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It has been more than a year since the fateful morning last August when, outside Springfield in southwestern Ohio, a minivan veered into oncoming traffic and rammed into a school bus on the first day of class, killing an 11-year-old boy and injuring 23 other children.
Soon, it emerged that the driver of the minivan was not a longtime resident but one of the thousands of immigrants from Haiti who had recently settled in the area. He was driving with a foreign license not valid in Ohio.
The stage was set for another fraught chapter in the debate over immigration in America, this one magnified because JD Vance, the state’s junior senator, would soon become the Republican vice-presidential nominee.
Haitians were new to the region. During the last census, in 2020, a little more than 58,000 people lived in Springfield, a town at the crossroads of America that had fallen on hard times and shed population as opportunity slipped away. But it has changed dramatically in recent years, as a boom in manufacturing and warehouse jobs attracted a swelling wave of immigrants, mainly from Haiti. City officials estimate that as many as 20,000 Haitians have arrived, most of them since the pandemic.
...
So it came as no surprise that the influx of Haitians to Springfield would become a talking point for Mr. Vance.
In a speech at the National Conservatism Conference in July, he described Springfield as a town that was nearly a carbon copy of Middletown, where he grew up, except that it had now been “overwhelmed” by Haitians who were pushing up housing costs and collecting benefits.
“And you don’t have to believe, of course, that the 20,000, at least most of the 20,000 newcomers, are bad people” to recognize it as a problem, he said.
By most accounts, the Haitians have helped revitalize Springfield.
They are assembling car engines at Honda, running vegetable-packing machines at Dole and loading boxes at distribution centers. They are paying taxes on their wages and spending money at Walmart. On Sundays they gather at churches for boisterous, joyful services in Haitian Creole.
...
For decades, Springfield had been another shrinking Midwestern town with an uncertain future.
Manufacturing plants had shuttered, fueling an exodus. Empty Victorian mansions on Fountain Avenue, erected for industrial barons, stood as relics of the town’s heyday.
The population dwindled to less than 60,000 by 2014, from more than 80,000 in 1960.
Around that time, Springfield crafted a strategic plan to attract business. City leaders pitched the town’s affordability, its work force development programs and its location, smack-dab between Columbus and Dayton and accessible to two interstates.
In 2017, Topre, a major Japanese auto parts manufacturer, picked Springfield for a new plant in a decaying part of town that had been the site of International Harvester, a farm equipment manufacturer that was once the biggest employer.
By 2020, Springfield had lured food-service firms, logistics companies and a microchip maker, among others, creating an estimated 8,000 new jobs and optimism for the future.
“It was incredible to witness the transformation of our community,” said Horton Hobbs, vice president of economic development for the Greater Springfield Partnership, which executed the plan.
But soon there were not enough workers. Many young, working-age people had descended into addiction. Others shunned entry-level, rote work altogether, employers said.
Haitians who heard that the Springfield area boasted well-paying, blue-collar jobs and a low cost of living poured in, and employers were eager to hire and train the new work force.
How an Ohio Town Landed in the Middle of the Immigration Debate
Jobs attracted thousands of Haitians to Springfield, and employers were ecstatic. But then an immigrant driver was involved in a fatal school bus crash. And JD Vance entered the fray.
Soon, it emerged that the driver of the minivan was not a longtime resident but one of the thousands of immigrants from Haiti who had recently settled in the area. He was driving with a foreign license not valid in Ohio.
The stage was set for another fraught chapter in the debate over immigration in America, this one magnified because JD Vance, the state’s junior senator, would soon become the Republican vice-presidential nominee.
Haitians were new to the region. During the last census, in 2020, a little more than 58,000 people lived in Springfield, a town at the crossroads of America that had fallen on hard times and shed population as opportunity slipped away. But it has changed dramatically in recent years, as a boom in manufacturing and warehouse jobs attracted a swelling wave of immigrants, mainly from Haiti. City officials estimate that as many as 20,000 Haitians have arrived, most of them since the pandemic.
...
So it came as no surprise that the influx of Haitians to Springfield would become a talking point for Mr. Vance.
In a speech at the National Conservatism Conference in July, he described Springfield as a town that was nearly a carbon copy of Middletown, where he grew up, except that it had now been “overwhelmed” by Haitians who were pushing up housing costs and collecting benefits.
“And you don’t have to believe, of course, that the 20,000, at least most of the 20,000 newcomers, are bad people” to recognize it as a problem, he said.
By most accounts, the Haitians have helped revitalize Springfield.
They are assembling car engines at Honda, running vegetable-packing machines at Dole and loading boxes at distribution centers. They are paying taxes on their wages and spending money at Walmart. On Sundays they gather at churches for boisterous, joyful services in Haitian Creole.
...
For decades, Springfield had been another shrinking Midwestern town with an uncertain future.
Manufacturing plants had shuttered, fueling an exodus. Empty Victorian mansions on Fountain Avenue, erected for industrial barons, stood as relics of the town’s heyday.
The population dwindled to less than 60,000 by 2014, from more than 80,000 in 1960.
Around that time, Springfield crafted a strategic plan to attract business. City leaders pitched the town’s affordability, its work force development programs and its location, smack-dab between Columbus and Dayton and accessible to two interstates.
In 2017, Topre, a major Japanese auto parts manufacturer, picked Springfield for a new plant in a decaying part of town that had been the site of International Harvester, a farm equipment manufacturer that was once the biggest employer.
By 2020, Springfield had lured food-service firms, logistics companies and a microchip maker, among others, creating an estimated 8,000 new jobs and optimism for the future.
“It was incredible to witness the transformation of our community,” said Horton Hobbs, vice president of economic development for the Greater Springfield Partnership, which executed the plan.
But soon there were not enough workers. Many young, working-age people had descended into addiction. Others shunned entry-level, rote work altogether, employers said.
Haitians who heard that the Springfield area boasted well-paying, blue-collar jobs and a low cost of living poured in, and employers were eager to hire and train the new work force.
