Reports of shoplifting and vehicle theft increased considerably in Springfield, Ohio, following the arrival of thousands of Haitian refugees, according to data obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation through a records request.
The town, which had a population of 58,622 in 2020, has taken in between 12,000 and 20,000 Haitian refugees over the past three years, marking a population increase of between 20.4% and 34.1%. From 2021 to 2023, Springfield also saw a 51.5% jump in motor vehicle theft reports and a 112.8% spike in reports of shoplifting, data provided by the Springfield Police Division shows.
Springfield residents previously told the DCNF that the influx of Haitians has resulted in an uptick in car accidents, increased housing prices and strained public services. Bryan Heck, Springfield’s city manager, sent a letter to Democratic Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, Republican Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance and Republican South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott in July requesting federal assistance to deal with the pressure migrants had placed on the housing supply.
Inhabitants of the town also told the DCNF that they had observed Haitians engaging in sex acts and other vices in public. The DCNF was unable to verify claims made by the town’s residents about Haitians engaging in public debauchery. (RELATED: Ohio Town Grapples With Car Crashes, Housing Crisis And National Attention Amid Migrant Influx)
Springfield’s police department declined to comment on the crime data, which does not include information on the immigration status or demographics of offenders.
Springfield had a higher crime rate than the nation at large even before Haitians began moving there in large numbers. In 2019, for instance, the town had a violent crime rate of 493.8 per 100,000 residents, compared to the United States’ rate of 366.7 per 100,000, according to data compiled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The number of motor vehicle thefts reported in Springfield increased from 324 in 2021 to 491 in 2023, according to police data. Shoplifting reports, meanwhile, jumped from 295 cases in 2021 to 628 in 2023.
Large numbers of Haitians began arriving in Springfield to meet the demand for labor after the city’s chamber of commerce successfully attracted new businesses to the city, according to The New York Times. While the migrants have attracted the ire of some residents, many are paying taxes to support the community.
Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has set aside $2.5 million to help Springfield deal with the migrant surge and announced Wednesday that he would deploy the Ohio State Highway Patrol to assist with traffic enforcement in the municipality. The issue of poor driving among refugees became a flashpoint in the community after a Haitian national driving a minivan without a license swerved in front of a school bus in August 2023, killing an 11-year-old boy and injuring roughly a dozen other students.
One Springfield resident, a pastor, told the DCNF that the town had accidents every day as a result of the influx of Haitians. A local towing employee confirmed that there had been an uptick in wrecks.
Volunteer teacher Hope Kaufman leads Haitian students during an English language class at the Haitian Community Help and Support Center in Springfield, Ohio. (Photo by ROBERTO SCHMIDT / AFP)
Police recorded just two reported cases of animal cruelty in 2021 and none in 2022 or 2023, failing to provide evidence for rumors of Haitians stealing and eating residents’ pets. The number of reported murders and assaults in the town went more or less unchanged between 2021 and 2023.
Immigration authorities have had over 7 million encounters with migrants at the southern border since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021, according to Customs and Border Protection data. Beyond small towns like Springfield, the large number of migrants entering the country has caused budgetary strains in major cities like New York and Chicago as they attempt to accommodate the new arrivals, Bloomberg reported.
The Biden-Harris administration awarded Haitians Temporary Protected Status for the first time in 2021 and later extended that designation until 2026, protecting them from deportation and allowing them to work legally. The number of people on government benefits also increased considerably as Haitians moved into Springfield, Reuters reported.
As of April, the Biden-Harris administration had flown over 400,000 migrants into the United States, 154,000 of whom originated in Haiti. The administration halted the flight program after an internal report uncovered rampant fraud but has since allowed it to resume.
“We’re tired — help,” one Springfield resident told the DCNF when asked what message he wanted to send to the country. “Send help. Help us fix this.”
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