“Springfield should not be doing this alone. Clark County should not be doing this alone,” Turner said. “This is a state of Ohio issue. This is a federal immigration issue.”
Assistant Springfield Mayor Rob Rue said the team was formed in response to a roundtable discussion with Turner on immigration.
Turner, whose district this year changed to include Springfield, said city leadership has done “an excellent job with very little resources, demonstrating ‘Midwest values.’”
City Manager Bryan Heck said the best estimate for the number of Haitians in the community is about 7,000, which he said has been a “strain on resources.” He said Haitian immigrants are mostly coming under temporary protected status.
Turner said President Joe Biden’s policy changes to expand TPS eligibility opened the door for 7,000 people to come to Springfield without assistance and without additional resources. He said he and the team are looking into federal resources the city has not yet accessed to help the situation.
“This really is a failure of the Biden administration’s policies that they would bring people into the country without resources for the local community or for the individual to be able to thrive,” Turner said.
Credit: Bill Lackey
Credit: Bill Lackey
Heck said while the Northwestern school bus crash this summer — in which an unlicensed Haitian immigrant is accused of driving over the center line and striking the bus, killing a child and injuring dozens more — shed light on the issue of legal driving, the city and other organizations had already begun meeting to talk about issues regarding housing and interpretation services.
“You have to remember, members from the Haitian culture or Haitian community, what appears to us to be bad living situations is much better than what they’re coming from, but that’s not an excuse not to be looking into those issues because we want to make sure that they are living in safe, sanitary structures in our community,” Heck said.
The city is working with the state of Ohio to provide more resources related to legal driving for Haitian Springfielders, Heck said.
Dan Tierney, press secretary for Gov. Mike DeWine’s office, said in an email to the Springfield News-Sun the Ohio Traffic Safety Office is working to provide driver education in Haitian Creole and two Creole-language driver educational seminars will be held in November and/or December in Springfield.
Tierney said the Department of Public safety is filming a video in Haitian Creole sharing how to get a license, and also translating some BMV and Ohio Traffic Safety Office materials into Haitian Creole.
Representatives from the BMV and the Ohio Traffic Safety Office met with Haitian community leaders at the Madison County Career Center to allow them to drive in its simulator lab.
“Based on that meeting, they are exploring the use of simulators in Springfield to give drivers additional experience and feedback,” Tierney said.
The Ohio Traffic Safety Office will create a new U.S. driver/English language learner curriculum and “train-the-trainer” options for all immigrant and English language learner communities in the state to translate and use, Tierney said.
Heck said at the press conference Haitian immigrants are filling a need in the community.
“They are working in our community. I know in working with the Haitian leaders, they want to assimilate into our culture,” Heck said. “They want to be engaged and involved.”
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