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.
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.
At the first City Commission meeting after the bus crash, angry residents packed the chambers and demanded answers.
“How do you know we aren’t getting criminals, rapists?” a man in a blue Harley Davidson T-shirt asked. “Who can stop them from coming here?” someone else wanted to know. Had they been screened? Were they going to use their driver’s licenses to vote?
The city manager, Bryan Heck, explained that the Haitians were lawfully in the country. The police chief, Allison Elliott, said that Haitians were not responsible for the city’s yearslong struggle with crime such as retail theft. Commissioners said that they had come for job opportunities.
But nothing could quell the outrage.
Image
Authorities work at the scene of a bus crash outside Springfield last year that killed an 11-year-old boy. Credit...Bill Lackey/The Springfield News-Sun via AP
The arrival of successive streams of immigrants has created friction throughout America’s history. In recent years, especially, people from all over the world have settled in places, like Springfield, unaccustomed to high levels of immigration.
The issue has become even more politicized this year, as the presidential election campaign focuses on the record number of crossings on the southern border in 2023. 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.
But the speed and volume of arrivals have put pressure on housing, schools and hospitals. The community health clinic saw a 13-fold increase in Haitian patients between 2021 and 2023, from 115 to 1,500, overwhelming its staff and budget.
The bus crash, which killed Aiden Clark, the son of two teachers, touched off resentment that had been building for months or longer, many residents said.
“Aiden’s death was the match on the tinder bundle,” said Chris Cook, the Clark County health commissioner.
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.
Image
Daniel Campere, a Haitian immigrant who works at McGregor Metal in Springfield Ohio, moved to the city after friends urged him to give it a try. Credit...Maddie McGarvey for The New York Times
The Haitians had Social Security numbers and work permits, thanks to a federal program that offered them temporary protection in the United States. Some had been living for years in places like Florida, where there is a thriving Haitian community.
McGregor Metal, a family-owned business in Springfield that makes parts for cars, trucks and tractors, was short of workers after investing millions to boost production.
The business needed machine operators, forklift drivers and quality inspectors, said Jamie McGregor, the chief executive.
“The Haitians were there to fill those positions,” he said. The immigrants now comprise about 10 percent of his work force.
“They come to work every day. They don’t cause drama. They’re on time,” he said.
Among the Haitians recently on the second shift, which stretched to 1 a.m., was Daniel Campere, operating a robotic welder that makes axle components for Toyota trucks.
Mr. Campere, who arrived in the United States in 2013, for years earned his keep shuttling workers between the tomato fields in Florida and Georgia. Then some friends who had moved to Springfield urged him to give it a try.
He started at McGregor in June 2021 and now makes $19 an hour, with a 401(k) and health insurance.
He has been able to buy a house in Miami, which he rents out. In Springfield, he shares a house with three other Haitian men, who together pay $2,400 in rent.
Mr. Campere said that he was aware of the criticism leveled at his community. “We can’t say anything. The Americans are chez eux,” he said, using the French words for “in their home.”
Image
Jamie McGregor, right, chief executive of McGregor Metal, talking with Mr. Campere during his shift.Credit...Maddie McGarvey for The New York Times
After a pause, he added, “We pay bills and taxes like everybody else.”
Vickie Stevens, an American worker, overheard the conversation in the break room, and shared her two cents.
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“I can tell you, Daniel’s a real good worker,” she said. “He works as many hours as he can get.” She added: “We, the Americans, are just a little jealous of them.”
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.
At the first City Commission meeting after the bus crash, angry residents packed the chambers and demanded answers.
“How do you know we aren’t getting criminals, rapists?” a man in a blue Harley Davidson T-shirt asked. “Who can stop them from coming here?” someone else wanted to know. Had they been screened? Were they going to use their driver’s licenses to vote?
The city manager, Bryan Heck, explained that the Haitians were lawfully in the country. The police chief, Allison Elliott, said that Haitians were not responsible for the city’s yearslong struggle with crime such as retail theft. Commissioners said that they had come for job opportunities.
But nothing could quell the outrage.
Image
Authorities work at the scene of a bus crash outside Springfield last year that killed an 11-year-old boy. Credit...Bill Lackey/The Springfield News-Sun via AP
The arrival of successive streams of immigrants has created friction throughout America’s history. In recent years, especially, people from all over the world have settled in places, like Springfield, unaccustomed to high levels of immigration.
The issue has become even more politicized this year, as the presidential election campaign focuses on the record number of crossings on the southern border in 2023. 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.
But the speed and volume of arrivals have put pressure on housing, schools and hospitals. The community health clinic saw a 13-fold increase in Haitian patients between 2021 and 2023, from 115 to 1,500, overwhelming its staff and budget.
The bus crash, which killed Aiden Clark, the son of two teachers, touched off resentment that had been building for months or longer, many residents said.
“Aiden’s death was the match on the tinder bundle,” said Chris Cook, the Clark County health commissioner.
A City’s Revitalization
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.
Image
Daniel Campere, a Haitian immigrant who works at McGregor Metal in Springfield Ohio, moved to the city after friends urged him to give it a try. Credit...Maddie McGarvey for The New York Times
The Haitians had Social Security numbers and work permits, thanks to a federal program that offered them temporary protection in the United States. Some had been living for years in places like Florida, where there is a thriving Haitian community.
McGregor Metal, a family-owned business in Springfield that makes parts for cars, trucks and tractors, was short of workers after investing millions to boost production.
The business needed machine operators, forklift drivers and quality inspectors, said Jamie McGregor, the chief executive.
“The Haitians were there to fill those positions,” he said. The immigrants now comprise about 10 percent of his work force.
“They come to work every day. They don’t cause drama. They’re on time,” he said.
Among the Haitians recently on the second shift, which stretched to 1 a.m., was Daniel Campere, operating a robotic welder that makes axle components for Toyota trucks.
Mr. Campere, who arrived in the United States in 2013, for years earned his keep shuttling workers between the tomato fields in Florida and Georgia. Then some friends who had moved to Springfield urged him to give it a try.
He started at McGregor in June 2021 and now makes $19 an hour, with a 401(k) and health insurance.
He has been able to buy a house in Miami, which he rents out. In Springfield, he shares a house with three other Haitian men, who together pay $2,400 in rent.
Mr. Campere said that he was aware of the criticism leveled at his community. “We can’t say anything. The Americans are chez eux,” he said, using the French words for “in their home.”
Image
Jamie McGregor, right, chief executive of McGregor Metal, talking with Mr. Campere during his shift.Credit...Maddie McGarvey for The New York Times
After a pause, he added, “We pay bills and taxes like everybody else.”
Vickie Stevens, an American worker, overheard the conversation in the break room, and shared her two cents.
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“I can tell you, Daniel’s a real good worker,” she said. “He works as many hours as he can get.” She added: “We, the Americans, are just a little jealous of them.”
