SPRINGFIELD, Ohio - Republican Senate candidate Bernie Moreno took aim at the Biden administration, arguing that the issues faced by residents of this city can be traced back to policies in Washington, D.C.
Moreno, who is trying to unseat Democrat Sen. Sherrod Brown, spoke at an event in the city that has recently been thrust into the center of the national immigration debate. Residents say the federal government's decision to settle as many as 20,000 Haitian immigrants in the city of 60,000 has caused widespread problems.
"What's going on in this community is a total disgrace," Moreno said. "Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, with the help of their number one ally in the United States Senate, Sherrod Brown, have absolutely corrupted our immigration laws to allow a mass, uncontrolled amount of immigration to come to a community like Springfield."
The Buckeye State's other senator, JD Vance, who is running for vice president, has also spoken out about the issue since former President Donald Trump raised it during his debate earlier this week against Vice President Kamala Harris.
"Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn't be in this country," Vance wrote in a post on X this week. "Where is our border czar?"
"They're eating the dogs, the people that came in, they're eating the cats," Trump said during a response to a question about immigration. "They're eating the pets of the people that live there, and this is what's happening in our country, and it's a shame."
While the claims made by Trump and Vance have not been proven, there is little dispute about Springfield struggling to absorb the influx of Haitian migrants. According to former Ohio State Rep. Kyle Koehler, that has caused some issues in the community.
"We’ve got an influx of folks that have come in, and I think we were a little bit shocked that it was close to 20,000 people in a community of 60,000, and that’s caused some issues between the folks that live here and the folks that are coming in," Koehler, a Republican now running for state senate, told Fox News Digital.
Koehler noted that many of the issues can be chalked up to differences in culture, which have been hard to overcome when new people have been coming into Springfield at such a high rate. However, the Republican also noted some other issues faced by the community, including a dramatic spike in traffic accidents.
SPRINGFIELD PASTORS SPEAK OUT ON HAITIAN REFUGEE CHALLENGES: 'THE SUFFERING IS REAL'
"We do have a really abnormal number of car accidents that are happening," Koehler said. "And it’s not only the number, but the severity of them. When you go on a street that is a 35-mile-an-hour speed limit, and there’s a car sitting on its hood, and I’m not talking about one, I’m talking about five or six accidents a week like that, you begin to wonder."
Moreno highlighted other issues faced by the community during his Saturday event, pointing to schools that have struggled to handle the surge of new students who don't speak English.
"No country on earth would allow to happen what's happening here," Moreno said.
The Senate candidate vowed to help fix the immigration system if elected, promising that he would work to end the Temporary Protection Status program, which has been the primary driver of migration to Springfield, by letting it expire in 2026 while putting a new program with more strict requirements in place.
"Our leaders have failed to address it," Moreno said, responding to comments by Brown that accused Republicans of using the situation in Springfield for political gain. "Where is Sherrod Brown by the way? . . . Where is he helping the citizens of Springfield resolve this problem?"
Moreno also argued that it wasn't the fault of migrants or local leaders in Springfield that the situation in the town has reached this point, instead pointing to Democrats in Washington.
"They didn't cause this problem. It wasn't a fair problem," Moreno said. "This was dumped on them by corrupt federal elected leaders that weren't looking out for the people in Springfield."
