Springfield City Hall is evacuated by bomb threat as Ohio town finds itself in middle of immigration firestorm

City Hall in Springfield, Ohio, was evacuated after a bomb threat was received Thursday morning.

It comes as the city is in the national spotlight over an influx of Haitian migrants and complaints from longtime residents who say the newcomers have become a plague.

According to police, the threat was sent via email to multiple agencies and media.

Fulton Elementary School has also been evacuated, Springfield police said.

Mayor Rob Rue said the sender identified himself as a Springfield resident and was frustrated with city officials over Haiti’s immigration issues.

City Manager Bryan Heck and Deputy Director of Public Safety and Operations Jason Via were seen outside the building around 9 a.m. local time, the Springfield News-Sun.

Officials said in a statement: “As a precaution, the building has been evacuated and authorities are currently conducting a thorough investigation.

“Our primary concern is the safety and well-being of our employees and residents. We are working to address this situation as quickly as possible.”

Police have asked the community to avoid the area around City Hall during the investigation.

The working-class town of about 60,000 has been thrown into turmoil by the approximately 15,000 migrants who have arrived in recent years.

Ohio’s Republican Gov. Mike DeWine said Tuesday he has no objection to the Temporary Protected Status program, which has brought some 15,000 Haitians to the city of about 59,000 since 2020. But he said the federal government must do more to help affected communities.

Former President Donald Trump brought up the community during Tuesday’s presidential debate, citing unsubstantiated claims that migrants are eating people’s pets.

His running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, has also come forward with the unsubstantiated claims.

Springfield officials have tried to quell the misinformation, saying there are no credible or detailed reports of pets being kidnapped or eaten. State leaders are trying to address some of the real challenges the city faces.

Rose-Thamar Joseph said Wednesday at the city’s Haitian Community Help and Support Center that many of the roughly 15,000 immigrants who have arrived in recent years were attracted by good jobs and the city’s relative affordability. But there has been a growing sense of unease as longtime residents grow increasingly angry about newcomers taking factory jobs that drive up housing prices, worsen traffic and strain city services.

Many Haitians have come to the U.S. to flee poverty and violence. They have embraced President Joe Biden’s expanded legal channels and shunned illegal border crossings, accounting for just 92 border arrests out of more than 56,000 in July, the most recent data available.

The Biden administration recently announced that an estimated 300,000 Haitians in the U.S. will be able to remain in the country until at least February 2026, with work authorization, under a law called Temporary Protected Status. The goal is to protect people from deportation to troubled countries.

Springfield, located about 45 miles (72 kilometers) from the capital city of Columbus, suffered a sharp decline in its manufacturing sector toward the end of the last century, causing its population to shrink.

But the center has been revived in recent years as more Haitians arrived, helping to meet the rising demand for labor as the economy emerged from the pandemic. Officials say Haitians now make up about 15 percent of the population.

The city was shocked last year when a minivan collided with a school bus, killing an 11-year-old boy. The driver was a Haitian man who had recently settled in the area and was driving without a valid driver’s license. At a city commission meeting on Tuesday, the boy’s parents condemned politicians’ use of their son’s death to stir up hatred.