Springfield pastors speak out on Haitian refugee challenges: ‘The suffering is real’

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — Two local pastors spoke to Fox News Digital about the ministry challenges facing their town that has been thrust into the national spotlight after viral videos of residents complaining of disturbing behavior from Haitian refugees who have settled in the area.

“I think the biggest change that we’ve seen happen has just been sort of a breakdown in the trust of the community and some basic civility has also broken down a little bit,” BJ Newman, a pastor in Springfield, Ohio, told Fox News Digital from Springfield’s Snyder Park on Thursday. “I think the reason for that is because there have been so many changes so quickly…. In the 2020 census, there was about 50,000, a little north of that, residents here, now we have, numbers I have been reading, between 15,000 and 20,000 additional immigrants have arrived.”

The comments come as the town where Newman works has been thrust into the national spotlight, attention that has only grown since Ohio Sen. JD Vance and former President Donald Trump highlighted the town in back-to-back days earlier this week.

On Monday, Vance took to social media to write about the town, claiming that “people have had their pets abducted and eaten

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