When Ohio senator and Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance claimed Haitian immigrants had caused infectious-disease rates to “skyrocket” in Springfield, local health commissioner Chris Cook checked the records.
They showed that in 2023, for example, there were four active tuberculosis cases in Ohio’s Clark County, which includes Springfield, up from three in 2022. HIV cases had risen, but sexually transmitted illnesses overall were decreasing.
“I wouldn’t call it skyrocketing,” said Cook, noting that there were 190 active cases in 2023 in all of Ohio. “You hear the rhetoric. But as a whole, reportable infectious diseases to the health department are decreasing.”
Tensions are running high in Springfield, an industrial town of about 58,000 people. Bomb threats closed schools and public buildings after GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump falsely claimed that Haitian immigrants — who he alleged were there illegally — were stealing and eating household pets. City and county officials disputed the claims the former president levied during his Sept. 10 debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, his Democratic opponent.
Trump was amplifying comments made by Vance that — along with his claims about the immigration status of this population — were broadly panned as false. When asked during a CNN interview about the debunked pet-eating rumor, Vance acknowledged that the image he created was based not on facts but on “firsthand accounts from my constituents.” He said he was willing “to create” stories to focus attention on how immigration can overrun communities.
But Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, also a Republican, has said immigrants have been an economic boon to Springfield. Many began arriving because businesses in the town, which had seen its population decrease, needed labor.
Largely lost in the political rancor is the way Springfield and the surrounding area responded to the influx of Haitian immigrants. Local health institutions tried to address the needs of this new population, which had lacked basic public health care such as immunization and often didn’t understand the U.S. health system.
The town is a microcosm of how immigration is reshaping communities throughout the United States. In the Springfield area, Catholic charities, other philanthropies, volunteers and county agencies have banded together over the past three to four years to tackle the challenge and connect immigrants who have critical…
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