The woman left Haiti after her husband, a police officer, was killed in December 2013. She fled to save her life. She said many Haitian immigrants sacrificed a lot to come here for a better life.
“They do a lot of sacrifice, they do a lot of sacrifice; sometimes they (come) from Chile, they (come) from Brazil, they (come) from Nicaragua, that made me cry and scared for them, and for me, too, because I’m not (an) American native,” she said. “I hope God (is) going to touch Trump’s heart. I hope that.”
She said she respects the electoral process and indicated her Haitian-American identity is important to her. She has been in the U.S. for 12 years, four of those being in Springfield, having been attracted by the city’s affordability and job market.
“We are a nice people. We are nice people. We appreciate everyone, and hospitality is hard,” she said. “We love everyone — the diversity.”
Springfield took center stage in the national immigration debate during the election after Trump and his running mate JD Vance parroted baseless rumors that Haitian immigrants were eating people’s pets. The weeks that followed saw national media, protesters and even hate groups flood into town.
“We’re going to have the largest deportation in the history of our country and we’re going to start with Springfield and Aurora,” Trump said at a September press conference, tying the Springfield situation with crime concerns in Aurora, Colorado linked to Venezuelan gangs.
More than 64% of Clark County residents who voted Nov. 5 supported Trump and his running mate JD Vance.
This newspaper sent reporters across Springfield — grocery stores, dollar stores, libraries, restaurants and other businesses — over the past week to gauge the community’s reaction to the election.
Haitian residents expressed fear for their immigration status and the country’s view of Haitian immigrants in general. Some expressed hope that the administration will focus on those who commit crimes or are in the country illegally, not the Haitian population that is largely here on programs like humanitarian parole and Temporary Protected Status.
Other Springfielders offered mixed reactions — from depressed to relieved to disgusted to hopeful.
Springfield resident and gig economy worker Brandi Oty said she was happy with the results of the election. She said she voted for Trump because she thought he would benefit the economy.
But she said she isn’t as invested in immigration-related issues.
“Sure, I think we’re a little overpopulated,” she said. “But I have no issue with (Haitian people).”
Still others offered skepticism of what’s to come, or even apathy.
“Why does it even matter?” one woman shouted at a reporter who asked her for her thoughts on the election.
‘Correct the narratives’
Vilès Dorsainvil, president of the Haitian Community Help and Support Center, said prior to and immediately following Trump’s election, the community center has worked to educate Haitian immigrants on the protections afforded by the law and the U.S. Constitution in an effort to assuage some of the fears they are seeing.
Dorsainvil said if people who have negative feelings toward Haitian immigrants here would “go a little bit deeper” they would realize that these immigrants have caused economic and social growth.
Credit: Viles Dorsainvil
Credit: Viles Dorsainvil
“If they are hoping to make America great again, I think this is what they should be looking for — people coming to the city to contribute to the growth of the city, not to hurt the city or the community,” Dorsainvil said.
Although Trump specifically called out Springfield as a target for mass deportations, Dorsainvil said with a lot of the rhetoric focused on immigrants living in the U.S. illegally or those who have committed crimes, Springfield should not be subject to mass deportation.
“They should correct the narratives that they put out there because all that is because of this conspiracy of them eating cats, which is totally untrue ... now they have to say, ‘OK, I have to leave this group of people alone for them to go about their business, because at the end of the day, it was just a lie,” Dorsainvil said.
Immigration attorney: Be prepared
Katie Kersh, senior attorney at Advocates for Basic Legal Equality (ABLE) said ABLE, which holds legal clinics at St. Vincent de Paul, has seen a variety of reactions to Trump’s election; in general there is a lot of panic within the Haitian community.
“I think there’s a lot of concern about Trump’s statement that he’s going to be using the police to round up immigrants because I think a lot of people feel like they might be targeted,” Kersh said.
A lot of this concern is for when the immigrants travel outside of Springfield for work or other reasons, Kersh said. She said that when local police forces have been tasked with immigration enforcement in the past, there have been discrimination concerns with racial or ethnic minorities being disproportionately targeted.
“If people find that they’re seeing issues of discrimination — because ABLE does file impact litigation like class action cases, injunctions — people should contract our offices and try to speak to somebody,” Kersh said.
ABLE has held one legal clinic since the election, and Kersh said responses to the results ran the gamut. She said she has seen some concerned Haitian immigrants working hard to make sure their community is educated and understand how serious the situation could come for them, while others are in shock or denial and saying things will work out.
“It’s how people process a very real possibility that their situation could worsen,” Kersh said.
Daily rumors and policy and cabinet announcements have fueled a lot of concerns about immigration, especially with the selection of former ICE official Tom Homan as Trump’s “border czar,” Kersh said. Homan was a prominent architect of the family separation policy during Trump’s first term.
ABLE is working to help immigrants “stabilize their status” as quickly as possible, Kersh said, and people need to be prepared for the possibility of removal.
‘Quiet and somber’
A large number of Haitian immigrants in Springfield go to the local St. Vincent de Paul for a variety of services, but work permits is one of the most common, Executive Director Casey Rollins said. The nonprofit receives donations, many of which are earmarked for specific purposes, like to train and certify interpreters or to serve Haitian immigrants in general.
St. Vincent de Paul has been busy the past several weeks, but Election Day and the following Wednesday were “quiet and somber,” Rollins said.
Rollins said she has heard politicians post election saying that they will only go after immigrants without legal status, which she said should discount the vast majority of Haitian immigrants in Springfield.
Regardless of what the Trump administration does regarding immigration, Rollins said St. Vincent de Paul will continue providing whatever services it can to meet community needs. She said it is important for St. Vincent de Paul as a broad organization to step up “in terms of social justice.”
“We never ever got into this for political reasons, we never got into this for professional gain, or political anything,” Rollins said. “We got into this because people came to us and said, ‘Please help us,’ and we will continue to do that.”
‘Liberation day on America’
Diane Roush of Springfield said she finds the president-elect “reckless” and believes his rhetoric about Haitian immigrants resulted in the increase in hate groups visiting her city.
But Roush does feel there are immigration issues in the nation; she’d like to see upgrades to border security, including the addition of a wall.
“I think it’s about national security, as well as just inundating us with more people than we can take care of in our cities and towns,” she said.
Sandra Kerby said misinformation about Haitian immigrants in her community initially shocked her. But then the bomb threats began at local schools, where she works as a paraprofessional who helps students with disabilities. The shock then became nervousness.
“My daughter and I work for the city schools, and we were frightened,” Kerby said. “Certain days we’d go to work, and then we’d have to rush out of the building.”
She said she was disappointed in the election results, but she recalls a phrase her mother would always say: “Pray for the best, prepare for the worst.”
“I know there’s going to be some changes, but I’m just hoping that these are changes that we as Americans can adapt to,” Kerby said.
Trump invoked Springfield again in his last campaign rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan the day before the Nov. 5 election. He inflated the number of immigrants in the city to 30,000, twice what city officials estimate.
Credit: NYT
Credit: NYT
“Springfield, Ohio. It’s a beautiful place, gorgeous place. And now if you want to go to the hospital, you can’t. If you want to get a checkup, you can’t. If you want to find a doctor, you can’t. If you want to get your kid into school, you can’t. It’s a whole different world,” Trump said.
“We can’t allow this to happen. They’re destroying our country,” he continued. “Nov. 5, 2024 will be liberation day in America. On day one, I will launch the largest deportation program of criminals in American history. I will rescue every city and town that has been invaded and conquered.”
After the election, reaction in the Facebook groups where the cat-eating rumor began was muted. Members of a more-political Clark County spinoff group celebrated: “I’ll be the first to start woohoo Trump 2024!” one poster wrote.
