By Kevin Williams
After a week that saw schools, businesses and City Hall closed in Springfield, Ohio, by bomb threats, this past weekend began with two of the city’s hospitals going on lockdown. A sweep of both facilities Saturday morning turned up nothing, but the new threats only added to the unease hanging over the city since former President Donald Trump dragged it into the race for the White House.
During the presidential debate Tuesday, Trump cited a debunked rumor that Haitian immigrants in Springfield were abducting and eating pets, and days later, he vowed to begin his mass deportation effort with the Haitians in Springfield, even though most of them are in the United States legally.
The increasingly hostile rhetoric from Trump, other politicians and some extremist organizations has shaken some of the thousands of Haitians who have settled in Springfield in recent years.
“Honestly, I don’t feel safe. It’s not good right now,” said Jean-Patrick Louisius, 40, who moved to Springfield four years ago with his wife and two daughters. He was part of an early wave of Haitian arrivals, attracted to the city by plentiful jobs and affordable housing. Estimates of the number of Haitians who have arrived in recent years range from 12,000 to 20,000.
But tensions between longtime residents and more recent arrivals had been building before the national spotlight landed on the city, about 25 miles from Dayton.
Even as the Haitian immigrants have been welcomed by employers and injected energy into fading neighborhoods, the arrival of thousands of people in a short period of time has strained schools and some government services.
And then a fatal crash that killed an 11-year-old boy last year when his school bus was struck by a minivan driven by a Haitian immigrant intensified anxiety and anger over the growing immigrant population, drawing attention far beyond the city.
Louisius runs a small Haitian market that provides money transfers back to Haiti, sells groceries and offers haircuts.
He opened the market, named 509 for Haiti’s country calling code, after working in a warehouse and a Target, and his first couple of years, he did good business, he said.
But tensions in recent months have led more Haitians to keep a low profile or even leave the city.
Today, the 509’s shelves are mostly bare with just a few staples, like cassava and rice, and recently, he lost $5,000 in a burglary, he said.
“I’m not sure if I can stay in business, because people are leaving,” Louisius said, adding that he knows people who have left for Dayton or Columbus, larger cities where Haitians may be less conspicuous.
On Friday, Louisius did not open the store, fearful of his and his family’s safety. A person had stood outside the store Thursday taking a video of his shop, he said.
At the Soapbox Coin Laundry in downtown Springfield, dozens of people were loading clothes into washer and dryers or folding clean garments. Almost all conversations were in Haitian Creole.
Fejoans John, 24, moved to Springfield from Gonaïves, Haiti. He too has thought about moving someplace besides Springfield
“All the publicity has caused tension between the Haitians and native Springfield population,” said Joseph Melvin, a lifelong Springfield resident who works at the laundry and has sometimes been frustrated by some of the Haitian immigrants.
“Most of them are kind people, but a few are abrasive and that makes it hard for the rest,” Melvin said.
Vilés Dorsainvil, leader of the Haitian Community Help and Support Center, says all the anxiety this past week has been exhausting.
“We came here to work and raise our family, but the pressure here is too much for many,” Dorsainvil said.
“We were already worn out from what is happening in Haiti. We didn’t come here for this,” he added.
Chester Brigham III, 62, is a lifelong resident of Springfield who says the new arrivals have strained local services causing long lines and creating delays because of language barriers.
“Who paid for them to get here, and who is giving them the money?” asked Brigham, 62, who was sitting on his porch Saturday.
But Denise Williams, president of the local NAACP chapter, said the turmoil has provided a chance to build stronger bonds between the Black newcomers from Haiti and Black Americans who have lived in Springfield for many years.
“They are friendly, they are wonderful people. We have welcomed them. I have had lots of interaction with them; they are no different from us,” Williams said, adding that an attack on Haitians in Springfield is an attack on all Black people.
She said reaction to Haitians in town is purely racist.
“The city had an influx of Mexicans and Indians and nobody had a problem with it, but all these Black people appear in Springfield everyone is running scared,” Williams said.
Dorsainvil said that as the spotlight fades, most Haitians will stay and be joined by others. But right now, many Haitians feel like they escaped trouble in Haiti only to find trouble in the United States.
“We are running from the river only to get ourselves into the ocean,” he said translating a Haitian saying.
“That is how many here feel.”