“Trump’s a wild guy. He’s a wild guy,” Chappelle said during SNL’s show last night, keeping a light-hearted tone. “I’ll tell you something he did that made me crazy when he was running for president. When he was running for president ― and he said this at a debate ― he said the Haitians in Springfield, Ohio were eating people’s dogs and cats. That really upset me because I live in Ohio.”
Chappelle, a local figure in Greene County, told the audience and viewers at home that he lives near Springfield.
The city of Springfield saw significant turmoil last year over public response to 10,000 to 15,000 Haitians moving to the city over the past few years. City Commission meetings were regularly packed with upset residents.
Immigrant communities tend to be successful ones, Chappelle said.
“They don’t come to America to not be rich, and when he (Trump) said that, that community caught hell,” Chappelle said. “There was like a jealousy that ran through the community.”
The Dayton Daily News and Springfield News-Sun extensively covered the controversy surrounding the Haitian community in Springfield, including how and why they ended up coming to Springfield, as well as what kind of impact that has had on the region.
While Chappelle said the Haitian population in Springfield was moved there by U.S. government, what took place is more complex.
Reporting by the Springfield News-Sun has documented that the influx of Haitian immigrants picked up during the pandemic, when local employers were desperate for workers. Companies saw an opportunity to tap into Haitian communities in other parts of the country — many in those communities were legally in the U.S. and had work permits — to fill that gap.
A senior attorney at Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, which provides legal assistance to immigrants in Springfield, previously told the Springfield News-Sun they saw two major waves of Haitian immigrants to Springfield in recent years. The first was in 2021, the year Haiti’s president was assassinated. The second was in 2023.
Both waves appeared to have brought a large number of new arrivals to the country who used legal pathways to enter and stay in the U.S., an attorney at Advocates for Basic Legal Equality said.
While staffing companies may have played a role in bringing some Haitians to Springfield, many others were lured here by positive word of mouth and chain migration. Affordable housing was another factor that made Haitians pick this region.
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