I grew up in Springfield; here's the true story of what happened there – Baptist News Global

My old hometown rarely makes the national news, But Springfield, Ohio, is in the spotlight thanks to Donald Trump, his running mate and former Buckeye candidate JD Vance, and fact-free social media posters who have exploited the influx of Haitian immigrants and the tragic death of a child for political gain.

“They eat the dogs. They eat the cats. They eat the pets of the people who live there,” Trump said of the immigrants in Springfield during the presidential debate last week, provoking a fact-check from the moderators and laughter from his opponent Kamala Harris, who called the comments “extreme.”

Repeated falsehoods about the city may have led to the bomb threats that shut down parts of Springfield last Thursday and Friday, including City Hall, other downtown buildings, some Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles locations, and some schools, including my old elementary and middle schools.

Mayor Rob Rue pleaded urged influencers to stop spreading the lies, saying, “They need to understand what their words are doing to cities like Springfield, Ohio.”

Vance, who grew up 50 miles from Springfield in Middletown and represents Ohio in the U.S. Senate, spread falsehoods in a post on X on Monday, Sept. 9, ahead of the debate, criticizing Harris: “People have reportedly had their pets kidnapped and eaten by people who don't belong in this country. Where is our border czar?”

While Vance acknowledged that the story could be false, as city officials have repeatedly stressed, he urged his supporters to spread it anyway: “Don't let the crybabies in the media dissuade you, fellow patriots. Keep up the cat memes.”

The untruths about Haitians remained largely on the fringes of the internet until Charlie Kirk, founder of the pro-MAGA nonprofit group Turning Point USA, posted an inflammatory post on September 10 that was viewed 1.2 million times: “Our @FrontlinesTPUSA team visited Springfield, OH today. EVERYONE they've spoken to has heard stories of people's pets being eaten and ducks and geese going missing. Local residents are describing it as a 'tinderbox' and a 'time bomb' about to go off.”

“Cats are a delicacy in Haiti,” said one interviewee.

Vance and Trump have also exploited a tragic accident in 2023 in which a Haitian immigrant drove his minivan into a school bus north of Springfield, causing the death of an 11-year-old boy named Aiden Clark.

“Do you know what is confirmed?” Vance wrote to X. “That a child was murdered by a Haitian migrant who had no right to be here.”

The immigrant, a man named Hermanio Joseph, had immigrated to Ohio legally. He crashed into the bus on a winding road, blinded by the sun, and was convicted of manslaughter.

“We do not want our son’s name to be associated with the hatred that is being spread here.”

Aiden's father first spoke out last year and called on Trump and Vance to stop politicizing the tragedy. “We don't want our son's name to be associated with the hate that is being spewed,” Nathan Clark told the local newspaper “The Springfield News-Sun.

Clark spoke again at a Springfield City Commission meeting held the same day as the presidential debate. Clark called Trump and Vance “morally bankrupt” for exploiting Aiden's death. “My son was not murdered,” Clark said at the meeting.

“This tragedy is felt everywhere this community, the state and even the nation, but don't turn that into hate,” said Clark, a public school teacher. If Aiden had been killed by a white man, his family may have been able to avoid his death being used as a tool by Trump, Vance, U.S. Senate candidate Bernie Moreno and U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, the grieving father said.

“They can spew all the hate they want about illegal immigrants, the border crisis, and even false claims that fluffy cats are being ravaged and eaten by community members. … They are not allowed to mention Aiden Clark of Springfield, Ohio, and they have never been allowed to. I will listen to them again to hear their apologies.”

Aerial view of the International Harvester Company in Springfield, Ohio, 1930s. (Photo by Ohio Federal Writers' Project via Ohio History Connection)

A proud Midwestern city on the original National Road, Springfield was once the thriving home of the Crowell-Collier publishing company (my mother was one of its 2,000 employees before we had our four children) and a massive International Harvester factory that employed thousands more (including my father).

The population reached its peak in the 1960s as employers and residents fled, providing ample material for YouTube videos of abandoned homes, restaurants, grocery stores, malls, and a shopping center.

City and business leaders began traveling to Haiti to recruit needed workers, many of whom were from the crisis-ridden country's middle and upper classes, eager to escape the chaos and violence that have escalated since the assassination of Haiti's president in 2021.

Thanks to the arrival of 15,000 to 20,000 Haitian immigrants, Springfield's population has risen again to 58,000. Their influx has overwhelmed the staff and budgets of local schools and health facilities while also creating a boom in the city's real estate market. At the same time, commerce is flourishing, new Haitian churches are blossoming, and some of the city's dilapidated old grand homes are being renovated.

In 2018, then-President Trump questioned whether America should allow immigration from Haiti and other “shithole countries,” and said the country would be better off with more immigrants from Norway.

I left Ohio years ago, but was back in Springfield for my high school reunion in August 2023. My wife and I were on our way to visit friends when we happened to witness the fatal bus crash that injured dozens of children and increased local agitation against Haitian immigrants, fueled in part by a local neo-Nazi group called the Blood Tribe.

Local Christian leaders welcome the immigrants and help them find jobs, learn English and get a driver's license.

“There will always be racists, But our approach is this: If I am a child of God, then God's other children are my brothers and sisters, they are my family,” says Jay Weygandt, founder and board member of the Nehemiah Foundation, a 30-year-old nonprofit that brings together local churches, congregations and religious leaders.

Named after an Old Testament hero who rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem, the Nehemiah Foundation grew out of a group of religious leaders who met regularly to pray for the city before deciding they could be the answer to their own prayers by joining forces and uniting the faith community to help the city prosper. Their motto: “Pray. Unite. Equip. Mobilize!”

The foundation, which includes A Haitian coalition of 30 ministry partners and 11 church partners offers an after-school tutoring program, English classes and warming and cooling centers that they operate jointly with the city. Last weekend was the annual Case for Community Summit, a two-day event that brings together faith leaders and the public to explore better ways to serve Springfield.

“Most people think of Haitians as really nice people with a very low crime rate, who are dedicated to their work and happy to work overtime. The problem, however, is that there are too many of them at once,” says Weygandt, who remains optimistic.

“Springfield is going through a tough time right now and we need help, but we will solve this problem and everything will turn out well in the end,” he said.

Weygandt is less confident about America's epistemologically questionable, culture-warring leaders and those who gulliblely believe everything they say.

“I know politicians say things to support their own cause, and whether it's true or not is irrelevant,” he said. “But I take an old-fashioned approach that has become a kind of minority position. I think it's very important whether something is true or not.”

Related articles:

Human rights groups: Elected officials who spread lies about immigration pose a threat to public safety

Haitian lawmakers have a word for Trump and Vance and their claims about pets in Springfield