Migration is more complex than politics show

For decades, politicians in both parties have bemoaned a US immigration system that virtually all call broken. Attempts at comprehensive reform have failed, and popular emotion and partisan rancour have hit a new high over the last two years as cities and towns struggled to accommodate migrants.

With emotions high, Republican-led states have bussed new arrivals to Democratic-led cities. The presidential election now has shifted the spotlight to a city whose latest residents are legally in the country.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and running mate Ohio Senator JD Vance have jumped on disproven rumours that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, are eating household pets.

The bottom line: Immigrants are coming and staying in this country through a mix of methods and programmes that are not easily captured or acknowledged in political rhetoric; but fearmongering over immigration is nearly as old as the country itself.

MANY WAYS TO COME TO THE US

The roughly 15,000 Haitians residing in Springfield are in the US legally. Most of them are under Temporary Protected Status, which allows them to stay and work. Trump and Vance have failed to make that distinction, which many critics see as part of Trump’s long history of targeting black people. Last weekend at a rally in Las Vegas, the Republican presidential nominee said the city has “been taken over by illegal migrants”.

Trump would not be able to legally deport Haitians who have protected status.

His supporters, such as Vivek Ramaswamy, have falsely stated that the federal government transported Haitians to Springfield’s front doorstep. In reality, migrants with legal status or are granted asylum have to foot the bill for their own transportation. The Haitian population there grew largely as migrants who went where they could find family, housing and work.

BENEFITS OF IMMIGRATION

Historically, immigrants or people with temporary protected status come to the US to work and often take jobs that Americans reject, filling a need in the workforce as older generations retire and fewer babies are born. And many American cities’ cultural, economic and religious identities were shaped by migrants.

“Most Americans are fundamentally immigrants, and so it’s always just kind of crazy when this gets called into question, and there’s some idea that immigration is not a strength,” said Republican Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt.

One in five Oklahoma City residents are Latino, Holt said, and the restaurants and small businesses they operate have become an integral part of the city of about 700,000 people. In the 1970s and 1980s, thousands of Vietnamese immigrants flocked to the city and today their community, a few miles west of the state capitol, is known for its bustling markets and many restaurants.

“Their culture and their food are now very much a part of what makes Oklahoma City unique,” Holt said.

After the evacuation of Afghanistan in 2021, Holt welcomed more than 2,000 Afghan refugees to the city. One of them, Feroz Bashari, swore Holt in for his second term as mayor.

Bashari had been the spokesperson for the Afghan government before the US withdrew. He fled with his family when the government was toppled.

“A friend of mine who came before me told me it’s a nice place for living, raising your children,” Bashari said. “It’s a conservative place, they believe in God, they’re very religious. They have almost the same religious culture we have.”

Immigrants can revitalise little-populated neighbourhoods and decaying streets by setting up businesses and paying taxes. Miami’s Little Havana, San Francisco’s Chinatown or Chicago’s Polish Triangle are fixtures touted to visitors. But migrants also change the fabric and the culture of a city, as well as the country, in ways that longer-term residents find hard.

COMPLICATIONS OF IMMIGRATION

A census survey conducted between July 2022 and July 2023 found that Ohio’s foreign-born population included 5,442 people from Haiti. In comparison, Florida and New York had populations of over 370,000 and 119,000 Haiti-born residents, respectively.

Springfield officials have placed the figure today at between 15,000 and 20,000, and they say the size of the influx, combined with the language barrier, has created delays in receiving healthcare, accessing social services and using everyday government services, like getting a licence. Traffic accidents involving death or injury also have increased in town, as have pressures on the housing stock.

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine has deep ties to Haiti, having travelled there with his wife more than 20 times in support of a tuition-free school named after their late daughter. DeWine, who was born in Springfield and is a lifelong resident of the area, said Haitians who have landed in the city are hard workers, and have helped close labour shortages in factories and warehouses.

But he said that a sudden influx of Haitians in a city of 58,000 has also stretched the city’s resources. Some of those frustrations spilled out at a Springfield City Commission meeting last week.

A school-bus driver said he and other bus drivers are forced to take evasive manoeuvres every day “avoiding people who can’t drive”. A man spoke of a friend who was kicked out of his home by a landlord, who then tripled the rent. Other residents complained about overcrowded schools and an increase in homelessness among long-time residents.

“I feel like there should be a no-vacancy sign right now,” one man said.

DeWine, at a news conference this week, said that, “Yes, we have challenges.

“But we’re going to meet those challenges,” he said. “We may not meet them overnight, but we’re going to work at those challenges and those problems.”

Earlier this month, DeWine announced the city would get $2.5 million over the next two years for healthcare demands.

LONG HISTORY OF FEARS OVER IMMIGRATION

Trump has alleged that migrants have caused skyrocketing crime rates in cities like Springfield and Aurora, Colorado, although the authorities in both cities have debunked that. Many studies show that crime is lower among immigrants, compared to native-born residents.

Nearly 200 years before Trump and Vance perpetuated unfounded fears that Haitians in Springfield, Ohio abduct and eat dogs and cats, Chinese labourers in California faced similar demonisation. Many Chinese men emigrated to the West in the 1850s – first to dig for gold and then build the transcontinental railroad. Propaganda at the time fostered fears that the Chinese were a “yellow peril” who smoked opium and ate strange foods. This sentiment led to Congress passing the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. It was the first law restricting immigration based on ethnicity.

In 1924, the US established a comprehensive immigration law with a quota system based on nation of origin. It heavily favoured immigrants from Northern and Western Europe. The intention was to limit immigrants from Asia, as well as Jews and others fleeing Europe.

A monumental change came in 1965 with the Hart-Celler Immigration Act, which abolished the quotas and was intended to help immigrants bring family members with them to the US, a practice known as chain migration that first benefited Europeans and now aids people from Asia and Latin America.

Graham Lee Brewer, of Oklahoma City, and Terry Tang, of Phoenix, are members of AP’s Race and Ethnicity team. Associated Press writers Mike Schneider in Orlando, Florida, and Michael Rubinkam in northeastern Pennsylvania contributed to this report.