“We’re at a gun store for a reason,” Moreno began, taking a jab right out of the gate at his opponent incumbent U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, calling him a “gun confiscation activist.”
“At the same time (Democrats) want to tell us what guns we can have, they allow millions of illegals to cross into this country with no vetting,” he said.
Moreno went on to discuss the issue of thousands of Haitian immigrants who have moved into the Springfield region over the past five years and the pressure this influx has put on the community.
“Up to 20,000 Haitians have entered Springfield, a town of 52,000; that’s an insane demographic change for a community like this. It can’t handle it,” Moreno said. “The infrastructure can’t handle it, the health care system can’t handle it, the schools can’t handle it.”
Estimates as to the number of Haitians who have immigrated into the Springfield region under temporary legal status vary, and the official estimate is unknown. Some local leaders say the area has a population of about 15,000 Haitians, while others estimate 10,000.
Moreno acknowledged it is difficult to identify the exact numbers, but said reform is needed now to address how and when a foreign individual can claim asylum within the U.S., as well as how long they can stay under Temporary Protected Status (TPS).
TPS, an avenue that many Haitian immigrants have taken to stay legally within the country, allows an eligible person who receives approval to remain in the U.S. for a designated period of time but does not provide a direct path to citizenship. The Homeland Security secretary can grant temporary protection for different nationalities based on conditions in their home countries. The protection also allows them to apply for a work permit.
The recent extension of TPS by the Biden administration applies to Haitians who were in the U.S. on June 3 and will last until Feb. 3, 2026.
While speaking to the Dayton Daily News after his speech, Moreno said his plan to address the situation in Springfield would begin with ending extensions to TPS and letting the designation expire.
“(We need to) remove TPS and make sure that people here under TPS know it’s going to expire, and that they would either have to self-deport or we will deport them; we need to make it clear that that’s what we’re going to do,” he said. “We need to take proactive action to make sure this doesn’t happen again, then we need to bite the bullet and make sure the communities like Springfield are made whole because what’s happened here is a total disgrace.”
Clark County resident Dave Marshall works as a substitute teacher in Springfield schools and said he has witnessed directly the impact the immigration influx has had.
Marshall said in any given classroom he taught during the last school year, anywhere from five to 10 Haitian children were present.
One of the biggest issues facing educators is the language barrier.
“We use an app called iRead and it offers English and Spanish, but no options for French-Creole, which is these kids’ first language,” he said. “The kids are trying to adjust, but it’s tough.”
Marshall said school officials and teachers are doing the best they can, often getting creative in the effort to communicate with and teach the Haitian students without having proper training or effective tools.
“They’re doing everything they can to make it work, sometimes buddying them up with other (English-speaking) students,” he said.
In these scenarios, a non-English speaking student could be in a small group with a student who speaks some English, along with a native English-speaking student, allowing for a stopgap translation process.
In other situations, non-English speaking Haitian students may effectively sit idle in classrooms, unable to understand or participate in the lesson in any meaningful way.
“It’s just chaos right now,” Marshall said.
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