Free Beacon: Springfield Has Real Problems Due to Immigration (and the Leftwing Press Isn't Interested in Reporting On It)

It's not just that they're eating the cats.

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio--"If we only had 5,000, I wouldn't be talking to you right now," says Reverend Barron--real name Kenneth Selig--in what's become a common refrain in the embattled city of Springfield, Ohio.

Barron, a street preacher, food truck owner, and former warehouse manager, has emerged as a colorful champion for the small city as it struggles through an unprecedented transformation. As many as 20,000 Haitian immigrants, city officials say, have arrived in Springfield since the pandemic, swelling its population to almost 80,000. Times were already tough before the rumors started swirling about migrants eating cats, dogs, and geese.

"Look man, why would they be eating animals? They have vouchers, they're displacing people here, that's the problem," Barron said. "We can have town meetings with our pitchforks, yelling, but I'm over that. Reasonable men need to sit down and think of a solution."

Barron, a burly figure with denim overalls, a red hat, and a great white beard, went viral on social media earlier this month when he gave a fiery speech at a town meeting about the city's growing homeless population. The video has 9.5 million views on X.

"I don't know of a single homeless Haitian in this town because they all got vouchers," he bellowed at the city elders. "I'd like to show you the whole bunch of people who've been displaced."

Springfield has been inundated with reporters from around the world in recent days--Barron says someone from the World Economic Forum, an organization with which he was not familiar, even rang him up--after J.D. Vance tweeted out the pet-eating rumors. The following evening, Donald Trump declared at a debate that "they're eating the pets."

To be sure, many Springfield residents swear that the city's park used to have geese and a lot more ducks. And, to be sure, there was not a single goose to be found on Tuesday afternoon and a relatively paltry number of other waterfowl. (Nor were there any visible incidents of cats or dogs on a Weber.)

But none of that, despite the media maelstrom, matters much to those in Springfield who spoke with the Washington Free Beacon. They describe a city in crisis as it struggles to absorb the thousands of Haitians granted Temporary Protected Status by the Biden-Harris administration.

If avian welfare was Springfield's primary trouble, says Mark Sanders, a school bus driver, the city wouldn't need much help. But the tabloid-like attention on alleged animal cruelty only serves to distract from a litany of crises that locals say their leaders are ignoring.

"We're a multicultural city, but it's just too many and our leaders are trying to minimize the impact," said Sanders. "It's like fertilizer mixed with diesel fuel."

Rents are rising faster than national trends, which local landlords attribute to Haitian renters who, aided by left-wing charities, have successfully applied for Section 8 housing vouchers. The wait list for these vouchers is now closed.

Crime was already higher in Springfield than most similarly sized cities, but residents are now dealing with a scourge of traffic violations. Ohio governor Mike DeWine (R.) wrote Friday in the New York Times (not widely read in Springfield) that "ensuring that Haitians learn how to drive safely and understand our driving customs and traffic laws remains a top priority."

Social services are overwhelmed, and some Springfield residents are blaming their layoffs on the flood of cheap Haitian labor, an allegation supported by Springfield's curiously lethargic wage growth since 2022. And some of the city's most vulnerable populations say they've been pushed aside.

"They're taking attention away from people like me," said a homeless woman who called herself Mama D. "I don't dislike the Haitians, but it's harder for us to get houses now. The cheapest apartments go for $700 a month now."

A common defense from sympathetic parties is that the Haitians are here to work. That is largely true, although no one believes there are 20,000 vacant positions in the county.

...

On Tuesday afternoon, this reporter saw a stream of Haitians, many with children, entering and leaving the city's welfare office at a constant pace. Makeshift signs outside the building feature instructions in Haitian Creole.

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Much attention has been paid in the last year to megacities like New York and Chicago flailing in the face of a migrant surge. But it's much smaller places like Springfield that may have it the worst.

Of course. It's all by design. Democrats themselves are starting to complain of open borders. The only way to keep them on Team Blue is to start moving all of the illegals to red counties, which were never going to vote for Biden, or now Harris, anyway.

Don't worry, though: Businesses that serve/exploit illegals are thriving. See the article for that.

Just the News reports that this isn't just a problem in Springfield. Haitians and other illegals are being airdropped into smaller (redder) towns around the country.

Haitians are not just arriving in Springfield, Ohio, but also in small rural towns nationwide as a result of several Biden-Harris administration policies.

Since fiscal 2021, more than 485,000 Haitian illegal border crossers, a record, have been reported by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The overwhelming majority were reported this fiscal year, nearly 216,000, compared to 48,727 in fiscal 2021.

Since fiscal 2021 through August, the majority have been apprehended at the southwest border of nearly 262,000, followed by nearly 221,000 nationwide and nearly 2,300 at the northern border, according to the data.

Additionally, since July, 205,000 Haitians have been released through the CHNV parole program, according to CBP data. Of the more than 765,000 illegal foreign nationals released into the country through the CBP One app, the top nationality is Haitian. Through these programs, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas also extended Temporary Permanent Status to them and granted work authorization.

All of these programs are illegal, state attorneys general who've sued to stop them, argue. U.S. House Republicans also cited them as among the many illegal actions Mayorkas caused them to impeach him. Mayorkas has since only expanded the programs and extended TPS.

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Springfield residents have argued the overwhelming majority of Haitians are enrolling in welfare and not working; have caused increased crime and there aren't enough police to deal with it; and residents are being killed by Haitian drivers. Rue has expressed concerns about the dangerous driving conditions, saying, "I have almost been hit myself."

In the last three years, Springfield's 50,000 population has swelled by roughly 20,000. City officials claim they are there "legally" through TPS through Feb. 3, 2026.

In Sylacauga, Alabama, residents have been demanding answers about busloads of Haitians being dropped into their community. At a Sept. 5 city council meeting, City Council President Tiffany Nix shut down a meeting and made the issue about race. "We have no reason to treat people differently because of how they look," she said. "There's no reason for us to discuss this any further." She also said, "I'm going to welcome anybody to Sylacauga that wants to come to Sylacauga," 1819 News reported.

Sylacauga resident David Phillips said, "there is no way the State Department can vet these people," adding that they were coming from a failed state and potentially dangerous.

Residents continue to speak out. At a Sept. 17 meeting, Nix said Haitians were there on 18-month visas. A meeting has also been scheduled with state and federal lawmakers.

In Coffee County, one resident claimed, "30,000 illegal aliens are scheduled to arrive in the first week of October, 1,000 of them in Baldwin County," and that human trafficking was involved, 1819 News reported.

Read the whole thing. The Disinformation Media won't report on any of these verifiable problems -- they'll just shriek infinitely about cat-claims being "debunked."

Meanwhile, a Haitian NGO has filed a warrant for the arrest of Donald Trump and J.D. Vance.

In the state of Ohio, private citizens have the ability to legally file criminal charges.

Tuesday, a Haitian nonprofit called Haitian Bridge Alliance did just that, bringing criminal charges against former President Donald Trump and Ohio Sen. JD Vance who are currently running for president and vice president on the GOP ticket. The bench memorandum and supporting affidavit filed at Clark County Municipal Court comes following unfounded claims from both men regarding the large immigrant population in Springfield, Ohio.

The attorney for the organization says there is probable cause the two committed crimes and they want a judge to affirm that, file charges and issue arrest warrants for both men.

The charges are as follows, as laid out by the Chandra Law Firm who is representing the group:

Disrupting public service in violation of R.C. 2909.04(A) and (B) by causing widespread bomb and other threats that resulted in massive disruptions to the public services in Springfield, Ohio;
Making false alarms in violation of R.C. 2917.32(A) by knowingly causing alarm in the Springfield community by continuing to repeat lies that state and local officials have said were false;
Committing telecommunications harassment in violation of R.C. 2917.21(A) and S.C.O. § 537.08 by spreading claims they know to be false during the presidential debate, campaign rallies, nationally televised interviews, and social media;
Committing aggravated menacing in violation R.C. 2903.21(A) by knowingly making intimidating statements with the intent to abuse, threaten, or harass the recipients, including Trump's threat to deport immigrants who are here legally to Venezuela, a land they have never known;
Committing aggravated menacing in violation of R.C. 2903.21(A) by knowingly causing others to falsely believe that members of Springfield's Haitian community would cause serious physical harm to the person or property of others in Springfield; and
Violating the prohibition against complicity, R.C. 2923.03(A) and S.C.O. § 501.10, by conspiring with one another and spreading vicious lies that caused innocent parties to be parties to their various crimes.

"We want the judge to issue arrest warrants for Trump and Vance immediately, there is probable cause," lead counsel Subodh Chandra told the FOX 8 I-Team Tuesday.

"The Haitian community is suffering in fear because of Trump and Vance's relentless, irresponsible, false alarms, and public services have been disrupted," Chandra said in a statement. "Trump and Vance must be held accountable to the rule of law. Anyone else who wreaked havoc the way they did would have been arrested by now."
Aiden Clark's father said he doesn't want his son's death to be used for political gain

I can't wait to start using lawfare against all of our political opponents. I can't wait.

posted by Ace at 01:00 PM

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