The city of Springfield, Ohio – population 60,000, has been overwhelmed by roughly 20,000 Haitian illegal migrants, who flocked to the city – exacerbating a ‘significant housing crisis’ according to city officials, and eating pets and wildlife according to locals.
During an Aug. 27 City Commission meeting, one local resident said that Haitians were “in the park grabbing ducks, cutting the heads off, and eating them.”
Another local resident posted to a Facebook group that their neighbor had a cat go missing – only to see it “hanging from a branch, like you’d do a deer for butchering, & they [the Haitians] were carving it up to eat.”
While the cat claim has been refuted by as racist fear-mongering, others have provided receipts showing that cats are indeed part of Haitian cuisine.
Another local told the city that she “can’t take it anymore,” as Haitian migrants are littering on her yard and harassing she and her husband.
Resident Glenda Bailey told the city “They have become the occupiers. What they’ve done is they’ve replaced the population in Springfield.”
Tensions came to a boil last year after a illegal immigrant from Haiti caused a school bus crash last August, killing 11-year-old Aiden Clark after the child was thrown out of the emergency exit as the bus rolled off the road. Another 20 students were injured.
In July, city manager Bryan Heck wrote to leaders of the Senate Banking Committee asking for more federal funding.
“Springfield has seen a surge in population through immigration that has significantly impacted our ability as a community to produce enough housing opportunities for all,” he wrote.