On the editorial page of today’s Wheeling Intelligencer is a recent column by one of the paper’s regular syndicated columnists, Rich Lowry:

Here’s What’s Behind the Real Scandal in Springfield, Ohio

If you’ve read any of Lowry’s columns, you know that for most problems, he will find a way to blame President Joe Biden. He doesn’t disappoint on this one:

Prior to this point, Springfield had nothing to do with Haiti, and looking at the map, a town located between Columbus and Dayton would be one of the least likely places to have anything to do with Haiti.

It is very far from Little Haiti in Miami, and it had no pre-existing Haitian population or an infrastructure to provide services to Haitian Creole speakers.

No matter.

Under the Biden administration’s open-handed immigration policies, every place in the country has become subject to sudden, disruptive demographic change.

Okay, let's start with ABC News' history of how this came to be:

Hundreds of thousands of Haitian immigrants hold Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, a designation created by Congress in 1990 that allows migrants in the U.S. to stay for a limited amount of time if the executive branch determines conditions in their home country prevent them from returning safely.

Haitian nationals were first granted TPS in 2010 after a catastrophic earthquake decimated the Caribbean nation, claiming more than 100,000 lives and overwhelming its government.

Those protections were renewed multiple times during the Obama era and then extended by six months during Trump's time in the White House before the former president moved to sunset the provision in 2019. However, that decision was met with multiple legal challenges that effectively ran out the clock on his administration.

Shortly after President Joe Biden took office, he moved to reinstate TPS for Haiti, sharply increasing the number of Haitians eligible to apply for the status.

CNN further explains:

Did a government program send them there for resettlement?

No. Immigrants have chosen to live in Springfield due to its low cost of living and available work, according to a city website, which notes that “no government entity is responsible for the influx of Haitians into Clark County.”

Interestingly, Republican Ohio Governor Mike DeWine sees the immigrants as a plus:

“Ohio is on the move, and Springfield has really made a great resurgence with a lot of companies coming in. These Haitians came in to work for these companies,” he told ABC on Sunday. “What the companies tell us is that they are very good workers. They’re very happy to have them there, and frankly, that’s helped the economy.”

A Rich Lowry follow-up

On Monday, Rich Lowry explained Springfield on camera (check the 12 second point):

The editor in chief of the National Review just said the N word in regards to Haitians and Megyn Kelly ignores it. pic.twitter.com/PK9trHPOUF

— Alejandra Caraballo (@Esqueer_) September 16, 2024

As I am finishing this post, I see that Vivek Ramaswamy is currently speaking in Springfield while Donald Trump and J.D. Vance are planning trips to Springfield. Hasn’t this town suffered enough?