Uncertainty in Springfield, the Ohio town put on the map by Trump’s false claims about immigrants
Springfield redux
SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — In the months leading up to Election Day, political signs and billboards dotted much of the landscape surrounding this town in southwestern Ohio. By that weekend, many were gone.
Residents, tired and frustrated after their hometown became a national flashpoint in the election over immigration, were trying to move past the intense scrutiny and refocus on the future.
“It is what it is. We have to live with it,” Jean Philistin, a Haitian resident of Springfield, said of Donald Trump’s victory. “The American people, they wanted him and they elected him.”
Only a couple of months ago, Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, helped perpetuate false rumors about Haitian residents in Springfield eating pets and local wildlife even after city and county officials denied the claims.
The city became a kind of parable of the strains that accompany a sudden influx of migrants, such as rising rents and longer wait times for medical and social services, making Springfield fodder for pro-Trump partisans who then used racist claims to bring it to a national audience.
Rating: 5