“The one word I would use to describe Springfield today is stable,” DeWine said.
Health care stood out to DeWine as one of the aspects of the surge in population the city has experienced that is a point concern.
“Anytime you have a surge of population over a few-year period of time, we saw medical care as being stretched,” DeWine said. “But that has certainly has stabilized.”
Training and education around driving has helped with road safety, he said.
Businesses and immigrants took a hit, though, when some immigrants in the region had their humanitarian parole terminated, meaning businesses could no longer legally employ them.
That change happened on June 12 when the Department of Homeland Security began terminating the Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan (CHNV) humanitarian parole program.
“So we had some people on that particular day who lost their jobs,” DeWine said.
This has also led back to another impact on health care, as those employees lost their health insurance.
“We’ve seen, as a result of that, certainly an increase in requests for charitable care,” DeWine said.
This has also impacted hospitals, which are required to provide care regardless of a patient’s ability to pay.
Still ahead, DeWine said city and state leaders are watching what will take place when the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitians expire.
TPS was initially set to end Feb. 3, 2026 after the Biden administration extended it, but the Department of Homeland Security announced an official termination to happen Sept. 2, 2025, saying that conditions in Haiti had improved and its immigrants no longer meet the conditions for TPS.
A federal judge blocked the Department of Homeland Security from terminating Haitians’ TPS early, but the region and state are still bracing for what may be to come when TPS expires.
“A lot of the people who are employed here — not just in Springfield, not just in Clark County, but frankly, in the whole region — will no longer be legally allowed to be employed," DeWine said.
This could lead to massive layoffs in the region, DeWine said.
Layoffs involving Hatiians who were here on humanitarian parole is something the region has already started to see, according to state officials.
“We did talk to one company today that had to lay off 84 people just overnight,” said Andy Wilson, director of the Ohio Department of Public Safety.
The loss of 84 employees impacts not only the business but also the employees who are still left there who had to pick up the work those 84 people were doing, Wilson said.
State officials weren’t sure of the exact number of immigrants in the area who are living and working in the region under TPS, but losing those workers will not go unnoticed.
“This would be a very dramatic number of people unemployed in the community with no source of income, and those companies not having any really ability to shore up very quickly after that,” DeWine said.
Finding workers is already a big challenge for the state and the companies located here.
This will lead to an impact on the economy, DeWine said.
“And it’s not going to be good,” DeWine said.
The state is watching what will happen in the Springfield region, and DeWine said it’s the state’s goal to be a resource to the region.
“Our goal remains the same. Our goal is to help the people who live in Springfield and the people who live in Clark County, and that will remain our goal,” DeWine said.
