E198 - The Haitians Who Saved Springfield, Ohio Are About to Lose Everything. And So Will Springfield.

Hawk focuses on Springfield, Ohio, where he grew up nearby, using two newsletters by Jim Swift at the Bulwark. Haitians came to Springfield at the request of the Republican governor and mayor to fill unfilled manufacturing jobs and reverse decades of population decline. They filled factories, opened businesses, started churches, and stabilized the city, until Donald Trump and JD Vance spread the fabricated story about immigrants eating pets, after which Pastor Carl Ruby says business relocation inquiries stopped entirely.

The numbers and the human cost both land hard. Ohio's Haitian population produces an estimated $160 million in annual...