Several Springfield, Ohio, residents recently told Blaze News' Julio Rosas that their concerns about the impact of the immigration crisis on their community are not being addressed.
Rosas attended a Springfield commission meeting on Sept. 24 and spoke with local residents ahead of a scheduled discussion. Many expressed frustration at the lack of resolution and claimed that their concerns seemed to be ignored.
“If we're going to welcome them into our community, why exploit them like that?”
“We don't have any solutions at this point, and it's up to our leaders. All of our leaders, even the county commission, should get involved in this,” one resident told Rosas before the meeting. “We need to do this because it affects the whole county.”
“We need to sit down together and make a list of problems and come up with solutions,” he said.
In particular, local residents say the influx of 20,000 Haitian nationals into the Springfield metropolitan area has led to increased traffic accidents, soaring rent prices and a housing shortage. Residents told Blaze News that the women reported being followed around the retail store by a Haitian man.
“The council meetings have yielded no results,” local residents continued to tell Rosas. “Can we get support to train these people how to drive? They need training. They don't come here and stalk women in stores and scare women. That's not good for them.'' And for me, it's more of a common sense than a culture, and it's not just about following women around the store. Our women are afraid to go to the store. ”
He argued that Haitian nationals in the city must also have grievances that they would like addressed.
“They are trafficked for labor, but who knows what else,” he told Rosas. “And how they're being taken advantage of. They're paying three times as much rent as they should be.”
“Why?” he asked. “If we're going to welcome them into the community, why are we going to exploit them like that? Why let them be exploited like that?”
Another resident, Richard Jordan, speculated that some local leaders may be benefiting from the immigration crisis and therefore may not be keen to address community concerns. .
“The money is going somewhere. There's a reason why these people are spoiled,” he said of Haitians. “And the American people are being treated like second class. And that's bull***.”
Asked if he was concerned about a potential backlash, he told Rosas: “We're already seeing the backlash. People are calling us liars because we all do that. Because we are expressing our voices as we should.”
Residents confronted city leaders at a commission meeting, demanding answers and a quick solution.
“This is a swamp. We need to drain it at the local level,” one local resident shouted during the rally.
“Every time a citizen comes here and has a concern…” Springfield resident Diana Daniels told city leaders. [they receive] Push back. 'That's racist. That's xenophobic.' When in fact you weren't listening to what was being said below.”
“The city commission and somebody decided that race needed to be an issue,” Daniels added.
“I'm tired of people painting white people as racist,” Jordan told city leaders during the meeting.
“There are a lot of scandalous things happening in our town,” Jordan said.
Mark Saunders, a resident who previously spoke with Rosas, laid the blame for the city's problems at the feet of the commission.
“Everything that's happened in this city over the past two weeks. [is] “It's your fault,” Sanders said, pointing at committee members. “In March of this year, I complained to the committee about livestock abuse. You told me where to look. No one should look. It was no one.
Springfield received national attention after allegations that Haitians were stealing geese and ducks from the park, as well as residents' dogs and cats.
He addressed claims that the Springfield Police Department does not tow vehicles driven by unlicensed drivers. It is still going on.”
After the public comment period ended, city commissioners answered some of the questions and concerns raised by residents.
Mayor Rob Lew (R) said, “Let me tell you, I had no idea that immigrants were coming into our community and we were going to make a decision to allow or disallow them. And I've said this publicly many times: It's our job to keep this community safe and deal with this situation as best we can. I mean, I don't like to see widespread hatred against any group of people, and I don't like what we've seen in recent weeks.”
“As good city leaders, we have to follow federal policy, which means we're going to address it and that's the best thing we can do,” he said. “To be accused of not caring about what we hear from both the podium and the microphone is again a misconception and simply not true.”
After several calls to the Springfield Police Department went unanswered, the department told Blaze News in an email: If you have a media request, we will contact you as soon as possible. ”
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