How Orwellian of CNN! When former Trump administration official Tricia McLaughlin explained why residents of Springfield, Ohio was being “overrun” by Haitian immigrants, “CNN NewsNight With Abby Phillip” host Phillip insisted that using words like “overrun” was “part of the problem.” Part of what problem? The problem of letting the American public know exactly what is happening in their country as a result of Biden Administration open border policies? Yes, that is a problem for Democrats, and I can certainly understand how our Big Brother party wants to eliminate words that can accurately explain the situation.
What is the nice word for what’s going on when 20,000 recent immigrants from a third world country and hopelessly messed up culture descend on a struggling town of just 60,000? That’s a 30% influx of completely unassimilated foreigners in a town that is having trouble caring for the people living there already. Is the town being “visited”? No, these arrivals are planning on staying: Springfield must seem like Disney World to someone from Haiti. Are the Haitians enhancing the town? No, because such a large group of new residents lacking familiarity with English and other cultural norms can’t avoid causing serious problems, and they are. “Overrun” is as good a word for what’s happening as I can think of.
Ah, but that’s too harsh, because…well, because, that all. “These people have been primed to use language like that,” Natasha Alford, senior correspondent for The Grio, claimed. “They’ve been listening to this, hear me out, they’ve been listening to a President [that’s Trump, of course] which has been fearmongering, scapegoating these individuals, these communities, playing on racist tropes, think about s-hole countries that were talked about. Those were countries with predominantly black and brown people, and one of them was Haiti.”
When the facts are against you, cry racism. 20,000 new arrivals of any ethnicity, any color, from any nation, speaking any language other than English would cause overwhelming problems for an American community Springfield’s size. President Biden, in a diversity/”think of the children”/foreign lives matter frenzy, granted Temporary Protected Status through Feb. 3, 2026 for Haitians who arrived in the United States on or before June 3, 2024. That status can be renewed. Was any thought given to where all these welcome non-citizens would end up? Of course not.
Haitians covered by Temporary Protected Status are entitled by law to receive health and nutrition benefits as well as other public benefits, such as food stamps. Springfield is…what? What would you call it?
Ethics Alarms 
”Are the Haitians enhancing the town?”
In some ways, yes. Wage and job growth have increased in part as a result of the new immigration.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/haitian-immigrants-fueled-springfields-growth-now-us-presidential-debate-2024-09-11/
As the article points out, there have also been challenges. But America has met such challenges before and the positives of previous waves of immigration have always outweighed the negatives. The people who have argued otherwise have always been wrong. Given that the leaders arguing otherwise now are resorting to lies to make their case, I have little reason to think that’s changed.
If the town needs federal assistance to handle the influx and the community is disrupted, that’s not an enhancement. No lie is necessary to make the case that a sudden arrival of an alien ethnic group, from a third world country, that changes a town’s demographics so dramatically and so quickly is disruptive and caused by careless and irresponsible policy. If you start by admitting this, then your arguments that it’s still just hunky-dory can at least be taken semi-seriously.
Reuters did a good job spinning the actual data. Medicaid skyrocketing in the last three years wage growth grew only after the pandemic and dropped faster than neighboring town starting 2022. Housing costs rose three times faster that the US as a whole. Unemployment has been rising faster than the neighboring areas and the US as a whole.
Reuters makes the point that wage growth stayed above 6% longer than Dayton or the overall economy but failed to say that it became more volatile as migrants moved in dropping faster and farther than either Dayton or the US.
The story also makes statements like “false claims’ by residents at community meetings and white supremacists protested during a jazz festival. Both statements are inflammatory and presented with no evidence to support the claims made.
Reuters has a progressive bias in all its reporting.
Reuters wrote:
“More recently, Vance and other Republicans have amplified false claims aired by some residents at weekly city commission meetings. City commissioners in their public comments have pushed back, noting that the vast majority of Haitians are in the country legally and have a right to live where they choose”
The first statement states that locals are liars and the last statement fails to acknowledge that their legal status is exactly what the complaint is about. If Joe Biden had made an executive order giving temporary legal status for anyone in the world anyone showing up would be here legally. At issue is the administration’s role in creating a massive influx of people who have not had to go through our normal processes to ensure they will not be a charge on society.
They continued
“It is still a jarring increase from around 3,500 in just a few years – too fast to be reflected yet in Census data and the equivalent of 1.6 million or so new arrivals to New York City.”
“There are growing pains – indeed outright tension – as a result, with sometimes ugly rhetoric at city commission open comment periods. A small group of white supremacists marched through town during a jazz festival in mid-August.”
“For many local civic and business leaders, however, the advantages of having more people to fill jobs, start businesses, and buy goods and services are not lost.”
Buried in one line is the impact of the exodus from Haiti to Springfield. We all remember what Mayor Eric Adams complained of when he had to deal with less impact on his city.
Where is the proof the the group marching were white supremacists. Is being white a bar to protest against policies that harm them while benefiting these migrants.?
Of course local business and civic leaders like an influx of cheap exploitable labor. One look at the chart shows wages were growing until the large wage of Haitians came and then fell faster than neighboring regions in 2022. The combination of demand for housing because of the rapid migration of Haitians coupled with increased federal benefits to these Haitians created a windfall for local businesses. This adversely affected the existing population who had an actual birthright to live in the United States- not simply by virtue of a stroke of a pen by a president with an agenda to repopulate the US with government dependents.
The following is implied to be attributed to Haitian immigration but that is an illusion.
“A Ryan Homes subdivision on the outskirts of town, the first new home construction in years, is nearly built out and largely occupied. Another large development of higher-priced homes is underway, and a block of city-center town homes is sold out.”
How can this be when more than half are receiving federal assistance? Exactly, how do these people who come from an impoverished nation where men work to scoop shit out of community latrines have the necessary down payments and closing costs to buy these homes. The answer is they aren’t. These houses are being bought by a small group of beneficiaries of the infusion of federal dollars into supporting the Haitians.
This is actually irrelevant to the story itself except to help spin the narrative.
“At a time when commercial real state is on shaky footing after the pandemic, one of several vacant downtown buildings is being converted to condominiums. And a boarded-up black structure towering over City Hall – briefly home to a failed bid to reincarnate the defunct E.F. Hutton investment firm brand – has attracted investor interest with a high-tech research hub as a possible anchor, one of several positive spillovers local development officials say they have seen from the Intel chip plant being built near Columbus.”
This has nothing to do with Haitian immigration as it is unlikely that they have the education to work in a research park or chip plant.
“For their part, city officials, local educators and the business community say that once the short-term disruptions are overcome, a growing population will add to a nascent revival.”
“We needed a workforce,” to fill jobs in a resurgent local manufacturing sector and staff a growing number of warehouse and distribution centers, said Amy Donahoe, director of workforce development with the Greater Springfield Partnership. “They are coming in and they are working hard and they want to make money.”
The people who are benefitting by cheap labor who do not suffer the costs of having to deal with the day to day issues of the culture clash will never have a problem with more labor supply. Just ask Ceaser Chavez. When the Haitians start demanding entry to the country clubs, start taking tee times from the members of the Greater Springfield Partnership, or compete for their jobs I suspect they may suddenly have second thoughts.
Amy Donahoe, director of workforce development with the Greater Springfield Partnership. “They are coming in and they are working hard and they want to make money.”
Yes they want to make more money than they could in Haiti which is far less than we would have to pay our existing workforce.
For those who do not know what these partnerships are they are comprised of the business interests in the area. They include the community college, the public schools, representatives of the Chamber of Commerce as well as those in the main industries such as hospitals, manufacturing, hospitality services etc.
Each one has a vested financial interest in expanding the population by way of immigrants by way of getting training grants or increased budget allocations from government sources to defray the costs of added management and administrative staff to handle the new programs for the immigrants who new a plethora of special services. Businesses get training grants for workforce development from the state or as a pass through from the federal government. This lowers their total costs to employ less qualified workers at reduced wages. By hiring a Haitian at minimum wage rather than a more qualified American worker that does not need training at a higher one the employer benefits even though the marginal revenue from the less skilled worker is lower than the skilled worker because any future increase in wages will lag behind the productivity gains through training and a 6% raise for a $15 dollar an hour worker will only be 90 cents per hour while a 6% raise for a $20/hour worker will be $1.20. The relationships in these partnerships by nature are symbiotic. Each reinforces the economic wellbeing of the others.
There is also the psychological aspect of wages among immigrants and locals. Immigrants from impoverished nations have lower expectations for what a “good” life means. For most Haitians a home with indoor plumbing and not worrying about warlords like BarBcue roaming the streets and killing indiscriminately is like most of us thinking what it would be like to live at Mar A Lago. Economists have a term for paying a worker more than market in order to increase the opportunity costs of slacking. They are called efficiency wages. Getting fired for slacking means you lose your premium wages by going anywhere else. For the Haitians who lack basic skills even minimum wage jobs are far higher than they would have back in Haiti.
The bottom line is that many Haitians will assimilate into our culture with a bit of assistance from Americans who are typically happy to give a helping hand. However, many will not and will fall back into the comfort of the Haitian culture they left. Even, meager government benefits is far better than in Haiti and they can continue to do as they did back in Haiti. People do not like change and assimilation means changing cultural habits. Those unwilling to change should not remain here and those who do well should be left alone.
With that said, it is not racist to address the behaviors of those who are unwilling to adapt and assimilate into our culture.
Comment of the Day, and hard truths that are being scrupulously hidden from the public.
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
— Not Jack Marshall
Ah yes, the least substantive, most historically ignorant, emotion-based and facile of all the rationalizations for open borders. It’s a POEM. It’s over a hundred tears old, when the US had different laws and needs. It’s not policy, its not law, it’s just archaic sentimental idealism from another age. You might as well have quoted “The Highwayman” or a “Hamlet” soliloquy. The last refuge of a pro-illegal immigration scoundrel.
Incidentally, Thor is still banned. It’s just that using the Lazarus poem to excuse open borders is such a hanging curve over the middle of the plate that I couldn’t resist.
John sure looks like a paid talking point spouter. Wait until they descend on your following post about ABC.
On a monument in a harbor next to an actual legal point of entry. Poem, not suicide pact.
Poem, not suicide pact.
Well put.
It’s a nice poem.
Using it as an argument for unenforced immigration laws (or overly lenient ones) is proof of idiocy.
Should I ever discover where Thor lives, I would be sorely tempted to drive to his/her home and quote that poem…
…as I crossed the border of his/her home without permission. Then I would alter the place to suit my tastes and culture, and begin using his/her electricity, food, water…heck, all the services for which he/she pays.
There can’t be anything wrong with that…right?
France gives us a statue, some committee decided to attach a plaque with Emma Lazarus’s poem on it, and that suddenly becomes permanent US immigration law according to an astounding number of supposedly educated people who should know better, including, disgracefully, some elected official demagogues.
The term ‘overrun’ has mostly ugly connotations. When referring to people, the most favorable usage has to do with military force overwhelming an enemy. The more common connation has to do with animals, especially vermin, as in an infestation. Using it to describe a large influx of immigrants is not necessarily racist, it might just be ignorance of those connotations. But, when the user is schooled and experienced in the use of language, the presumption of ignorance vanishes, regardless of the political connections.
There certainly are better word choices, unless one is intent on denigration. Influx, certainly more neutral, was used in the ethics prompt. As to the question, “Are the Haitians enhancing the town?” Well, opinions vary, of course, but the cited Reuters article noting Springfield’s growth certainly conveys a significant difference in interpretation of what is happening there. And, is it 20,000? And, over what time period? I’ve seen estimates from 12,000 to 20,000. Certainly choose the larger number and ignore the timeframe if infestation is what you have in mind.
Finally, it’s not inaccurate to say these immigrants are coming from a ‘shithole country’, one with a ‘hopelessly messed up culture’, but to cite that ignores the fact that these people are taking a number of risks to escape from the shithole and the culture to something better. I suspect most commenters here would likewise try to escape such a desperate situation to make a better life for themselves and their family. And, these Haitians are more than willing to work, unlike many of the 30 per cent or so of working-age Americans who are un-willing.
Haiti is one of the best examples to show that culture matters. The Dominican Republic has a 12 foot high concrete wall with cameras, thermal sensors, and 70 guard towers to make sure Haitians don’t get into their country. They are on the same island, the same genetics, so you can’t claim ‘racism’. You can see the difference between Haiti’s culture and the Dominican Republic from space. This indicates that, much like ‘Palestinians’, you would have to be insane to allow a large number of Haitians into your country.
Look at the massive number of car accidents caused by the Haitians. Why do they have cars? Who paid for them (you did) and why are they allowed to drive with no registration, no insurance, and no driver’s licenses? You say it isn’t an invasion, but when 20,000 people show up in your town, are paid for housing at rates the locals can’t afford, are given cars, free healthcare, free food, and are immune to laws, you have to assume they are invaders.
The Democrats are so brainwashed that the father of the 11 year old killed when a Haitian hit a school bus and overturned it, said he wished his son was killed by an elderly white man so people wouldn’t blame the Haitians. When a Haitian driver hit an elderly woman, checking her mail, her socks were left behind on the ground. The police declined to press any charges. This is indicative of an invasion force, not ‘immigration’.
So, how was Springfield chosen? It clearly wasn’t suitable for services or the ability to absorb this many people. The government attitude to the Haitians suggests that communities that are ‘sanctuary cities’ are being chosen for this chaos because the laws will allow it. The Haitians are immune to the laws because the city previously passed ‘sanctuary city’ legislation that exempted them from laws?
We do not and should not base our policies on what the Dominican Republic does, especially in the area of humanitarian concerns. And, again, those fleeing from messed up culture are not likely to bring that culture with them.
I did not pay for cars for the Haitians. If tax dollars are paying for cars, it’s news to me, and I could not find a source for that.
Nathan Clark’s main point was that politicians should not try to capitalize on his son’s death for their political gain. Makes sense to me. Not sure how either accident of the accidents mentioned (among others) indicates an invasion force. It would be an unusual invasion for sure, if, as you say, the invaders were being showered with loads of freebies.
So far as I could find out, Springfield is not a sanctuary city. According to at least one news report, Haitians first started arriving around 2018 and chose Springfield because of job opportunities and affordable housing.
Why would you not look to the Dominican Republilc? They have the most 1st hand experience and you can’t say their opinion is based on racism?
So, 20,000 Haitians just decided to teleport to a city of 60,000 on the outskirts of Cincinnati? Isn’t it more likely that they were resettled there by the government?
They can’t pay for their own housing or food and that is being paid for by the government. The cars they are wrecking are fairly new. If they can’t afford food and have no credit (they are in the country illegally) how do YOU explain how they have cars? They have no driver’s licenses or insurance, how do they have cars? Either the government provided them or they stole them. Just because you don’t like the most likely answers doesn’t mean that it isn’t true.
As in Aurora, CO, the illegal immigrants are immune to the law. Law enforcement won’t arrest them even when they kill people. Laws don’t apply to them (if you get into a wreck with an unregistered car with no insurance or driver’s license, there are consequences). They are being showered with benefits citizens don’t get. This is the basis of the ‘replacement’ conspiracy theory you have probably heard about.
“And, again, those fleeing from messed up culture are not likely to bring that culture with them.” Uhh, do you have any proof of that because I think all experience shows the opposite. I think examples as pedestrian as Austin and Dallas show that.
Michael
HJ wrote:
“And, again, those fleeing from messed up culture are not likely to bring that culture with them.”
I think the best response every culture brings their culture with them. It is what they know and if so many are just common peaceful hard working people how did they allow their country to become a s hole. The whole notion of pushing diversity is to allow others to bring their lived experience to the main.
And, again, those fleeing from messed up culture are not likely to bring that culture with them.
Bull Fucking Shit! See Little Somalia in Minneapolis and Ihan Omar. Does Dearborn Michigan and Tlaib ring a bell? Little Haiti in Miami? Mexican “Americans” wearing Mexican colors on their gear and cars? Venezuelan gangs overrunning Denver suburbs? Immigrants DO bring their cultures and are more than happy to set up their own little shitholes here as soon as possible. It’s what assimilation was supposed to prevent.
“And, again, those fleeing from messed up culture are not likely to bring that culture with them.” Oh, I think that’s demonstrably wishful thinking. Heck, “The Godfather” laid out how the Mafia was an imported culture from Sicilian immigrants. The US gets the benefits of the cultures immigrants carry with them, and the deficits. And some cultures have a lot more of the latter.
Heck, just look at what happens to the states Californians move to. Just because people are fleeing from a messed up culture doesn’t mean that they are willing to admit that their culture has anything to do with the fact that it’s messed up. It’s almost always THOSE people’s fault that culture is messed up, not MY favorite parts of the culture.
How do you tell what kind of a tree you’re looking at? Look at its fruit. This tree has some nasty fruit growing from it. I wouldn’t want it around me, I don’t blame others for complaining that they’re being forced to have it around them.
I am old enough to remember the advertised purpose of sanctuary cities was to remove a deterrent against victims of and witnesses to crimes from coming forward.
The argument was that illegal aliens would refuse to come forward due to fear of being deported, sop law enforcement should dewcline to ask about immigration satatus.
We now see it has always been about protecting illegal aliens who commit crimes against people.
HJ: “the fact that these people are taking a number of risks to escape from the shithole and the culture to something better” can be used exactly the same way to rationalize many crimes, including ghetto heroine dealing. “I suspect most commenters here would likewise try to escape such a desperate situation to make a better life for themselves and their family” is another rationalization. Understanding and even having sympathy for why individuals break laws or impose their problems on others still does not magically make conduct acceptable. “And, these Haitians are more than willing to work, unlike many of the 30 per cent or so of working-age Americans who are un-willing.” 100% irrelevant. Being willing to work does not and should not confer on anyone privileges to force me into supporting their efforts to take advantage of this country and its benefits. Americans who aren’t willing to work is a different issue.
HJ.
You can’t have it both ways. You can’t insist the United States is a racist, white supremacist hell hole that murders black people and makes their lives miserable every single day and denies them every opportunity, and then turn around and say to every person of color in the rest of the world, “Come on in! The water’s great! America will take care of you and life will be wonderful!” Shouldn’t you be saying, “Stay away! The U.S. is awful. Stay in your charmingly diverse home with its quaint, interesting culture with your exotic foods and spices and all the chickens you slaughter to appease the spirit world.”
And shouldn’t people of color be fleeing the United States to monolithically of color nations to escape white supremacy? Isn’t that the solution to their problem, getting the hell away from the awful white people and back among their brothers?
Come on. Pick one or the other, not both.
Wherever did you get the idea that I “insist the United States is a racist, white supremacist hell … “ or any of the rest of what you wrote? Right out of your imagination, I suppose.
Just part of the lefty package.
I do some things left-handed and some right-handed. Similarly, some of my core beliefs may seem to align a bit to the left and others a bit to the right. But, it’s a mistake to stereotype me based on one or even several posts.
Do you believe the U.S. is morally obligated, even compelled to accept an unlimited number of “refugees” from anywhere and everywhere in the world in perpetuity?
No.
Rationalizing crime? No. I favor a generous legal immigration program. From what I’ve read, most of the Haitians in Springfield are there legally. The mayor said recently, “Under the current federal policy, they’re here legally and they’re here and there’s nothing that’s taking them out right away, so as a community, we’re trying to embrace them.”
We can disagree on whether or not willingness to work is relevant to immigration; I say a desire to become fully self-supporting is relevant.
Wait. There are twenty thousand jobs on offer in a single small town in Ohio? I thought there weren’t any jobs in Ohio, and everyone was dying of fentanyl overdoses. Employers are begging for workers? Twenty thousand people descending on a town of sixty thousand is the solution to the town’s problem?
By the way, if the employers in Springfield, Ohio need twenty thousand workers and only Haitians are qualified, why don’t the employers get the Haitians H1B1 visas. There’s a longstanding U.S. Immigration program designed to address that very problem. And it’s, you know, legal.
I also favor a generous legal immigration program, but one that prioritizes those who are educated, culturally compatable with U.S. society, and likely to benefit society in ways that go beyond filling minimum wage jobs.
HJ
They are her under an Executive order giving Cubans, Haitians, Venezuelans and I believe Nicaraguans temporary legal status in 2022. Prior to that about 3500 Haitians lived in Springfield. That number swelled in 2023 and 2024.
Biden alone gave them refugee status without Congressional action. Biden is creating another DACA problem. Yes they are legal because the president says they have a right to be here and his DHS will not remove them nor will they expedite their asylum claims.
Why not.
The claim that they are her legally implies that each one navigated our immigration system and was granted a green card. That is not the case.
The Immigration Act of 1990 (unanimous consent in the House, 81-17 in the Senate) established Temporary Protected Status. Under that law, the Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with other agencies, has authority to designate countries for TPS, and that designation is what provides legal status. So, there was Congressional action, and, as a result, several hundred thousand persons are in the country legally. TPS is based on the country of origin (currently 16 nations) while refugee status is individual and requires adjudication of an asylum claim. Many individuals (close to one million currently) are allowed to remain in the U.S. pending adjudication of their claim.
I believe this so called open border policy the democrats forced on the American people to be the primary issue driving people to vote for Trump, even above economic issues.
And we all know why the democrats are doing this, don’t we?
Here is what Bill Kristol wrote.
https://x.com/mtaibbi/status/1835318240051872255
By the way, shouldn’t Springfield, Ohio, be the final straw for George W. Bush, who refused to demonize immigrants? It’s time for the ex-president to denounce Trump and endorse Harris.
Trump Derangement Syndrome is pernicious. No one knows when it will strike. Bill Kristol is endorsing a Marxist to defeat a Republican?