With the election less than two months away, many beleaguered residents of Springfield are telling Americans across the fruited plain their town in east-central Ohio is "your" America if you vote for Democrats. Those residents are blaming the open-borders policies of the Biden-Harris administration for the influx of 15,000-20,000 Haitians into their community of 58,000 since 2020.
But Ohio's Republican governor, Mike DeWine – who is aware Springfield's resources have been strained by the influx of migrants – has made it clear that he doesn't oppose the Biden administration's policy of replacement migration* to his state.
AFN spoke with Tom Zawistowski, president of the Ohio-based We the People Convention. "The governor is for this [border] policy and he does not want to shine a light on the problems it causes – and so he's not going to help," he contends.
Meanwhile, Springfield Mayor Bob Rue says he doesn't want former President Donald Trump and running mate JD Vance – who currently represents Ohio in the U.S. Senate – to hold a rally in Springfield.
"It would be an extreme strain on our resources [if they came]. So, it'd be fine with me if they decided not to make that visit," the Republican mayor said Tuesday.
No great loss, says Zawistowski. "I don't know that it helps President Trump to go there as much as it did [when he went to] East Palestine," he tells AFN, referring to a train derailment there in February 2023.
"The image that he [Trump] painted of the Haitians and the chaos they've wrecked on that city – and now we're hearing about all kinds of other places – that message got out. The message that Springfield, Ohio is Kamala Harris's America … has gotten out. And so he could talk about his rallies and things, but I don't think it's a big loss for him to not come there."
Podcaster Sara Gonzales – host of "Sara Gonzales Unfiltered" on Blaze Media – earlier this week said the mass influx of Haitians in Springfield is "driving up the cost of living," "driving up insurance rates for people's car insurance" due to foreign drivers "having accidents all over the place," and ultimately, "driving locals out of their homes."
* "Replacement migration," according to the United Nations, refers to the international migration that a country would need to prevent population decline and population aging resulting from low fertility and mortality rates.
