Betrayal in the Buckeye State: Ohio Senate Candidate Unleashes Scathing Attack on ‘Corrupt’ Politicians Over Springfield Immigration Crisis
Republican Senate Candidate Blames ”Corrupt” Politicians for Immigration Crisis in Ohio
Rose Grout Creole Restaurant in Springfield, Ohio, is a popular Haitian restaurant that opened in August 2023. (Fox News)
Republican Senate candidate Bernie Moreno is blaming “corrupt” politicians for the immigration crisis in Springfield, Ohio. Moreno, a businessman running against Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown in Ohio, told Fox News Digital that elected Democrats had “forgotten” that they were “working for the American people.”
“Let’s start with the fact that we don’t even know how many Haitian immigrants have come to Springfield, Ohio,” Moreno said. “That’s the first question, and the second is why are we bringing so many people into a small community like Springfield, where there’s no infrastructure, no health care system, no education system, and it’s going to cost tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions, of dollars to get there.”
Moreno added that there are huge priorities in this country, and that Americans who need help are not getting the resources they deserve. “There are people who need help, there are Americans who need housing, there are Americans who are struggling with the high inflation caused by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Why are we taking valuable resources from American taxpayers and using them to benefit foreigners? That’s the real question in Springfield, and it’s not being answered.”
Springfield, Ohio, has made national news in recent weeks as tens of thousands of Haitian immigrants have arrived in the town of 60,000. Residents say there is no infrastructure to care for them and crime is on the rise.
People wait in line to receive food at the food pantry at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Springfield, Ohio, on September 13, 2024. (Fox News/Max Becall)
Moreno told Fox News Digital that Brown and Biden were “50-year politicians” who “forgot that they were working for the American people.” He also disputed the claims of prominent Democratic figures and celebrities, saying they are not taking the issue seriously.
“Then you have corrupt politicians like Sherrod Brown, who hangs out with his Hollywood celebrity friends like John Legend, and he wears a bathrobe in his multi-million dollar mansion and says the people of Springfield, Ohio, should be welcome there,” Moreno said. “Why doesn’t he keep them in his home? Why don’t these immigrants go to Beverly Hills and live in two- or three-bedroom houses with 16 or 18 people? And why don’t his kids go to school with these immigrants who don’t speak a word of English? Because their culture is so different from ours.”
Senator Sherrod Brown votes at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 23, 2024. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images)
Moreno also echoed the concerns of Springfield resident Diana Daniels, who said that residents who have a “right” to use the resources they pay for are “lining up behind the Haitian immigrants.”
“It’s like living in a dystopian nightmare,” Daniels said. “I woke up and wished it was 2019, but it’s 2024 and every single day it’s the same old story. It’s hard sometimes to wake up and hear people you’ve known for years struggling. This is a paycheck to paycheck… kind of a town… working class. People who depend on social services like health care, Rocking Horse (a community health center), they’re waiting in line at the Social Security office to get benefits and they’re not getting the services they need.”
Moreno, who immigrated to the U.S. from Colombia as a child, told Fox News Digital that she was “sick” of her fellow legal immigrants “having a culture of skipping lines” and “getting preferential treatment for whatever reason.”
“For example, temporary protected status, the key word ‘temporary’ is given to people who have an emergency in their home country and need to stay for several months,” Moreno said. “Instead, we use it to keep people here permanently. It takes the line out of the millions of people who want to come to this country. Why are we giving preferential treatment to Haiti? There is suffering all over the world. India, Africa, my hometown of Colombia. There is suffering everywhere. Why do we give preferential treatment to some countries and not others? The answer is because there are special interests that give money to politicians, fund nonprofits, pay CEOs huge salaries. And it’s all about the people who pay the price, and the citizens of Springfield, Ohio.”