In Springfield, Ohio, Threats Leave Haitian Residents Shaken

After a week that saw schools, businesses and City Hall closed in Springfield, Ohio, by bomb threats, this weekend began with two of the city’s hospitals going on lockdown. A sweep of both facilities on Saturday morning turned up nothing, but the new threats only added to the unease hanging over the city since former President Donald J. Trump dragged it into the race for the White House.

During the presidential debate on Tuesday, Mr. Trump cited a debunked rumor that Haitian immigrants in Springfield were abducting and eating pets, and days later, he vowed to begin his mass deportation effort with the Haitians in Springfield, even though most of them are in the United States legally.

The increasingly hostile rhetoric from Mr. Trump, other politicians and some extremist organizations has shaken some of the thousands of Haitians who have settled in Springfield in recent years.

“Honestly, I don’t feel safe. It’s not good right now,” says Jean-Patrick Louisius, 40, who moved to Springfield four years ago with his wife and two daughters. He was part of an early wave of Haitian arrivals, attracted to the city by plentiful jobs and affordable housing. Estimates of the number of Haitians who have arrived in recent years range from 12,000 to 20,000.

But tensions between longtime residents and more recent arrivals had been building before the national spotlight landed on the city, about 25 miles from Dayton.

Even as the Haitian immigrants have been welcomed by employers and injected energy into fading neighborhoods, the arrival of thousands of people in a short period of time has strained schools and some government services.