The New York Times’s Miriam Jordan, who has been reporting on immigration for many years, always, as far as I can remember, taking the side of the immigrant, has a piece about Haitians moving out of Springfield, Ohio.
An Ohio City Faces a Future Without Haitian Workers: ‘It’s Not Going to Be Good’
Springfield faced a crisis after Donald Trump falsely claimed Haitians were eating pets. Now his policies are driving out workers like Wilford Rinvil, who left for Canada.
August 18, 2025
Donald Trump didn’t “falsely claim” this, he repeated reports from locals that this was going on. Here’s a local black Springfield resident saying “They’re in the park grabbing up ducks by their neck and cutting their head off and walking off with ’em and eating them.”
NEW: Springfield, Ohio man says Haitian illegals are decap*tating ducks from parks & eating them, accuses commission members of getting paid off for allowing it.
“They’re in the park grabbing up ducks by their neck and cutting their head off and walking off with ’em and eating… pic.twitter.com/uE3wI3CXl3
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) September 8, 2024
J. D. Vance said that
In the last several weeks, my office has received many inquiries from actual residents of Springfield who’ve said their neighbors’ pets or local wildlife were abducted by Haitian migrants. It’s possible, of course, that all of these rumors will turn out to be false.
Wikipedia insists on calling this the “Springfield pet-eating hoax” but it doesn’t’ matter—as then candidate, now Vice President J. D. Vance went on:
Do you know what’s confirmed? That a child was murdered by a Haitian migrant who had no right to be here. That local health services have been overwhelmed. That communicable diseases–like TB and HIV–have been on the rise. That local schools have struggled to keep up with newcomers who don’t know English. That rents have risen so fast that many Springfield families can’t afford to put a roof over their head.
That’s why I wrote that “Haitian Immigration Would Be Bad, Actually, Even If They Were Vegans.”
Haitian Immigration Would Be Bad, Actually, Even If They Were Vegans
They aren’t vegans, though. Miriam Jordan writes:
The aroma of Haitian feast — pork griot, djon djon rice, fried plantains — drifted through the break room of a metal shop in Springfield, Ohio.
It was Wilford Rinvil’s goodbye gift to his co-workers.
For four years, Mr. Rinvil, a Haitian immigrant, had pressed steel into car parts at McGregor Metal. While the work was grueling, it offered a stable income, health insurance, a 401(k). And Mr. Rinvil, who turns 46 this week, thrived there, relieved to be away from his home country, which had descended into lawlessness and gang violence.
“He would do anything in the world for you,” said Lance Beale, the production supervisor.
But Mr. Rinvil’s sense of security began to unravel after President Trump took office and moved to dismantle protections for Haitian immigrants.
He expected the administration to revoke his work permit. And with deportation a real possibility, Mr. Rinvil packed up his hard-won life and moved this month to Canada.
Let’s talk about WHY the Trump Administration is likely to revoke Haitians’ work permits—because the Trump Administration is revoking Temporary Protected Status for Haitians, and when you have TPS, you get to work. TPS is for people from countries suffering from wars, earthquakes, hurricanes, and so on, where the Government feels it would be unkind to deport them into chaos. But no one with TPS started out as a legal immigrant, most committed immigration fraud, telling the US immigration authorities that they were “tourists.”
That’s what Rinvil did—and so did his family. Jordan goes on:
In 2017, after a traumatic event they declined to discuss, Mrs. Rinvil flew to the United States on a tourist visa intending to seek asylum, while he stayed behind to care for their daughter, then 8.
But Mrs. Rinvil was alarmed by Mr. Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric about Haitians — they “all have AIDS,” he said at the time — and moved to Canada.
Three years later, as political unrest and violence spiraled in Haiti, Mr. Rinvil decided he, too, had to leave. He arrived in the United States on a tourist visa in August 2020 and headed to Springfield, drawn by its abundant job opportunities and affordable living. His daughter stayed with her maternal grandmother.
It’s not true that Trump said this about all Haitians having AIDS (although many do— about 2 percent of Haitians are HIV-positive), rather, the NYT reported in 2017 that Trump “grumbled” this in a non-public meeting “according to one person who attended the meeting and another person who was briefed about it by a different person who was there.” There’s no actual evidence that this happened—the sources (Trump’s internal enemies) may have made it up, or the NYT reporter may have made up the sources, who are two officials “who asked for anonymity to discuss a sensitive conversation in the Oval Office.” These disloyalists may have been Generals John Kelly, USMC, retired, and James “Mad Dog” Mattis, USMC, retired.
The White House denied he said it—so Trump didn’t frighten away Rinvil with his inflammatory rhetoric, uttered in the “privacy” of an Oval Office meeting, the NYT did. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with Trump speaking out against Haitian immigration, and if inflammatory rhetoric makes immigration fraudster stay home, that’s actually positive.
But Miriam Jordan’s story about Haitians who are leaving Springfield, and no longer doing cheap labor at American jobs includes the quote “It’s Not Going to Be Good.” Who said that? Longtime GOP immigration enthusiast Mike DeWine:
Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, offered his own sobering assessment last month.
“The one word I would use to describe Springfield today is stable,” he said, after meeting representatives from local businesses, medical centers and religious organizations.
But “suddenly losing a large number” of workers, he noted, would have a “significant impact” on Springfield and the region, as businesses struggle to keep operating. And immigrant families who were once self-sufficient would require support.
His conclusion was blunt: “It’s not going to be good.”
DeWine was one of the 17 Republican Governors [list here] who, in 2020, were actually asking the Trump Administration to send them MORE refugees. Presumably they’re valuing the interests of employers (who donate) over American workers (who vote).
But Springfield will be better off with fewer Haitians, even if local metal-working factories have to raise wages. Haitians bring all kinds of social pathologies with them.
Haitians (And Other Immigrants) And The Slavery They’re Still Committing In America
And even if Springfield somehow profited from its occupation by Haitians, the rest of America would suffer, partly because of the Federal funding needed by poor immigrant communities and because of the fact that Haitians living in America have Haitian-American children, who will continue to be poorer than other Americans.
Jordan and DeWine are both wrong—if Haitian workers desert Springfield (and America!) it IS going to be good.