Springfield City Hall is evacuated by bomb threat as Ohio town finds itself in middle of immigration firestorm
City Hall in Springfield, Ohio, has been evacuated after a bomb threat was received on Thursday morning.
It comes as the city has found itself in the national spotlight amid a surge of Haitian migrants and complaints from longtime residents who say the newcomers have become a nuisance.
Police said the threat was sent via email to multiple agencies and media outlets.
Fulton Elementary School has also been evacuated, the Springfield Police Department said.
Mayor Rob Rue said the sender identified themselves as a Springfield resident and mentioned frustration with city officials regarding Haitian immigration issues.
City Manager Bryan Heck and Deputy Director of Public Safety and Operations Jason Via were seen outside the building at around 9am local time, as reported by the Springfield News-Sun.
City Hall in Springfield, Ohio , has been evacuated after a bomb threat was received on Thursday morning
Fulton Elementary School has also been evacuated, the Springfield Police Department said
Officials said in a statement: ‘As a precautionary measure, the building has been evacuated, and authorities are currently conducting a thorough investigation.
‘Our primary concern is the safety and well-being of our employees and residents. We are working to address this situation as swiftly as possible.’
Police have asked that the community avoid the area surrounding City Hall while they investigate.
The blue-collar city of about 60,000 has been in turmoil over the about 15,000 migrants who have arrived in recent years.
Ohio’s Republican governor Mike DeWine said on Tuesday he doesn’t oppose the Temporary Protected Status program under which some 15,000 Haitians have arrived in the city of about 59,000 people since 2020, but said the federal government must do more to help impacted communities.
Ohio governor Mike DeWine has announced that he will send troopers and millions of dollars to Springfield amid a surge of Haitian migrants
Former president Donald Trump brought up the community during Tuesday’s presidential debate, mentioning unfounded claims that the migrants have been eating people’s pets.
His running mate, Ohio senator JD Vance, has also promoted the unconfirmed claims.
Officials in Springfield have tried to tamp down the misinformation by saying there have been no credible or detailed reports of any pets being abducted or eaten. State leaders are trying to help address some of the real challenges facing the city.
At the city’s Haitian Community Help and Support Center on Wednesday, Rose-Thamar Joseph said many of the roughly 15,000 immigrants who arrived in the past few years were drawn by good jobs and the city’s relative affordability. But a rising sense of unease has crept in as longtime residents increasingly bristle at newcomers taking jobs at factories, driving up housing costs, worsening traffic and straining city services.
Many Haitians have come to the U.S. to flee poverty and violence. They have embraced President Joe Biden’s new and expanded legal pathways to enter, and have shunned illegal crossings, accounting for only 92 border arrests out of more than 56,000 in July, the latest data available.
The city has been in turmoil over the about 15,000 migrants who have arrived in recent years. Alimemby Estimable, 19, is seen discussing being Haitian in Springfield, Ohio
The Biden administration recently announced an estimated 300,000 Haitians in the U.S. could remain in the country at least through February 2026, with eligibility for work authorization, under a law called Temporary Protected Status. The goal is to spare people from being deported to countries in turmoil.
Springfield, about 45 miles from the state capital of Columbus, suffered a steep decline in its manufacturing sector toward the end of the last century, and its population shrank as a result.
But its downtown has been revitalized in recent years as more Haitians arrived and helped meet the rising demand for labor as the economy emerged from the pandemic. Officials say Haitians now account for about 15 percent of the population.
The city was shaken last year when a minivan slammed into a school bus, killing an 11-year-old boy. The driver was a Haitian man who recently settled in the area and was driving without a valid license. During a city commission meeting on Tuesday, the boy’s parents condemned politicians’ use of their son’s death to stoke hatred.