(The Center Square) – State taxpayer dollars are heading to an Ohio city to combat a growing refugee population gaining national attention and straining public safety and health care services.
Gov. Mike DeWine announced the state plans to spend $2.5 million to expand primary care services in Springfield, and the Ohio State Patrol will help the Springfield Police Department with traffic enforcement beginning Wednesday morning.
"I want the people of Springfield and Clark County to know that as we move forward, we will continue to do everything we can to help the community deal with this surge of migrants," DeWine said. "The federal government has not demonstrated that they have any kind of plan to deal with the issue. We will not walk away."
Previously, the state had initiated other programs to deal with the growing Haitian refugee population, which has grown since 2020 to around 15,000 in the city of nearly 60,000 under the Temporary Protected Status program.
The Temporary Protected Status program gives migrants whose home countries are considered unsafe to live and work in the U.S.
The programs Ohio established in Springfield include:
• creating a school-based health clinic in the Springfield City School District to expand primary care access for school children and their parents.
• increasing support for vaccinations and health screenings through the local health department.
• allocating additional funds to the Clark County Department of Job and Family Services for translation services.
• providing funding to Clark State College for services to teach English to Haitians.
• providing driving simulators and offering driver education classes targeted to the Haitian community.
• working with the Springfield School District to maximize existing resources and provide ongoing support to deal with the surge of migrant students.
The state’s new programs come on the heels of Springfield City Manager Brian Heck’s letter to federal lawmakers in July outlining what he called the city’s housing crisis due to the influx of migrants.
Earlier this week , Attorney General Dave Yost directed his staff to find legal ways to stop the influx of migrants after communities around the state have complained of being inundated and overwhelmed.
Republican vice presidential candidate and Ohio U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance spent this week saying refugees were stealing and eating the pets of Springfield residents. Former President Donald Trump repeated the false claims Tuesday night during a debate with Vice President Kamala Harris.
Springfield city officials and the Springfield Police Department have said the claims are untrue.
The Springfield News-Sun reported Monday that the claims originally came from a Springfield Facebook group that did not cite first-hand knowledge. Instead, the poster said a neighbor’s daughter’s friend lost her cat and found it hanging from a branch in a Haitian neighborhood.
The Cincinnati Enquirer reported people are combining the Haitian refugee issue with a Canton woman’s arrest in August. A YouTube video falsely purports to show police officers confronting a Haitian woman in Springfield about to eat a cat.
The Canton Repository reports the video is Canton Police Department body cam footage from an August incident in Canton, nearly 200 miles northeast of Springfield.
Cleveland.com reported Heck released a statement Monday that said the reports are false, and refugees have not participated in other reported illegal activities.
“There have been no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community,” the statement said. “Additionally, there have been no verified instances of immigrants engaging in illegal activities such as squatting or littering in front of residents’ homes. Furthermore, no reports have been made regarding members of the immigrant community deliberately disrupting traffic.”
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