REPORT 3 OF 3, NOW YOU WILL READ THE REST OF THE STORY
In reports 1 & 2 you learned the city in Ohio with the highest percentage of Haitian immigrants is Springfield, Ohio. The citizens of Springfield believe elected leaders are more concerned about making money from the influx of Haitians to their city than dealing with the increasing crime rate, lack of educational progress of its citizens, the violent crime, which is getting more severe and lethal, the increase in rape and sexual assault, domestic violence, increase in poverty and homelessness. You learned that Haitian refugees are migrating to the United States due to Haiti’s political turmoil, fraud, and corruption in their country. You learned Haitians are able to migrate to the United States through the U.S. Temporary Protected Status (TPS).
You also learned that the majority of TPS immigrants relocate to cities where the population of like immigrants are located. Yet, many Haitian immigrants relocate to smaller cities, cities that are in decay economically, with failing infrastructure with no other Haitian immigrants living there UNTIL there is a mysteriously a mass influx over the course of 1-year.
You learned Haiti is a nation lacking both mandatory education and a social safety net. You learned in Haiti that contaminated well water is all most Haitians have to drink. The overwhelming majority of Haitians reaching the age of 17 have a fourth-grade education. Sadly, you learned the “restavek system” which has been in place for hundreds of years is a form of child slavery that exists in Haiti. Children, usually from poor families, are sent to live with wealthier families where they work as domestic servants. In exchange for their labor, they are supposed to receive food, shelter, and sometimes education. However, in many cases, restavek children and those children that become adults are exploited and abused. You found that research shows a strong correlation between a country’s nutritional status, the prevalence of infectious diseases and its average national IQ. You learned that since 1986, there have been a long list of Haitian heads of Government.
I realized I cannot eloquently or even accutley summarize the information provided by investigative journalists that have already been published on this subject. To that end, this is a lengthy read, BUT well worth your time. I have posted portions of their articles by grouping like investigations to give the reader a well-rounded view of the issues. What you will find since 2009, is a labor trafficking network has existed in Springfield, Ohio. Vulnerable Haitian migrants are transported to the city and exploited for cheap labor by companies like Dole Food Company Inc., Topre America Corp, Classic Delight LLC factory, Gabriel Brothers Inc, Jefferson Industries Corporation, KTH Parts Industries Inc and Silfex, Inc just to name a few AND working in conjunction with Springfield Chamber of Commerce. George Ten, a local businessman, is allegedly the mastermind behind this operation. He owns First Diversity Staffing Group Inc., a company that has been the tip of the spear in the alleged trafficking operation of Haitians to the town. Haitians are sought for employment because they are legal, unlike Hispanic and Mexican laborers. The Haitians are transported from Florida, Georgia and Indianapolis to Ohio in unmarked white vans and are packed into dilapidated houses owned by Ten. They are then transported to work at companies like Dole Foods. The workers are paid low wages and are often not paid their full wages. They are also subjected to squalid living conditions.
Sourced Stories by
Steven Star of The Guardian
Joseph Simonson of Freebecon.com
Chronicles, (November 2024)
Asra Q. Nomani The Jewish Journal
Wisconsin Now .com
The Haitians are not the only ones who are suffering because of this operation. The residents of Springfield are also being marginalized and sidelined. They have seen their town transformed without any meaningful intervention from officials. Many suspect corruptions and a cover-up of the exploitation that has festered for years under the watch of local authorities. City officials deny the allegations of malfeasance and claim that they have been overwhelmed.
The exploitation of the Haitian migrants has been an open secret in Springfield for years, but few have dared to speak up. Many fear retribution from Ten and his associates. The migrants are caught between their hope for a better life in America and the brutal reality of being trafficked for labor. Springfield has become a microcosm of a much larger problem of labor trafficking in America.
This Haitian migration into Springfield is somewhat different from the stream of illegal immigrants flooding over the U.S. Mexico border who took advantage of Biden-Harris’s weak immigration policies; the Haitians flew legally into the United States. Biden and Harris waved their magic wand and made it so. They were granted immigration parole and temporary protected status by the Biden-Harris administration, a deliberate and calculated policy decision. Once here, the Biden-Harris administration granted the Haitians temporary protected status – through a program that Trump tried to kill – which grants them a raft of government benefits and debit cards, including driver’s licenses. It’s meant to be temporary, but the government can extend TPS indefinitely. Of course, if the Haitians have children here, those children are automatically U.S. citizens who will someday be allowed to vote (the Haitian migrants can’t vote legally. On May 22, 2021, Biden’s Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Majorkas ended those when he announced a new, 18-month TPS designation for Haiti based on extraordinary and temporary conditions that included social unrest, an increase in human rights abuses, crippling poverty, and lack of basic resources, which are exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Haitians are in Ohio through the Immigration Parole Program, Springfield’s website says. The U.S. government may grant advance travel authorization to up to 30,000 noncitizens each month to seek parole on a case-by-case basis under the processes for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans, the government’s website says. TPS is granted after you get here. Immigrants with TPS are legally qualified to receive financial assistance, health and nutrition services, employment and education services, and housing services, the city says.
People with TPS status, a program dating to a 1990 act of Congress, are not removable from the United States, and are allowed to work, the government says, adding that they are screened. It lists 16 countries with TPS status. Some make sense (saving interpreters from Afghanistan). Others raise questions – Yemen, Ukraine, Sudan, Haiti. As of March 31, 2024, approximately 863,880 foreign nationals had TPS status in the U.S. Of that, 200,005 Haitians who arrived after 2022 have TPS. Trump terminated TPS status for multiple countries, including Haiti. The ACLU of California helped TPS recipients sue, some with U.S. citizen children. The latter is, of course, where new problems creep in (now they argue that kids are being separated from their parents! And of course, those kids will be voters someday.) The plaintiffs’ argument focused on the Trump administration adopting a new narrow process that doesn’t consider all current conditions in the involved countries. They accused Trump of racism. The case bogged down in California’s liberal courts. The Biden-Harris administration swiftly restored the TPS after taking office, rendering the court case moot before it could land on the desk of SCOTUS.
But by the early 1950s, most of the commercial greenhouses had been closed for good. Crowell-Collier Publishing shut its doors and switched off the lights of its printing plant in 1957. Little by little, manufacturing jobs went away. Still, things weren’t so bad. It was a safe place that was home to a tight-knit community. In fact, Newsweek named it one of America’s “dream cities” in 1983. That award, however, was a bittersweet kiss, as the magazine found irrepressible evidence of decline everywhere it looked. “The times have not been hospitable to dreaming,” Newsweek concluded. Springfield would bleed half of its manufacturing jobs between 2000 and 2010. As the work slowed to a trickle, then ran out, a 2012 Gallup survey found Springfield to be the “unhappiest city” in the United States. By 2014, this place had witnessed more of its middle-class tumble down the economic ladder than any other metro area in the country since 2000. It tied only with Goldsboro, North Carolina, but won another distinction: it lost population every year since the 1960s, from a peak of more than 80,000 to fewer than 60,000 souls today, as its poverty rate soared to twice the national average. Springfield became the quintessential representative of “forgotten America.” Then something unexpected happened. Starting in 2020, newcomers, mainly Haitians, began arriving by the thousands. By 2024, Springfield’s population had increased by 25 percent, largely due to immigration. Their arrival put an immediate strain on the city, from hospital services to the availability of housing. Both fatal and non-fatal traffic collisions spiked, which correlated neatly with the arrival of the Haitians. Much of the blame is on a coalition that consists of government, nonprofit organizations, and local businesses. It’s worth noting that it is hard to get anything about the Haitian migrants out of anyone official. Asking the police for a comment will get you referred to a press officer who won’t return your call.
ROB RUE MAYOR OF SPRINGFIELD
Rob Rue is the mayor of Springfield and a funeral parlor owner. In September of 2024 he assumed emergency powers because of security concerns. Rue has been accused of renting an apartment to a Haitian. Rus has stated in the past; This border crisis, the policy of this administration, is failing cities like ours and taxing us beyond our limit. He states that he fundamentally blames an open border. Between June 10, 2021, and June 30, 2021, as Haitian workers flooded into town, the town’s mayor, Rob Rue, bought seven properties on N. Limestone Street, E. Madison Avenue and Mason Street for a total cost of $1.78 million through a company, Littleton Properties of Springfield LLC, according to property records. Mayor Rob said he rents the homes to Haitians, but says he rents them at market rates. Whatever the case, he, too, has been quietly profiting from the influx of low-wage labor. He has said he has done nothing wrong. Despite the billions flowing through the staffing industry, safeguards for workers are alarmingly weak. Federal and state labor laws exist, but they are rarely enforced against staffing firms operating in this shadowy space. Instead, local officials often look the other way or worse, they are complicit in the alleged racket. Mayor Rob Rue, said in July 2024 the city is "overwhelmed" and equipped to provide services like public safety and firefighting for 60,000 people, not upwards of 80,000. "There’s no middle ground here, everyone is polarized."
BRYAN HECK CITY MANAGER
The city manager, Bryan Heck, wrote “It’s taxing our infrastructure. It’s taxing public safety. It’s taxing our schools. It’s taxing health care…it’s taxing our housing, Heck said in July 2024, calling the housing crisis a hundred times worse. It’s getting communities like Springfield up to fail. And, we do not have the capacity to sustain it, and, without additional federal assistance or support, communities like Springfield will fail. In Springfield, hard-working lower-income folks in an already distressed city with a poverty rate of 22.7 percent are just supposed to take it. According to sources, Springfield’s city planner, Bryan Heck, was warned as far back as 2019 that George was using First Diversity to allegedly traffic Haitian migrant workers from Florida to Ohio in a corrupt scheme that profits off the desperate. Heck said he doesn’t remember such a meeting. Springfield City Manager Bryan Heck was warned again about the alleged trafficking as far back as the summer of 2019 at a meeting at Winans Coffee and Chocolate on North Fountain Avenue, but said he doesn’t remember such a meeting. Byran said he does remember getting a warning from a former First Diversity employee in September 2023 and took action. However, he was warned at the Springfield City Commission hearing on August 29, 2023, from Citizen Mark Sanders. An investigation of illicit business practices and potential human trafficking began in September of 2023, Bryan said, and a formal request for additional support and resources was made to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation on October 25th per my direction. Springfield City Planner Bryan Heck has told the media and citizens, angry about traffic accidents and other issues by the new Haitian migrants, that he didn’t know how the new migrants had arrived in Springfield. However, First Diversity started hiring migrant workers from Haiti in plain sight in 2019 in a new business strategy to build its coffers, and locals started warning city leaders that the new hiring wasn’t above board. In May 2019, George Ten bought a table at a high-profile event for a new organization that had come to town: The Gathering, or more specifically The Gathering of the Miami Valley, an exclusive club started for men who have been transformed by Christ, according to its mission statement. Its members include many of Springfield’s most powerful city officials, business tycoons and community leaders, meeting in exclusive Locker Rooms where men form deeper relationships including Bryan Heck, Rob Rue and Mike McDorman. Years earlier, the Springfield Chamber of Commerce president, McDorman, shared a LinkedIn post from The Gathering’s Fall Breakfast which contained George, Bryan Heck, Rob Rue and Mike McDorman. The Gathering’s executive director was Jeff Pinkleton. Bryan Heck, said in a written statement, I have served on the Board of the Gathering since January 2023. Karen Graves, strategic engagement manager for the City of Springfield, said: I was able to reach Mayor Rue and he confirmed that he does participate in a Gathering Group of Christian fellowship. Again, by the summer of 2019, employees at First Diversity started swapping stories about the shady work they were expected to do, through alleged bullying, coercion and intimidation, sources said. That’s when Bryan Heck, the city manager, was warned about alleged labor trafficking by First Diversity, although he doesn’t recall the meeting at Winans Coffee and Chocolate. One of the reasons city leaders may not have wanted to question the new hiring boom: most of the city’s revenues come from income tax that employers pay the city. In a 2019 report, the city’s then-finance director, Mark Beckdahl, explained that the city levies a tax on all wages, salaries, commissions and other compensation paid by employers, as well as the net profits of businesses or professionals. City residents also must pay city income tax on income earned outside Springfield. Indeed, after three years of declines, income tax revenue collected by the city steadily increased every year, except for in 2024, when it stayed about even, according to a chart by Ramona Metzger, director of the city’s office of budget and management. By November 2020, Bryan released a 2021 preliminary budget report and wrote that the largest source of revenue for the city’s general fund continues to be income tax, accounting for 75 percent of the city’s general fund. Bryan wrote that year that it is expected the city would see revenues from employment gains at Topre America Corp. and Silfex, Inc., and general improvement in the Springfield economy. The next year, he made the same prediction, adding an employer, Gabriel, to the list, with the opening of a distribution facility not far from Dole. Who provided many of the workers for these jobs? First Diversity. A spokeswoman for Silfex said: Silfex does not have, and has never had, any direct association with First Diversity Staffing. There was not one peep about the new migrants from Haiti in the city’s annual reports until the 2023 annual report, which included a short article about the Clark County Department of Job and Family Services, headlined, Demand Increased With Haitian Influx. The report said the agency, which is funded by taxpayer dollars, saw the caseload of Haitian Creole immigrants increase dramatically, presenting new challenges for agency staff and resources. It noted that the BenefitsPlus division saw more than 1,400 individuals receive Refugee Cash Assistance worth more than $2.2 million, or about $1,571 per person. In Springfield, when a company says it needs 100 workers, a staffing firm like First Diversity steps in, promising to deliver the workforce and signing a lucrative contract that ensures a steady flow of labor. The financial arrangement is straightforward but can quickly turn exploitative: staffing firms charge a markup—typically around 30 percent—on each worker. For example, for every worker paid at $12 per hour, the staffing firm charges the client company $15.60, pocketing the difference. This markup allows firms to generate substantial profits. But for companies like First Diversity, the markup is just the beginning of the slippery slope to breaking the law. They routinely shave off hours, manipulate timecards and find every possible way to cut costs, all at the expense of their employees. In September 2023, Bryan, the city manager, was warned again about First Diversity and alleged human trafficking after the citizens were in an uproar. He acknowledged that meeting. He said, “I met with a former employee of First Diversity (who requests to be anonymous) in September of 2023 to discuss concerns with First Diversity practices after First Diversity was named after a Commission meeting. An investigation of illicit business practices and potential human trafficking began in September of 2023 and a formal request for additional support and resources was made to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation on October 25th per my direction. Note: All 48 properties owned by Ten Enterprises and Garlind Properties are typically smaller and older residential homes were purchased since 2021, coinciding with the height of the Haitian immigration wave to Springfield. By March of that year, a USA Today report found that Springfield had the fifth “hottest” housing market in the US, despite having a median home price of just $145,000. While owning a large number of properties is perfectly legal, landlords say renovating and renting out houses contributes to the city’s tax base. There are single-family homes in the development in Springfield which are expected to start at $300,000, a price that’s out of reach for many Springfield residents, where the median household income is about $45,000.
MIKE MCDORMAN PRESIDENT, SPRINGFIELD CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
In 2019, the warnings also reached Mike McDorman, the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce, and he similarly took no action. In April 2019, George Ten attended the Springfield Chamber of Commerce Business Expo, snapping a photo of himself with the president of the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce, Mike McDorman. First Diversity Spokesperson Jay states; So there’s all this uproar in the community about how we need better jobs in Springfield, right? Springfield has a fantastic Chamber of Commerce. One of the best in the nation. Mike McDorman is fantastic, Jay continued. McDorman wanted jobs for new businesses in the area. He knew First Diversity was filling them with people familiar with the hiring. Jay said, about the time when Haitian workers were coming here from the Indianapolis assignment and employers were unable to fill jobs with local workers, the Chamber of Commerce went out and said, we’re going to get the jobs. In 2010, George received an award from the Chamber of Commerce for being the Minority Owned Business of the Year. In August of 2023, the president of the Springfield Chamber of Commerce issued a statement saying, We stand with the City of Springfield and Clark County amid the Haitian population surge to ensure the continued safety, stability and economic success of our community. Businesses are thriving in Clark County through collaboration with our members and local leaders.
HOUSING COSTS AND THE LOSS OF JOBS
In an impoverished community like Springfield, which is poked with foreclosed homes (locals say some Haitians are living in them), in a nation struggling with soaring inflation. Springfield was already a city in distress; the median income dropped 27% between 1999 and 2014, a bigger dip than any metropolitan area in the country, USA Today reported. Springfield landlords have benefited from the cheap, exploitable workforce while publicly distancing themselves from the harsh realities faced by the workers.
Local rent has skyrocketed from $550 to $1,100 because some landlords now make more money renting homes to Haitians they charge per head to sleep on cots jammed into former single-family homes. This is being done in the most destructive, damaging and divisive way possible, kicking people out of their homes to move in people willing to live 10 people to a bedroom, says Bill Monaghan. They want to really gut the working and middle classes, he says. To disrupt the whole town and tear the social fabric apart – this is not an accident. This is an effort to dismantle the working class. Monaghan doesn’t believe the Haitians are being treated right, either. They are jammed in like slave quarters, charged to get back and forth to work. It’s a modern slavery system here, 40 people to a house or 10 people to a bedroom, just cots.
John Rice, a pastor and realtor, says a relative who is an HVAC contractor was in a home recently, and 19 Haitians lived on each side of the double. Every room is a bedroom in the house. One house; 38 people. Rice says home and rent prices have skyrocketed because landlords make more money if they can jam Haitians into a house. What is the limit a community can absorb? I think we have far exceeded it, he says.
Another (unnamed Pastor) stated: don’t shy away from the truth; he called out the labor market in Springfield for what he believes is: paid slavery. He spoke openly about the conditions he’d seen, the stories of his congregants who had been caught up in the trafficking ring, and the urgent need for change.
Lisa Brannon, 47, and Brannon’s friend, a domestic violence survivor, is staying with her because she can’t find affordable housing. Her family’s benefits were denied. Homeless people need meals, but shelters helping recently shut down. Every five houses on this block, there’s been a Haitian that’s moved in, she says. I understand that the Haitians are coming from a war-torn country, but we can’t help people unless we can help ourselves. The American people, she says, can’t afford to subsidize the Haitians. Brannon used to work at Family Dollar, and Haitians would ask me to help them pull their money off their government cards. And it wasn’t just one card, she says. Brannon says she’s called in many traffic accidents at the intersection near her home caused by Haitians.
Jeff and Lori Clos have lived in Springfield for 54 and 30 years, respectively. He works in a trucking company. She was unemployed until recently. I was displaced from my previous job, she says. She was told the company was doing away with my position. After that, they started bringing in a lot of Haitians through the local temp service, she says. Ten to fifteen people were let go the same week. The next week, they were bringing in the temp service people to run it, she says. It makes me angry. I work hard to raise the money we need to survive. Now you can’t survive on a one household income. It’s taking me three months to find a job. They keep saying the jobs are plentiful. She’s done everything from factory to office jobs. I’ve applied at some of these places hiring all the Haitians and never got a callback, she says. They hear they can bring the Haitians in for a cheaper rate than Americans can afford to work for. Ryan McKinney was working as a seasonal worker for Amazon when, one day, his key card (and others’ cards) wouldn’t work.
Jean Pierre, a Haitian immigrant who speaks in halting English as other Creole-speaking Haitian men spill out of the modest home. He’s been in the U.S. for about a year, coming from Florida after he heard from Haitians that it was easy to find work here. They came here to work. They work hard. It was pretty easy (although one family had to traverse through Brazil and then Mexico). Others just filled out an application and boom! They were in. They weren’t bused to Springfield; they started somewhere else (Georgia, Florida), and Haitians told them to go to Springfield because it was easy to get a job. Yes, they get debit cards. Yes, they get driver’s licenses. Pierre intends to go back to Haiti when his temporary protective status expires, but he’s barely making enough to get ahead here, where the wages range from $18 to $22 an hour, a measly amount quickly eaten up by rent, food, and other costs. He’s separated from his family. Although immigration can be big business, that’s not true for him.
At the Springfield City Commission hearing from Aug. 29, 2023, people exploded in anger, demanding answers from the city’s leaders. The mayor at the time, Warren Copeland, chastised the outraged citizens for their hostility. He yelled at them for speaking out of turn. At one point, a local, Mark Sanders, stepped forward and asked the commissioners if they knew about George and First Diversity. You know George Ten, First Diversity Staffing, owns 43 houses in Springfield. You have your landlord registry. You have code enforcement; the city can visit the houses and check the cuts George was getting from the wages of migrant workers. It’s nothing more than indentured servitude and that’s illegal. The commissioners and city manager acted like they were unaware of the details Sanders was providing.
A local Haitian American grandmother, stated yes, it was too much that Haitians are sleeping in shifts on beds, overcharged for rentals. Yes, they needed driving lessons. She is the first known person to move to Springfield, arriving here from New York City with her husband and family for a simpler life after the 9/11 attacks. Her mother had emigrated to New York from Haiti years earlier. When the influx of Haitians arrived as migrants, she started helping them as a translator and de facto guardian angel, one time saving a mother and her child from the traps of trafficking that had become sexual exploitation. As a local, Margery knows the town is stretched thin.
What we’re witnessing in Springfield is modern-day slavery, said Christopher Merrill. It’s not fair to the people from Haiti. And meanwhile the people of Springfield are also suffering. There isn’t enough funding to help the people of Springfield. It’s all dried up and the money is going into somebody’s wallets. Where is the money going?
Jean André, a Haitian American pastor who started the first Haitian church in nearby Columbus some years ago before the new migrant workers arrived, stated that newly arriving Haitian workers, working with immigration, employment, housing and transportation insecurity, have faced abysmal rental conditions and little power with First Diversity. When he drove to Springfield, starting in 2019, to pick up First Diversity’s new migrant workers for church services in Columbus, he saw cramped, overcrowded housing conditions with rooms subdivided into sections, numerous men sharing one bathroom. He said: It is really a shame to see how they treat people as paid slavery. This is what I call it. They are in hell while living on earth, Pastor Jean continued. So that means they are suffering terribly. And the bad thing about it, when you are suffering terribly, you cannot do anything about it…when you are suffering, you don’t see how you can take yourself out of the situation, and you have to live it. This is horrible. This is what happened for the Haitians migrant workers experiencing indignities.
John, who did not want to give his real name out of fear of the consequences, paid $50 a week for a room in a house that was also home to a family of Haitians and others who came and went regularly. Living in substandard conditions, especially for recent arrivals to Springfield, is a common, if little talked about, experience among the Haitian community. “We’ve seen things like no heat or hot water in winter; issues with leaking roofs and walls collapsing; multiple families renting rooms in a larger home; dangerous water and electrical configurations – things that could cause a serious fire,” says Ryan Davis, a staff attorney at Advocates for Basic Legal Equality (Able), a non-profit law firm. Reuters has reported that the number of affordable housing vouchers fell in recent years in Springfield, as landlords moved away from offering their properties to tenants through government support programs and into market-based rents, where greater profits can be made. That move means that there are several hundred fewer properties now available to low-income and in-need Springfield residents.
Rents are rising faster than national trends, which local landlords attribute to Haitian renters who, aided by left-wing charities, have successfully applied for Section 8 housing vouchers. The wait list for these vouchers is now closed. Crime was already higher in Springfield than most similarly sized cities, but residents are now dealing with a scourge of traffic violations. Ohio governor Mike DeWine (R.) wrote Friday in the New York Times (not widely read in Springfield) that "ensuring that Haitians learn how to drive safely and understand our driving customs and traffic laws remains a top priority." Social services are overwhelmed, and some Springfield residents are blaming their layoffs on the flood of cheap Haitian labor, an allegation supported by Springfield’s curiously lethargic wage growth since 2022. And some of the city’s most vulnerable populations say they’ve been pushed aside. "They’re taking attention away from people like me," said a homeless woman who called herself Mama D. "I don’t dislike the Haitians, but it’s harder for us to get houses now. The cheapest apartments go for $700 a month now." A common defense from sympathetic parties is that the Haitians are here to work. That is largely true, although no one believes there are 20,000 vacant positions in the county. The thousands of Haitians who poured into Springfield in recent years—legal migrants due to permissive Biden-Harris policies that have welcomed refugees from failed states such as Haiti and Venezuela. They were not drawn to Springfield by word of mouth about jobs. They were met by immigrant-focused charities who helped them apply for social services and find low-wage jobs. One consequence is a sharp uptick in welfare dependency in the Springfield. Roughly 8,000 people of Haitian origin are now receiving federal assistance from programs like Medicaid. In March 2022, that figure was fewer than 1,000.
DRIVING AND HEALTH CARE
Locals’ concerns range from hospitals and schools being overwhelmed to dangerous traffic crashes. Traffic crashes in the county rose from 2019 to 2023, according to police data. U.S. citizens have died, and residents described dangerous near misses with Haitians who don’t understand the rules of the road. One crash involving a Haitian driver took the life of an 11-year-old boy on a school bus whose dad doesn’t want his story politicized. In another widely discussed tragedy, grandmother Kathy Heaton was killed by a Haitian migrant who plowed into her as she put out the trash. Kathy was struck so violently that both her socks were left behind on the pavement as her body was thrown across the street, the New York Post reported. The driver wasn’t charged. Haitians receive taxpayer-funded benefits and driver’s licenses. Enrollment in Medicaid and federal food assistance and welfare programs surged, Community hospitals spend $50,000 monthly for translation services, and the school district gets 40 new students each week, many who can’t speak English. The police chief told NPR that calls for service, property crimes, and translation needs are up, although police aren’t tying crime increases to immigrants. Ohio’s Republican Gov. Mike DeWine sent $2.5 million in taxpayer money to Springfield to boost traffic enforcement and deal with growing pressures on medical centers. General healthcare, not communicable diseases, is driving the pressure on healthcare. (BIG LIE) The influx of Haitians to Springfield and Clark County has significantly impacted local primary care providers due to the increased number of patients and the need for more translation services. In general, migrants from Haiti have had little to no healthcare services prior to arriving in the United States, including vaccinations, DeWine said. Haitians in Springfield are only part of the story.
AMY WILLMAN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NEHEMIAH FOUNDATION
“People of faith should have a biblical response to what we call the ‘quartet of the vulnerable,’ which is the poor, the widow, the orphan, and the foreigner,” Willman stated. What kind of work Nehemiah does with the Haitian community. “We’re getting ready to launch a brand-new church-based English learning project,” she said. “We’re partnering with the Warder Literacy Center. We have 21 churches and a hundred volunteers ready to go. If 50 percent of the population (in Springfield Schools) is now non-English speaking,” Where does the money for these language initiatives come from? It's a combination of state and local grants, recurring donations from supporters, and business sponsorships. Springfield, of all places, had become a hub for Haitians, Willman said that the cause was murky. “I’ve heard that they’re a very communal culture, so you have families come and then when their families come, they’re like, ‘Come to Springfield, there’s jobs.’ And so, I think it was just a combination of things like that,” she said. “It’s possible that there were staffing agencies … employment agencies that were bringing in people or attracting them with jobs. “Employers, staffing agencies, landlords—they can exploit people who are in need,” Willman said. “But they can also provide a service to people in need.” When we asked Willman on whether the foundation also looks after local concerns, like the homeless, she said that it is one of their four initiatives. “We run our county-wide emergency warming shelters for the homeless,” she said. “We do that with churches, with volunteers, but then collaborating with the Emergency Management Agency, our city, and law enforcement. Willman added that she was horrified by some of the comments she had seen about the Haitian community, which, in her view, veered into open bigotry. However, Willman would just argue that she is abiding by her faith and conscience.
KYLE KOEHLER
Kyle Koehler is a Ohio State Senator. He says the community wasn’t properly informed that the surge was coming. Temp agencies, churches, and businesses encouraged the Haitians to come here, some profiting greatly. We didn’t know it was happening. Koehler said there’s been great stress on our education system. The local health care center is overwhelmed. The traffic accident stories are true. The issue is the social – the government – services that are being overwhelmed. In the end, it just overwhelmed our community. A couple of months ago in (August 2024), Koehler appeared at a press conference to highlight these concerns. Only one reporter came. But that was before Trump started talking about cats. I am shocked that much of what we are experiencing has been orchestrated by employment agencies who never informed our community leaders about the workers they brought to Springfield. While profiting off the labor of thousands of Haitians, these temp agencies failed to inform our schools, our healthcare providers, our local health department or really anyone for that matter. These types of actions bring into question whether they are operating with the best interests of our community but even more importantly, the interest of the impoverished individuals they seem to be taking advantage of. Koehler has since reversed his stance in a 2025 City Commissioners Meeting address.
BOMB THREATS
Following a series of unfounded bomb threats made to schools within the Springfield City School District, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced today that he has authorized a contingent of troopers from the Ohio State Highway Patrol's Mobile Field Force to provide added security at each of the district's 18 school buildings. Many of these threats are coming in from overseas, made by those who want to fuel the current discord surrounding Springfield. None of the threats that have come into Springfield to date have been legitimate. We're doing this purely as a precaution to prevent further disruption within the Springfield City School District, said Governor DeWine. Governor DeWine also directed Ohio Homeland Security to begin conducting vulnerability assessments on critical infrastructure in Springfield and to provide various tower cameras for use by the Springfield Police Department to enhance situational awareness. The Ohio Department of Public Safety has also arranged for bomb detection dogs to be stationed in Springfield each day.
Due to the recent influx of Haitian migrants to Springfield, Governor DeWine last week dedicated $2.5 million toward expanding primary healthcare access in Springfield and directed the Ohio State Highway Patrol to support the local police with traffic enforcement.
GEORGE TEN - FIRST DIVERSITY STAFFING GROUP INC
The real story in Springfield. A city of about 58,000 locals and an estimated 15,000 migrant workers, has a long-standing, hidden human trafficking network that has upended the lives of both the Haitian migrants and local residents. According to sources, with whistleblowers coming forward, FBI anti-trafficking agents and Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost are investigating the allegations of human trafficking in Springfield. Federal and state investigations have recently widened to include the alleged theft of Social Security numbers and the identities of American citizens, along with wage, tax and immigration fraud.
On Jan. 19, 2022, George Ten bought a mansion for $1.35 million on Pawleys Plantation Court in nearby Beavercreek, Ohio, using an LLC with the address of the house in its name. Some months later, on June 21, 2022, Bruce W. Smith senior executive vice president, First Diversity bought a 35.3-acre farm just outside Springfield for $580,000
The alleged trafficking network was orchestrated by George Ten, a local businessman who took over his family’s staffing business, First Diversity, after his father, Miguel Ten, faced legal trouble with the IRS. The company jingle is that First Diversity is a leader in putting Americans back to work by providing Quality Staffing Solutions. The company has grown to have new operations, where workers from Haiti are also allegedly funneled: Washington Court House, Ohio; Lima, Ohio; Sidney, Ohio; Huber Heights, Ohio; Gastonia, N.C.; and Charlotte, N.C.
First Diversity Staffing Group Inc. was incorporated in Delaware with an address on East High Street. In 2008, he incorporated it in Ohio,
Springfield companies had a shortage of people. They put pressure on not only First Diversity, but also another employment agency, to get employees because they didn’t have workers. The companies needed people and First Diversity didn’t have enough people. Hispanic and Mexican laborers were illegal, but the Haitians were legal.
Just about every week since 2019, First Diversity Staffing Group Inc. has shuttled vulnerable Haitian migrants in unmarked white Ford and Chevy vans from Florida to Ohio, where they are allegedly exploited for cheap labor by companies like Dole Food Company Inc. It is a secretive and sinister operation that has gone unchecked for more than five years. The mastermind behind this scheme lives in a $1.35 million mansion on Pawleys Plantation Court. His name is George Ten, but in that underworld, his nickname is King George, because of his opulent lifestyle of luxury cars, cash handouts and fast-talk. For years, he has operated his reign of alleged exploitation openly and freely out of a former mansion on East High Street.
According to sources, the FBI has binders of evidence documenting the properties owned by King George and the systematic transport of Haitian immigrants to Springfield, Ohio, in dilapidated, unmarked white vans from Florida and other states. The areas of investigation include the almost 50 homes that George owns in Springfield, housing the migrants in squalid conditions, under the name of a limited liability corporation. George oversees a spider’s web of at least 10 shell corporations. Through court records and sources they say George uses First Diversity and limited liability corporations to funnel money, property and assets.
A steady flow of Haitian migrants go through the doors of First Diversity between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. In June 2019, employees of First Diversity were directed to stop hiring locals and focus on recruiting Haitian migrants. George dispatched unmarked white vans to remote locations in Florida to bring workers from Haiti to Springfield. Haitian migrant workers paid a fee of about $50 for the ride.
Once they arrived in Springfield, the migrants were packed into dilapidated houses owned by one of Ten’s many companies. George owns over 45 such properties around town, including at least three homes that were purchased on the same day, Sept. 10, 2020, for $20,000, $28,000 and $32,000. These homes are overcrowded, often shared in shifts among the migrants, some of whom had no stable place to stay and carried all their belongings in backpacks. In the morning, drivers in the white vans would pick up the men at their homes or at the First Diversity offices at the East High Street mansion, and deposit them at the far end of town in the distribution center, where companies like Dole Foods hired them at cheap rates.
One Haitian man who asked to be anonymous for fear of retaliation recalled how he was picked up by a driver for one of Ten’s vans on a street corner near a Winn-Dixie grocery store in Immokalee, Florida. After the long journey to Springfield, he was dropped off at a rundown home on Rice Street, infested with cockroaches. He soon found work through First Diversity at Jefferson Industries Corporation, earning $12.50 an hour; he didn’t know how much George skimmed off his wages. The home he lived in had no working heat, and he bought an electric heater to survive the cold Ohio winter, the heater barely heating his room.
A Haitian-American approached First Diversity Staffing Company LLC and explained the IRS claimed that the U.S. citizen had earned about $20,000 during her employment with First Diversity. But, in reality, she had only worked two-and-a-half weeks as a Haitian Creole translator on the assembly line at KTH Parts Industries Inc. in nearby Saint Paris, Ohio, earning much less in wages with a pay of $19.90 per hour. Someone at First Diversity had allegedly stolen her social security number and used it for another employee without a number.
In early 2021, about a dozen Haitian migrant workers stormed through the doors of the staffing agency, shouting angrily in their native French Creole. Nap vòlè kob mwen! one worker shouted. You are stealing my money! First Diversity, nou vòlè! another yelled. First Diversity, you are thieves! They demanded answers for why they hadn’t been paid their full wages for making sandwiches, like turkey cheese subs, in near-freezing conditions at the Classic Delight LLC factory, an hour away off I-75 North in little St. Paris, Ohio. The workers, desperate and distraught, showed front-desk staffers photos of their time cards and the hours they had worked that had not been paid.
More alleged underground networks of exploitation of Haitian migrants by Haitians who King George hired and compensated for their roles as recruiters, transporters and hustlers. State and Federal officials have launched probes into the alleged human trafficking and fraud operation built by George and his cronies. There are confirmed stories of workers paychecks that never arrived, long hours with no overtime and promises of stability that quickly turned to dust. Some had their Social Security numbers allegedly stolen, while others found their I-9 forms and drug test results faked to keep them in the system.
When George answered questions via email, on the expanded investigations by state and federal authorities, he wrote: We have not been notified of an investigation by the AG, Attorney General Yost. Funny math at First Diversity. The average contract worker at First Diversity works 44 hours a week, earns an average pay of about $1,000 per week, and the company employs between 1,800 and 2,000 associates, with an average number of 1,870 employees. The math doesn’t add up: $17 x 40 hours = $680. The average pay of $1,000 – $680 = $320. Overtime is time-and-a-half, or $25.50. So, $320 ÷ $25.50 = 12.5 hours overtime hours. What is little discussed is the fee staffing firms charge for their recruiting and placement services, which is about 30 percent of wages – not to mention revenue from housing, transportation and other services that George arranged through First Diversity and contractors. At an average wage of $17 per hour and an average of four hours of overtime paid at the usual rate of a time-and-a-half, or an average of $25.50, it would only take 4,000 workers to build an empire with the estimated annual gross revenues of $180 million. Either George is underreporting his number of workers, their pay and overtime or another revenue stream.
First Diversity exploitation allegedly extended beyond low pay and long hours. They alleged that a staffer had stolen Social Security numbers from workers, compromising their identities and using their information without consent. Other staffers stated they faked drug test results and a form called the I-9, which the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is used to verify a person’s eligibility to work in the United States. Sometimes a translator would help a worker fill the I-9 form with fraudulent documents, and company leaders intimidated and coerced recruiters to sign off on the I-9, knowing the documentation was fraudulent. In Ohio, companies aren’t obligated to upload documents to E-Verify, a system run by the Department of Homeland Security that is supposed to confirm a person’s employment eligibility through the Social Security Administration. A state legislative effort, H.B. 327, to mandate E-Verify passed the state House in June but didn’t get through the state Senate. First Diversity workers don’t get paid through direct deposit into bank accounts, but rather through a debit card system called rapid! PayCard, run by Rapid Finance, based in Bethesda, Md.
George said at one point we did control transporting Haitians to work. It became too much so we outsourced that to third parties. He said: We now farm that out to third parties to transport people to and from work. So, all these people are being paid via check. We’re paying taxes.
What is to come from this? Only time will tell. However, you as the reader have a more informed opinion on the events and are free to make decisions as to the issues.
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