By way of being a follow-up, kinda sorta, to tonight’s Eyrie offering.
‘What Has My Town Become?’: Springfield Residents Say It’s Falling Apart Amid Haitian Influx
FEATURE: What I saw in Springfield, OhioSPRINGFIELD, OHIO — The city has a certain charm, a small-town feel dotted with grand buildings. It’s an all-American scene fit for a postcard — and one residents worry they are at risk of losing.
Residents of Springfield didn’t expect that their community would be tossed into the center of one of the most consequential elections in American history. They also didn’t expect the town of 58,000 to receive as many as 20,000 Haitian migrants in just a few short years, ushering in a shift that’s left many Springfielders feeling like foreigners in their own home, and worried for their economic prospects.
The surge of Haitian migrants came during the Biden-Harris administration, when more than 300,000 Haitians who crossed the border into the United States were offered temporary protected status, allowing them to live and work in the United States without becoming citizens.
The people of Springfield were never asked if they wanted the migrant influx, and voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020. But now that the migrant surge is here, many are eager to tell their stories.
“You walk into a store and you feel like your language isn’t the predominant language. It’s kind of weird,” one lifelong resident of Springfield who asked not to be named said over a cup of coffee. “If you’re willing to go to a new place you need to invest your efforts into learning that and becoming acclimated and accustomed to it as well.” But it isn’t just the cultural differences that have him on edge.
“There’s no section of this town that I feel safe in,” he added. “I don’t even like my wife to shop here. We try to go grocery shopping in other cities.”
The article carries on in like infuriating vein from there, of which you won’t enjoy reading the all but definitely should anyway.
The Establishment: “This is what we do to our political enemies.”
Winter is coming