Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s experience with Haiti and Haitians goes far beyond his current efforts to manage issues — ranging from baseless rumors to genuine concerns — related to the recent sudden influx of Haitian immigrants to Springfield.
The Republican governor has an extensive connection to Haiti. In 1998, DeWine and his wife, Fran, began their support of the Becky DeWine School, named after the DeWines’ daughter who was killed in a 1993 car accident at 22 years old.
The school was situated in a slum known as Cite Soleil in Haiti capitol Port Au Prince and run by a charity that had long been supported by the DeWines. Mike and Fran DeWine in 2013 traveled to Haiti to commemorate the school’s first graduating class.
The school closed last year amid the gang violence that overwhelmed the country. It was run by Helping Hands, a charity headed by Haiti humanitarian Father Tom Hagan, who DeWine still counts as a friend and who delivered an invocation before DeWine took the oath of office at a private ceremony following his last reelection.
A previous Dayton Daily News report relayed that the school had an enrollment of roughly 5,000 students and served just under 10,000 meals a day and was pivotal in shaping his perspective on Haiti.
“Our mission is not to save Haiti, because that’s beyond us. But we can affect one child at a time. Our goal is to help that child survive and have a meaningful life. By accident of birth these kids were born in Haiti instead of Beavercreek. Some of the kids don’t make it, and some of them drop out, but we provide an opportunity for success,” DeWine said at the time.
DeWine in October sat with Father Hagan for a series of recorded interviews to raise awareness of the suffering in Haiti.
Asked about his views on Haitians at a press conference this week, the Republican governor described Springfield’s Haitians as family-centric, hardworking, and in search for economic opportunities and safety.
“They left a country that is abysmally poor, but that has seen a much worsening of the situation since the assassination of the president of Haiti in 2021,” DeWine said. “Since that time, (Haiti has) seen violence at an extremely high level, a dysfunctioning government, a dysfunctioning police, a country that is by and large controlled by very violent gangs.”
“It is no wonder,” DeWine continued, “that these individuals left Haiti and are here in the United States.”
He also noted that there are several facts of life that are putting real strains on the city of Springfield.
For example, DeWine laid out that most Haitians never learned to drive and are now in a car-dependent environment. In turn, he said there’s been an uptick in local accidents, reports of erratic driving, and “real concerns” among Springfield and Clark County drivers.
DeWine said even the Haitians that did learn to drive back in Haiti might still have a hard time adjusting to Ohio roads. “It’s just a different norm, just a different situation,” he said.
DeWine also noted that Haitians have long lacked adequate primary healthcare, which, according to Hagan, has been a problem exacerbated by increasing violence.
“What (Hagan) has told us is that, what’s happened in the last several years, the violence has just gotten worse and worse and many of the Haitian doctors have left,” DeWine said.
As a result, many Haitians now in Springfield are looking to use the area’s health care services, which DeWine said is straining the local healthcare system and creating longer wait times.
DeWine went on to loosely endorse the country’s Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program, which has granted much of Springfield’s Haitian community the permission to live in the United States. However, he challenged federal officials to take a more active role in ensuring that communities that end up taking in immigrant populations are supported, which he said is not occurring in Springfield today.
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