigrants who have overrun the hospitals, the schools, and the city’s social services. These residents do not see the “winning argument” about the border that their governor sees.  It is the very people of Springfield—those who have spent their lives there, not those who live 10 miles away—who have expressed their own sadness and frustration that their city is being decimated by an influx of Haitian immigrants,Tweet This

They are concerned about the fact that Springfield’s roads are unsafe because unlicensed Haitians are speeding through the city’s streets and causing dozens of accidents each week. And although Governor DeWine’s op-ed promises that “ensuring that Haitians learn how to drive safely and understand our driving customs and traffic laws remains a top priority,” it is too little too late to save the dozens of Springfield residents who have been injured by reckless Haitian drivers—and the 11-year-old Springfield boy who was killed while riding in a school bus that was overturned by a car driven by Hermanio Joseph, a Haitian immigrant who was speeding and driving erratically on the city’s streets.

Helping the Haitians is personal—as well as political—for Governor DeWine, a Catholic. He and his wife have made more than 20 trips to Haiti over the past 30 years and have supported a Catholic priest there who runs a tuition-free school in a Port-au-Prince slum. It is a noble goal—likely grounded in his Catholic faith—to try and help as many Haitians as possible. But the governor’s largesse comes at the expense of the quality of life for Springfield’s most vulnerable residents. 

Promising more than $2.5 million in state assistance, the governor announced on September 19th that the Ohio Department of Health would work alongside the Clark County Combined Health District to open a temporary mobile health clinic in Springfield next week.

That’s a start. But the state of Ohio cannot afford to provide the infrastructure that Springfield’s newest immigrants need without taking away services from those who have already spent their lives supporting the schools, hospitals, and housing for the poor in their already overburdened city. Governor DeWine claims that Springfield has a “rich history of providing refuge for the oppressed and being a place of opportunity.” He is correct, and Springfield residents would be happy to be able to welcome the immigrants to their city—if only they had the resources to do that.