My wife is from Springfield. Granted she hasn't lived there in a few years (we are in Cincinnati). But she has friends that she talks with regularly and we visit Springfield about once a month.

The whole Haitian thing is kind of getting blown out of proportion according to her and her friends. Sure there has been a large influx of Haitian immigrants coming into Springfield. Yes there was a specific incident with a Haitian man who did not have a legal drivers license hitting a bus and killing some kids. Which according to most of her friends, is what they are most concerned about. However the whole pet, cat killing and eating thing so far, appears to be actual fake news. My wife said some of the Springfield officials (police and council folks) have all come out and stated the claims are baseless with no evidence supporting it.

Now that being said, the number of Haitians imported into Springfield is pretty big. Its not a huge town. Like maybe 50K people. I cannot find the article anymore but I think I read that it was close to 10K refugees are being held in Springfield. Which I'm no math wiz but I know a post-industrial midwest town is probably going to struggle supporting that large of an influx of people that quickly. Its anecdotal but I work in healthcare and have worked with a smaller clinic (Rocking Horse) in Springfield and I have heard they are/were struggling to keep up with the amount of immigrants using their services. But most of that seems to come from them just not knowing how our healthcare process works. Cool side note, they hired a Creole-Haitian speaking translator to help. The other big hospital a Bon-Secours Mercy location according to my one Trumper "friend" has been over run and people should not go there - but I'm chalking that up to just being folks going to the ER since they don't know where else to go.

Whenever we visit - it feels and looks normal. I swear the media would have you think a bomb went off and crazy gangs of Haitians are running around terrorizing people. I can assure you that is not the case. Go and visit. Have a pint or two at Mother Stuarts then walk over to have something to eat at Charlos.