Having worked in ministry in Springfield, Ohio, in one capacity or another since 2015, I’ve fallen in love with the city.

Snyder Park is a beautiful, tranquil place for an outdoor picnic. Buck Creek State Park has been the site of family fishing and swimming outings, as well as the men’s ministry events I’ve led. My kids have been to Young’s Dairy for ice cream more times than I can count. Watching airplanes take off and land at the municipal airport is a personal joy. During the Covid outbreak, I was at the Mercy Health medical campus countless times for visitations. And though the restaurant scene is admittedly underwhelming, there are several locally-owned gems that I recommend for lunch.

But things are not well in Springfield today.

In 2022, Springfield had a population of 58,645. As of September 2024, as many as 20,000 Haitians have been relocated to this quiet Rust Belt city, causing serious stress on the local social services. These migrants are not here illegally—because they are from Haiti, they have been granted Temporary Protected Status. But this distinction is little comfort for long-time Springfield residents, who are now living with the terrible conditions brought on by this massive influx that they didn’t ask for.

The issue that’s received the most attention is, sadly, the least important one: Are Haitians eating the local animals? Because of President Trump’s comment during the presidential debate, which spawned an avalanche of AI-generated memes, everyone has wanted an answer to this question. The local police are denying they have received any reports, and Ohio Governor Mike DeWine has rejected these claims as baseless.

Yet the locals have claimed that this very thing is happening (see here, here, here, and here). Even Senator J.D. Vance has said that a dozen similar incidents have been reported to his office. Due to the national attention came a series of bogus bomb threats and subsequent closures.

This issue, however, points to something bigger.

In Springfield schools, there’s been “exponential growth” of non-English speaking students. The schools have had to hire a multitude of translators, but even that is insufficient. Teachers are forced to use electronic devices as translation tools for the students.

Local hospitals are also being hit hard. When a population increases that significantly over a short period of time, it is inevitable that hospital services will be inadequate. There are also reports that Federally Qualified Health Care facilities are unable to accommodate the influx of migrants.

For the average resident, the biggest stressor is the traffic situation. There’s been a spike in traffic incidents on Springfield’s streets. There have also been two fatalities related to Haitian drivers: Kathy Heaton was killed while collecting her garbage cans, and Aiden Clark, an 11-year old boy, was killed in a school bus accident. For many local citizens, driving and walking on sidewalks has become much more precarious.

The housing situation in Springfield is being tested. The city is building 5,000 new units, but that is too little, too late. At present, rent is increasing, and immigrant families are living with as many as ten people per unit. Across the board, the entire housing and infrastructure system in Springfield is being pushed beyond capacity.

Many will rightly note that most of the Haitians are law-abiding, and many are working and living quietly. But this misses the point. Some are not, as evidenced by the spike in traffic accidents and petty crime.

The central problem is that the locals have no voice in the matter. Their city is changing in ways they do not want, and the problems they were already experiencing (that is, broken families, drug and alcohol abuse, education shortfalls, and unemployment) are being exacerbated. Rather than working to improve schools, hospital services, jobs, and family life, city leaders decided it was a good idea to import an entirely new population, complete with the attendant problems of assimilation.

Until local communities find a way to combat and resist this pattern of elites flooding small- and mid-sized cities with immigrants, what’s happening in Springfield and in many other cities across the country will continue.