Springfield, Ohio, is one such town. A spokesman from Gov. Mike DeWine’s (R-OH) office put his estimate of Haitian immigrants living in the city at 15,000, accounting for roughly a quarter of the town’s population. 

The majority of Haitians are in the country legally under temporary protected status, or TPS, which affords legal documentation and work permits to people from countries in crisis.

They play a vital role in the city: filling jobs that many Americans won’t in the manufacturing, food processing, and service sectors. 

But the huge influx over the span of just a few years has proven to be a challenge for the small town. During an Aug. 27 Springfield City Commission meeting, a few remarks from residents about Haitians eating animals in the parks and slaughtering pets went viral on social media. Deeper problems noted during the city meeting last month did not gain as much attention.

One citizen was frustrated that the city’s Clark County Department of Job and Family Services, or JFS, had been overwhelmed. 

“We can’t get through the doors of JFS to do anything. We can’t get through it. The line is just too long,” the woman said. 

Multiple citizens noted concerns that many Haitian immigrants are causing traffic safety problems. “It is dangerous for people who can’t drive to be driving,” one resident said. 

The governor’s office confirmed that the “biggest complaint” it has heard from local citizens and Springfield officials regards “the influx of erratic drivers in the area.” The main problem seems to be many of the Haitian immigrants hail from one of the poorest countries in the world where most citizens don’t own a car. They don’t have much experience driving, and those who do also hail from a country that doesn’t enforce the traffic protocols used in the United States.

Besides problems with traffic safety and social services, education systems are facing a strain. Several hundred students who are Haitian newcomers across the district now require special language services. 

“That is a significant increase in students that puts a strain on how many students are in each classroom based upon the distribution of what grade they’re in,” DeWine’s press secretary Dan Tierney said. “The need for English as a second language or other language services, so they have to then acquire those services, add additional staff — that creates a strain.” 

“Translators are needed at public service departments, and these additional costs are straining already stretched resources,” Republican state Rep. Bernie Willis said in a recent press release.

A key part of the reason why Springfield is struggling to provide vital services lies in the fact that the majority of its Haitian immigrants are TPS beneficiaries.  

The TPS program provides none of the access to federal funding or services that immigrants enjoy under other federal refugee programs. Language services, educational development, law enforcement aid, and other services that help prevent vital infrastructure in communities like Springfield from being overwhelmed do not follow TPS beneficiaries. 

DeWine has spent $2.5 million to help relieve primary care challenges in Springfield. He has dispatched the Ohio State Highway Patrol to help local law enforcement with traffic problems that have cropped up due to an increase in Haitians unfamiliar with U.S. traffic laws, and, most importantly, he has gotten positive feedback.

But he’s working to convince the White House to change the TPS program so that instead of draining the state’s cash supply, vital resources or “safeguards” will follow the flow of immigrants into small towns like Springfield and keep their infrastructure from being drained. 

“It’s time for the Biden-Harris administration to step up and provide the necessary support to ensure the community can continue to thrive,” Willis said. 

Aurora, Colorado, has also publicly dealt with the strains of a large immigrant population on the city’s infrastructure. 

As Texas saw historic numbers of illegal immigrants cross into the state over the past few years, Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) began busing them to Denver. After the first caravan arrived in May 2023, busloads followed, creating a surge in immigrants in Aurora, a Denver suburb of roughly 400,000.

Aurora has seen 80,000 to 100,000 immigrants, many of them TPS beneficiaries, come into the city over the past two years, according to Mateos Alvarez. He leads a coalition of nonprofit groups centered on stabilizing immigrants called the Aurora Migrant Response Network, which began to organize in October 2022 to address the influx.

Many are from West African countries such as Mauritania. Others are from South American countries such as Venezuela.

The town’s infrastructure began to show signs of cracking. 

“We’re running at 300% our normal, typical average for the school year,” Brett Johnson, chief financial officer for Aurora Public Schools, told the Sentinel Colorado in February.

“All of a sudden you have, you know, several, several thousands of new children enrolling into public school,” Alvarez added.

Meanwhile, law enforcement was recovering from low morale caused by the death of Elijah McClain while in police custody when the influx hit.

The Aurora Police Department had almost 30 vacant positions out of a total of around 290 budgeted officer positions between 2020 and 2021, according to then-Aurora Police Chief Keith Cross’s remarks to the Chicago Tribune in March. 

“Add a migrant influx, a large number of newcomers coming into a small area. Of course, it causes challenges and stretches our police department,” Alvarez reflected. 

And then there were the members of the brutal Venezuelan gang who found their way into Aurora. The Aurora Police Department confirmed in early September the presence of 10 Tren de Aragua members in the city. At least seven have been arrested. 

But Alvarez said he traces the problems with Aurora’s South American community not to gang problems but to the lack of case management and follow-up with the immigrants.

As the executive director of the Aurora Economic Opportunity Coalition, he emphasized long-term stabilization and providing a web of resources to ground the influx of African immigrants, efforts he said have enabled them to be “self-sufficient.” But other nonprofit groups took the reins on handling the Venezuelan and other South American immigrants. 

Their approach was more short-term and helped lead to many of the problems the South American community is facing, Alvarez said. 

“Without case management, without follow-up, you have a lot of, like, turnover, there are misunderstandings. There are language barriers,” he said.

“They helped get many of the Venezuelans there who were eligible, [TPSs] got them their work authorization, but then I think they were just kind of like, OK, go get a job, and there was no follow-up,” he noted. 

However, there are bright spots on the horizon, and they seem to be getting brighter. The APD is rebounding. In March, Cross noted that the APD had only seven vacant positions.

Additionally, community leaders have formed strong ties to lessen the strain on the city’s infrastructure since Aurora does not receive federal funds for resettlement programs, and the city council passed a resolution that would not be funding the response to the immigration influx.

“What we had to do was really turn inward and rely on each other,” Alvarez said. His Aurora Migrant Response Network is now composed of roughly 50 nonprofit groups that have formed strong relationships with police officers, educators, and community leaders. The organization’s efforts have been essential to lifting some of the burden off the city.

The AMRN secured funding from local Denver foundations, such as the Colorado Health Foundation and the Denver Foundation. Some nonprofit groups will be able to access Federal Emergency Management Agency funding after successfully pushing Colorado lawmakers on the matter, and the state legislature passed a bill over the summer that allows nonprofit groups helping immigrants to tap into a pot of funds. The organizations will be able to begin accessing the funds in October, per Alvarez. 

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Alvarez also said the network is implementing a plan to course-correct case management problems in the South American community.

“We are going to try to turn the corner,” he said.